When this happens, the Christian message is placed in either a rationalistic or a mystical framework and is consequently distorted. What is needed is a return to biblical faith, which is not just Christian but Judeo-Christian. Biblical faith is historical, covenantal and eschatological. The first thing that must be said about biblical faith is that it is historical faith. The Bible has a historical framework.
Man is essentially a historical being.
Biblical faith understands human existence and human destiny in irreducibly historical terms. And it is not very different on the corporate level. But he who understands the reality of human being in biblical terms will find no difficulty in understanding that the ultimate truth about human life and destiny, about man's plight and man's hope alike, is truly and inexpugnably historical, and can be expressed in no other way. The structure of faith is a historical structure, because being, living, and acting are, in the biblical conviction, radically historical in character. This means that true preaching about the sinner's justification before God is not an abstract theory of imputed righteousness which sounds too much like salvation by celestial bookkeeping.