Integration of themes in TUL500 A Biblical Theology of Urban Mission, from Genesis to Revelations. A video and note of this is available on https://vimeo.com/vivgrigg/integration .

1. TUL500 Biblical Theology of Mission in an Urban Context
Integration & Revelations
Viv Grigg
Dec 2014, 2017
Developed as a resource for the MATUL Training Commission

2. Course Overview
• You have: developed strands
of Biblical Theology from
Genesis to Revelations,
o from the perspective of
poverty, urbanization,
injustice…

3. Course Overview
• Been introduced to 28
Biblical and Development
Theory models
o Integrated around the
primary theme of the
Kingdom of God.

4. Course Overview
• Built this around a story-telling
motif.
o In the community integrated
the stories of the people with
the stories of God.
o This lead to the broader
approach of
Transformational
Conversations.

5. Course Overview
• You have: developed strands of Biblical
Theology from Genesis to Revelations,
o from the perspective of poverty,
urbanization, injustice…
• Been introduced to 28 Biblical and
Development Theory models
o Integrated around the primary theme of the
Kingdom of God.
• Built this around a story-telling motif.
o In the community integrated the stories of
the people with the stories of God.
o This lead to the broader approach of
Transformational Conversations.

6. Biblical Theological Approach to
Redemptive History
Geerhardus Vos:
• “Biblical Theology is that branch of Exegetical
Theology which deals with the process of the
self-revelation of God deposited in the Bible.”

7. Biblical Theological Approach to Redemptive History
• Biblical theology does not just focus on the—“the
finished product of God’s self-revelation, but on the
“divine activity” of God as it unfolds in history
(recorded in the sixty-six books).

8. Biblical Theological Approach to Redemptive History
• Its principle of organization is historical. Biblical
theology moves along the axis of redemptive
history. It’s particularly concerned with development
and therefore with questions of continuity and
discontinuity, the movement from seed to tree.
• Tom Schreiner: It “asks what themes are central to
the biblical writers in their historical context, and
attempts to discern the coherence of such themes.”

9. Biblical Theological Approach to Redemptive History
• Geerhardus Vos, defined biblical theology this way: “Biblical Theology is that
branch of Exegetical Theology which deals with the process of the self-
revelation of God deposited in the Bible.”
• Biblical theology does not just focus on the—“the finished product of God’s
self-revelation, but on the “divine activity” of God as it unfolds in history
(recorded in the sixty-six books).
• Its principle of organization is historical. Biblical theology moves along
the axis of redemptive history. It’s particularly concerned with
development and therefore with questions of continuity and discontinuity,
the movement from seed to tree.
• Tom Schreiner: It “asks what themes are central to the biblical writers in
their historical context, and attempts to discern the coherence of such
themes.”

10. Transformational
Conversation
4.Transformat-
ional
Conversations
2.Faith
Convers
ations
3.Socio-
Economic
Conversat-
ions

11. The Kingdom of God

12. The Expansion of the Kingdom

13. Jaques Ellul: City of God, City of Man
Urbanization
Nimrod
Babel
Abraham sees a city
Joseph rules Egypt
Promised land
David of Jerusalem
Solomon
Exile in Babylon
Rebuilding Jerusalem
Jesus & Jerusalem
Death
Resurrection
Coming of the Spirit
Urban Church
Final Urban Conflict
Heavenly City
Rise of
Global
Babylo
n
From Kevin Young

14. Kingdom and
Development in
Old Testament
Biblical
Models
Creation –
Creativity,
Production,
City in Garden
Urbanization
Patriarchs –
Covenants
Nation building,

15. Kingdom and
Development in
Old Testament
Biblical
Models
Creation –
Creativity,
Production,
City in Garden
Patriarchs –
Nation building,
Prayer for
Provision
Exodus -
Poor laws,
Jubilee

16. Kingdom and
Development in
Old Testament
Biblical
Models
Creation –
Creativity,
Production,
City in Garden
Patriarchs –
Nation building,
Prayer for
Provision
Exodus -
Poor laws,
Jubilee
David &
Solomon’s
Kingdom – Poor
and Poverty
Role of just King

17. Kingdom and
Development in
Old Testament
Biblical
Models
Creation –
Creativity,
Production,
City in Garden
Patriarchs –
Nation building,
Prayer for
Provision
Exodus -
Poor laws,
Jubilee
David &
Solomon’s
Kingdom – Poor
and Poverty
Role of just King
Prophets –
Advocacy
The Servant

18. Pentatuech:TribalPoverty
• Ebyon
• Dal
• Jubilee
Wisdom:UrbanPoverty
• Personal
Sin
Prophets:Oppression&Poverty
• Ani,
Anaw,
Ptochos
• Jesus &
Poverty
• Church
&
Poverty
Poor, Poverty, Oppression

