In Principio ... Deus

On the Reading of Old Books

noreply@blogger.com (Todd) — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 04:06:00 +0000

C. S. Lewis has a wonderful piece written as an introduction to a translation of Athanasius's "On the Incarnation" that is often referred to as "On the Reading of Old Books". In it, he argues for the importance of listening to the voices of the past that have made their way to us via the medium of print if we are to have anything approaching a sound perspective on the present. His point of view needs to be trumpeted again to today's young (and old) adults, for - as I noted in my last post - I think we are living in an era in which the voices of the past are almost drowned out beyond hope of hearing by the cacophany of the voices of the present (many of which have a particular distaste for the same voices of the past).

When we fail to seek a solid acquaintance with these voices of the past, Lewis argues, we stand the risk of being unable to understand ourselves well - and to see weaknesses in our thinking or in our society. I think he's exactly right... and the trend I see today regarding the willingness to consider points of view that are separated from us by distances measured in time rather than space is not a positive one for our society. If we live insulated from those voices, we are prone to greater and greater degrees of blindness about our ways of thinking about each other, about God and about the world. We become more and more easily convinced that we have risen to the pinnacle of understanding, and that our worldview lacks any shortcomings or flaws. We think so highly of ourselves as to regard anything coming down to us from prior generations as useless or irrelevant - because we have progressed so far, and because "life just looks different today". We become completely unable to hear anything that doesn't fit our own preconceived notions of what is right, just and important.

Every year I have students in class who struggle with the idea of reading anything older than they are. This is by no means the NORM among my students, but enough of them have a readily observable disdain for reading works that are very old at all, and argue that, because those books are old, the authors really can't have much to say to them and certainly have no good ideas that can practically be applied to their lives. These same students often raise the concern in the other direction - that they "just can't relate to the author's point of view". This latter concept is intimately connected to the former, but I find myself much more sympathetic to it - because I do believe it's probably quite true, given the diet of post-modernity that the students have likely consumed for most of their lives, and at least some of the responsibility for that lies in people other than the students themselves.

That said, it can be a struggle to open the eyes of those who are (in varying degrees) willingly keeping them shut. But, as Lewis writes in his essay, this is the job of the teacher... if only most teachers today understood this to be their job, and weren't hampered by ridiculous 'outcome-based' educational standards that scuttle every effort to truly educate the student.

On The Tyranny of Novelty

noreply@blogger.com (Todd) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 23:36:00 +0000

One of our society's biggest weaknesses today (though it is by no means unique to today) is the almost wholesale rejection of "old ideas" and "tradition" in favor of the novel and "current". It is as though people of the past have nothing valuable to say to those living today... because of the separation in time, their ideas are, in today's view, irrelevant, and have little or no value in interpreting events or ideas of today. This kind of short-sighted thinking has grave repercussions as we consider politics, religious practice, education and life in community with others... and I fear some of these repercussions are rearing their heads today as I look around at each of these three areas of concern.

As I revive this blog, I'm going to be taking a look at these issues - I am struck by the rapidity with which some of these areas are devolving, and as I have started to delve into related issues, I am amazed at how each one seems to point to the fact that we, as a society (both in this country and around the world) are doing everything (it seems) that is possible to cut ourselves loose from the moorings of the past, and head off (rudderless, imho) into the future "free"... and my firm opinion is that such is hardly "freedom", but is instead bondage of the worst kind.

Celebrating Liberty on this President's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Todd) — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 17:55:00 +0000

On this Presidents' Day (it's a pity that what once was two days recognizing two American Presidents for their unique contributions to our nation's history is now watered down - together as a mash-up with all the abysmal presidents we've had - into a single day) it is helpful, I think, to celebrate the ideas of liberty that our founders and this nation once held dear. To wit, I've included a couple of quotes here from important thinkers in political economy... for your rumination and mine.

"Those that cling to the oligarchy's structure are in fact being duped — their sustenance is extracted from those that the oligarchy has bound. When that tribute stops, the dependents will either take responsibility for themselves or perish."

"Only a large-scale popular movement toward decentralization and self-help can arrest the present tendency toward statism... A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude. To make them love it is the task assigned, in present-day totalitarian states, to ministries of propaganda, newspaper editors and schoolteachers."

~ Aldous Huxley

"The immense power centralized into the oligarchy's hands has never been greater — entire nations can be laid waste in an instant, and it can only be assumed that we the people are merely living but at their pleasure and profit. The real question is why do we put up with it? Why do not the slaves who are the majority revolt?"

"I freed thousands of slaves. I could have freed thousands more if they had known they were slaves."

~ Harriet Tubman

"For the true lover of Liberty, it must seem insurmountable these days to actually live free while the ever-expanding police state continues its perpetual push into every corner of our lives. Can any other conclusion be reached than the state and its ever-increasing legions of bureaucrats (who are now paid more than those working in the private sector) have every intent to place themselves between every human transaction of every kind? Can it be denied that every sale, every transfer of property, every shipment, every receipt, every message is to be tracked, logged, and taxed by government agencies? And isn't it considered criminal to avoid such interference?"

"After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small, complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd."

