What's the difference between God's people in OT and NT?

How are God's people delineated in the Old Testament, under the Old Covenant?
How about under the New Covenant?
Are there any important parallels or distinctions to be drawn between the two?
Do these parallels or distinctions play out in any important ways practically or theologically?

I've been reading through Ezekiel for a little while now. It's one of the most difficult books in the Old Testament for me. There are some really mysterious scenes and some unique language. Plus, there are few (if any?) direct references to Ezekiel in the New Testament that shed any light on the book. However, there are a few sections in the book that are absolutely amazing - some of my favorite passages in the Old Testament. One is chapter 16, which is terrible and beautiful at the same time. Another amazing chapter is 34, where God says that he will send his servant to be the shepherd of his sheep.

God condemns the "shepherds of Israel" in verses 1-10, bringing against them charges of neglecting to provide and protect. He goes on to say that He himself will shepherd his people. In God's description of his own shepherding, we get an important glimpse into the Old Covenant definition of the people of God. In verses 15 and 16, God says,

"I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fast and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them i justice."

First notice that God identifies all of the sheep of whom he is speaking as being His. The sheep belong to him. They are his people. In verse 31 he says again, "And you are my sheep, human sheep of my pasture." Then, notice that God declares that he will destroy some of his sheep! Verse 2o is even more explicit:

"Behold, I , I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep."

As the passage continues, it's important to notice different ways that God begins to refer to his sheep. In verses 17, 19, and 21, God distinguishes between the sheep he will destroy and the one's whom he will save. Then all of a sudden in verse 22, he refers to "my flock" as the one's whom he will most certainly save. These are the one's over whom he will appoint his servant David as their shepherd. This, of course, is Jesus.

The simply conclusion that can be drawn from this text is that under the Old Covenant, not all of God's people (sheep) were truly God's people (God's flock). How does this compare with the New Testament people of God?

In John 10, Jesus declares himself to be "the good shepherd", directly and purposefully pointing to himself as the fulfillment of Ezekiel 34:23. However, Jesus' description of his relationship with the sheep is different from God's relationship with the sheep in Ezekiel 34. Whereas God says that some of the sheep will be judged and others will be saved, Jesus says in John 10:27-28,

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand."

All of these sheep will be saved. In Ezekiel 34 there were 3 categories.

1. Sheep who will be saved (Jews and those self identified as part of the Jewish Community)
   
2. Sheep who will not be saved ((Jews and those self identified as part of the Jewish Community)
3. Non-sheep, who will not be saved (Gentiles)

In John 10 (and today) there are now only 2 categories of people:

1. Sheep (Jews and Gentiles)
   
2. Non-sheep (Jews and Gentiles)
   

Three brief points to be drawn from this comparison:

1. Since the beginning of time, no one has ever been saved by their nationality. No Jew was every saved for being a Jew. Jews (sheep) who loved God were saved, Jews who did not love God were not saved. The revolution which Jesus brought was not to change the mode of salvation from ethnicity to faith.
   
2. With regard to baptism - In the Old Testament, all of the sheep received the sign of the covenant, circumcision. However, under that covenant, though all were circumcised, some sheep were saved and some were not. Under the New Covenant, all of the sheep receive the sign as well. And as we have seen, all of the sheep are also saved. Only regenerate believers are sheep, and only regenerate believers are to receive the sign of the covenant. The "rule", to put it crudely, which transcends the Testaments/Covenants would be this: All of the sheep (God's people) are to receive the sign of the covenant.
   
3. With regard to the local church - in the Old Testament, Israel, the community of God's people was composed of both saved and unsaved people. Under the New Covenant, the community of God's people is composed only of saved individuals. So, where there certainly will be a mixture of save and unsaved on any sunday morning in a local church, there must also be some distinction made as to who are the community of believers and who are not. This distinction is accomplished with church membership and sustained with church discipline.
   

Vacation Pictures

Part 1: Keating-Milner wedding in Oklahoma City

What an awesome wedding weekend! We were so thrilled and honored to be a part of such a gospel-centered wedding. Seeing friends from China was really great also. We hadn't realized how much we miss seeing these people!

We had a rough start to our vacation - a canceled flight from Louisville to OKC. We ended up getting in to OKC only an hour behind schedule, but without our bag. So our pictures don't start until Saturday evening, which is when we got our bag, and our camera.

Megan and Kelcy - 29 weeks and 21 weeks (I think) respectively

DK and Megan

The China crew, plus a few spouses and girlfriends

Part 2: Virginia Beach

The majority of the week was spent hanging out with Ian's parents - swimming, eating, talking, a little shopping - which was really fun and relaxing. We didn't, however, take any pictures of us with them. These next pictures are with our friend Leslie and her and Kevin's new baby, Harper. She was born in April, but this is the first time we've met her.

Leslie and Harper

Megan, getting some practice

We intended to spend most of the day Friday with Ian's sister, Christina, and her family, but it wasn't meant to be. It started raining on Wednesday and pretty much didn't stop before we left. Friday afternoon plus Virginia Beach tourism equals traffic nightmare. What should have been a 1 hour drive took three hours. So our visit was cut a little short, but we had a really good time.

