Introduction
1. The rationale for the language of happiness used in this discussion is the Wesleyan understanding that God’s original purpose was to provide for the happiness of his created beings. In his sermon “The Unity of the Divine Being,” Wesley declares, “[God] made all things to be happy. He made man to be happy in Himself” (John Wesley, The Works of John Wesley, ed. Thomas Jackson [1872; Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 1986], 7:266, hereafter cited as Works).
2. Joseph Blenkinsopp, The Pentateuch (Chicago: ACTA, 1971), 46-47.
3. See David Clines, “The Theology of the Flood Narrative,” Faith and Thought 100, no. 2 (1972-73), 128-42.
4. David Clines, “Theme in Genesis 1-11,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 38 (1976), 483-507.
5. The purpose of Abram’s call defines for the remainder of the Bible the primary meaning of election. It mainly refers to God’s choice of someone to perform a task and biblically is not used in relation to eternal destiny. A subsidiary but related use refers to God’s election purpose in relation to the character of his people (see Eph. 1:4). See Th. C. Vriezen, An Outline of Old Testament Theology (Wageningen, Neth.: H. Veenman and Zonen, 1958), 76, 167.
6. N. T. Wright, The Climax of the Covenant (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992), 22-23. No one on the contemporary scene has done more to highlight this biblical truth than New Testament scholar N. T. Wright. He says in his popular devotional commentary on Romans: “Not many Christians, in my experience, make much of the fact of being children of Abraham. We are often content to leave that to Jews, and perhaps Muslims too. Yet the idea of Abraham’s multi-ethnic family is important in the New Testament (see, e.g., Matthew 3:8). Is it not time to get this theme out of the cupboard, dust it down and put it to good use once more?” (Paul for Everyone: Romans, Part One [Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004], 75).
7. N. T. Wright, “Romans,” in The New Interpreter’s Bible (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2002), 10:399.
8. The Long Search, BBC/Time Life Films.
9. Wright, “Romans,” 398.
10. John Bright, The Kingdom of God (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1953), 186.
11. Oswald Chambers, Not Knowing Whither (Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1975), 35.
12. Oswald Chambers, The Psychology of Redemption (reprint, London: Marshall, Morgan and Scott, 1955), 5.
13. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Martin Ostwald (New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1962), 17-18.
14. Charles F. Pfeiffer, The Patriarchal Age (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1961), 23.
15. For a conservative discussion of these issues see Donald J. Wiseman, “Abraham in History and Tradition,” Bibliotheca Sacra 134, no. 534 (April— June 1977), 123-30.
16. Pfeiffer, Patriarchal Age, 12.
17. James Muilenburg, “The History of the Religion of Israel,” in The Interpreter’s Bible, ed. G. A. Buttrick (New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1952), 1:296.
18. The importance of this point is seen in the light of Gerhard von Rad’s observation that most of the patriarchal stories give the reader little suggestion for any authoritative explanation and assessment of any occurrence (Genesis, rev. ed. [Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1961], 168-69).
19. I have chosen, on this basis, to refer to the person who is the subject of these studies as Abram until the time when the biblical text indicates that his name was changed to Abraham (chap. 17). The same is true of his wife’s name. There seems to be a significance in these name changes that is directly related to the premise of this work. In similar fashion I have chosen to avoid getting involved in any discussion about the use of the divine name in the Abraham narratives in the light of Exod. 6:3. These are important issues, perhaps, but irrelevant to the point we are seeking to make.
20. I am not suggesting that one can impose an order of salvation derived from Pauline teaching on the life of Abraham or from any other historical sequence of Old Testament narrative, nor am I suggesting that conversely one can derive a structure of contemporary experience from the experience of Abraham.
21. Richard N. Longenecker, “The ‘Faith of Abraham’ Theme in Paul, James and Hebrews: A Study in the Circumstantial Nature of New Testament Teaching,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 20, no. 3 (September 1977), 204.
Chapter 1
1. Donald J. Wiseman, “The Word of God for Abraham and Today,” Dr. G. Campbell Morgan Memorial Lecture Number 11 (1959), 6.
