Today, I begin to explain step by step how to tell the whole story of the Bible. From the beginning, my aim has been to develop a model that is coherent, reproducible, faithful to Scripture, and balances a variety of biblical themes. Accordingly, I take seriously the theme of honor-shame in the Bible. It is imperative for us to be able to retelling the grand narrative of Scripture. Evangelism should be rooted in biblical theology, not the other way around.... Read more
If you would like to download the graph above, click here (a bigger picture) or here (smaller jpeg). WHY THESE NAMES FOR THE STAGES? In order to help people remember the big movements within the biblical narrative, it is helpful to give them “verbal hangers,” which capture the key idea of the period. As I have written elsewhere, the best theological contextualization occurs when our presentations highlight the prominent themes that overlap Scripture and the culture. 1. 天下一家 (tiānxià yī... Read more
It’s asking a lot of a single model to capture the whole biblical story in a balanced way, which can also be easily remembered and reproduced by others. Well, here’s my go at it . . . . The following is an overview of the biblical story, divided into 6 stages. This post only gives a bird’s eye view of the Bible narrative. My July 2013 article in Global Missiology (“Biblical Theology from a Chinese Perspective”) is more detailed. It... Read more
Although many can recite a set evangelistic presentation, fewer people could comfortably make sense of the whole Bible’s grand story. We need some help. That was the point of my first post in this new series. If we were to develop a model that retells the whole biblical narrative, what would it say? What would it do? This second post explains why I designed just such a tool (which I’ll introduce in the next post). What about methods that exist... Read more
This is the first post of a series that introduces a new tool that helps retell the grand biblical story from beginning to end. In developing this model, I had two things in mind: (1) It needs to draw from the entire canon (Genesis-Revelation) in a balanced way. (2) It needs to takes seriously the theme of honor and shame. This model partially grows out of the article I published in the July issue of Global Missiology, titled “Biblical Theology... Read more
There is an entire generation of people who can sing nearly every lyric of Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby but struggle to memorize Scripture, remember key points of doctrine, or contextualize the gospel. No, I’m not trying to put anyone to shame. It’s just a straightforward observation. Actually, I think Vanilla Ice has a lot to teach us besides dance moves and lyrical poetry. It’s pretty well-known that he borrowed (stole?) from Queen and David Bowie’s Under Pressure. Supposedly, he claims... Read more
When people are not against something but not necessarily “for” it, what do they do? They adopt a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. In theology and specifically contextualization, I think a similar dynamic can sometimes occur. Perhaps we will affirm some truth claim/doctrine, yet we virtually never talk about it. Functionally, we have a “don’t ask, don’t tell policy.” If they don’t ask, we don’t tell. Why be hesitant to talk about themes that we believe in? It is easily... Read more
How do the various biblical metaphors and word pictures relate to one another? Click on the Picture For Slide Presentation (more…) Read more
Check out an excellent post Chinese Church Voices: 10 Observed Trends on Chinese Christian Media. In addition to her own blog, Joann Pittman writes over at ChinaSource. She introduces here article, “In June of 2012, ChinaSource launched a blog called Chinese Church Voices where we have been posting translations of content taken from Mainland Christian online sources – websites, blogs, and micro-blogs. Our goal is to help give outsiders a chance to “listen in on the conversations” that Chinese Christians... Read more
I had a student in class who questioned how I could say that the gospel was the same throughout the Bible. He said the gospel seems very different in the Old Testament, Jesus’ preaching, and in Paul’s letters. At that moment, I came up with an analogy. Tell me what you think. Different periods of gospel preaching could be compared to a woman’s pregnancy. 1. Birth Announcement (Promise) In the Old Testament, the gospel preached beforehand (cf. Gal 3:8; Isa... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In