2014, Vol.20, No.3

김희성 | 2014, 20(3) | pp.13~43 | number of Cited : 0

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This is a study of one of the most important values to offer a point of communication with the non-Christian world: Good Deeds. The focus of this paper is restricted to Matthew 5:13-16, and a synchronic assessment based on linguistic analyses and a diachronic assessment based on historical-critical analyses are employed. The syntactic structure of Matthew 5:13-16 reveals that Good Deeds are a Christian’s obligation that he has to reveal onto others as light with the goal of glorifying God. In the semantic analysis, the keyword “ergon” becomes a semantic field in which “Good Deeds” are emphasized to such a degree that they appear as major objective of Christ’s mission in appointing his people. Examined from a pragmatic standpoint, the dual combination of the indicative mood and the imperative mood in this passage constitutes a strong inducement of the reader to conduct Good Deeds. An editorial analysis reveals that the editing is focused on the beginning and end part of the passage on salt and light, and the emphasis is on the Christian’s obligation to conduct Good Deeds in order to glorify God. Taking into consideration the overall context of the sermon on the mount in which it is embedded, the passage reveals that those who will appear as sons of God at the end of days have to receive this title as reward through a life that resembles God, and prove themselves to be sons of God through love of their enemies. Within the context of the entire book of Matthew, Jesus’ personality, words and actions become the light, and his followers that receive this light are the light of the world. In a renewed world, they will operate as sources of light. All in all, Good Deeds are God’s commandments to realize his will and follow his words as passed on through the law as well as prophets. Good Deeds further actualize Jesus’ new commandment which he based on a reinterpretation of God’s law and the words of the prophets and can be summarized as love of God and love of your neighbors. Ultimately, Good Deeds are the means by which the world encounters the light of God. Good Deeds, thus, combine with “a better righteousness” which is a condition to enter the kingdom of God and become a path to salvation and also a way to lead people to God. Good Deeds alone appear as light to them and in turn, give glory to God. Hence, this is the only way for Christians to give glory to God and the most important biblical value to communicate with the non-Christian world.

A Study on Contact Points Between Oriental Religions and Christianity for Spreading Mission - Focused on Taoism and Buddhism -

Kim Eun-soo | 2014, 20(3) | pp.44~70 | number of Cited : 1

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There are much more Taoists and Buddhists than christians in Asia, and also Taoism and Buddhism have a long history more than Christianity. Therefore, this paper is to study a possible contact point being in these oriental religions and christianity for spreading mission and to provide the practical ways to mission for Korean churches. For this, this tried to find a contact point for mission comparing christianity with the ideas in Taoism's 『T'ai-p'ing Ching, 太平經』 and 『Vajracchedika-Prajnaparamita-Sutra, 金剛經』. The trinity of Taoism and Buddhism thoughts is a method revealing oneness and a method revealing others. It is more helpful to explain the truth of christianity based on oriental hebraistic thought than western Newtonian and Cartesian thoughts based on the dualism which judges right from wrong of reality. At first, the way to being of God as the Trinity in christianity is similar to the trinity(三一性) of Taoism. 'Ŭm'(陰), which is the origin of all things is God(Father) we can see through our eyes, and 'Yang'(陽) is God(Jesus Christ), who is seen as a son. Jesus Christ said to us, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father".(John 14:9) We can be seen the Father from Jesus Christ, the son of God. The spirits of the Father and the Son, which is 'ch'i'(氣) in Taoism, exist fully in action among us. The action of the Trinity of God is the Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit is the spirit of the truth.(John 15;26, 14:26) The trinity(三一性) of Taoism is to realize the truth and to follow the way to the truth as a kind of movement for life. The 'Sunyata,'(空) in Buddhism means a state that one couldn't shut oneself in the limit and call oneself by his name. And it is the same as the color(色, 形). Therefore, it means that the color is the Sunyata. The color which has a physical form is the same as the Sunyata, which is a transcendent man. So Jesus Christ who had come into the world as a man is the same as invisible God. As a result, the color is similar to the Son of God, and the Sunyata is similar to God the Father. Life comes from Two of these. That is the 'spirit' like the Holy Spirit in christianity. Consequently, even though Taoism and Buddhism as an oriental religion have many similarities with the christianity that has an oriental world, it is impossible to find doctrine continuity with christianity. However, despite this obvious theological differences, it is necessary to try to find mission contact points from the world view of oriental religions, for the Gospel can spread much better in the principles of oriental religion. So it is meaningful to find the contact point for mission because the Christian Gospel as an oriental religion in the principle of analytics can spread more clearly to Koreans who have lived in the tradition of Taoism and Buddhism for a long time more than in the thoughts of western dualism.

Changing Worlds, Unchanging Gospel – Paul’s Case

Yon-Gyong Kwon | 2014, 20(3) | pp.71~105 | number of Cited : 1

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The unstoppable trend of globalization poses a serious question before us: How can the old gospel cope with those issues and problems which arise from the complex phenomena of globalzation? This article tries to give an answer to the question by exploring the relevance of Paul’s gospel in such an age.After briefly describing globalization as blurring/crossing the boundaries, and defining the situations of the Early Church as one of such crossing of boundaries (Introduction), the study begins by tracing Paul’s career both before and after his conversion, from Paul the persecuter to Paul the apostle to the Gentiles. This leads to the consideration of the theological challenges Paul faced, especially that of God’s faithfulness: how we are to make sense of God’s old promise to Israel when Israel rejects the gospel while Gentiles accept it eagerly (II). The next section deals with Paul’s re-reading of the Genesis stories which involves a radical redefinition of God’s people in terms of God’s sovereign promise and election with explicit denial of the relevance of physical descent (III). The study goes on to examine further how Paul’s discussion of circumcision, the mark of Jewish identity par excellence, goes beyond not only the typical Jewish attitude of the day but also the literal sense of the biblical text, the move made possible by the new revelation he received through his encounter with Christ (IV). This leads to the final, climactic, section which demonstrates that Paul’s fresh reading, occasioned by the newly developed situation of the Gentile mission, is ultimately rooted in his conviction that the gospel of Jesus is the power of God for those who believe him. God comes to rescue of his people, both Jew and Gentile, through the life-giving Spirit by liberating them from the bondage of sin and giving them a new leash of life, thereby creating a living hope for the ultimate restoration of God’s glorious creation. The study concludes with a thought about the practical implications of the foregoing considerations for those living in an era of globalization like ours.