2. E. A. Speiser, Genesis, The Anchor Bible (Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Co., 1964), 88.
3. A. Carter Shelley, Preaching Genesis 12-36 (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2001), 6.
4. John I. Lawlor suggests that the traditional view of the only recorded conversation between Abraham and Isaac on the trek to Mount Moriah (the “prediction” of v. 5) is an evidence of Abraham’s growing faith in his God and that he was expressing his firm belief that Isaac would either be spared or miraculously raised up, a la Heb. 11:17-19. “As one reviews the complete saga of Abraham, it is to be recognized that several indications of an ‘evolving faith’ on the part of Abraham do appear; this may be cited in support of this understanding.” John I. Lawlor, “The Test of Abraham, Genesis 22:1-19,” Grace Theological Journal 1, no. 1 (1980): 19-36.
5. Gordon J. Wenham, “The Religion of the Patriarchs,” in Essays on the Patriarchal Narratives, eds. Alan R. Millard and Donald J. Wiseman (Leicester, UK: InterVarsity Press, 1980), 157-88. Wenham suggests that references to the name Yahweh are chiefly to be found in the narrative framework of the material rather than in the dialogues, implying that the editor or narrator was intending to identify the God of Abraham with Yahweh of the Exodus. This is a much-debated subject.
6. Pfeiffer, Patriarchal Age, 86.
7. Chambers, Not Knowing Whither, 13.
8. N. Liebowitz, Studies in Bereshit (Genesis), 2nd rev. ed. (Jerusalem: World Zionist Organization, 1974), 113.
9. Ibid., 12.
10. Archaeological evidence concerning both Ur and Haran suggests that contrary to popular opinion, Abram’s family was not initially nomadic but lived in a settled city context in both places. Only when he got to Canaan and “pitched his tent” in the hill country did a nomadic life become obvious. See Joyce Baldwin, Genesis (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1986), 22-26.
11. One scholar has suggested that Abram was actually the youngest of the three brothers. This is based on the assumption that the order of names was listed in terms of importance, not age. See W. H. Griffith Thomas, Genesis (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1946), 114.
Chapter 2
1. Thomas, Genesis, 119.
2. Ibid.
3. Shelley, Preaching, 20.
4. Von Rad, Genesis, 169.
5. Chambers, Not Knowing Whither, 32.
6. By contrast with Abram himself, rabbinic interpretation created elaborate tales justifying and explaining away Abram’s culpability.
7. Walter Brueggemann, Genesis, Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, ed. James Luther Mays, et al. (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982), 111.
8. William H. Bathurst, “O for a Faith That Will Not Shrink,” in Sing to the Lord (Kansas City: Lillenas Publishing, 1993), 447.
Chapter 3
1. Von Rad, Genesis, 171.
2. Of the “standard” translations, only the NRSV renders the passage this way, reflecting the best of the most recent scholarship and suggesting a much different understanding of the incarnation than the rendering that implies the giving up of “deity” in the enfleshment of the eternal Word. Cf. Richard Bauckham, God Crucified: Monotheism and Christology in the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999).
3. Brueggemann, Genesis, 132.
4. Steve Zeisler, “The Price Is Wrong,” Peninsula Bible Church, www.pbc.org/system/message_files/6922/3973.html (accessed June 15, 2012).
5. John White, The Golden Cow (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1979), 76.
6. N. T. Wright, After You Believe (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), 84.
7. Larry R. Helyer, “The Separation of Abram and Lot: Its Significance in the Patriarchal Narratives,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 26 (1983), 83.
Chapter 4
1. Standard formula summarizing the emphasis of the gospel of Luke.
Chapter 5
1. Brueggemann, Genesis, 146.
2. Ibid., 116.
3. Helyer, “Separation of Abram and Lot,” 83.
4. Chambers, Not Knowing Whither, 43.
5. Brueggemann, Genesis, 144.
6. For a fully spelled out doctrine of justification by faith based on this biblical understanding of righteousness, see H. Ray Dunning, The Whole Christ for the Whole World (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2008).
