Yep, back to Washington County after a week away in South Florida.

I went to Fort Myers to help my family out with the business venture there – built some things and just hung out with my grandkids!

I’m thankful for the Redmans. Paul and Tina live just a few miles away and were really helpful. I didn’t have any place in the store to do much in the way of cutting wood, but Paul helped me at his place by working with me to get dozens of cuts made.

The weather could not have been more perfect – which cannot be said for this place!  I better understand the appeal of “snowbird” lifestyles!

Now I just need to figure out a way to return before long. The only thing that would make it better would be if I could be there during baseball spring training.

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere in this blog, I have another blog that features material from my interest in the Civil War, and most particularly the Battle of Antietam. That blog can be found at www.enfiladinglines.com.

In that blog I have written a post about a Confederate soldier who fought in the fields south of Sharpsburg with the 7^thTennessee … a guy named Cyrus Ingersoll Scofield.

I encourage you go to my “enfilading lines” blog for all the details, but if you fear getting lost in the historical weeds, let me quickly say that this man, though not a believer in Christ until 17 years after Antietam, has had a large impact on my life and family…

… He founded my college (Philadelphia College of Bible) and was an instrumental force behind the founder of Dallas Theological Seminary (my grad school).

… Diana taught in the Christian school of a church he built in Dallas.

… He also popularized a system of theology called “Dispensationalism,” particularly through his Bible notes called the Scofield Reference Bible. This was essentially the first “Study Bible.”

If you have heard me preach and teach for very long, you are hearing the interpretation of the Bible through the construct of what is known within the theological world as “Dispensationalism.”  What is that? It sounds like a fatal disease, doesn’t it? (And some people would certainly see it as exactly that!)

Dispensationalism interprets the Bible as a coherent message from beginning to end – explaining God’s workings with man as a holistic story on a grand scale – one that brings glory to God, not merely explaining the way lost mankind is saved.

The system divides the Scriptures into segments of time – periods during which God’s dealings with man involve a responsibility for man to obey, which of course man always fails to follow … upon which God institutes a new economy or dispensation (period) of responsibility.

Various proponents of Dispensationalism over the years have divided Scripture in various ways, but probably the most common delineations are:

Dispensation of Innocence – from creation to the fall of man into sin – where man is to obey God in the perfect environment of tending the garden – man fails by disobeying God, so God institutes a new economy …..

Dispensation of Conscience – from the fall to the flood of Noah – where man is to live in obedience to God’s ways by following his conscience and engrained understanding of right and wrong – and all fail but Noah and his family, who alone survive the flood …..

Dispensation of Human Government – from the flood to the Tower of Babel – where man is to rule one another under God – this too fails as instead of spreading throughout the earth, man congregates around an immense structure – so God judges man by confounding languages and sending them spreading throughout the earth

Dispensation of Promise – from Abraham to Moses – where man is to live under the promise given to Abraham of His provision of a land and a redeemer to come – but man refuses to trust in this and so…..

Dispensation of the Law – from Moses to Christ – where God revealed in great detail His perfect law by which to live and worship Him, and though the people said they would do all that was written in it, they disobeyed and were oft punished. And though they were to be a witness to the world, the nation of Israel failed terribly in this, and so …

Dispensation of Grace Abounding – also called the Dispensation of the Church – this is the message of Christ’s atoning work to be preached to all the world. But even with a final provision for sin in this grace, the bulk of mankind refuses to believe and trust, and so …..

Dispensation of the Millennium – the fulfillment of all time, when, after the rapture of the church and a period of 7 years of intense tribulation, God establishes the promised literal 1,000-year Kingdom rule and reign of Christ upon the earth … yet even with his physical presence, still significant percentages of mankind rebel, and thus God ultimately establishes a new heaven and a new earth for all of eternity.

There are literally tens of thousands of details left out of this accounting. The overall scheme of teaching that we do at TSF – called “God’s Big Story” – is essentially this system as it relates to how we have a personal relationship with God.

As I wrote in the Civil War blog, Scofield did not invent this, but what he did was bring it to thousands of people through his organized study materials and reference Bible.

One of his early books – one that I recall always near my grandmother’s chair – was “Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth.”  This booklet summarizes the teaching above, and is a take-off from the Scripture in 2 Timothy 2:15 – “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

That is what we want to do as a church – to so delve into the Scriptures that we understand it both in a macro and global sense, but also in the micro sense of understanding the incredible ways that it all does indeed tie together from beginning to end.

This does, however, take work!

 

 

 

 

What’s In A Name?

So I have a new grandson – about which I am quite pleased, I must say! And the Buchman name goes on. I only ever had one male cousin of the last name Buchman, who did have one son – who has no children.

Hudson Roy Buchman was born to Nathan and Allie in the wee hours of Friday, December 30, 2011.

So, the name Hudson – where does that come from?  There are no other Hudson Buchmans out there (I checked!). Although I did find a “Dana Buchman Hudson Sunglasses” – apparently by the fashion designer Dana Buchman.

The name “Hudson” means “Hugh’s Son” … well, there is no Hugh Buchman – though that is the first name of my brother-in-law … the husband of my sister who died two weeks ago.

Of course, there is Henry Hudson – the explorer after whom is named the Hudson Bay and Hudson River, etc.  Nathan and Allie would not have any connection there. (Doesn’t the picture of Henry Hudson make it look like he is wearing one of those collar thingies Veterinarians put around a dog’s neck?)

Someone suggested a good nickname for the boy could be “Rock” – because of the famous actor Rock Hudson. But, he is only famous for people my age and older – none of my boys knew who he was or ever heard of him.

There have been a whole host of baseball players with the last name of Hudson. That is cool in my book!

The very first family car that I remember as a child was a Hudson. Any of the rest of you remember Hudson automobiles? My father loved that car and said that the faster he drove, the closer it got to the pavement. I don’t know that I believe that one!

The first thing that came to my mind with the name was “Hudson Taylor” (the person whom Taylor University is named after – it is not actually our friend Taylor Oliver who went there, as have all his kids). Hudson Taylor was a great man – the father of faith missions who opened inland China to the Gospel. He founded China Inland Mission. His model of operation was to live fully by faith and to break down barriers of communication to the extent of wearing Chinese garb – an action seen as very odd by other missionaries of the time. Historians have often written that Hudson Taylor made the largest impact for the Gospel to the greatest number of unreached peoples since the Apostle Paul himself.

But in the end, my Hudson grandson is named for himself. His parents simply liked the name, and I do also. He can chart his own course, and I’m sure he will … yep, I’m sure … I’m getting my tickets as soon as possible for the 2036 Olympics, for example! There are running genes there from two sides!

(No pressure Hudson, just don’t mess up!)