~ Alexis de Tocqueville

"It [the State] has taken on a vast mass of new duties and responsibilities; it has spread out its powers until they penetrate to every act of the citizen, however secret; it has begun to throw around its operations the high dignity and impeccability of a State religion; its agents become a separate and superior caste, with authority to bind and loose, and their thumbs in every pot. But it still remains, as it was in the beginning, the common enemy of all well-disposed, industrious and decent men."

~ H. L. Mencken

Yes, now I mean it... we're back online

noreply@blogger.com (Todd) — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 17:46:00 +0000

After another hiatus... well, I'm on sabbatical from my teaching, so one would have thought this an excellent year to revive the blog.

One would, but until now I haven't thought of it... we're back online (and I mean it this time) :)

Solomon's Wisdom Applied to Recent Events

noreply@blogger.com (Todd) — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 23:15:00 +0000

Prov.26:17 He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears.

Prov.24:21-22 My son, fear the LORD and the king, and do not join with those who do otherwise, for disaster will arise suddenly from them, and who knows the ruin that will come from them both?

There's a reason Solomon is regarded as the wisest man that lived... these verses were quoted by a friend of mine in response to the question "What are we to make of the situations in Cairo and Benghazi?" The lesson (that I fear nobody, left or right of the Congressional aisle, save perhaps a very tiny minority who side - as I do - with Ron Paul and George Washington on Foreign Policy) is that trouble follows when stupid decisions are made like meddling in other people's conflicts. One only need to have examined

1) The US debacle in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia
2) The Soviet debacle in Afghanistan
3) The US debacle in Iraq and now, continuing, in Afghanistan

to have predicted recent events in Libya, Egypt, and the to predict another debacle to come in Syria and, God help us, Iran.

I don't often go into the political arena on my blog, but these recent events are too big to avoid talking about to some degree - especially as people everywhere seem so mystified about what has happened. We have taken to messing with foreign governments and the internal affairs of sovereign nations far too much of late - and we are paying for it with the lives of individuals like Ambassador Stevens and his fellow fallen foreign service workers... not to mention countless American military personnel who are dying to support our meddling ways.

We have managed in the Middle East to do little more than replace one set of hostile leaders with another... and our doing so has clearly raised the ire of some (naturally!) and what comes as a natural consequence is trouble for everyone. I cannot believe, really, that anyone is actually surprised by what has come about in the past weeks, given what is going on in each of Egypt, Libya and Syria.

Solomon lays out the message plainly... don't insinuate yourself into other people's strife. This principle is wise for individuals and nations alike - but we are too busy trying to work our will in the world to take notice of what ought to be common sense. We are reaping the harvest of too much poking of our nose into others' business, and, sadly, many Americans have lost and will continue to lose life and limb because of our arrogant delusions of grandeur. But - as Solomon also said - there is nothing new under the sun. All this has happened before, and will continue to happen, til the Lord should return. I pray, though, that somewhere along the line we learn our lesson as a nation and stop trying to have our way in nation-building elsewhere.

I could go on - but I won't. I am sickened by what is being ignored by the media in all of this - the very governments we have supported, are giving foreign aid to, and continue to side with, are at best turning a blind eye to, and at worst (and closer to reality) participating in reprehensible persecutions of Christians and other unwanted groups in their nations. The Coptic Christians in Egypt are the chief example, though those in Syria are equally under fire. We sit idly by, though, pretending that the people we are supporting are 'peace-loving' and worthy of our support. Our government issues official apologies for hurting people's feelings (well, WE didn't hurt people's feelings, but some dingbat movie maker did), while at the same time those people we are apologizing to are guilty of horrible crimes against whole communities because of religious differences.

This makes sense how?

The Heidelblog is back!

noreply@blogger.com (Todd) — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 22:15:00 +0000

Just wanted to report briefly a good piece of news (as contrasted with the bad news coming down everywhere in the news): R. Scott Clark has resurrected the Heidelblog... so you can be sure to find more good reading in the days to come at http://heidelblog.net/

Clowns in the pulpit

noreply@blogger.com (Todd) — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 14:20:00 +0000

Found this sobering assessment of much of today's preaching, and I had to repost it... I doubt most of those who joke about in the pulpit really think very deeply about what their insertion of funny anecdotes and laugh-seeking one-liners communicates about what they view as their role, but the author of this article is right on... It communicates a light esteem with which God is regarded, and the frivolous irrelevance that the preaching task represents. The preacher CANNOT involve himself is seeking the amusement of his hearers as a running thread in his preaching, or the hearers are in danger of adopting that which is communicated by such preaching.

Anyway....do read this excellent piece by Jeremy Walker at Ref21.

Tweaking New Layout

noreply@blogger.com (Todd) — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 16:38:00 +0000

In case it isn't obvious (it is) I'm moving over to a cleaner layout for In Principio...Deus. I'm sure tweaks will continue over the next few days, so beware of sawdust and loose nails lying around under this period of construction....

Don't overlook God's Blessings in "the ordinary things"

noreply@blogger.com (Todd) — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 20:10:00 +0000

A quick glance outside the office window here at my sabbatical location (PNNL, in Richland, WA) gives me a view of Rattlesnake Mountain, a long, ridge-like mountain about 20 miles from the lab. It's a pleasantly clear day, with a few wispy clouds above and the pale blue skies characteristic of this semi-arid desert in the south-central portion of Washington state.