Tyler (5), in the middle-back, always like to do strange things with Megan's hair. In this picture she has curlers. Mary (9) on the right and Lucy (4) in the front.

Tyler, Tom, and Andy - the Rohrer men. Andy (2) is looking a lot more grown up than the last time we saw him!

Finally, here's the whole family. Plus two more yet to be picture - baby Lawrence (coming end of October) and baby Rohrer (coming mid December)!

We had such a great week, we're so thankful to Ian's parents for hosting us :) - it was hard to get on the plane yesterday morning and see our vacation coming to an end! Ian starts classes on Tuesday, and both of us will be back at work tomorrow morning. We praise God for already answering so many prayers about our life here in Louisville. He gives good and unique gifts in each season of life.

Book List, part 2

This is part 2 of my all time best book list. I should have mentinoed in the first part what I mean by "all time best", namely, books that have had the greatest influence on me. I'm not very normal when it comes to reading. I don't often read a book for pleasure. I read primarily to learn and to study, inside and outside of class. There have been other books which I've enjoyed a lot, but this list is of books which have transformed the way I think. Some of the books earlier on in the list (part 1) were transformative largely in part because they got me started with reading books! The books in this list, however, were more personally tranformative either in my patterns of thinking and/or in leading me to make significant life decisions.


God's Smuggler, Brother Andrew (Fall/Winter 2005)

This is the autobiography of Brother Andrew (now the leader and figurehead of Open Doors), a dutch Christian who was saved as a teenager and called to an amazing ministry. He spent years of his early life smuggling Bibles into communist countries, mostly in Eastern Europe. Megan read this while I read Heavenly Man, and then we switched. I think that God really used these books to give us a heart for the nations and to move us to consider going to China. Brother Andrew's faith is amazing, and the stories he tells are encouraging and instructional.


Desiring God, John Piper (Fall 2006)

Thus begins the massive impact of John Piper on my thinking and on my Christian life. This book rocked my world as I read it during our first semester in China. I began to realize that my Christian walk consisted almost entirely of thinking, and very little of feeling and loving. I began to beg God to give me joy and affection for him. This was the beginning of a new chapter in my walk with the Lord. The book is somewhat difficult, but not as bad as I've heard some people say. Too many Christian books don't engage the mind enough. Desiring God requires slow and deliberate reading, and it's well worth every page.

Pleasures of God, John Piper (Spring 2007)

I read this toward the end of my first year in China. It's probably my second favorite Piper book, behind Desiring God. It continued the reorientation of my understanding of God that began when I read Desiring God. Specifically, I began to accept a Calvinistic theology from an informed standpoint, interacting with Piper's arguments. God used this book to destroy my delusions of having a free will apart from him. I read The Forgotten Spurgeon at the same time, which supplemented all of these thoughts.


The Forgotten Spurgeon, Iain Murray (spring 2007)

This book is a biography of the 3 major controversy's which C.H. Spurgeon was involved in - Calvinism, baptismal regeneration, and the downgrade. It's a fascinating book on multiple fronts. Murray's chapter on the effects of Arminianism on evangelism is worth the price of the book. The latter chapters provide a insightful look at one of the single most important events in the history of evangelicalism in the past several centuries. Namely, the liberalization of the Baptist Union. The biggest effect that this book had on my thinking was with regard to mothods of evangelism. Particularly, respecting God's sovereignty in salvation in my methods of EV and discipleship.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Winter 2007, I think)

I actually haven't completely finished this book. But it's not a connected story, only a collection of sermons, so I don't need to finish it to assess it accurately I don't think. These are some of the most challenging and sanctifying sermonds I've read. I committed to read one sermon a day after my quiet time during a period when Megan and I were in Bluefield, before returning to China. God used this book to really challenge me in some basic Christian areas - love for others, love for and pursuit of God, sharing my faith, etc. This is a great book and helpful resource.

Future Grace, John Piper (Winter 2008)

Megan and read this together, and at the same time we were doing a Bible study in our small group on the book Battling Unbelief, also by Piper, which is actually just a abbreviated version of Future Grace. The book is rather rhetorical and repetative, but Piper's point is that by the time you finish it the main thesis of the book has so pervaded your thought as to become the new standard. The thesis is this: Christian obedience ought not result from thankfulness for what God has done, but from faith that he will bless obedience and continue to provide grace to enable it. Faith, not thankfulness, is the root of obedience. This has really transformed my thinking.

Dominion and Dynasty, Stephen Dempster (summer 2009)

This is a theology of the Old Testament. It's one of those books where, literally on every page, I saying, "Whoa! Now I see! I had never understood that before!" Dempster argues that the OT, read in the traditional Jewish order of books and not in the Christian order (the order in your Bible) reads as a continual narrative rather than a disjunctive collection of stories. In this light, he explains the main idea behind each book of the OT, highlighting the themes of dominion (the promise of land) and dynasty (the promise of descendents) throughout. It gets technical at times, but generally is not a difficult read. This book has changed the way I read the Bible, both OT and NT.

