Burgy, Shuan, et al.
Robert Rogland, David Campbell, and others have given able
explanations of some of the ethically difficult Old Testament
accounts. I wish to contribute to that discussion by posting a
lengthy quote from Meredith G. Kline's Structure of Biblical
Authority and his discussion of intrusion ethics. The bottom line is
that these seemingly unethical acts that seem to be commanded by God
are "intrusions" of the final judgment destruction of the wicked into
the present age. Please read Kline's general argument carefully, then
the particular applications (imprecatory Psalms and the conquest of
Canaan in the section I am sending).
Some of us hear scripture's teaching about itself--"Thy Word is
truth"; "All scripture is God-breathed..."; "For prophecy never had
its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God..."; "His
letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which
ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other
Scriptures, to their own destruction."--and do not feel so free
simply to say that the Bible contains errors or that parts of the
Bible are sub-Christian. Thus we put more effort into understanding
how these things might be consistent with the totality of God's
revelation of himself--the result is accomodationism, intrusion
ethics, the framework hypothesis, etc.
The ASA statement of faith sets forth a view of scripture which
members have assented to: "We accept the divine inspiration,
trustworthiness and authority of the Bible in matters of faith and
conduct." This statement is broad enough to cover most (but not
necessarily all) of the views being expressed on this list. The
debate over inerrancy was carried out in the ASA several decades ago
and the inerrancy view did not prevail--this is obvious from the
wording of the Statement of Faith. I will readily admit that my view
is narrower than the ASA's view. However, I will also assert that the
view expressed in the ASA statement of faith leans toward the
evangelical right rather than toward the liberal left. A study of the
history of the ASA will bear this out.
I would argue that dismissing the various Old Testament passages that
pose certain ethical problems does not even conform to the broader
ASA statement of faith concerning scripture. Thus, efforts such as
the one I share below continue to be necessary. At the same time I
will count myself among those who admit that some of these issues are
difficult. Perhaps we can't come up with a good solution. For myself,
I would rather say "I don't know how to explain that" than to say
that scripture is any less than what it says about itself or to
compromise the clearer ethical teachings.
TG
_________
From *The Structure of Biblical Authority* Second Edition by Meredith
G. Kline 1972 (Eerdmans: Grand Rapids). pp. 154-164 from the chapter
entitled "The Intrusion and the Decalogue".
154
Chapter Three
THE INTRUSION AND THE DECALOGUE
The often canvassed subject of Old Testament ethics still beckons the
investigator on in search of a more adequate solution of its peculiar
complex of problems. In this search no other standard of righteousness
is available to one who would think his Maker's thoughts after him than
the standard which emerges in the description of the words and ways of
God which have been inscripturated. But if it is in this very connection
that the problems appear, what is the investigator to do? What, indeed,
but to recognize that problematic as the biblical revelation of the
divine activity might seem, it yet conveys a revelation of law. So will
he give himself again to the exegesis of the Word in the conviction that
the solution of the ethical problem must be one and the same as its
accurate and adequate formulation. The attempt is, therefore, made here
to seek a solution in terms of a somewhat fresh formulation of certain
distinctive elements in the religion of the Old Testament.
The Concept of Intrusion
It is by tracing the unfolding eschatology of Scripture that we can most
deftly unravel the strands of Old
155
Testament religion and discover what is essential and distinctive in it.
For eschatology antedates redemption. The pattern for eschatology goes
back to creation. Since the creature must pattern his ways after his
Creator's, and since the Creator rested only after he had worked, it was
a covenant of works which was proffered to Adam as the means by which to
arrive at the consummation. In the sense that it was the door to the
consummation, this original Covenant of Creation was eschatological.
That door, however, was never opened. It was not the Fall in itself that
delayed the consummation. According to the conditions of the Covenant of
Creation the prospective consummation was either/or. It was either
eternal glory by covenantal confirmation of original righteousness or
eternal perdition by covenant-breaking repudiation of it. The Fall,
therefore, might have been followed at once by a consummation of the
curse of the covenant. The delay was due rather to the principle and
purpose of divine compassion by which a new way of arriving at the
consummation was introduced, the way of redemptive covenant with common
grace as its historical corollary.
For the present thesis it is especially significant that the delay and
common grace are coterminous. In saying this we would not lose sight of
the positive contribution of common grace to the new eschatological
program. Common grace, whose mercies are real while they last, provides
the field of operation for redemptive grace, and its material too. The
delay associated with common grace makes possible a consummation
involving an extensive revelation of the divine perfections, a glorified
paradise as well as a lake of fire. This delay is not the delay of mere
postponement but the delay of gestation. Nevertheless, it is at the same
time true that consummation and commonness between elect and reprobate
are mutually exclusive. In this limited sense common grace may be called
the antithesis of the consummation, and as such it epitomizes
156
this world-age as one during which the consummation is abeyant.