I'm plunking away at my keyboard, working on some simulation code for a new analysis a student of mine and I are undertaking... and... well, it's just an ordinary day, for which I am thankful. It's not a particularly GREAT day, nor is it particularly NOT great.. just a normal day.

Thing is, though, this is exactly the kind of day that God deserves our honor, praise, and gratitude for. If you listen closely, though, to some of the undercurrents in modern evangelicalism today, you can get the impression that unless the extraordinary is occurring in your life, you're missing out somehow on some blessings that God would like to give you, but isn't because you're not looking for them. (in fact, if you listen to a particularly appalling contemporary praise song, you're supposed to stand up before God and tell Him that you're not satisfied with the ordinary!)

Where did that idea come from? It seems completely foreign to the Scriptures, and is a very dangerous idea that can bring great disappointment and disillusionment to a Christian who is simply trying to get by in a world that is increasingly challenging to contend with. When one who has been taught that God would like to bless him with extraordinary and special blessings fails to see such extraordinary things come to pass, what can he do but start to wonder whether God is real at all?

We need in the church to recover a doctrine of the blessings of everyday life and the great love that God has for His people in simply giving them their daily breath and bread.

See the following link for a helpful piece (audio and transcript) on ordinariness (in everyday life, but more particularly in regard to who Christians are as "ordinary" people) from pastor and author David P. Murray:

http://headhearthand.org/blog/2012/02/07/ck-short-ordinary/

Bless the Lord, O My Soul

noreply@blogger.com (Todd) — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 13:58:00 +0000

Psalm 103 is in today's reading, for those who are following the M'Cheyne calendar - and it was among those referenced in several places in yesterday's sermon from Pastor Craig Davis at Grace United Reformed Church, where we worshipped, and where likely we will put down church-roots during our sabbatical year here in the Tri Cities. Here are a few thoughts that came to mind this morning as I read this Psalm at daybreak.

What words of comfort are given by the Lord through David's pen in this Psalm - words of Gospel. David, a man of trials and temptations, struggles with fear and frequently-encroaching enemies, opens the Psalm with the words in this post title - "Bless the Lord, O My Soul". Words of self-encouragement to recall to mind the works of God and his promises, amidst the challenges of life... to himself David writes the exhortation - "Bless the Lord" (Ps. 103:1). We, the church, sing these words of life too - and in our day even though Saul isn't at our gates in his person, trying to rid the world of his challenger, we need the reminder sometimes to set aside the concerns and worries, and recall to mind the Lord's works, and sing his praise.

"Forget not all his benefits" (Ps. 103:2) - why is this said? At least part of the reason seems quite evident to me...as we walk our daily walk, it's not difficult to forget the Lord's blessings. It's not hard to lose sight of the glories of the Lord when the day-to-day challenges of life encroach upon us and threaten our well-being.

"The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed." (Ps. 103:6) Easy to forget this in the face of derision and charges of bigotry by those who abhor the Christian faith... and with what little of that that I experience daily, it is nothing to compare to our brothers and sisters in Asia and Africa who die for their faith. Yet even with that.... we are reminded that the Lord in fact DOES do righteousness and vindicate his name and that of his people.

"For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us." (Ps. 103:11-12) These words are familiar.... but their familiarity can sometimes breed a forgetfulness as to their glorious reality. The sins we commit and the sin we have at the core of our being - and we must have both of these in view to understand the magnitude and extent of God's mercy toward his people - these are separated... cast away.... and fully dealt with at the Cross, such that they are out of God's sight and justly punished in the person of his Son.

"He knoweth our frame" (Ps. 103:14) - His mercy toward us is completely consistent with who we are - frail and unable to come to him upon our own merits or by our own abilities. God's means of marrying mercy and judgment together is perfect. We are perfect in Christ, sinless in righteousness that is imputed - it is the only way that both respects judgment against sin and mercy toward us, for, as the Psalmist here says next, "we are dust." (Ps. 103:14)

"But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children; to such as keep his covenant and to those who remember his commandments to do them." (Ps. 103:17-18) Again, reminders of God's mercy to those whom he has called, and whose hearts he has transformed so as to seek him and call upon his name in holy fear. Lest we hear these words (and they can certainly be said in an inappropriate way) as disqualifying us all because of our lack of perfect obedience.... we cannot rip these verses out of context and separate them from verse 10 - wherein David reminds us that "He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities." (Ps. 103:10)

After these words of praise, the Psalm comes to a close, with the same refrain... and a universal call to bless the Lord in all places: "Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the Lord, O my soul." (Ps. 103:22) The Lord is king - He is sovereign over all and is rightly worshiped by his whole creation... and our worship of the Lord is magnified in scope, as we not only offer him worship that is his rightful due as sovereign ruler over the universe, but we offer him worship as the one who both forgives our sins, and provided the perfect remedy for our sins such that his righteousness and justice are fully satisfied. Praise God for who he is and for what he has done... and our praises will never end.

Time to Resume...

noreply@blogger.com (Todd) — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 15:41:00 +0000

When the pace of life changes, sometimes it's good to restart things that have fallen by the wayside...

