BEMA Episode Link: 192: Telling a Story
Episode Length: 25:49
Published Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2020 01:00:00 -0700
Session 5
About this episode:

Marty Solomon and Brent Billings discuss what history is, what it isn’t, and give some disclaimers about the intentions of Session 5.

Discussion Video for BEMA 192

Making an Impact: Message — Covered in His Dust

Constantine’s Sword by James Carroll

Church History in Plain Language by Bruce Shelly

The History of Christian Thought by Justo L. González

Christian History Project

The Fall of Rome Podcast

Tikkun olam — Wikipedia

Transcript for BEMA 192

Notes

*Note: The following notes are handwritten by me, Adam, and I reserve the right to be wrong.

BEMA Episode 192: Telling a Story - Study Notes

Title & Source Summary

Episode: 192 - Telling a Story Hosts: Marty Solomon and Brent Billings Focus: Introduction to Session 5, disclaimers about studying church history, and the framework of Message, Mode, and Milieu

This episode serves as an introduction and disclaimer for BEMA’s fifth session, which will explore church history from the end of Revelation to the present day. Marty sets clear expectations about his approach to history, acknowledging his limitations as a non-historian while explaining why understanding church history is essential for properly applying biblical text. The discussion centers on the concept of “Message, Mode, and Milieu” - a framework for discipleship - and introduces the theological concept that the return of Christ may not be a fixed date but rather something believers can “speed” through righteous living and partnering with God in restoring the world.

Key Takeaways

  • Marty acknowledges he is not a professional historian but believes understanding church history is essential for applying biblical text to modern life
  • All historians are storytellers with inherent biases - there is no such thing as completely unbiased history
  • Session 5 will not comprehensively cover church history but will provide a broad overview of how the Christian world has been shaped
  • The framework of “Message, Mode, and Milieu” provides a holistic approach to discipleship and learning
  • The early Christians believed Christ’s return was imminent, and they may not have been wrong - the date of Christ’s return may not be fixed
  • Peter’s teaching suggests believers can “speed” the coming of the Lord through holy and godly living
  • The concept of “tikkun olam” (repairing the world) connects to the idea of partnering with God in restoration
  • The BEMA Podcast remains centered on the biblical text, not church history, doctrine, or denominational traditions

Main Concepts & Theories

Message, Mode, and Milieu Framework

This discipleship framework, developed by Bill Westfall during his doctoral work, consists of three interconnected elements:

Message: Understanding the whole story of God and His invitation to join that story as partners. This requires comprehending the complete narrative from creation through biblical history and into church history. The message is that God is telling a story in the world and looking for partners to join Him. Church history is an essential part of understanding this complete message because it bridges the gap between the biblical world and our contemporary context.

Mode: Engaging the whole self - body, heart, and mind - simultaneously in the learning process. This is not merely intellectual learning but holistic engagement. The BEMA Trip to Israel exemplifies this concept, where participants physically walk the land (body), are emotionally moved (heart), and learn facts (mind) all at the same time. This multi-dimensional engagement creates deeper, more transformative learning than any single mode alone.

Milieu: Creating an intentional network or environment of diverse relationships with others in God’s story. This means building relationships across different brands, tribes, denominations, age demographics, and backgrounds. Milieu recognizes that we are not alone in God’s story but part of a larger community of diverse believers throughout time and space.

History as Prophetic Narrative

Marty draws on the Jewish categorization of scripture to make an important point about the nature of history. In the Hebrew Bible, historical books like Samuel and Kings are placed in the “Prophets” section rather than the “Writings” section. This placement reveals that the Jewish understanding of history is that it is inherently prophetic - historians are not merely recording facts but acting as mouthpieces for God’s message.

This means all history-telling involves interpretation and message. When you tell the story of history, you are engaging in a form of prophecy, communicating what God wants people to understand. Rather than running from this truth, we should embrace it and allow it to challenge us to think critically about both the past and how we interpret it.

Three-Part Eschatology

Jesus taught a three-part eschatology that differed from John the Baptist’s two-part version:

Two-Part Eschatology: A hard break between “this age” and “the age to come” - the present evil age ends abruptly and the messianic age begins suddenly.

