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From Eden to the New Jerusalem: An Introduction to Biblical Theology

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This is a great book. Alexander starts with Revelation 21 and 22's teaching on the new heavens and earth and the temple-city that comes down from heaven. He shows that this is simply the culmination of what God planned on from the beginning---the institution of an Arboreal temple-city from which God reigns and lives with his people. So Alexander (a highly regarded Biblical Theology scholar) lays out what he calls the biblical meta-story by focusing on the bookends of Genesis 1 and 2 and Revelation 21 and 22.

Alexander's notion of the earth's purpose as God's garden temple-city is a popular theme (laid out rigorously in Beale's The Temple and the Church's Mission, for example) and he pulls from many sources to establish this. Man was to extend the garden over all the earth. Adam and Eve's descendents would populate the earth as God's holy image bearers (in the ANE kings would place their images in all their domain to show that they owned it and were sovereign over it). He then points out that from the beginning the plan went astray. From then on, Alexander argues, we read of God's plan to bring about what he initially planned from the beginning. Alexander traces this theme of a temple-city with holy inhabitants from Abraham to the New Testament church. Along the way in this fascinating study (which he calls an introduction to thematic Biblical Theology) Alexander discussion such themes as God's sovereignty, Satan and the world's warfare against God, the slaughter of the lamb, redemption and sanctification, and assurance in living as a citizen of the kingdom as opposed to Babylon. This last theme is interesting. While Alexander certainly doesn't endorse any form of theonomy or theocracy, he does seem to say some things that might be at odds with the popular "dual citizens" view. Christians are called to flee Babylon, not participate as citizens of it (he shows this from Revelation and also pulls from Bauckham's commentary on Revelation on precisely this matter). Yes, we have to live in particular cities that are not the New Jerusalem, and we are "citizens" of it. But the sense the Bible understands "citizens of the city" wouldn't seem to apply. So, while it is true that we are "citizens" of our respective countries it is uninteresting as a theological point given how the Revelation is using this term. Call the uninteresting sense "citizen 1" and the Revelation sense "citizen 2." This means that we Christians are dual citizens 1 but not dual citizens 2. The latter invokes more Van Tillian worldview antithesis themes.

In this illuminating study Alexander notes that John's vision in Revelation of a temple wasn't some esoteric vaporous abstraction but is rooted in the Old Testament, thus serving to unite the testaments into a coherent storyline. Alexander also touches on issues not the main subject of his book. For example, though the book deals with eschatology broadly, it does not look at the millennial position. But Alexander takes views of some of the "golden age" passages not in accord with postmillennialism. He places them in the new heavens and earth. He also intimates that the next time Jesus returns bodily will be at the consummation, thus denying premillennialism. As an Amillennialist, though, he doesn't seem too pessimistic. For example, he claims that "By living in obedience to Christ, his disciples participate in the establishment of God's kingdom on earth. This kingdom is not restricted to national boundaries, but is gradually expanding to fill the whole earth. Yet as this divine kingdom continues to grow, with more and more people acknowledging the supreme sovereignty of God, many of the earth's inhabitants defiantly refuse to enthrone God as Lord" (96).

Yet, while this brief detour indicating millennial affinities is worthwhile (as are many other ones), Alexander takes some weird detours too. For example, he spends three pages taking some shots at capitalism. While I agree with the basics of his discussion here, he seems to simply rest on anti-capitalist caricatures of capitalism. He engages in the common mistake of confusing capitalism with capitalists. He also falls for the fallacy that the "rich" and the "poor" and the world's "wealth" are static categories and the "rich" have a large portion of the "total wealth" while the poor are left fighting over the scraps. These categories are not static. Furthermore, "wealth" isn't a static pie that is cut up into pieces. In fact, capitalism (broadly, though I understand some forms of capitalism are not capitalist) is the cause of building wealth so that the world is moving upward in a linear fashion in terms of things like wealth and life expectancy [...]. He also confuses self-interest with greed, taking his understanding of capitalism more from Gordon Gekko than a Hayek, a Friedman, a Sowell, a Mankiw, a Richards etc., though I realize these thinkers have their deficiencies). I felt this digression was unhelpful and would have rather the three pages been spent elucidating his main points some more. Anyway, I guess I shouldn't be too hard, Alexander is a theologian and not an economist, after all.

