Where Do We Begin? Part 1

DrWinn — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 19:12:35 +0000

One might think of the Bible as a book that demonstrates how God has acted in relationship with his people. According to Dr. George Ladd, the late Professor of Theology at Fuller Seminary, Scripture is the word of God written in the words of men (George E. Ladd, The New Testament and Criticism, 1966), 12). For him acts and words are an inseparable unity. (Ladd, Criticism, 27). God has delivered these acts and words in a variety of literary forms, among them narrative. According to Fee and Stuart, narrative or story comprises about forty percent of the Old Testament. (How to Read the Bible for All It’s Worth, 89) Narrative is the primary genre of the Gospels, (Fee and Stuart, How to Read, 127) and an underlying substructure of the writings of Paul according to Richard Hays (Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul , xxiv-xxv).

My argument is that the church’s understanding of the Story of God in Scripture is, for the most part, seriously fragmented. Understanding the whole Story is not a concept that is celebrated in the church at the beginning of the twenty-first-century.

I have deep concerns for the church moving across a cultural divide, that members on each side of the divide (Modern and Postmodern) have ample opportunity to have a holistic look at the overarching Story of God as it is presented in Scripture. These blogs are intended to be a challenge to the church to understand what her story is and how to become the people of God living as his recreated humanity, as a light to this present evil age. Knowing the story will help in answering the question: How are the people of God to advance the gospel as they improvise the Story of God for the sake of the world?

God's EPIC Adventure » George Ladd

Where Do We Begin? Part 1