Because of the Fall the gestation-delay, the entire birth process that
at last produces the consummation, is characterized by pain and sorrow.
The whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. But
it is the consummation-child himself who particularly interests us. We
suggest that he might well be named Perez. For he breaks through
beforehand, making a breach for himself. That is, the Covenant of
Redemption all along the line of its administration, more profoundly in
the New Testament but already in the Old Testament, is a coming of the
Spirit, an intrusion of the power, principles, and reality of the
consummation into the period of delay. Breaking through first of all in
the Old Testament period, the Intrusion finds itself in an age which is
by the divine disposition of history, or, more specifically, by the
divine administration of the Covenant of Redemption, an age of
preparation for a later age of fulfillment and finality. Its appearing,
therefore, is amid earthly forms which at once suggest, yet veil, the
ultimate glory. Not to be obscured is the fact that within this
temporary shell of the Intrusion there is a permanent core. The pattern
of things earthly embodies realized eschatology, an actual projection of
the heavenly reality. It is the consummation which, intruding into the
time of delay, anticipates itself.
As for the peculiar forms of the Intrusion in the Old Testament age,
they have a pattern coherent and comprehensive-for things must always be
done decently and in order in the house of God. Taking for a moment an
Old Testament standpoint and viewing these forms as belonging to the
reality that is in Old Testament times, we may say that they also point
to a reality that was (as an archetype in the heavens) and that is to
come (in the Messianic age). They are antitype1 in relation to the
reality that was. They are sacramental symbol in relation
1 antitypa ton alethinon (Heb. 9:24).
157
to the core of the present Old Testament Intrusion of that reality. And
they are type in relation to that reality as it is to come, when Messiah
comes.
When the Old Testament forms are classified as type, their antitypes2
are found in the present phase of the new covenant as well as in the
eternal state, so epochmaking in the unfolding of the Intrusion is the
revelation in the Son. However, the apocalypse of Jesus Christ and his
kingdom is still in the category of Intrusion rather than perfect
consummation, as is signalized by the fact that the present age is still
characterized by common grace, the epitome of the delay. The
identification of the new covenant with the consummation keeps pace with
the stages in the exaltation of the Son of Man; and while we see him
sitting on the right hand of power, we have not yet seen him coming in
the clouds of heaven. Hence, there is not yet a corresponding antitype
for every element of Old Testament typology. Certain Old Testament types
find their antitype in the age introduced by the first coming of Christ,
and, indeed, only there in some cases (e.g., the sacrifice of the
Passover lamb). But the fulfillment of other Old Testament types is
realized only in the world to come (e.g., the actual possession of the
promised land by the people of God). While, therefore, the Old Testament
is an earlier edition of the final reality than is the present age of
the new covenant, and not so intensive, it is on its own level a more
extensive edition, especially when considered in its own most fully
developed form, viz., the Israelite theocracy.
2 Some confusion arises in the terminology through the double use of the
word "antitype" to signify both that the Old Testament is the copy of
the prior heavenly pattern and that the New Testament reality
corresponds to the earlier Old Testament pattern. Thus, not only are
both Old Testament and New Testament antitype (although in different
senses), but the Old Testament is both type and antitype (again from
different points of view). Possibly it would be better, then, to style
the Old Testament forms simply as "copies" when viewed in relation to
the things in the heavens. Cf. Hebrews 9:23, hypodeigmata ton en tois
ouranois.
158
To summarize thus far: Perez makes the breach in the Old Testament; that
is, the consummation intrudes itself there. This Intrusion has realized
eschatology as its core, while its symbolic surface (the sacramental
aspect thereof excepted) forms a typical picture of eschatology not yet
realized. In the recognition of the true character of core and shell and
in the further recognition that the core is always present within the
shell lies the proper understanding of much in the Old Testament.
The Intrusion and Ethics
When we survey the Old Testament, a divinely sanctioned pattern of
action emerges which is not consonant with the customary application of
the law of God according to the principle of common grace. It will be
our purpose to show that this ethical pattern is congenial to biblical
religion by relating it to the Intrusion phenomenon which we have found
to be an integral element in the Old Testament.
Biblical laws have been classified according to their ground as laws
founded: (1) on the nature of God; (2) on permanent relations of men in
their present state of existence; (3) on temporary relations of men or
conditions of society; and (4) altogether on positive commands of God.3
Discussing the question of how far the laws contained in the Bible may
be dispensed with, Hodge says that the laws of group 1 are immutable;
that the laws of group 2 may be set aside by the authority of God; and
that the laws of groups 3 and 4 are mutable, the positive laws of the
Old Testament being, as a matter of fact, now abolished together with
those laws of group 3 which were designed exclusively for the Hebrews
living under the theocracy.
