Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Major Themes in the Minor Prophets
On the following pages you will find the handouts to another class that I taught, this one in the Fall of 2004, during our Wednesday night education session.
For the longest time after becoming a Christian I avoided the Old Testaement like it itself was one of Moses Ten Plagues. Sure, I went to a few passages - the Psalms, Genesis 1-3, Job - but only to comfort myself.
All that changed beginning in 1994. At that point I became increasingly aware of the injustice in the world around us. For me the big event was the genocide in Rwanda (two must see programs, the movie HOTEL RWANDA and the PBS Frontline Special on the Genoide that was aired in 1999 - see the website, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/evil/). I became aware that my understanding of who God was and what God was doing in the world had not categories to deal with these issues. It was the beginning of a long process that eventually took me to seminary, then to the Hebrew language and finally to the Book of Amos (which I was fortunate enough to get to translate from the Hebrew as part of my course work - a truly worshipful task).
Through that process I became aware that my understanding of who God was and his plan of salvation was, while true, far imcomplete. For me new words like justice, idolatry, covenant began to take on new importance and deeper meaning.
For years since I had wanted to introduce others to these ideas I became aware of. These handouts come from that first attempt to introduce people to the Major Themes in the Minor Prophets. Enjoy and feel free to contact me with any questions.
Christopher
Old Testament Studies - From Christopher's Teaching • (7) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
