Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 81:1 (Spring 2019)
Article: Heinrich Bullinger And Pneumato-Cardionomography In The Old Testament
Author: Joe Mock

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WTJ 81:1 (Spring 2019) p. 19

Heinrich Bullinger And Pneumato-Cardionomography In The Old Testament

Joe Mock

Joe Mock ministers at Gracepoint Chinese Presbyterian Church at Lidcombe, New South Wales, Australia.

The Swiss reformer, Heinrich Bullinger, emphasized the organic unity between the old and the new covenants. Through his application of humanist rhetoric in reading the canon as a whole, Bullinger underscored that Scripture has one divine author. That is why many of his works highlight salvation history and God’s unfolding plan for the salvation of his elect.

Pneumato-cardionomography is a term coined by Steven Coxhead in a recent WTJ article and refers to the writing of God’s law on the heart of his people. Bullinger regarded pneumato-cardionomography as operating on the heart of the faithful immediately after the fall. God’s torah was written on the heart by the Spirit in both covenants but more clearly and more fully on the hearts of believers in the new covenant age with the coming of Christ, the promised seed of Eve.

This article examines Bullinger’s understanding of torah in salvation history and how he understood that pneumato-cardionomography was already a reality in the old covenant age.

Bullinger’s thought anticipates the conclusion of Coxhead’s article, which reads, “The OT highlights the great need for the cardionomographic work of the Spirit on an international scale, and it looks forward to the time when this would take place, to the time of the new covenant, when God would write his law on the hearts of his people through his Spirit in a comprehensively and ultimately complete way as an integral and vitally important component of the new covenant in Christ.”

This article seeks to demonstrate how the Swiss reformer Heinrich Bullinger (1504–1575) regarded pneumato-cardionomography as operating in the elect immediately after the fall, commencing with the promises of the protoevangelium of Gen 3:15. The term pneumato-cardionomography has been recently coined by Steven Coxhead.1 The term refers to the writing of

WTJ 81:1 (Spring 2019) p. 20

God’s torah on the heart by the Spirit.2 Inter alia Coxhead discusses the concept of cardionomography in the OT, the reality of cardionomography in the old covenant age, and the importance of pneumato-cardionomography in salvation history. Coxhead points out that “having God’s law in one’s heart is an OT ethical ideal.”3 Moreover, Coxhea...

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