All in all, this was a very good book. It inspires as well as well as illuminates by looking at some of the great biblical themes Christians love. Alexander shows a tight unity pervading the Bible and shows how all the themes have their fulfillment in Christ and their end in the arboreal temple-city of the New Jerusalem.

This book is a tremendous help for anyone who has read the Bible but desires to understand the message of the Bible -from cover to cover.- Alexander's book offers great insights into the important themes laid out in the Garden of Eden and a glimpse into the purposes of God's heart when He created the world. He then shows how these themes continue throughout Scripture, into our day, and eventually culminate in the coming of the New Jerusalem. The parts about how the Tabernacle, Temple, Eden, and New Jerusalem are all tied together were especially interesting and edifying. I highly recommend this book.

I have read a lot of books. I have learned from many; I have enjoyed fewer. There are a handful of books that I found to be mind-changing, paradigm-shifting. A few years ago one such book was John Piper's Desiring God. Also on that list are Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer, Knowing God by J.I. Packer and Dominion and Dynasty by Stephen Dempster. I have another book to add to this short list: From Eden to New Jerusalem by T. Desmond Alexander.

Alexander's book is accessible, easy to read, yet immensely informative. He focuses on the "book-end" chapters of the Bible: Genesis 1-3 and Revelation 20-22. These chapters inform the rest of the story of Scripture. Alexander contends that Eden was created as a temple-garden. Satan's rebellion brought about Adam's insurrection resulting in man's expulsion from God's temple. Yet, he was on the move. Age to age he was moving humanity toward its intended end: the beginning.

He traces the motif of the temple and God's presence throughout the entire Scriptures. The Bible is not a collection of independent texts. Nor are there ages within Biblical history that are separated from one another. Instead, there is a cohesive story. We find ourselves in the intervening period. Yet, the dawn has come. Soon the day will arrive when the entire universe is once again a temple to the living God.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

Revelation 22:1-4

Note: I have received this book from Kregel Publishers as compensation for my review. I was not required to write a positive review.

Marc Mullins

Review: From Eden to the New Jerusalem: An Introduction to Biblical Theology by T. Desmond Alexander

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Alexander, T. Desmond, From Eden to the New Jerusalem: An Introduction to Biblical Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic & Professional, 2008. 208 pp. $19.99

Introduction

T. Desmond Alexander, (Ph.D. Queen's University), is senior lecturer in biblical studies and director of postgraduate studies at Union Theological College, Belfast. Dr. Alexander accepted this appointment in September 2009, after serving as Director of Christian Training for the Presbyterian Church in Ireland for ten years. He had previously lectured in Semitic Studies at the Queen's University of Belfast. He has written and contributed to a wide variety of academic and reference books on the Bible. Alexander has attempted in this work to answer two questions by examining the over-arching story line of the Bible, or the meta-story. The two questions being addressed are: Why does the earth exist as well as what is the purpose of human life? He answers these questions broadly while looking at how the entire story interrelates through the conclusions illustrated in John's revelation of a New Jerusalem and finding their relation to God's original design in Eden.

Summary

"Why does the earth exist? What is the purpose of human life? As arrogant as it may seem this short book attempts to answer both of these questions" (9).From the outset of this work, Alexander contends that there is "an unparalleled meta-story from an anthology of literature, the Bible...linked by common themes and centered on a unique deity" (10). In short, there is a collection of texts that, by God's providence and inspiration, have been gathered and built upon to tell one unified story from beginning to end. In order to identify and construct this meta-story, one must see that the entirety of the Bible is ripe with inter-textual reference within which the story must be understood. Alexander goes on within his dialogue with the reader to prepare them to follow his methodology of interpretation by outlining the storyline by beginning at the end. By beginning at the end he asserts, "As is often the case, a story's conclusion provides a good guide to the themes and ideas dominant throughout" (10).

Identifying the denouement of the story in Revelation chapters 21 and 22, Alexander states that these forward looking passages not only look forward to the city God will build for his people for eternity, but more importantly to his argument that these texts show God completing the creation work he began in Genesis chapters 1 and 2. According to Alexander these two sets of biblical chapters form the bookends, an inclusio of sorts wherein they contain the biblical meta-story.

As Alexander builds his case he carefully constructs the biblical storyline by pointing out that the end of Revelation shows us that the earth will be God's dwelling place, a holy city that covers his creation and inhabited by holy people who regained their status as royal priests under the kingship of God in Jesus Christ. What is interesting is how he finds these themes identified through scripture and built upon in Genesis where two people were placed by God in a garden to work and keep it holy so that God may continue to dwell with them.