3 See C. Hodge, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, 1940), III, 267-269;
cf. W. B. Green, "Ethics of the Old Testament," Princeton Theological
Review, XXVII, 2 (1929), 179-181.
159
It is to be observed, however, that these categories are not mutually
exclusive and that, therefore, there may be more complexity in the
application of a given law than this simple formulation of the problem
of mutability suggests. Two of these categories may be involved as
multiple aspects of one law which may then have both a mutable and an
immutable aspect. To illustrate, though laws five through ten in the
Decalogue are grounded on permanent relations of men in their present
state of existence, they are also founded on the nature of God. For they
simply apply to specific cases the grand principle that man must reflect
the moral glory of God on a finite scale. This principle is immutable
because it concerns the relationship of man to God. On the other hand,
the relations governed by this immutable principle are themselves
mutable.
In the present age we may say that the essence of laws five through ten
is that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves, and the answer to the
question, "Who is my neighbor?", is the parable of the good Samaritan.
But beyond this life that parable will no longer serve as the answer to
that question. Then Lazarus must not so much as dip the tip of his
finger in water to cool the tongue of him who is in anguish in the
flame. The law of heaven requires that Lazarus pass him by on the other
side. Not to take pleasure in his anguish (for Lazarus has been renewed
in the image of God, not of Satan), but nonetheless to pass him by whom
heaven's Lord must command, "Depart from me, thou cursed." The neighbor
relationship envisaged in the parable of the good Samaritan has,
therefore, a terminus ad qzlem at the limit of the present state of
existence.
The unbeliever is the believer's neighbor today; but the reprobate is
not the neighbor of the redeemed hereafter for the reason that God will
set a great gulf between them. God, whose immutable nature it is to hate
evil, withdrawing all favor from the reprobate, will himself hate them
as sin's finished products. And if the redeemed
160
in glory are to fulfill their duty of patterning their ways after God's,
they will have to change their attitude toward the unbeliever from one
of neighborly love to one of perfect hatred, which is a holy, not
malicious passion. Just because the grand principle which underlies laws
five through ten is immutable, the application of these laws must be
changed in accordance with the changes in the intracreational
relationships for which they legislate.
Now it appears that there was introduced in the Old Testament age a
pattern of conduct akin to that found in prophetic portrayals of the
kingdom of God beyond the present age of common grace. Our thesis is
that this Old Testament ethical pattern is an aspect of the Intrusion.
Included in it are both anticipations of God's judgment curse on the
reprobate and of his saving grace in blessing his elect.
Possible misunderstandings may be forestalled by making certain
observations at once. First, the demands of this Intrusion ethics in the
Old Testament are not of a lower or laxer order. Quite the contrary, it
was only in union with the highest outreach of faith that there could be
true compliance with the demands of this ethics. Second, this concept of
Intrusion ethics is not prejudicial to the permanent validity of the
moral law of Moses. The distinction made is not one of different
standards but of the application of a constant standard under
significantly different conditions. It is evident that such a
distinction must be made between the period of common grace in general
and the age of the consummation. The only proposal beyond that made here
is that there are anticipations of that distinction and, to that extent,
an anticipatory abrogation of the principle of common grace during the
Old Testament age. Finally, this concept of Intrusion ethics does not
obscure the unity of the Covenant of Redemption throughout its various
administrations. It does bring into bolder relief the basic structure of
that covenant in its historical unfolding and in so doing inevitably
displays its essential unity.
161
Intrusion of Judgment Curse
The Imprecations in the Psalms
In justification of the imprecations in the Psalms (see, e.g., Pss. 7,
35, 55, 59, 69, 79, 109 and 137) it is necessary to point out that the
welfare of man is not the chief end of man; that we sinful creatures
have no inherent rights which our holy Maker must respect; that
accordingly, God may, without violating any obligation, take any man's
life at any time and in any way; and that it is one with this for God to
inspire the Psalmist to pray that he should do so in a particular
instance, the prayer itself being altogether proper since it is divinely
inspired. It is also helpful to indicate that the Psalmist expresses
hatred of others and prays for their destruction not in a bitter spirit
of personal vindictiveness but out of concern for the honor of God's
name, which had been despised, and from love of God's kingdom, which had
been opposed in that enmity displayed by the objects of the imprecations
toward the Psalmist as one who represented that kingdom. However, when
all this has been said by way of explanation and defense, the
significance of the imprecations has not yet been fully appreciated.