For the next year, my family and I will be in Richland, WA, where I am doing a year-long sabbatical leave as a research fellow at Pacific Northwest National Laboratories. For many reasons this is a real Godsend for our family - we're in my wife Heather's home town, 3/4 of a mile from her parents' house, and 6 hours from my parents' home.

At any rate, with the change of pace, In Principio Deus will finally be, DV, resumed as a regular blog... over the course of the last two years when many other things took precedence, it's essentially been dormant (as any of you readers who may still have hung on for this period, and not abandoned ship, know).

Until later,

Todd

The Powerful Word of God: Hebrews

noreply@blogger.com (Todd) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 04:50:00 +0000

Just a quick post... I'm teaching on Hebrews 10 tomorrow in our adult Sunday school class, and was reminded of a powerful reading of the text by Ryan Ferguson that I once recommended years ago:

Last week, I also found another video of the full book of Hebrews, also recited from memory:

Hebrews Recited from Covenant Fellowship Church on Vimeo.

Enjoy them - meditate upon the glorious truth of the Gospel as these men recite the Word of God for the blessing of the church.

John 17:2 and Those who argue that Jesus laid down His life for All?

noreply@blogger.com (Todd) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 21:05:00 +0000

1When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. (John 17:1-2)

So begins Jesus's high priestly prayer in John 17. This chapter was part of my reading a few mornings ago, and it occurred to me to ask myself what the person who believes in universal atonement - the concept that Jesus gave his life for all people so that all have the opportunity to be saved) as opposed to a particular redemption, wherein God the Father acts to redeem His elect by giving His Son Jesus as a substitute for them - does with this passage. If the idea is that God the Father intended that all be covered by the blood of Christ, how can John 17:2 make any sense at all? I've never been able to understand how this passage can be read by those who take the universal approach to the atonement... all problems with that view aside, I just want to zoom in on John 17:2. I wonder if it's just ignored.

After a Long Hiatus.... In Principio Deus is back

noreply@blogger.com (Todd) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 20:49:00 +0000

It's been a long spring - and a long year - but the Lord is good. Routine is returning to Northeast Iowa, and I will begin blogging again, the Lord willing.

Look for some new material tonight, and in the future.

Pondering the Unwillingness to Accept Election/Predestination

noreply@blogger.com (Todd) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 21:34:00 +0000

For some reason today the question of why some people are so adamantly opposed to the idea of God's electing some to salvation came to mind. I'm not speaking of those who reject Christianity out of hand, or those who have major issues with salvation of only some human beings rather than the whole lot. I'm speaking of those who genuinely love Christ and rest in Him for salvation. For them, the fact that election of only some means God actually has in mind, prior to creation, that some will be born, live, and die, and be condemned (and that he has ordained it as such) - and this is too much for them to take. The picture they have of God does not comport with the idea of His willing election of only some, and His ordination before time that all others will be punished in hell for their sins.

Certainly for these one major problem is that they are set up on the belief that God must give everyone an equal shot at salvation - that it's unfair of God not to equip everyone to accept Christ. I suspect that some bristle at the idea of the "unfairness" of unconditional election, but also agree that without the prior action of God's spirit none will see their need and humbly submit to the Lord. Thus they set up some sort of system in which God grants everyone the eyes to see - and some don't use them, and are therefore lost.

I just got the book shown at above, God's Glory in Salvation Through Judgment, by James M. Hamilton, Jr., and think there may be something in it that is related to why some have issues with the punishment of sinners. That is, I think what such folks have an issue with may be related to the subject matter of the book. It looks like a very good read - a biblical theology centered on the idea that salvation comes to individuals ultimately through judgment. I'm very much looking forward to it - and suggest you might want to pick it up as a new read for the winter.

I suspect that for some the issue is very deeply wrapped up in something of a different problem - that they cannot see God as glorified in the damnation of any. I *think* perhaps the receipt of this book has led me to these thoughts (but I am not certain). That is, my hypothetical objector has no problem agreeing that sin is deadly and deserves punishment - but I wonder if they see God less as a righteous judge justly condemning the sinner, and more as their father, saying "I hate to do this, but I'm going to have to spank you, son." Punishment of sin, to them, would be something God would really rather avoid, and in some sense almost does despite His unwillingness to do it. Certainly for someone approaching the issue with this mindset, the punishment of sinners would not be something that brings God glory. For them, God's glory would come only through redeeming people through Christ. They would seem to be blind to the fact that God is also glorified in judgment and condemnation of the rebel.

There are all sorts of issues with this, of course, but I wonder if I'm onto something....