Globalization from the Viewpoint of the Biblical Values and Its Missionary Implications

유종근 | 2014, 20(3) | pp.106~172 | number of Cited : 3

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I have attempted in this paper to review the socio-economic phenomenon of the globalization with regard to the biblical values and to explore its relationship with the globalization of the gospel as a vehicle for the Missio Dei, the salvation of the creation. The socio-economic phenomenon of the globalization has been much maligned for its alleged aggravation of the gaps between the haves and the have-nots. While this is indeed one of the noticeable characteristics of the globalization, there is also a countervailing tendency toward equalization in a global scale, which the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman famously dubbed as "the world becoming flat." In addition, the globalization has made the overall income level steadily rise so as to significantly improve the standards of living for a great majority of people throughout the world. Perhaps, from the biblical point of view, the greatest achievement of the globalization is the near elimination of colonialism and delegitimization of the despotism, and a significant improvement, through the spread of democracy and the increasing economic interdependence, in the likelihood of the global peace, even though sectarian and ethnic wars continue to rage today. Moreover, the increasingly fierce competition in the global markets has made it difficult to ignore the global standards not only in the business area but also in human rights and gender equality. All these phenomena reflect the values God has given us through his words in the Bible. But I am convinced that God, as the lord of history, has been the mover of the globalization processes in order that such socio-economic phenomena may serve as vehicles to spread the gospel throughout the globe, i.e., the globalization of the gospel. In the "fullness of the time" when the spread of Hellenism and the establishment of the Pax Romana made it convenient to spread the gospel, God set in motion the globalization of his gospel by sending out to this world his first missionary Jesus Christ. The process of evangelical globalization began by Jesus picking out and training his disciples. After his resurrection, Jesus charged that his disciples "go and make disciples of all nations" so that their disciples would each make more disciples and the number of disciples could grow exponentially. This process must continue until his second coming and each of us believers in Jesus Christ is charged with his Great Comission to "go and make disciples of all nations."The rapid acceleration of the socio-economic globalization and the spread of the gospel that has transformed the former peripheries of the christianity into new heartlands has caused a new phenomenon in which the migrants from these new heartlands bring their evangelical zeal to the former heartlands of Europe and the North America and reignite the flickering flame there. Nevertheless, not all the migrants are christians, although many of them are. The church in the host nation must do all it can to make disciples of these non-christian migrants and send them back as missionaries. That is a far superior strategy to sending out missionaries who do not speak the native languages and fully understand the native culture.

Elijah’s Flee to Mount Horeb and God’s Revelation

Han, Dong-Gu | 2014, 20(3) | pp.174~197 | number of Cited : 1

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The Study of the Function and Meaning of False Vision in the Book of Ezekiel

Dong-Young Yoon | 2014, 20(3) | pp.198~222 | number of Cited : 2

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Described in Jonah’s Prayer (Jon 1:17-2:10)

Kim, Sang-Lae | 2014, 20(3) | pp.223~255 | number of Cited : 9

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Scribe-Discourse on the Torah - Theology in the Postexilic Period -

Kyunggoo Min | 2014, 20(3) | pp.256~279 | number of Cited : 9

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This paper examines the debate over the Torah-obedience between priesthood and prophethood by literary-critical analysis in the Post-Exilic Period, being shown that it is about the competition between two Torah-concepts. However, there is no substantive difference between the Torah-perceptions and interest, as both groups seek to Torah-obedience. According to Deut 31:9-11 the reading of the Torah is a priestly task, since the written Torah after the death of Moses, the priesthood has been handed over. This wins a crucial function, as its mediation role is essential to the Torah-obedience. In contrast, a prophetic school, because after Jer 31:31-34, the Torah will be written by Yahweh himself on the heart. This aims at the direct Torah-obedience of the people and so revises the idea of Deut 31:9-13. This counter-position of the prophetic Torah is concretized in two aspects, firstly, by the materials of stone (Deut 31:9-13) and heart blackboard (Jer 31:31-34) are opposite to each other; and on the other hand Heart-Torah has a new quality, because in contrast to the breakable Torah of Deut 31:9-13 is by Jer 31:31-34 now unbreakable. Consequently, Jer 31:31-34 designed a novel Torah-concept which is connected to Deut 30:11-14. With which groups the representatives of these two concepts are to be identified? Their common feature is the pronounced Torah-interest, so they are probably better understood not as a scribe but as a Schriftgelehrte. At this group includes priests, prophets and scribes who preach not just verbally, but in writing. Through their respective updating of different traditions to develop new modes of Torah-obedience, a literary connection between the Pentateuch and the prophetic books is also generated, which is why, for example, there is a Pentateuch-editorial processing of the prophetic books.

The history of researches on Ezekiel in light of significant stems of development and in a recent trend of Study

임시영 | 2014, 20(3) | pp.281~324 | number of Cited : 6

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The Psalms research in current Study since the 1990‘s

김태경 | 2014, 20(3) | pp.325~356 | number of Cited : 14

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Korean Journal of Old Testament Studies 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.67

2014, Vol.20, No.3