As the garden was made as an earthly temple to work, keep and subdue the creation under the royal priesthood of Adam, Alexander shows us how the rest of the story unfolds as the serpent enters and dismantles God's holy garden by tempting Adam and Eve to sin temporarily dethroning the Sovereign God over all creation (74).

Alexander builds on the plotline of the Bible by showing us how God has patiently and methodically restored his creation under his Lordship away from the control of Satan as he began to reinsert himself among his creatures that bore his image, the people of Israel. Israel was God's chosen tribe that would be his priests among the nations that worship and serve God in holiness and community, thereby allowing a holy God to once again dwell among them within the tabernacle (34). Alexander explains as scripture shows us the tabernacle was replaced with a fixed dwelling, the temple (42).

As the story progresses and God makes covenant with his people he also leads them out of captivity into a place of rest in the land of Canaan but God left their midst as a result of the unholy lives in the vicinity of the tabernacle and Jerusalem is established as a permanent temple resulting from King David's desire to restore honor to God (43).

What we find as the story progresses is a snowball effect of themes and motifs. We find that the temple is where God dwells and that place must be holy. We also find that Adam and Eve were established a viceroys of God's in the garden, to be holy, and to worship God so that God would dwell with them. We see the tragic events in the garden as Satan tainted the earth with sin and dethroned God so that ultimately God would have to accomplish his plan of a creation temple through the sacrifice of his son Jesus Christ and defeat of Satan's reign (111). As Christ is sent as the lamb to slaughter, he brings with him several very important accomplishments. Christ defeats Satan's power of God's people by delivering his people out of bondage (125). God's blow to Satan establishes his victory and reaffirms his sovereignty over creation, but ultimately he establishes the church as the Kingdom of God. The church are those who will inherit the New Jerusalem and the church are the new royal priests as being image bearers of God who will work to establish the Kingdom of God until the return of Christ.

Analysis

Identifying the Book Ends

As I read the book I began reading at the beginning. This appears to be an obvious approach, but then I skipped to the conclusion and then reread the introduction. My reason was to adhere to the same method Alexander used to identify the thesis of his book which he said hinged on reading the Bible through the lens of the "bookend" in Revelation 21 and 22 (192). Alexander wastes no time showing readers the similarity to the beginning of the Bible where God. He cites numerous resources that affirm his understanding that the end will be like the beginning restored to original pristine state. I was not able to easily grasp that in the body of the text unless I dived into the footnotes. I maintain that the footnotes are a little extensive and may have served well to elaborate on several points through the body of the work as it claims to be an introduction to, not introductory biblical theology. After seeing where his influences came from and reading further into the first chapter Alexander rightly claims that the dwelling place of God is significant in the outworking of the storyline. This claim begins to add weight to his claim that the meta-story does indeed answer both why earth exists and the purpose of human life but are not fully developed. He did a fine job of helping the lay reader understand the connections between why Eden is significant as a garden temple and the New Jerusalem as well as every temporary dwelling place in between. On page 20, Alexander clearly defines Eden as the sanctuary where god dwells with man. This is and was the original intent of Eden (20). This statement stakes the ground where the rest of the story is built upon. Alexander could have possibly emphasized this fundamental claim a bit more to ensure we see that as the goal throughout the storyline. He makes some astute observations along the way which help to defend the claim that Eden is description of the New Jerusalem. For example, Alexander observes that no sacrifices were necessary in Eden which could deter some from concluding that it was designed as a temple sanctuary. But he clarifies one important detail: there was not yet any sin, so there was no need for sacrifice (21). I would not have picked up on that unless I was looking at Genesis through the eyes of a restored creation account from Revelation as he did.

Alexander clearly made his case that redeemed humanity was to do the work of declaring the Kingdom of God and that this Kingdom would inherit this New Jerusalem after death by identifying the royal priesthood theme in Genesis, and Ancient Near East culture (84). This priesthood is not a new concept but the original intent of Adam and Eve, and cannot only be obtained through the atoning sacrifice and submission to Jesus Christ and living by His Spirit, the tree of life (155).

