It's been a while since I've posted a new blog. Here's an update of sorts.
I'm currently working on a book called Mountain Top Theology. It's essentially a selection of basic biblical doctrine organized around and based on events that took place on mountains in the biblical world. Each chapter first surveys the geographical-historical background of the mountain and then discusses the continuing theological significance of what happened or was said there.
Here is a snippet from my chapter on Mount Ararat, the mountain in Turkey that is traditionally connected with Noah's great flood.
Significance
The wrath of God is real. This
sinks in when you stand on top of Mt.
Ararat. It’s like
surveying the scene of a historic battlefield like Gettysburg. From the heights of Ararat, one
recalls the great flood of Noah as recorded in Genesis 6–8. You try to
comprehend the awful loss of life. You ask yourself, Why? Grappling with this
question is what the metaphorical climb is all about.
The Righteous Wrath of God
Judge Judy puts things to right and
people in their place with panache! But I’d rather not think of God sitting on
the bench, because, frankly, he knows too much incriminating stuff about me.
He’s got me dead to rights. Anyone who’s in their right mind admits the same.
And he carries a lot more clout than Judge Judy! For obvious reasons, I’d
rather focus on God’s love and forgiveness than his righteous wrath against
sin.
Ascending Mt Ararat, however,
reminds me that God gets angry and sometimes he lets that be known—big time.
The landscape of redemptive history is pockmarked by some pretty big divine
craters, the biggest being Noah’s flood. Readers may be familiar with the as
yet unsolved mystery that occurred in Siberia,
Russia on June 30, 1908, called the
Tunguska Event. A vast area (about 830 square miles) of this isolated
(thankfully!) landscape was devastated by something extremely powerful. The
majority opinion is that a huge meteor or comet slammed into earth’s atmosphere
and exploded over this region. The resulting explosion, the equivalent of 1,000
Hiroshimas, obliterated everything, leveling about 80 million trees in the
process. As extensive as that destruction was, it pales in comparison to the
flood. The Bible uses expansive terms to describe its extent (“all the high
mountains under the entire heavens were covered . . . . Every living thing that
moved on the earth perished . . . . Only Noah was left, and those with him in
the ark” (Genesis 7:19,
21, 23).
On any reckoning, it involved a massive loss of life.