Four Covenant Radio Programs on Foundational Reformed Concepts

noreply@blogger.com (Todd) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 01:55:00 +0000

I feel as though I've just spent one of the more edifying and encouraging months of doing Covenant Radio with my good friend Bill Hill, with whom I've been co-hosting the program for just over a year. We began a series of programs covering basic doctrines of the Reformed faith a month ago, and have had some of the most invigorating and instructive conversations in recent memory on these topics. I would highly encourage any and all to take the opportunity to grab these broadcasts at the links below, and share them with folks whom you may know who might have some questions about these biblical concepts and issues. We were blessed with excellent guests who really made these programs simultaneously full of integrity from a scholarly and pastoral perspective, and enjoyable just as though our guest, Bill and I were seated around Bill's back yard table with a cigar and a good ale. (well, perhaps three cigars and ales to be equitable) :)

Election and Effectual Calling, Dr. Cornelis Venema
Regeneration, Rev. Chris Gordon
Justification, Dr. Guy Waters
Atonement and Imputed Righteousness, Rev. Richard D. Phillips

Please do check them out, and all our programs, at the Covenant Radio blog - and if you're desirous of a good reformed alternative to internet radio stations that you may come into contact with, please check out Sola5 Radio. Bill and I put in a fair amount of time putting the daily teaching programs, weekend lectures and Lord's Day sermons, in addition to psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, so that you all have a good and reliable place to go for music and teaching, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I hope you'll consider listening as regularly as you're able.

Recent and Upcoming Programming at Covenant Radio

noreply@blogger.com (Todd) — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 13:06:00 +0000

Just wanted to send out a heads-up to you all about our recent programs on Covenant Radio and the next two weeks in a series we've begun on foundational doctrines of the Reformed faith, which we're really excited about. We've had excellent guests (and have more upcoming) and these are just great topics to kick back and talk about with Reformed brethren.

Two weeks ago, we had Dr. Cornelis Venema from Mid-America Reformed Seminary on the topics of Election and Predestination, and then this past week, we had Rev. Chris Gordon of the Lynden United Reformed Church, of Lynden, WA, talking with us on the doctrine of Regeneration. These were two very enjoyable programs, and I think you'll find them edifying and enjoyable as well. These most recent programs can be downloaded any time from our website.

The next two weeks, October 21 and 28, we'll have two very exciting broadcasts, covering Justification, with Dr. Guy Waters, and the doctrines of Atonement and Imputed Righteousness with Dr. Richard D. Phillips. We hope you'll grab the podcasts when they come out - which are always available at our website. Follow us on Twitter (Covenant_Radio) to get updates of uploaded programs.

Also, just in case you've not seen it, I do want to point out our 24/7 radio station online, Sola5 Radio, which plays psalms & hymns, sermons and lectures, and replays of Covenant Radio, the White Horse Inn, etc. We've designed it as a place you can always turn to to get solid Reformed teaching & good, edifying music to listen to round the clock. I don't think there's much out there at all like it.

You can access that from the links at the webpage for Sola5 Radio, and I hope you'll try it out if you haven't already.

A Blog in Arrears

noreply@blogger.com (Todd) — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 13:05:00 +0000

Well, zip-bop there goes a month. Life flies along here in Northeast Iowa, and I've neglected In Principio ... Deus.

Posts will start appearing again - it seems as though the first several weeks of any school year take me out for a while, which I guess is understandable.

Nevertheless, I need to get back to it. So.... we have a lot going on with Sola5 Radio and Covenant Radio - and posts on these and other topics are forthcoming :)

The Lost Art of Seeking Wisdom

noreply@blogger.com (Todd) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:30:00 +0000

Every time I come to Proverbs 1 in my reading of Scripture, I find myself wondering why it is I don't spend more time seeking wisdom from God's Word. The plain teaching of the first few verses of Proverbs is that we who believe must be about this business. The flesh is so weak, though.

The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:

To know wisdom and instruction,
to understand words of insight,
to receive instruction in wise dealing,
in righteousness, justice, and equity;
to give prudence to the simple,
knowledge and discretion to the youth—
Let the wise hear and increase in learning,
and the one who understands obtain guidance,
to understand a proverb and a saying,
the words of the wise and their riddles.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.
(Proverbs 1:1-7 ESV)

The impact of refusing to seek true wisdom and instruction is evident all around us as the world spins like a sailboat without a rudder... yet we too fall prey to the temptation to just 'go with the flow' and not moor ourselves tightly to the bedrock of Christ and God's Holy Word. Wisdom is to be found as we do so... and it is to be valued above all earthly possessions.

Covenant Radio: Interview with Rev. Wes White on The Federal Vision

noreply@blogger.com (Todd) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:46:00 +0000

On Covenant Radio tomorrow, Bill and I will be conducting a very important and interesting interview with Rev. Wes White (see his blog here) concerning his former identification with Federal Vision teaching, and his leaving it behind - we'll also be discussing current challenges in orthodox Reformed and Presbyterian communions that the Federal Vision teaching presents. We have been looking forward to this program for a very long time - so we are particularly pleased to bring it to you. This is a program I'm sure our Covenant Radio listening audience won't want to miss - so please check us out at http://www.covenantradio.com. Expect the program to be uploaded sometime on Friday, and if you're a subscriber you'll have it soon thereafter.

Sola5 Radio is Back!

noreply@blogger.com (Todd) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:44:00 +0000

For those who actively listened early this year to Sola5 Radio, which is a 24/7 venture of Covenant Radio, and were disappointed to see it go off the air, we've got news!

