Curated by It’s That Part™ — Originally published by Faith and Proverbs on .
Mountains have a certain majesty. From the Swiss Alps to the Rocky Mountains, they have a way of leaving us in awe. I’m from Louisiana and currently pastor in Michigan, which means my mountain experiences have been few and far between. But the couple of times I’ve seen them, I’ve been stunned by their glory and beauty.
When reading through Scripture, it doesn’t take long to notice that the Bible speaks of mountains often. Mountains are places where heaven and earth seem to meet—where God reveals himself, establishes covenants, and shapes the lives of his people. These high places often mark turning points in redemptive history.
In Four Mountains: Encountering God in the Bible from Eden to Zion, Michael Niebauer, a pastor and the director of Heritage Mission, traces Scripture’s unfolding story through four key encounters with God on four mountains: Mount Eden, Mount Sinai, Mount Tabor, and Mount Zion.
According to Niebauer, the biblical authors use symbols to “string together, horizontally, the various books of the Bible so we can see how one collection of books tells a single story.” When these symbols occur throughout Scripture, “they serve as constant reminders of Jesus and allow us have a more immediate encounter with God on every page of the Bible” (4). The goal of this book isn’t merely to highlight the theme of mountains but to help readers “engage in horizontal and vertical readings of the entire Bible” (2).
Symbols as a Hermeneutical Guide
Christians of every generation face the same challenge: reading the Bible without losing the overarching story of Scripture or dulling the specific text before us. Niebauer argues we can resolve this tension by focusing on symbols:
An ancient method of reading Scripture is to look for places where these symbols are used throughout the Bible in order to discern how they help us better understand the biblical story, with the ultimate goal of discovering how they point to Jesus. Symbols, in a sense, are the binding agents of the Bible—they bind the individual books of the Bible together, they bind those books to Jesus, and finally, they bind Jesus to the reader. (3)
This symbolic approach doesn’t bypass the historical or literary contexts of Scripture; rather, it deepens our engagement with them. By tracing recurring images—like mountains—Niebauer helps readers see how individual stories participate in the grand drama of redemption.
Symbols, then, aren’t decorative but deeply theological. They form a kind of connective tissue that binds Genesis to Revelation, Old Testament to New, and the believer to Christ. The horizontal unity created in the canon, illustrated by the recurrence of symbols, deepens our vertical communion with God each time those symbols appear in the pages of his Word.
Ascending the Mountains
Many threads could be pulled to model this way of reading Scripture. Niebauer focuses on mountains. The biblical accounts of events at Eden, Sinai, Tabor, and Zion each culminates in a glorious encounter between God and his beloved people. All four accounts also share other symbolic elements such as trees, water, garments, and glory. As readers journey with Niebauer to these mountains, his close attention to detail highlights the organic unity of the Scriptures.
The biblical accounts of events at Eden, Sinai, Tabor, and Zion each culminates in a glorious encounter between God and his beloved people.
Yet Niebauer’s purpose goes beyond an academic exercise in biblical theology. He also applies the theological principles to personal and corporate spiritual disciplines, especially through participation in the local church. It’s in this section that Niebauer’s Anglican background is most evident. He highlights the importance of physical elements of worship such as altars, tapestries, and garments. He argues these are meant to showcase that “we are in a special place unlike any other space that we encounter in the world” (303).
I was unpersuaded by his arguments about sacred space and the elevation of the Lord’s Supper as the high point in Christian worship. However, the contrast between his approach and my Presbyterian perspective helped me see how elements of a church’s worship invite participants to ascend Mount Zion in worship and receive all the grace God has for us. Though not all readers will align with all the applications of biblical theology from this volume, non-Anglican readers will benefit by thinking outside their church tradition. There’s substantial wisdom in Niebauer’s approach as he describes worship as an ascent into God’s presence.
Proper Equipment Needed
Reading Four Mountains is like setting out on a beautiful mountain hike. The views are breathtaking, the path is rich with insight, and the journey exposes Scripture’s landscape in new and moving ways. But mountain climbers need the right equipment. No one ascends steep terrain without a map, sturdy boots, and a harness when the path grows steep and narrow. In the same way, symbolic reading—while spiritually enriching—requires appropriate theological equipment.
Niebauer models the careful exegesis and application of the church’s confessional wisdom. However, readers who imitate this model without the proper equipment may run into interpretative trouble. It takes practice, humility, and discernment to differentiate between meaningful symbols and incidental similarities. Even experts sometimes go astray. This danger reinforces the importance of participating in the life of the local church and having a commitment to interpreting Scripture in conversation with the broader communion of saints—both the living and the dead.
It takes practice, humility, and discernment to differentiate between meaningful symbols and incidental similarities.
Yet Christians ought not to allow the risks of symbolic readings to scare them off. The benefits of seeing the horizontal continuity of the canon through this approach should encourage them to learn to read Scripture well. Furthermore, those who read the book with Scripture as their guide and Christ as their goal will benefit from the vertical connections with God in the pages of Scripture.
Ultimately, Four Mountains equips pastors and church leaders to lift our eyes to the hills where our help comes from. When we do, we’ll find God still meets with his people on the mountain today.
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Originally sourced via trusted media partner. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/reviews/four-mountains-biblical-theology/
