The New Perspective on Paul: Evaluation and Critique

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The New Perspective on Paul Evaluation and
Critique
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• What is the New Perspective?
• History of the NPP the writers and their
  writings
• Beliefs of the NPP
• What is the Old Perspective?
• Essential beliefs
• Responses of the Old Perspective to the NPP
• What can we learn from this discussion?

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Positive Results of the NPP
• Research in the beliefs of 2nd temple Judaism
  helps us to realize that this Judaism was not
  monolithic (with a heavy orientation towards
  works righteousness) and that there was a belief
  in grace in Judaism.

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Positive Results of the NPP
• The inclusion of peoples of every race, culture,
  and economic strata into the church by virtue of
  union with Christ is a healthy reminder.

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• A tendency to exchange background concerns with
  foreground emphases
• While there was, indeed, a stress upon the grace
  of God in Israels covenantal status as
  demonstrated by 2nd temple texts, the Bible
  indicates that this belief in grace was trumped
  by a merit theology that permeated Jewish actions
  generally.

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• A tendency to exchange background concerns with
  foreground emphases
• While the Gospel is for Jews and Gentiles, i.e.,
  it does have an ethnocentric aspect, it is
  primarily for the individual, i.e., it has an
  anthropocentric reality. This is seen in Rom
  116, and the foreground emphasis of the Gospel
  is individual human beings.

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• A tendency to make the horizontal superior to the
  vertical
• Seen in the understanding of justification as
  more ecclesiological (i.e., concerned with
  covenant membership and social/ethnic concerns)
  than soteriological (i.e., concerned with
  righteous standing before God).

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• A tendency to make the horizontal superior to the
  vertical
• Note again the words of Wright (What Paul Said,
  119) In standard Christian theological
  language, it Pauline justification wasnt so
  much about soteriology as about ecclesiology not
  so much about salvation as about the church.

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• A tendency to confuse the effects of something
  with its actual meaning
• Justification while membership in the covenant
  family is an effect of being justified, this is
  not its actual meaning, which is the declaration
  of righteousness before God.

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• A tendency to confuse the effects of something
  with its actual meaning
• The righteousness of God while covenant
  faithfulness is what Gods righteousness does,
  faithfulness to uphold the glory of Gods name is
  what Gods righteousness is.

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• A tendency to de-emphasize the significant while
  exalting the secondary
• Douglas Moo, Israel and the Law in Romans 5-11,
  in Justification and Variegated Nomism 2 The
  Paradoxes of Paul, ed Carson et al (Baker, 2004),
  188 My quarrel with new perspective advocates
  is often not so much over what they say but about
  what they do not say.

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• A tendency to de-emphasize the significant while
  exalting the secondary
• 1. The Gospel is about the salvation of sinners
  while much is said about the good news of Gods
  gathering together the covenant family by means
  of Christs death and resurrection, i.e., he is
  Lord of the covenant, very little is said about
  sin.

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• A tendency to de-emphasize the significant while
  exalting the secondary
• This lack of emphasis on mans sin has two
  damaging potentialities
• 1. Man is perceived as basically good.
• 2. Gods holiness and wrath are minimized.

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• A tendency to de-emphasize the significant while
  exalting the secondary
• 2. The imputation of Christs righteousness to
  sinners is pushed aside in favor of the
  believers union with Christ as the mechanism by
  which one is finally justified.

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• A tendency to de-emphasize the significant while
  exalting the secondary
• This tends to suggest that there is some good
  moral quality in man which allows him entrance
  into the covenant family (or into Christ).
• This adds merit to the actions of humans in that
  God finally justifies on the basis of both
  Christs and mans righteousness.

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• A tendency to de-emphasize the significant while
  exalting the secondary
• This suggests that Gods holiness and wrath are
  not as significant as they should be based on the
  importance given to the obedient life of the
  Christian evaluated at the final judgment (apart
  from the imputation of Christs righteousness).

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• A tendency to de-emphasize the significant while
  exalting the secondary
• 3. Being declared in the covenant rather than
  righteous in ones justification delimits Gods
  holiness and wrath and obscures the forensic
  scene assumed in the declaration itself.

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• A tendency to de-emphasize the significant while
  exalting the secondary
• In the courtroom we see the sentence of death
  resting on the condemned sinner due to the fact
  that our holy Gods wrath is resting on his head
  (Rom 118). Our Judge would send us to hell, but
  because of his great grace, he has chosen to
  declare us

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• A tendency to de-emphasize the significant while
  exalting the secondary
• not guilty. He does this not because of any
  goodness in us (2 Tim 19) but because he imputes
  to us the righteousness of Christ (2 Cor 521).
  Thus clothed in Christs righteousness, we
  sinners are seen as pure. Gods wrath is
  propitiated Gods righteousness and holiness are
  vindicated.

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• A tendency to de-emphasize the significant while
  exalting the secondary
• In the lunchroom where table fellowship is
  enjoyed, the NPP views justification as the
  realization that everyone should be able to eat
  at the same table of Christian fellowship. Before
  justification, Jews had isolated themselves from
  Gentiles,

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• A tendency to de-emphasize the significant while
  exalting the secondary
• believing that their food laws, calendar days,
  and practices like circumcision were sufficient
  to enjoy fellowship with God. But they were
  wrong. They needed to realize that union with
  Christ means acceptance of everyone regardless of
  appearance,

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• A tendency to de-emphasize the significant while
  exalting the secondary
• practice, race, or religion. This is
  justification when people come to the realization
  that we can all eat at the same table, when we
  are all declared to be the same people of God.
  

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• A tendency to de-emphasize the significant while
  exalting the secondary
• What is the emphasis? Is it, I am a sinner in
  need of forgiveness? or is it, I am an
  exclusivist (or an excluded one) in need of
  openness (or acceptance into the club)?
• When we think of justification, should we
  conceive of the courtroom or the lunchroom? Which
  is of primary importance?

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• A tendency to de-emphasize the significant while
  exalting the secondary
• The delimitation of Gods holiness and wrath The
  covenantal (lunchroom) model of justification
  tends to place the emphasis on covenantal
  inclusion through the faithfulness of Christ (as
  Christians are united with him) rather than upon
  the holiness and wrath of God against sin

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• A tendency to de-emphasize the significant while
  exalting the secondary
• pictured in the forensic setting where the
  declaration of righteousness (covenant
  inclusion?) takes place.

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• NPP will undoubtedly be disappointed with this
  assessment of foreground/ background,
  horizontal/vertical, effects/essence, and
  de-emphasis concerns that I have raised. But try
  as they may to suggest that they are not being
  represented fairly, this fourfold negative
  assessment is the reality based

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• upon the evidence of what the NPP writers are
  saying. Sometimes they come out directly and
  argue for ecclesiological primacy over
  soteriology or for ethnocentric readings as
  superior to anthropocentric readings or for union
  with Christ rather than imputation. These
  statements and their existence

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• cannot be denied or at least they have not been.
• In other cases, try as they might, the evidence
  continues to point toward the accuracy of these
  negative statements. This is due to the
  observation of three significant points

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• 1. Emphasis is demonstrated by the amount of
  space dedicated to the defense of the NPP and a
  correspondingly small amount of space to the
  affirmation of Old Perspective views.

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• 2. Emphasis is demonstrated by the proactive
  nature of the advancement of these arguments.
  Obviously there is a desire to publish new
  ideas. Yet, the fact that publication is being
  pursued proves where the emphasis is being placed.

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What can we learn from this discussion?

• Points of Concern with the NPP
• 3. Emphasis is demonstrated by the attitude of
  the defense.