We're starting up Sola5 Radio again, which for those unfamiliar with our previous broadcasting, is an online radio station (click here to listen - bookmark it!) dedicated to bringing music, both jazz and classical, hymns and psalms, as well as solid Reformed teaching and preaching, to our internet audience. We regularly rebroadcast programs from the Reformed Forum (Christ the Center), Scott Clark (Heidelcast and Office Hours) and our own Covenant Radio programs, and also sermons from pastors such as Joel Beeke, David P. Murray and Alan Cairns, among others. The Lord's Day schedule will be non-stop preaching and psalms. On the other six days of the week we'll play a mixture of teaching, podcasts, and the other music in our grab bag.

We hope you'll take a listen and use Sola5 for the purpose we've intended it - enjoyment and edification - to be a service to the church and to the world. Again, click here to listen, and for our program guide, look to our blog (http://sola5.wordpress.com) as we set things up again (we're in "test" mode now, but plan to be basically running full time and introduce more teaching into the mix as time goes on).

You can also join our Facebook group, and sign on for Twitter updates by following the Twitter feed Sola5Radio.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Colquhoun on Union with Christ

noreply@blogger.com (Todd) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:14:00 +0000

The doctrine of Union with Christ, which Reformers and Puritans such as John Calvin and John Owen saw as absolutely foundational to our understanding of soteriology, is under serious question and even attack in some conservative circles today. There are claims among some that real, saving union with Christ is effected at baptism - and that the non-elect, who ultimately are not saved, nevertheless enter into real union with Christ if they are baptized... and then lose those saving benefits which somehow they had in Christ for a time. This is completely foreign to the theology of the Reformation, and in particular of John Calvin - whom some of those who make the above claims somehow think they can lay claim to as a forefather in their understanding of Biblical truth.

John Colquhoun, in the first sermon in a recently published collection entitled Sermons on Important Doctrines emphasizes the permanence of union with Christ. He first writes of the intimate connection between the hypostatic union of human and divine natures in the person of Christ, with the personal, mystical union of Christ and the believer:

"the Lord... declared that no gracious relation between Him and our nature could be secure and permanent unless it were assumed to a subsistence in Himself. This union (TKP: the hypostatic union), then, is the sure foundation of the church's saving relation to God as a God of grace, and of the conveyance of gracious influences to its true members; and so long as that foundation stands, the safety, holiness and happiness of believers shall be secure. Now, the only begotten of the Father assumed our nature so that it might, in personal union with Him, be secured, and that our persons might never be in danger of losing conformity to Him or communion with Him." (p. 18, Sermons on Important Doctrines)

Colquhoun, writing on the doctrine of the Incarnation, links the two unions - the hypostatic and the mystical - in a necessary relationship. He argues that our union with Christ is grounded on the fact that Christ was both God and Man - united in one person - and hence the second union cannot exist without the first. Further, the permanence of the one union (the hypostatic) is seen as a ground for the permanence of the second union (the mystical). We know Christ is coming back in the same body He arose in (witness Acts 1). We know that union, of God and Man in the person of Christ Jesus is permanent... so too is the union of Christ with His elect. Later on, Colquhoun clarifies this doctrine in the following paragraph:

"Is the union of the divine and human nature in the person of Christ a sure foundation of His people's perseverance in the union with Him and conformity to Him? Let believers then be encouraged to press toward th emark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. This personal union is, and will continue to be, an everlasting security for the perpetuity of the mystical union between His person and the persons of believers. It will be as easy for an enemy to ascend the celestial throne and tear asunder the glorified humanity from the divine person of our exalted Immanuel, as it will be to dissolve the union that subsists between Him and the weakest member of His body. 'Because I live, ye shall live also.'" (p. 22, Sermons on Important Doctrines)

The idea that God might unite some to Christ who ultimately will not be glorified and have perfect, sinless communion eternally with Him in the new Heavens and Earth is inconceivable to Colquhoun, and, I should think, to any who take seriously the promises of Scripture. "he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." (Phil. 1:6) How can anyone seriously argue that one might attain a saving union with Christ, but then lose it at some later time? Is Christ one who abandons His sheep? Truly? Is this what people are really willing to believe, who accept the lie of the Federal Vision "temporary saving union" teaching? It is impossible for me to understand this, if Scripture is taken seriously, and Christ is given His due. That any united to Him truly might be torn away flies in the face of Scripture (e.g. John 10:27-28, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand." or John 6:37, "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.") There are no lost sheep. All those in His flock are THERE - and none truly there, united with and under their Shepherd, are lost. The doctrine of "temporary saving union" is simply folly (and that's putting it lightly)

Today on Covenant Radio: J. Mark Beach on Piety's Wisdom

noreply@blogger.com (Todd) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:45:00 +0000

Later today on Covenant Radio, We're pleased to be speaking with Dr. J. Mark Beach, Professor of Ministerial and Doctrinal Studies and Dean of Students at Mid-America Reformed Seminary in Dyer, Indiana. In addition, he is an associate pastor at Redeemer United Reformed Church, also in Dyer.

Today we'll be speaking with Dr. Beach about a recent book of his published by Reformation Heritage Books, entitled “Piety’s Wisdom: A Summary of Calvin’s Institutes with Study Questions”. This book is a very important contribution to literature for the church - a study guide to introduce people to the teaching of John Calvin in his magnum opus, the Institutes of the Christian religion. Please check the Covenant Radio website for ways in which you can subscribe to our podcast, as well as check out show notes and download previous shows.

