Some years ago, your Editor was inducted as one of the fifty living members of the Académie Internationale des Gourmets et des Traditions Gastronomiques (Paris), and he is a Master of the prestigious Alsatian wine society, the Confrérie St-Etienne—all of which did not endear him to certain pietists in the evangelical community, needless to say. My inaugural lecture at the Gastronomical Academy dealt with “The Banquets of the Bible,” and its (surreptitious) purpose was evangelism: to point out to the membership that the one banquet of eternal importance is that coming at the end of time when Christ returns, at which time invitations come only to those wearing the wedding garment of His righteousness, not clothing representing their own pseudo-goodness or sophistication. Said gastronomical interests on the part of the Editor may explain the lead article to grace Vol. 5, no. 2: “The Messianic Banquet and the Eschatology of Matthew’s Gospel,” by Daniel S. Steffen, Professor of New Testament at the Central American Theological Seminary, Guatemala.
Part Two of Professor Andrew Phang’s essay, “A Passion for Justice: The Natural Law Foundations of Lord Denning’s Thought and Work,” will appear in our next issue, as will the Editor’s obituary for Lord Denning, published by invitation in 1999 in Faith & Thought, the journal of the Victoria Institute, of which the Editor is an Honorary Vice-President.
We do not usually get into futuristic matters in the Global Journal—owing to the fact that we are not prophets nor sons of prophets, and also because we believe that Christians should be concentrating on preaching the gospel to every creature rather than giving the impression that they know more about the Lord’s Coming than He knew when He was on earth! However, the next issue will constitute a bit of an exception to our editorial policy when we publish a fine, original analysis titled “Progression versus Recapitulation in Revelation 20:1-6: Some Overlooked Arguments,” by Charles E. Powell.
And having included treatments of Matthew’s Gospel and John’s Apocalypse, we could hardly overlook Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, the touchstone of the Reformation. Harry A. Hahne of Tyndale Seminary, Toronto, will discuss “The Birth Pangs of Creation: The Eschatological Transformation of the Natural World in Romans 8:19-22.”
A theological feast is in store for readers of Vol. 5, no. 2—in more ways than one!