Another important side of the picture can be brought into view by the
observation that normally the believer's attitudes toward the unbeliever
are conditioned by the principle of common grace. During the historical
process of differentiation which common grace makes possible, before the
secret election of God is unmistakably manifested at the great white
throne, the servants of Christ are bound by his charge to pray for the
good of those who despitefully use and persecute them. Our Lord rebuked
the Boanerges when they contemplated consuming the Samaritans with fire
from heaven (Luke 9:54; cf. Mark 3:17). We may not seek to destroy those
for whom, perchance, Christ has died.
But in the final judgment the Lord will not rebuke
162
James and John if they make similar requests. Then it will be altogether
becoming for the saint to desire God's wrath to descend upon his
unbelieving enemy. No longer will there be the possibility that the
enemy of the saint is the elect of God. Then the grain harvest will be
ripe for the gathering of the Son of Man and the clusters of the vine
will be fully ripe for the great winepress of the wrath of God.
We must distinguish an ethics of the consummation from an ethics of
common grace, and the imprecations in the Psalms confront us
unexpectedly with a pattern of conduct which conforms to the ethics of
the consummation. Since it is intruded by inspiration it constitutes a
divine abrogation, within a limited sphere, of the ethical requirements
normally in force during the course of common grace. What is required is
that we cease stumbling over this as though it were a problem and
recognize it as a feature of the divine administration of the Covenant
of Redemption in the Old Testament, a feature that displays the
sovereign authority of the covenant God. It is also bright with promise
for the future of his kingdom and people; for, to make explicit the
obvious, this ethical intrusion appropriately attaches itself to the
activity of persons and institutions which were types of things to come
in the age of the consummation. The ethical principles themselves belong
to the core of consummation reality within the shell of things typical.
The Conquest of Canuan
Another familiar Old Testament ethical problem is that of justifying the
Israelite dispossession and extermination of the Canaanites over against
the sixth and eighth words of the Decalogue. Defense might be attempted
by comparing the function of the ordinary state when, acting through its
officers against criminals or through its military forces against
offending nations, it destroys life and exacts reparations. The proper
performance of this func
163
tion is not a violation but a fulfillment of the provisions of common
grace. For in God's dealing with mankind in common grace he has
authorized the state as "an avenger for wrath to him that doeth evil."
Now it is true that Israel's army was also an avenger for wrath. But
while an analogy may be recognized between the two things being
compared, the conclusion cannot be avoided that radically different
principles are at work. For if Israel's conquest of Canaan were to be
adjudicated before an assembly of nations acting according to the
provisions of common grace, that conquest would have to be condemned as
an unprovoked aggression and, moreover, an aggression carried out in
barbarous violation of the requirement to show all possible mercy even
in the proper execution of justice. It would not avail the counsel for
the defense to claim that by a divine promise originally made to Abraham
and afterwards reiterated to his descendants the land was rightfully
Israel's, nor to insist that the iniquity of the Amorites was full and
cried to heaven for judgment, nor to advise the court that the conquest
was undertaken and waged according to specific directions of Israel's
God to Moses and Joshua. Such facts would have no legal significance for
the international tribunal judging solely by the principle of common
grace.
It will only be with the frank acknowledgment that ordinary ethical
requirements were suspended and the ethical principles of the last
judgment intruded that the divine promises and commands to Israel
concerning Canaan and the Canaanites come into their own. Only so can
the conquest be justified and seen as it was in truth-not murder, but
the hosts of the Almighty visiting upon the rebels against his righteous
throne their just deserts-not robbery, but the meek inheriting the
earth.
It was earlier maintained that Intrusion ethics required of him who
would obey its demands the highest outreach of faith. Thus, in the case
of the conquest, showing mercy to Canaanite women and children would not
have been rising above a condescending, permissive decree to
164
the heights of compliance with a loftier standard. It would have been
falling, through lack of faith, into the abyss of disobedience. As a
matter of fact, was it not the great men of faith, a Moses, a Joshua, a
Caleb, who prosecuted the conquest with vigor? And was it not in
consequence of spiritual declension in Israel that they soon began to
spare and make peace with those Canaanites who were left in the land to
try them? The conquest, with the pattern of Old Testament action it
exemplifies, was not, as it is so often stigmatized, an instance in the
ethical sphere of arrested evolution but rather of anticipated
eschatology.
-- _________________ Terry M. Gray, Ph.D., Computer Support Scientist Chemistry Department, Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado 80523 grayt@lamar.colostate.edu http://www.chm.colostate.edu/~grayt/ phone: 970-491-7003 fax: 970-491-1801
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Jul 01 2002 - 13:20:03 EDT