My top all time book list, part 1

In the order that I read them:

The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas (Senior year of high school)

I didn't actually read a lot of books in high school. I read a lot of cliff's notes though. But this was one book that I actually read, and I loved it. If you've seen the movie, then you get the basic idea of the book, except that the book is much longer and more detailed. It recounts the most detailed and intertwined stories of revenge, but has a conclusion more typical to the time it was written than to today: the lead character realizes that all of his revenge has not satisfied him, and that he would have been better off to leave vengeance to the Lord.

Brother's Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky (Started freshman year of college, finished 3 years later)

I was still not a big reader at this point, hence the 3 years required to read this book. But, by the second half of it I really began to enjoy it. Dostoevsky is well known for his detailed look inside the human soul and consciousness, and this book is a great example of that. Well worth the 900+ pages.






Don't Waste Your Life, John Piper (2005)

This was the first of many John Piper books that I've read. I got my first taste of John Piper when a friend gave me a sermon of his, with the same title as this book. I couldn't get enough of it. I gave it to Megan to listen to (this was before we were married), and she went out and bought the book. She finished it and then gave it to me. I actually don't remember if I read this book first or The God Who is There, but they were very close together. God used this book to begin to reorient my world, seriously. Piper's passion for the supremacy of God in all things is contagious. I finished this book with a new passion for not wasting my life - by glorifying God in all that I am and with all that I have. This is probably the easiest Piper book to read, with the possible exception of some of his biographies in The Swans Are Not Silent series.

The God Who is There, Francis Schaeffer (2005)

I was introduced to Schaeffer by some friends at church . They suggested to us a 10 part video series, narrated by Schaeffer (very humorous at times) on his book How Shalll We Then Live? It was excellent, so I picked up this book, which is one of his most well known and foundational. This book helped me to begin to see all of history from God's persective - including the arts, philosophy, governments and politics, and the church. Schaeffer is a genius, and his ability to understand the tides of culture and morality are astonishing. This is a tough read - he has a list of vocabulary in the back of the book, most of which are words and terms that he made up.

A Horse and His Boy, C.S. Lewis (Spring 2006)

This was one of my favorite Narnia books. Megan and I read them together during the spring and summer of 2006, mostly while driving around Virginia visiting people. The scene that sticks out the most in my mind is the one where Shasta and the others are attacked by lions while being chased. Shasta later finds out that it was Aslan who had scratched him. It's a compelling and Biblical picture of suffering. Besides that scene, the story is great as well, as are all the Narnia books.




The Heavenly Man, Brother Yun (Spring 2006)

This is an amazing book. It's the story of Brother Yun, a Chinese Christian and former leader in the underground church. It tells of his conversion and ministry, recounting many amazing stories and miracles. The book is also radically Christ-centered. The point is clearly not to make the reader marvel at the miracles and astonishing events that surround Brother Yun's life, but to make us marvel at God in Jesus Christ. One warning, the events of this book took place mostly in the 80's and early 90's. China changes very quickly. Do not read this book and then think that this is what today's China is like. There are certainly simliarities between then and today, but there is much that is different.
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That's it for now, I'll post part 2 as soon as I have some more time.

The Case for (early) Marriage

Al Mohler posted a thought provoking blog today, commenting on Christianity Today's recent cover story on the troubling lack of sexual abstinence among evangelical young people.
Mohler writes:

Regnerus's proposal is not to devalue sexual abstinence, but to address the fundamental issue of marriage. As he explains, "I've come to the conclusion that Christians have made much ado about sex but are becoming slow and lax about marriage -- that more significant, enduring witness to Christ's sacrificial love for his bride."

In reality, American evangelicals are not "becoming slow and lax about marriage." To the contrary, this is now a settled pattern across the evangelical landscape. Regnerus gets the facts straight, reporting that the median age at first marriage is now 26 for women and 28 for men -- an increase of five years since 1970. As he notes, "That's five additional, long years of peak sexual interest and fertility." Though evangelical Christians are marrying at slightly earlier ages than other Americans, Regnerus correctly observes that this is "not by much."

At this point, Regnerus delivers his bombshell:

Evangelicals tend to marry slightly earlier than other Americans, but not by much. Many of them plan to marry in their mid-20s.Yet waiting for sex until then feels far too long to most of them. And I am suggesting that when people wait until their mid-to-late 20s to marry, it is unreasonable to expect them to refrain from sex. It's battling our Creator's reproductive designs.

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(Here's Mohler's conclusion)

Mark Regnerus certainly drives the point home when he argues that "when people wait until their mid-to-late 20s to marry, it is unreasonable to expect them to refrain from sex." Nevertheless, Christians are called to a moral standard that, by any secular standard, it is profoundly unreasonable. I would prefer to argue that the delay of marriage is unwise, not only because of the demonstrated risk of sexual immorality, but because of the loss of so much God gives to us in marriage.

At the end of the day, the most important fact about this article is that it appears as a cover story for Christianity Today. In that sense, the cover has been blown when it comes to the crisis of evangelical young people and the delay of marriage. It's about time.