by Craig French on December 11, 2012 - 6:00am
Our Pathway is studying 1 Peter. In going through it, the goal is to apply the Scriptures to our lives. I'm convinced one of our greatest obstacles to application is our use of reason. Being divided ourselves, we create divisions known as "categories". If you've ever been in a home where there are clearly defined standards for cleanliness, you know any casual, uncalculated move is a cookie crumb's length away from anarchy. It isn't that the host (usually hostess) is morally opposed to cookies, it's just that crumbs on the carpet do not compute. That's not where they go, so when they end up there...an unbroken gaze fixates upon them. It isn't that she doesn't want to have a good time...it's just...cookies...crumbs...carpet. Why? Can't you see what you're doing? There's no reconciling crumbs on the carpet. That's not the point. Validating your notions of what are nice, clean, philosophically coherent categories isn't on God's agenda.
The ministry of the Old Testament prophets was a steady series of morsel-like crumbs being dropped leading somewhere. Their ministry can still be tasted today as that is exactly what God intended. The Old Testament is not a conundrum, or a problem in need of reconciliation with the New Testament. If you're a good Calvinist, you know that because you've got some pretty good categories for reconciling them in your head. The problem is we're still not tasting the morsels. We accept the continuity of the Old and New Testaments but we miss the feast because we've rejected dispensational categories and opted for "covenantal" ones. We miss that the continuity consists of...