7. Von Rad, Genesis, 185.
Chapter 6
1. Stuart Hamblin, “Teach Me, Lord, to Wait” (1953).
2. See H. Ray Dunning, “Sacrifice,” in Beacon Dictionary of Theology, eds. Richard S. Taylor, et al. (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 1983).
Chapter 7
1. Quoted in Albert Outler, John Wesley (New York: Oxford University Press, 1964), 356.
2. Chambers, Not Knowing Whither, 36.
3. John L. Peters, Christian Perfection and American Methodism (Grand Rapids: Francis Asbury Press, 1985), 118. Ironically, while finalizing this manuscript a very similar event took place with an “engineer” interpreting the Bible as teaching the rapture would occur on May 21, 2011. As in the Miller travesty, many followers gave away their possessions in anticipation and are now destitute. In one sense, apparently history does repeat itself.
Chapter 8
1. The following discussion is heavily dependent on Robert G. Tuttle Jr., Mysticism in the Wesleyan Tradition (Grand Rapids: Francis Asbury Press, 1989).
2. Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, in Works, 11:366.
3. Tuttle, Mysticism in the Wesleyan Tradition, 25.
4. Quoted in Theodore Runyon, The New Creation (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998), 108.
5. Tuttle, Mysticism in the Wesleyan Tradition, 18.
6. Ibid., 96.
7. Wesley, “The Wilderness State,” Works, 6:80.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid., 84. Wesley’s use of the term “experimental” is the British equivalent of “experiential” in American usage.
10. Ibid., 90-91.
11. Ibid., 91.
Chapter 9
1. Brueggemann, Genesis, 151.
2. H. L. Leupold, Exposition of Genesis (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1970), 2:497.
3. Von Rad describes in detail how this whole scenario reflects contemporary law and custom, including Sarai’s comments to Abram: “That [Sarah] does not call Hagar to account but turns to Abraham corresponds to the legal situation, according to which Hagar now belongs to Abraham” (Genesis, 192).
4. Thomas, Genesis, 148.
Chapter 10
1. Joyce G. Baldwin, The Message of Genesis 12—50 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1986), 63.
2. This discussion and reference to von Rad is based on the exegesis of Steve Green, “An Old Testament Call to Perfection,” in Biblical Resources for Holiness Preaching, eds. Neil B. Wiseman and H. Ray Dunning (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 1990), 104-5.
3. Ibid., 105.
4. Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, in Works, 11:367.
5. Wesley, Journal, in Works, 1:100.
6. Ibid., 103.
7. Wesley, “On Working out Our Own Salvation,” Works, 6:513.
8. Shelley, Preaching, 29.
Chapter 11
1. Chambers, Not Knowing Whither, 72.
2. Brueggemann, Genesis, 109.
3. Ibid., 168.
4. Wright, “Romans,” 434.
Chapter 12
1. Story heard by author from Dr. Ed Nash.
2. Robert Bretall, “Introduction” to A Kierkegaard Anthology (New York: The Princeton University Press, 1946), xvii.
3. This reflects the contemporary philosophical situation in the nineteenth century and Kierkegaard’s challenge to the prevailing Hegelian philosophy that reduced everything to rational explanation by means of a dialectic of “both/and.” In contrast Kierkegaard insisted that life entails an “either/ or” in relation to which one must make a decision based on an existential leap of faith without objective evidence.
4. Søren Kierkegaard, “Fear and Trembling,” in A Kierkegaard Anthology, 131.
5. Ibid., 132.
6. Brueggemann, Genesis, 189.
Chapter 13
1. George Barna, The Frog in the Kettle (Ventura, CA: Regal Publishing, 1990).
2. Ibid., 82.
Epilogue
1. Friedrich Hegel, quoted at “Friedrich Hegel Quotes,” Thinkexist.com, http://thinkexist.com/quotation/the-only-thing-we-learn-from-history-is-that-we/534513.html (accessed June 15, 2012).
2. Teresa of Avila, quoted at St. Teresa’s Catholic Church, Ashford, Texas, http://www.rc.net/southwark/ashfordstteresa/St%20Teresa%20of%20Avila.htm (accessed June 15, 2012).
3. Wiseman, “The Word of God for Abraham,” 20.