Imputation of Christ's Righteousness: Flavel in The Method of Grace

noreply@blogger.com (Todd) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:08:00 +0000

A dear friend and I read together weekly and discuss reading, most often from John Flavel's works. Today in our passage from The Method of Grace, which is found in his collected works, volume 1, one of the things we came across was the following treatment of Christ's saving benefits, which I found particularly illuminating and edifying. In this particular section (the first sermon in the Method of Grace series) Flavel is expositing 1 Cor. 1:30,

But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.

In this sermon, Flavel goes on to explain these benefits to believers, and makes a clear distinction in terms of the method by which God applies these benefits of Christ to us who believe. He clearly argues (and I'll blog on this later together with some material from John Colquhoun, who I quoted yesterday) for these saving benefits being tied strictly to the union of Christ with His elect people, and then describes God's method of application:

"Prop. 8. Lastly, Although the several privileges and benefits before mentioned are all true and really bestowed with Christ upon believers, yet they are not communicated to them in one and the same day and manner; but differently and divers, as their respective natures do require.

These four illustrious benefits (TKP - namely, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, a la 1 Cor. 1:30) are conveyed from Christ to us in three different ways and methods; his righteousness is made ours by imputation: his wisdom and sanctification by renovation: his redemption by our glorification." (p. 24, Volume 1, Works of John Flavel)

Warning shot across the bow to the Romanist and legalist... the various saving benefits of Christ are NOT one and the same, and are NOT delivered in the same way. Justification and Sanctification are NOT identical, nor are they applied to believers in the same way - they require different methods of application quite simply because they are different benefits. He continues:

"I know the communication of Christ's righteousness to us by imputations is not only denied, but scoffed at by Papists*; who own no righteousness, but what is (at least) confounded with that which is inherent in us; and for imputative (blasphemously stiled by them putative righteousness, they flatly deny it, and look upon it as a most absurd doctrine, every where endeavouring to load it with these and such like absurdities, That if God imputes Christ's righteousness to the believer, and accepts what Christ has performed for him, as if he had performed it himself; then we may be accounted as righteous as Christ. Then we may be the redeemers of the world. False and groundless consequences; as if a man should say, my debt
is paid by my surety, therefore I am as rich as he.

* a phantom sprung of Luther's brain - Stapleton"

(p. 24, Volume 1,Works of John Flavel)

Don't we hear this objection today, or those like it? If Christ's active obedience - if His righteousness in life - is imputed to us, are we not then encouraging licentiousness? Are we not denying God His right to expect us to obey the Law? Are we then not making ourselves out to be worthy as Christ? I do hear on today the statement made by FV sympathizers that the purpose of Christ's obedience was only to qualify Him as the sacrificial lamb, and therefore that His obedience cannot be imputed to us. (how far off is this from the objection Flavel just attributed to his opponents?) Rather, as the statement I quoted from Colquhoun yesterday argues, this flatly fails when it is considered that all men are bound to obey God perfectly, and that perfect record of obedient living must be ours. Christ obeyed FOR HIS ELECT.

I love the addition of the scoffing comment that Flavel footnotes by Stapleton - imputation of Christ's righteousness is apparently a "phantom sprung of Luther's brain". I guess I'm a Lutheran. (and that accusation is also levied against those who argue for a right appreciation of the Law-Gospel distinction that is a hallmark of classic Reformation orthodoxy)

Of this imputed righteousness, Flavel goes on to comment:

"it is inhesively in him, communicatively it becomes ours, by imputation, the sin of the first Adam becomes ours, and the same way the righteousness of the second Adam becomes ours, Rom. 5: 17. This way the Redeemer became sin for us, and this way we are made the righteousness of God in him, 2 Cor. 5: 21. This way Abraham the father of believers was justified, therefore this way all believers, the children of Abraham, must be justified also, Rom. 4: 22, 23. And thus is Christ's righteousness made ours.

But in conveying, and communicating his wisdom and sanctification, he takes another method, for this is not imputed, but really imparted to us by the illuminating and regenerating work of the Spirit: these are graces really inherent in us: our righteousness comes from Christ as a surety but our holiness comes from him as a quickening head, sending vital influences unto all his
members.

Now these gracious habits being subjected and seated in the souls of poor imperfect creatures, whose corruptions abide and work in the very same faculties where grace has its residence; it cannot be, that our sanctification should be so perfect and complete, as our justification is, which inheres only in Christ. See Gal. 5: 17. Thus are righteousness and sanctification communicated and made ours..." (p. 25, Volume 1,Works of John Flavel)

We've got to understand these things rightly... justification is the declaration of God that we are just before Him- purely declarative, purely an attribution of righteousness that comes ONLY (and CAN come ONLY) by imputation. That righteousness with which we are imputed must be perfect, for that is what God requires - not the righteousness of man, of "genuine" obedience, or of "sincere attempts", but pure, spotless righteousness of the Lamb of God! Because this is the righteousness God requires, it cannot come but by gracious imputation of it - by a pure act of granting it to us, and declaring it upon us by the Holy judge of all.

