Society & Culture

Read the series so far.

No one knows exactly how many thousands of years elapsed between the fall in Genesis 3 and the calling of Abraham in Genesis 12. Because at least some of the genealogies contain gaps, few responsible scholars today are willing to stake themselves to James Ussher’s chronology. Ussher saw about 2,000 years between Eden and Abraham. Even contemporary young-earth creationists would multiply that number, some by several times.

God began saving individuals soon after the fall. The first recorded hero of faith was Abel. Individuals like Enoch, Noah, Melchizedek, and Job appear as bright spots in the history of redemption. In spite of calamities like the flood and the tower of Babel, God was clearly at work in the world. He was saving human beings.

During all those long millennia, however, no nation devoted itself to the worship of the living and true God. Indeed, before the tower of Babel, no individual nations existed. After Babel, the nations as nations devoted themselves to idols. No nation’—no people‘—called upon God or was called by His name.

That changed during the complex of events that began with the calling of Abraham and culminated in the exodus. From Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God raised up the nation Israel. God constituted Israel as a people, and in doing so He constituted them as a people of God. In God’s purpose, Israel was to be God’s own possession among all the nations, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. With the calling of Israel, God committed Himself to a plan that encompassed peoples as well as persons.

[amazon 1596381833 thumbnail] The name “Carl Trueman” didn’t mean a whole lot to me until recently. For some time, the name popped up often in blog-post links folks would email me. Sometimes something at the “Reformation 21” blog would catch my eye and turn out to be Trueman’s work.

Then a few months ago he began to really get my attention—in his response to the Elephant Room 2 confusion as well as subsequent insightful evaluations of the state of evangelicalism in general.

Read the series so far.

[Continued from the last issue of In the Nick of Time]

More important is the question of the internal counsels of the Trinity. If the covenant of grace (made with humans) relies upon an eternal covenant of redemption (made within the Trinity), then upon what does the covenant of works rely? Does it not imply some eternal counsel—perhaps a “covenant of fallibility”—on the part of the Triune God to subject humanity to probation and to permit the human failure?

Not only that. From eternity past God also knew that some human beings would not be saved. He always knew that, if He created the world, He would end up sending some people to hell. Yet He created the world anyway. Necessarily, hell was always an aspect of God’s purpose in bringing glory to Himself. Somehow, God is glorified (His perfections are exhibited, recognized, and admired) not only by the salvation of those sinners who believe, but by the condemnation of others who do not. Is any biblical Christian really prepared to suggest that the Great White Throne detracts from the glory of God? And if not, then must we also posit some eternal “covenant of damnation” within the counsels of the Trinity?