Journal: Journal of Dispensational Theology
Volume: JODT 27:74 (Spring 2023)
Article: Editorial
Author: Ron J. Bigalke, Jr.

Editorial

Ron J. Bigalke

“Cook It in a Cup!” is a cooking set designed by a chef with the idea of getting kids into the kitchen. With easy-to-follow instructions, children are taught how to prepare a variety of individually sized meals and treats. Not only is the cookbook good for learning basic cooking, but also for understanding fundamental chemistry and math. Of course, the cooking set was designed to teach basic skills and no adult is going to be wowed necessarily by exceptionable taste. “Cook It in a Cup!” is a miniature rep-resentation of authentic cooking, and the food is only a pale imitation of cuisine prepared with all the capability and potential of a learned chef. Truly tasteful food requires all the design, gadgetry, and ingredients of a complete kitchen, not from silicone baking cups (yet, in all fairness, the novelty is to inspire kids to desire more meaningful cooking).

The gifts and sacrifices of the earthly tabernacle were somewhat like “Cook It in a Cup!,” that is, they were “a copy and shadow of the heavenly things” (Heb 8:5). The cultic rituals of the Old Testament could never permanently remove sin but could make worshippers ritually clean before God. By its ceremonies and rites, the law was a “tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith” (Gal 3:24). The entire sacrifical system typified Christ’s final and ultimate propitiatory atonement. Certain persons in the Old Testament also foreshadowed the actions and character of Jesus. Kenneth Cooper’s article explains how Isaac, in particular, was a type of Christ “in his birth, . . . offering . . . , and . . . ‘resurrection’” (p. 22).

The sacrifical system in the tabernacle represented only a copy of the work of Christ “at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens” (Heb 8:1). True forgiveness of sin is received on the basis of faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ upon Calvary’s cross. David Olander has clarified this vital, biblical revelation in his article emphasizing salvation being “all of God’s grace by faith and no works” (p. 41).

Eschatology necessitates that one understand the Day of the Lord, and Brian Ritchie’s study aimed to do that “as presented by Zephaniah” (p. 61). Many outstanding works have proved the errors of open theism, though the majority of those would not likely address its relation to evolutionary theory based upon “modern philosophical roots in panentheism and process theology” (p. 63), as does the concluding article by Jeffrey Tomkins. Finally, the book reviews give an informed and discerning perspective as to popular ideas and teachings currently in print.

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