Three-Part Eschatology (Jesus’s view):

  1. This present age
  2. An overlap period where “the age to come” begins and slowly fades in while “this age” slowly fades out
  3. The complete establishment of “the age to come”

This three-part framework is crucial for understanding why the early Christians expected Christ’s imminent return. They weren’t necessarily wrong about the timing - they were living in the overlap period and witnessing the rapid transformation of the Roman world through Christian witness.

The Unfixed Date of Christ’s Return

Marty proposes that the date of Christ’s return is not predetermined but stands in relation to human obedience and partnership with God. This is supported by 2 Peter 3:11-13, where Peter instructs believers to “speed the coming” of the day of God through holy and godly lives.

This concept connects to the Jewish idea of “tikkun olam” (repairing the world) - the understanding that humans partner with God in restoring creation. Our obedience, righteousness, and participation in God’s redemptive work actually affect the timeline of Christ’s return. This means the early Christians’ expectation of Christ’s imminent return was based on the dramatic work God was doing through the church in transforming the Roman world.

The Purpose of Studying Church History

Marty articulates three key disclaimers about the upcoming church history content:

  1. He is not a professional historian: While Marty has studied church history considerably as part of his Bible college education and personal study, he does not hold a Ph.D. in the field and should not be quoted as an authoritative source. He is synthesizing what he has learned from actual experts.

  2. All historians tell a story with bias: Every rendering of history reflects the historian’s culture, language, experience, opinion, and conviction. Marty will intentionally select the parts of history he believes tell the story in the most useful manner for contemporary culture. This bias should be acknowledged rather than hidden.

  3. The goal is not comprehensive church history: Session 5 will not adequately cover church history in a comprehensive way. There will be no deep studies of the Reformers, desert fathers, or any specific movement. Instead, the focus will be a broad look at where Christianity has been and how the Christian world has been shaped, always with the intention of understanding how to better apply biblical text today.

Text-Centered Approach

The podcast is named BEMA because the bema (reading platform) sat at the center of the synagogue. This name reflects the commitment to keeping scripture at the center of discussion, not history, dogma, or doctrine. The church history study is not being done for its own sake but to understand what happened to the biblical text and how to apply it better today.

This approach resists the tendency Christians have to get “lost” in their favorite period of church history (whether Reformation, early church fathers, Anabaptists, etc.) the same way people get lost in politics or end-times speculation. The Text remains the foundation and reference point.

Examples & Applications

The BEMA Trip to Israel

The Israel experience demonstrates the “Mode” concept practically. Participants are not just sitting in a classroom learning facts about biblical geography. Instead, they are:

  • Physically walking the terrain (body engaged)
  • Being emotionally moved by standing in historically significant locations (heart engaged)
  • Learning factual information about history, culture, and scripture (mind engaged)

This simultaneous engagement of body, heart, and mind creates transformative learning that far exceeds what could be achieved through any single mode.

Early Christian Expectation of Christ’s Return

The early Christians’ belief that Christ would return within their generation provides a concrete example of how eschatology works in the three-part framework. They witnessed:

  • Massive growth of the church despite persecution
  • The gospel spreading throughout the Roman Empire
  • The powerful Roman system beginning to crumble
  • Dramatic social transformation as Christian values challenged pagan culture

Given these rapid changes and the three-part eschatological framework, it made sense that they believed Christ’s return was imminent. They weren’t being naive - they were seeing the “age to come” rapidly overtaking “this age.”

The Question “What Happened?”

After the rapid expansion and influence of the early church, something changed. The revolutionary movement that seemed poised to completely transform the world within a generation became institutionalized over centuries. Session 5 will explore this question: If Christ was “right at the doorstep” in the first few centuries, what happened that led us to where we are today, 2,000 years later?

This framing positions church history not as a celebration of Christian triumph but as an investigation into what went wrong - where and how the church may have “lost the plot.”