19. Models for Confronting Oppression and Bringing
Structures of Justice
• A Gospel that includes structural justice
o Creating Just Structures
o Setting Free from Oppression

20. Models for Confronting Oppression and Bringing
Structures of Justice
• 4 Levels of Doing Justice
o Personal – Solidarity
o Family & Community – Community Organization
o National – Social Movements
o International

21. Models for Confronting Oppression and Bringing
Structures of Justice
• A Gospel that includes structural justice
o Creating Just Structures
o Setting Free from Oppression
• 4 Levels of Doing Justice
o Personal – Solidatiry
o Family & Community – Community Organization
o National – Social Movements
o International
• 10 Millenial Development Goals
• Vs Alternative Kingdom Goals (Further Develop from
Revelations)

22. Who is the Servant?
Israel
The
Remnant
Jesus Paul
The
Church
Servant Songs Centre of Matthew

23. Kingdom and
Development in the Old
& New Testament (2)
Biblical
Models
Exile –
Seeking
Peace of
City
Restoration –
Community
Building

24. Biblical
Models
Exile –
Seeking
Peace of
City
Restoration –
Community
Building
Jesus –
Incarnation
Disciple-
making
Acts –
Economic
Discipleship
Movements
Reconciliation
Kingdom and
Development in the Old
& New Testament (2)

25. Biblical
Models
Exile –
Seeking
Peace of
City
Restoration –
Community
Building
Jesus –
Incarnation
Disciple-
making
Acts –
Economic
Discipleship
Movements
Reconciliation
Epistles –
Deacons
Work
The Powers
Revelations
– Future and
Vision
Kingdom and
Development in the Old
& New Testament (2)

26. Ten Principles of Biblical Economics
1.Love and
Human
Worth,
2.
Creativity
3.
Productivity
4. Co-
operation
5. Work &
Rest
6. Simplicity
7.
Redistribution
8. Management
9. Ownership
10. Celebration

27. Revelations –Grand Showdown Between
the Kingdom and the Powers
The Kingdom
• The Church Age
• Tribulation
• Millennium on Earth
• Final Judgement
• New Heavens and New
Earth
The Evil Powers
• Rome, and other
persecutors
• Global Oppression
expands through a one
world government
• Powers are bound then
released for a season
• Powers and their
followers judged
• Eternal Damnation

28. Four Views of the End Times
Premillenialism
• Historical
• Society grows increasingly evil
• The church has replaced Israel
as the true Israel
• Dispensational
• Rapture
• Society grows increasingly evil
• God will give the land to Israel
as a nation
• Amillenialism
• Spiritual reign of Jesus in the
heart
• References to Israel are
symbolic references to the
people of God on earth
• Postmillenialism
• Society gradually improves
through preaching of the
gospel

29. A Fundamentalist Dispensational View of the Eschaton

32. Biblical Future: Looking Ahead
• When is the next event?
• Return of Israel 1948, and its survival
miraculously
• The amassing of the armies
o A pathway from Moscow and China for
armies
o Rise of Anti -Christ desecration of the temple
o The Return of the Messiah
• We go out to welcome him and return
with him
• His reign for 1000 years.
• A New Heavens and a New Earth

33. Implications for us among the poor
• When the gospel has been preached to all nations, then the
end will come.
o This is for the sake of the conversion of the Jewish
peoples
o We are not mandated to pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but to
preach the good news of his reign to the nations.
• We oppose the Powers, including the high paid failed
politicians and executives of the UN, the IMF, the WTO
and their development goals

34. Implications for us among the poor
• We remain the only independent voice as the church
against the integrated global oppression of the Capitalist
class or the bureaucratic class of Marxism.
• We have a future hope in the midst of the failures of
international development
o We work for a crown
o Well done, good and faithful servant.

35. Implications for us among the poor
• We have a future hope in the midst of the failures of
international development
o We work for a crown
o Well done, good and faithful servant.

36. Source Readings
• Dyrness, W. (1998). The end and goal of creation: The new
heaven and the new earth. Let the Earth Rejoice! A Biblical
Theology of Holistic Mission. Pasadena: Wipf and Stock.
Chap 14.
• Bellingham, G. R. (1987). The eschaton. A Biblical Approach
to Social Transformation. Philadelphia, Eastern Baptist
Seminary. Chap 20.
• Glasser, Arthur F., and Charles Engen Edward
Van. Announcing the Kingdom: The Story of God's Mission in
the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003.
• Sider, Ronald J. Evangelicals and Development: Toward a
Theology of Social Change. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1982.

37. Credits
Chart No 7: The Church vs The Kingdom. Designed and
Drawn by Clarence Larkin, FoxChase, Philadelphia, PA .
Rose Publishing. 2016. Four Views of the End Times. Roses
Book of Charts, Maps and Time Lines. 7th Edition. Rose
Publishing. Pg. 167-168