Remaining Questions

I certainly gained an enormous appreciation for biblical theology from reading this book. I do not have any areas of disagreement generally on the meta-storyline he proposed. What I do wonder and seemed to wonder throughout the book, is how he got there? I concede that it must take far more biblical knowledge and memory to develop this than I spent learning from his book, but I ask how can someone grow in their ability to do biblical theology in a God honoring manner without understanding the transitions and where the conclusions came from? An example to consider is how did he conclude with assurance that the church became the temple by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, absent an identifiable trajectory (68)? I know after reading this, had I not read backwards I would not have had the foresight to see where the trajectory was going. I think it would help readers to elaborate a little more along the way, perhaps showing us how he outlined the contrasts between Adam and Eve and the church so we can see the specific differences and similarities which led to his conclusions.

Conclusion

As I turned the last pages of Alexander's work, I was satisfied with what I learned but desired a little more "how to". Considering the volume was so short, it packed a lot of details of the grand story of the Bible to consider, as it brought the reader along from the Sacred Garden to the New Jerusalem built by God in the coming future (175). As an introduction to Biblical Theology it was extremely helpful to the novice theologian I consider myself to be, simply because it coached the reader on the process and thesis development and illuminated the fulfillment of his thesis in his conclusion. It was helpful to see this done in a volume that is less intimidating than others and certainly affirmed my desire and conviction to pursue further detailed studies in biblical theology.

My final note on this work comes from the back cover, Alexander says, "Good theology always has pastoral implications, and this study is no exception. The truths revealed are extremely important for shaping our lifestyle choices." I could not agree more. He certainly accomplished that in this work by connecting the art of story and science of biblical theology that points to the glory of God's sovereign design and rule on earth and promises we have of his new city he is building for children of the faith.

"From Eden o the New Jerusalem" tells the story of God's love for his creation - the earth and its creatures. I first heard this book taught in a series of lectures and then knew I should read it. Instead of the typical theology book, it is written more as the story of creation throughout history, now, and into the future. This book brings about hope that the God who created us, also provides eternal life through his Son Jesus Christ, now, and forever into the new creation.

T. Desmond Alexander is a prolific OT scholar and fully capable of a work such as this. He walks us through the bible's meta-story, God's plan of redemption and how it relates to Christ. He finds this main theme running through the bible: God seeking to dwell with his people. We find this in the Garden, tabernacle, temple, Christ, Holy Spirit indwelling believers, and finally with the New Jerusalem.
The book is a quick read just over 200 pages, but don't think that this book is merely a devotional work. It is pure scholarship with tons of footnotes, providing a much deeper study for those interested. If you like this book check out his "From Eden to the Promised Land". It comes highly recommended by the Gospel Coalition.

This review was first posted at [...]

I would like to thank Kregel for this review copy.

T. Desmond Alexander is senior lecturer in biblical studies and director of postgraduate studies at Union Theological College. He is the author of From Paradise to the Promised Land: An Introduction to the Pentateuch, and editor of New Dictionary of Biblical Theology: Exploring Scripture's Unity & Diversity and Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch.

Alexander's offering here really is a great introduction to Biblical theology. There are many books coming out these days offering a Biblical theology of different topics, but this volume seeks to ground all of those in the storyline of the Bible and the purpose for its existence. Alexander does this by asking why anything exists at all and what is purpose of it. Like Beale and Walton, Alexander understands the whole universe to be the Temple of God and his people are his servants within his Temple. Again, similar to others, Alexander explores how this is worked out in Eden, the Church and the future New Heavens and Earth. He then moves to discuss the role of humanity in God's universal temple. Adam, Israel, and through Jesus, the new humanity are seen as priests and kings in God's world, tasked with expanding his reign. This includes the salvation that Jesus brings to the human race through his death and resurrection. Alexander then connects God's great acts of salvation within his Temple, the Exodus and the Cross/Resurrection. From here, Alexander discusses the implications of God's final act in Jesus for the Church and Christians, providing the theological interpretation of these acts.

This book does exactly what it is supposed to do: introduces the concepts and methodology of Biblical theology. Alexander does an excellent job walking through the historical development of salvation and redemption with an eye to its purpose and reason. Such a volume can be used as an introduction to the Bible for non or new believers and those from different backgrounds or traditions where systematic theology, or no theology at all, reigns supreme. While Scobie is huge, Vos is too advanced for an introduction and Hamilton is outstanding (see forthcoming review) but between the two former in length and technicality, at 208 pages From Eden to the New Jerusalem brings together much of the work of the recent Biblical theology movement in a handy and easy to read introduction.