{"id":4015,"date":"2008-07-30T00:30:33","date_gmt":"2008-07-30T00:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2008\/07\/our-missional-god-6.html"},"modified":"2008-07-30T00:30:33","modified_gmt":"2008-07-30T00:30:33","slug":"our-missional-god-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2008\/07\/our-missional-god-6.html","title":{"rendered":"Our Missional God 6"},"content":{"rendered":"

So how does a biblical view of monotheism — that YHWH is the one and only God — and this God’s mission to make himself known throughout the world, especially in Jesus Christ, lead to a missional understanding of the Bible? This is what Chris Wright discusses in the last part of 4 in his book The Mission of God<\/a>\"\"<\/em>. Or put a little more clearly: How is biblical monotheism missional? A good question for your cup of coffee or for a chat with a friend. So, put away the little thingies in your ears from your iPod and ponder this question with us.
\nThe first thing to observe is that a biblical sense of mission is driven by God’s will to be known; or put from the other angle, a biblical monotheism is one in which that God wants to be known throughout the world. Here is a principle text, Psalm 22:27-31:
\nAll the ends of the earth
\nwill remember and turn to the Lord,
\nand all the families of the nations
\nwill bow down before him,
\nfor dominion belongs to the Lord
\nand he rules over the nations.
\nAll the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
\nall who go down to the dust will kneel before him?
\nthose who cannot keep themselves alive.
\nPosterity will serve him;
\nfuture generations will be told about the Lord.
\nThey will proclaim his righteousness
\nto a people yet unborn?
\nfor he has done it.
\nWhich means three things:
\na. The good of creation depends on humanity knowing God.
\nb. The good of creation comes from humanity knowing the biblical God.
\nc. God’s will to be known is the mainspring of our mission to make God known.
\nSecond, biblical monotheism involves a constant christological struggle. The Bible reveals a battlefield. The claim that God reveals himself in Jesus continues the struggle we find in the Bible with other gods and it also reveals a God who is unique.
\nThird, biblical monotheism leads to praise and praise leads to mission. The Psalms are filled with the summons for others to worship the God of Israel, and to say that God reveals himself in Jesus is to say that this God of Israel is revealed in Jesus — and that means worship of that God leads to worship through and of Jesus.
\nBiblical monotheism finds a beautiful expression in Psalm 96:
\n1 Sing to the Lord a new song;
\nsing to the Lord, all the earth.
\n2 Sing to the Lord, praise his name;
\nproclaim his salvation day after day.
\n3 Declare his glory among the nations,
\nhis marvelous deeds among all peoples.
\n4 For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
\nhe is to be feared above all gods.
\n5 For all the gods of the nations are idols,
\nbut the Lord made the heavens.
\n6 Splendor and majesty are before him;
\nstrength and glory are in his sanctuary.
\n7 Ascribe to the Lord, O families of nations,
\nascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
\n8 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
\nbring an offering and come into his courts.
\n9 Worship the Lord in the splendor of his [fn1] holiness;
\ntremble before him, all the earth.
\n10 Say among the nations, ?The Lord reigns.?
\nThe world is firmly established, it cannot be moved;
\nhe will judge the peoples with equity.
\n11 Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
\nlet the sea resound, and all that is in it;
\n12 let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them.
\nThen all the trees of the forest will sing for joy;
\n13 they will sing before the Lord, for he comes,
\nhe comes to judge the earth.
\nHe will judge the world in righteousness
\nand the peoples in his truth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So how does a biblical view of monotheism — that YHWH is the one and only God — and this God’s mission to make himself known throughout the world, especially in Jesus Christ, lead to a missional understanding of the Bible? This is what Chris Wright discusses in the last part of 4 in his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-missional"],"yoast_head":"\nOur Missional God 6 - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2008\/07\/our-missional-god-6.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Our Missional God 6 - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"So how does a biblical view of monotheism — that YHWH is the one and only God — and this God’s mission to make himself known throughout the world, especially in Jesus Christ, lead to a missional understanding of the Bible? 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