Elihu comes to the conclusion of the debate between Job and his friends where at the end there is a stalemate since human wisdom cannot determine what is occurring in this specific situation.
Read moreJob 31, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
Job has presumed that if he does this then God should do that. As if the only reason that God could cause calamity is judgment. Job doesn’t have this information but that is fundamentally wrong, think about James 1, it says count it all joy because it refines you.
Read moreJob 30, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
For Job to think of himself so high and that it’s wrong for God to put him so low Job is still reasoning in the divine retribution principle.
Read moreJob 29, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
Job is saying that he is the mediator, savior, and ultimate head. This is close but not quite right.
Read moreJob 28, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
According to the Bible, your starting point has to be divine revelation; if you don’t start there you can’t know anything truly outside of that.
Read moreJob 27, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
Job uses this chapter to point out that his friends are faulty.
Read moreJob 26, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
Job’s point is if you really understood creation, it would lead you to know that you don’t know anything. You can’t explain anything and that is why God is so much greater than you.
Read moreJob 25, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
Job’s point is it would have been better if Bildad and Eliphaz had stayed silent. They don’t know how things work because they are missing the key ingredient, divine revelation.
Read moreJob 24, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
Job’s two questions were “Does God balance care, just, and power?” and “Does God even know what is going on with the planet, and if so, what is up with His timing?”
Read moreJob 23, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
The issue with questions is not the asking of questions, but it is when those questions make demands, demands which diminish authority.
Read moreJob 22, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
We have now moved into the postmodern discussion. Job has challenged the entire problem with a notion of a closed system that what you see is what is.
Read moreJob 21, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
The book of Job is one of my favorites and truly is a minefield of wisdom; but it is difficult to understand. I continue publishing these notes to the best lectures I have heard on the book of Job.
Read moreTheodicy and the Problem of Evil: Toward a Christian Theodicy Which Explains all of Evil
This was a paper I submitted for a Systematic Theology class at Seminary a while back, but I never published it here because it is flawed. It can be verbose, broad-brushing, lacking detail and subtlety, and annoying to anyone currently suffering. And yet, I stand by the thesis. God allows evil in order to have something to redeem, to start a holy war that would reveal His character and glory for all to see. But that is a hard pill to swallow.
Read moreJob 20, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
Zophar is the final guy in the debate segment. This is his last speech, and we still have one more segment to go through, so he doesn’t speak in the last one. Why? There are a lot of answers, but it’s probably because he just shuts up.
Read moreJob 19, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
Job responds to Bildad, refuting his Internal Causation scheme, proving the limits of science and the need for God to explain to him true reality: that both God and Job can be right: that there must be a Mediator.
Read moreJonathan Edwards vs Charles Finney: On the Causes of Conversion and Revival
Jonathan Edwards’s view on the causes of conversion and revival is more biblical than Charles Finney’s because Edwards maintains the biblical tension of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility in conversion—between God’s immediate and mediate actions—while Charles Finney loses that tension by overemphasizing the responsibility of man and the mediated nature of God’s work, and thereby loses grip on some key doctrines like the depravity of man and the sovereignty of God.
Read moreAugustine vs. Cassian: On the Tension Between the Sovereignty of God and the Responsibility of Man
Augustine’s view of the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man is more biblical than Cassian’s because he honors the paradox of compatibilism presented in the biblical text while Cassian charges ahead too far into the mystery of God’s character and ends up diverting from other biblical doctrines, like original sin and the free will of man, in order to make this paradox more comprehensible.
Read moreJob 18, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
Bildad begins his response within the second (modernistic) round of debate, appealing, as always, to nature for his reason.
Read moreJob 17, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
Job continues his defense, appealing to a downpayment that he doesn't have, wishing for a way to legitimately prove his innocence before God and man.
Read moreJob 16, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
Job responds to Eliphaz’s second speech (Job 15) where Eliphaz said, "Let me give you the historical definition of a wicked man—he looks just like you, Job." Job replies, "The reason I look guilty is because I was framed."
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