Sanctification has no part to play in our being declared righteous - it is wholly different, having a wholly different method of application and a wholly different purpose. Flavel speaks to this clearly when he argues that the holiness of sanctification is brought forth in us indeed, but is imperfect, because we are sinful creatures still, and imperfect in our very being. Nevertheless, sanctification is a real grace communicated to believers by the working of the Holy Spirit in us. Progressively we learn the ways of the Lord, and progressively our sin gives way to more righteousness and conformity to the Son of God... this is a progressive work that is not complete this side of Heaven... and again, as such, it cannot be the basis for any declaration of righteousness by God. This must be understood - or we confuse and destroy the message of the Gospel and the message of Christ's work for us and in us.

Two-fold Grace in Christ from Colquhoun

noreply@blogger.com (Todd) — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:30:00 +0000

If you can pronounce the author's name, you're in a small minority :)

Yesterday afternoon, looking for something to read in between my perusings of The Marrow of Modern Divinity and Caryl's Exposition of Job, I picked up a book entitled Sermons on Important Doctrines by John Colquhoun (1748-1827), a pastor of the Scottish Secession church, and one upon which the writings of the Marrow brethren had enormous impact. Several of his works, like this one, have been republished in the past few years by Don Kistler, to whom I give hearty thanks for this and other evidences of his service and love for the church. His new publishing effort is Northampton Press.

Colquhoun is also the author of a very important work, A Treatise on the Law and the Gospel, that I intend to acquire and blog about in the near future.

In the first sermon from this volume, Colquhoun writes about the nature of Christ as the Incarnate Word, preaching from John 1:14. I appreciated his remarks concerning the identity of Christ as "Word of God", because, as he wrote,

"As it is by Him that God declares His thoughts or will to His people, so it is by Him that they express their thoughts and desires to God. The Man Christ Jesus is the only Mediator between God and men. It is by Him, therefore, that believers offer the sacrifice of praise and thanks to God continually. He spoke for His people in the council of peace, and covenanted to pay the price of their redemption. He speaks for them in His intercession, and presents their prayers and performances accepteable to His eternal Father." (p. 3, Sermons on Important Doctrines)

Normally the use of the term "Word of God" to describe Christ I think of exclusively in terms of His meditating God's presence to us... but Colquhoun ties it also to Christ's mediation of our desires, praises and prayers to God. Keenly insightful, I think, and helpful as we consider Christ as truly the mediator between us and our Heavenly Father. He spoke for us and speaks for us today - He covenanted for us - covenanted to stand in our place, firmly, and without fail, when prior to time the pactum salutis was enacted. There is no failure in Him - and no failure in His atonement for us, those of us united to Him.

This theme of redemption comes up again (as also union, but I'll blog on that tomorrow) several pages later into the text of Colquhoun's sermon, as he presents reasons for Christ to have come in the flesh. His second point concerns Christ's necessity of being made "under the law" in order to redeem us. Colquhoun writes,

"He engaged to become a Surety for those who were, in the everlasting covenant, given to Him; and, as sustaining that character, to pay their debt of perfect obedience for life by obeying the precepts of the law as a covenant of works in their stead, and their debt of complete satisfaction for sin by enduring for them the full execution of the condemning sentence of the law." (p. 14, Sermons on Important Doctrines )

Here, the twofold work of Christ - the two-fold grace of God in Christ's life and death are held forth as precious elements of the Gospel! Christ indeed covenanted with the Father that His full and spotless righteousness would be ours, those whom the Father had given Him, and that we would be acceptable before God - having the perfect righteousness of obedience and having given perfect satisfaction for our sins. This is simply double imputation... but precious to God's people.

Colquhoun goes on further to elaborate:

"The disobedience of those who are naturally obliged to obedience could not be compensated but by the obedience of Him who was not naturally nor originally obliged to obey." (p. 15, Sermons on Important Doctrines)

This is one of the Federal Vision hallmarks - that Christ's active obedience cannot be transmitted to us, because He needed to obey for Himself, and could henceforth not be said to obey for the elect in their place. Yet Christ is said by Paul to be "made under the law" at the right time, so that He might become subject to that which he, as God-Man, was not naturally nor originally subject to. His obedience was FOR us, as the Surety. Colquhoun continues:

"But because what the Son of God engaged to do in the room of His elect could not have been obedience had he not been under the law and bound to obey it, He therefore assumed the human nature so that as man He might be capable of yielding obedience, which as God only He could not be. On account of the dignity to which His human nature was advanced, in consequence of its union with the divine nature in His person, He was under no obligation to obey for Himself because His human nature never existed by itself, but, from the moment of its assumption, subsisted always in His divine person; notwithstanding, as He was hereby capable of obedience, He became bound to obey as a Surety for the elect. Besides, as in the character of Surety for them, He had engaged to bear the execution of the curse of the Law for the satisfaction of divine justice, He becames man so that the sword of justice might have an opportunity of smiting Him." (p. 15, Sermons on Important Doctrines)

Christ both obeyed and died for His elect... for both were necessary for our salvation. I appreciate the keen insight Colquhoun evidences here, and the applicability to today's controversies. When Christ's identity as standing in our room both under obligation of obedience and necessity of satisfaction for sin is missed... all manner of dangerous error can (and does) arise, as indeed it is. Colquhoun's exposition is both precious encouragement and necessary prophylactic against error.