Category: T F Torrance

The common approach to understanding the redeeming purpose of God is to define them in separation from Jesus Christ.  Therefore it is often understood as something that is somewhere in between God and Jesus Christ.  This is an aspect of the Latin Heresy which I have outlined in previous blogs and is something we have to always be on the lookout for at all times.  Approaching the significance of all that Jesus Christ is, is of the utmost importance if we are to get a clear picture of who God is, what He has done and continues to do in the Person and work of Jesus Christ and what it means to us.  It is a corporate event where the command of God in Jesus Christ has been carried out…

The remarkable story of the resurrection of Lazarus in John chapter 11 signifies Jesus' power of the resurrection. However the resurrection of Lazarus was not like the resurrection of Jesus. One presumes that Lazarus died again. Even though he dies again, he once again is implicated in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is one obvious difference here. Just like Lazarus, Jesus was born of His mother Mary, where both Jesus and Lazarus shared the same flesh of any human being bearing the same fallen condition. When Jesus rose from the dead, He did not rise to His old condition. Not only did He defeat the powers of darkness, but in doing so He recreated and transformed the humanity He inherited from Mary, and was crucified. Not only was His…

Whereas the resurrection concept comes across in subtle ways in the Old Testament, it is far more dominant in the New Testament.  It presents itself in an entirely unique way as the resurrection of the shepherd son of David where He stands in as the Redeemer and the Advocate (Acts 13:22f & Romans 15:12). This resurrection event stands on its own and cannot be compared with any other, and understanding of this event is not according to myths and legends of other cultures. It occurred from within the very core of our darkened and depraved beings where the evil powers at work in our members were utterly destroyed. This event occurred within the structures of the created environment within human space and time.  Eternity broke into our history and enacted…

Chapter 1 - The Biblical Concept of the Resurrection Biblical resurrection can only be understood on its own terms as something that is unique to Jewish and Christian belief.  What has happened in modern theologies is the secular concept of resurrection has invaded the Christian church.  Resurrection in the Old Testament has no correlation with any religion anywhere in human history.  It is not a renewing process of nature that we see in the change of seasons, as often symbolised by the Christmas tree and the Easter egg. These concepts were outrightly rejected in some of the early church epistles (highlighted in the footnotes on page 27 of this book).  We have to be so wary of non-Jewish/Christian ideas creeping into the gospel story.  The resurrection story is birthed in…

Many years ago I was studying chemistry at university before I switched to theology.  In one lecture, they were teaching about the Periodic Table.  It was a review about the importance of the table for all aspects of chemistry.  The place of each of the elements on the table reveals important information that is required for us to navigate through our chemical processes.  The lecturer would outline the steps for a given chemical equation and would say, 'What is the first step?'  He would then say, 'You turn to the Periodic table, Oh keeper of all knowledge,' and would do mock bows towards it.'  It was funny on the one hand but a crucial step in working towards the correct answer.  Ignore the Periodic Table and we would be very…

There is a context for the Bible. This context is not predetermined by anyone except God Himself. The Bible has an objective ground through which it is to be understood. What the Scriptures reveal to us is the disclosing of who God is in Himself, by God Himself. It takes God to know God, and without Him God cannot be known. These are not theories that are open to a re-interpretation in the fields of theological campuses, which are often bent one way or the other to fit in with preconceived notions. God is the object and the subject of all theological activity where we are always the students of Him through the Spirit of Christ. The question of the Bible's relevance in any given community should not be subject…

I have decided to read through T F Torrance's Space Time and the Resurrection. It is his sequel to Space Time and the Incarnation. I would like to have started with the first book but I am not able to find where my copy is. Nevertheless, I will start with the sequel. Torrance is attempting to reach into the mind of the ancient Catholic church and recover its way of thinking and knowing. He found it difficult to come to terms with the idea that modern scholars often believed they understood the Greek of the New Testament better than the early Greek Father's themselves. I have found myself to be confronted with the very same question as I study the Greek. Such is the richness of the Patristics that I…