Potential Areas for Further Exploration

Books:

  • “Constantine’s Sword” by James Carroll - Provides critical thinking about church history, particularly regarding Christian-Jewish relations
  • “Church History in Plain Language” by Bruce Shelley - A comprehensive 500-page overview that is accessible but substantial
  • “The History of Christian Thought” (three volumes) by Justo González - Focuses specifically on how Christian theology and philosophy evolved over time
  • Christian History Project - A multi-volume series (originally planned for 12 volumes) that is visually beautiful but expensive and difficult to find

Podcasts:

  • “The Fall of Rome” by Patrick Wyman - While not specifically about Christianity, this podcast provides essential context for understanding the Roman world during the first 500-700 years of church history
Theological Concepts to Study Further
  • Tikkun Olam: The Jewish concept of “repairing the world” and how it relates to Christian eschatology and ethics
  • Pharisaical Schools of Eschatology: Understanding the various Jewish views of the end times that formed the backdrop for early Christian theology
  • 2 Peter 3:11-13: Deep study of Peter’s teaching about “speeding” the coming of the Lord and what this implies about human agency in God’s redemptive plan
  • The Relationship Between Obedience and Eschatology: How righteous living and kingdom work relate to the timeline of Christ’s return
Historical Investigations
  • The Shift from Expectation to Institution: What specific historical events, theological developments, or cultural changes led the church from expecting Christ’s imminent return to building long-term institutional structures?
  • The Roman Context: How did the fall of Rome and the rise of Christendom affect Christian theology and practice?
  • The Development of Denominationalism: How did Christianity fragment into 33,000-46,000 different denominations, and what does this say about how the church has handled unity and diversity?
Methodological Questions
  • Bias in Historical Interpretation: How can we become more aware of our own biases when reading history? What questions should we ask of historical sources?
  • The Relationship Between Text and Tradition: How should Christians balance the authority of scripture with the wisdom and insights gained from 2,000 years of church tradition?
  • The Purpose of History in Discipleship: What role should church history play in contemporary Christian formation and discipleship?

Comprehension Questions

  1. Explain the three components of “Message, Mode, and Milieu” and how they work together to create holistic discipleship. Why is each component essential rather than optional?

  2. How does the Jewish categorization of historical books (like Samuel and Kings) in the “Prophets” section rather than “Writings” inform our understanding of what history-telling involves? What does this suggest about the nature of all historical work?

  3. What is the difference between the two-part and three-part eschatology, and why does this difference matter for understanding the early Christians’ expectation of Christ’s imminent return? Were they wrong to expect Jesus to return quickly?

  4. What does Peter mean in 2 Peter 3:11-13 when he says believers can “speed the coming” of the day of God? How does this concept relate to the Jewish idea of “tikkun olam” (repairing the world)?

  5. Marty gives three disclaimers about his approach to church history in Session 5. What are these three points, and why does he consider each one important to state upfront before beginning the historical survey?

Summary

In this foundational episode for Session 5, Marty Solomon sets the stage for exploring 2,000 years of church history while carefully managing expectations about what this exploration will and will not be. He openly acknowledges that he is not a professional historian and that all history-telling involves bias and storytelling. His purpose is not to provide a comprehensive church history but to help listeners understand the broad strokes of how Christianity has been shaped since the biblical era, always with the goal of better understanding how to apply biblical text today.

The episode introduces the discipleship framework of “Message, Mode, and Milieu,” emphasizing that understanding the complete message of God requires grappling with church history, not just biblical history. Marty explains that effective learning happens when body, heart, and mind are engaged simultaneously (mode), and that we need diverse, intentional relationships with others in God’s story (milieu).

A significant theological contribution of this episode is the discussion of eschatology and the timing of Christ’s return. Drawing on Jesus’s three-part eschatological framework and Peter’s teaching in 2 Peter 3, Marty proposes that the date of Christ’s return may not be fixed but rather stands in relation to human obedience and participation in God’s redemptive work. The early Christians who expected Christ’s imminent return were not wrong - they were witnessing dramatic transformation in their world and understood that righteous living could “speed the coming” of the Lord.

This sets up the central question for Session 5: If the early church was experiencing such powerful movement toward the establishment of God’s kingdom that Christ seemed to be “right at the doorstep,” what happened over the subsequent 2,000 years to lead us to where we are today? The upcoming episodes will explore this question, examining where and how the church may have “lost the plot” while maintaining a focus on understanding scripture rather than getting lost in the details of church history for its own sake.

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