Friday, August 31, 2012

Calvin's Faith Facing Death

From Calvin's will, made on his deathbead:
I give thanks to God who had mercy on me. . . . He delivered me out of the deep darkness of idolatry in which I was plunged, that he might bring me into the light of the gospel. . . . I have no other defense or refuge for salvation than his free adoption, on which alone my salvation depends. With all my soul I embrace the mercy that he has exercised towards me through Jesus Christ, atoning for my sins with the merits of his death and passion, that in this way he might satisfy for all my offences and faults and blot them out form his remembrance. I testify also and declare that I earnestly beg him to be pleased so to wash and purify me in the blood that my Sovereign Redeemer has shed for the sins of mankind, that under his shadow I may be able to stand at the judgment-seat. . . . 
I also testify and declare that in all the battles and disputations in which I have been engaged with the enemies of the gospel, I have used no falsehood, no wicked and sophistical devices, but have acted straightforwardly and sincerely in defending the truth.  
Yet, alas, my ardour and zeal (if indeed worthy of the name) have been so slack and languid that I confess I have failed countless times to execute my office properly, and had not he, of his boundless goodness, assisted me . . . those mental powers that the Lord gave me would at his judgment-seat prove me more and more guilty of sin and sloth. 
For these reasons I testify and declare that I trust to no other security for my salvation than this alone, that as God is the Father of mercy, so he will show himself such a Father to me, who acknowledge myself to be a miserable sinner.
—J. I. Packer, Honoring the People of God: Collected Shorter Writings on Christian Leaders and Theologians (Vancoover: Regent College Publishing, 1999), 16.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Is God Concerned about Oxen?

A helpful and insightful interpretation for Paul's use of Deut. 25:4 in 1 Cor. 9:9 may be found here. And the methodology modeled there is quite instructive and sound.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

O God, Be Glorified at Home

A Lutheran prayer for the glory of God in the home:
Dear God, you have given to me my wife, children, house, and property. I receive these as you desire, and will care for them for your sake. Therefore I will do as much as possible that all may go well. If my plans do not all succeed, I will learn to be patient and let what cannot be changed take its course. If I do well I will give God the glory. I will say, O Lord, it is not my work or effort but your gift and providence. Take my place and be the head of the family. I will yield humbly and be obedient to you. Amen.  
—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 94.

Monday, August 27, 2012

When God Pours Out His Spirit

Commenting on Gen. 4:26, Edwards speaks to what begins to happen when God's Spirit moves among men:
We see by experience that a remarkable pouring out of the Spirit of God is always attended with such an effect, namely, a great increase of the performance of the duty of prayer. When the Spirit of God begins or works on men's hearts, [he] immediately sets them to calling on the name of the Lord; as it was with Paul after the Spirit of God had laid hold on him, the the next news is behold he prayeth. So it has been in all remarkable pourings out of the Spirit of God that we have any particular account of in Scripture, and so it is foretold it will be at the great pouring out of the Spirit of God in the latter days. 
 —Jonathan Edwards, A History of the Work of Redemption (ed. John F. Wilson; vol. 21, Works; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), 142.

Friday, August 24, 2012

The Minister and His Greek Testament

From "The Minister and His Greek New Testament," originally published in The Presbyterian 88 (February 7, 1918), Machen speaks pretty straightforwardly about the decline of Greek among ministers:
The widening breach between the minister and his Greek Testament may be traced to two prinicipal causes. The modern minister objects to his Greek New Testament or is indifferent to it, first, because he is becoming less interested in his Greek, and second, because he is becoming less interested in his New Testament.
—J. Gresham Machen, Selected Shorter Writings (Phillipsburg: P&R, 2004), 210.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

What is Typology?

Here are a few answers.

J. I. Packer succinctly gives us the standard stuff:
Typology . . . looks into Old Testament patterns of divine action, agency, and instruction that [find] final fulfillment in Christ. . . .[1]
Peter J. Leithart says it in his own way:
 “Typology” is a loaded word. . . . I use the word not only to highlight the principle that the Old Testament points ahead to Christ, but also to describe the structure of the Old Testament itself. The Old Testament is composed according to a rhythm of “repetition with difference” that is a microcosm of New Testament typology. David is a “type” of Jesus, but he is also an “antitype” of Adam. When I speak of a “typological” understanding of the Old Testament I am further calling attention to the literary devices that the Bible uses to communicate its message. These are “typological” in the sense that they are the means by which the Bible presents the rhythms of history, as well as the means by which the Old Testament in particular points to Christ. . . .[2]
And D. L. Baker perhaps puts it most helpfully:
The fundamental conviction that underlies typology is that God is consistently active in the history of this world (especially in the history of his chosen people) and that as a consequence the events in this history tend to follow a consistent pattern. One event may thus be chosen as typical of another or of many others. 
A type is a biblical event, person, or institution that serves as an example or pattern for other events, person, or institutions; typology is the study of types and the historical and theological correspondences between them; the basis of typology is God’s consistent activity in the history of his chosen people.[3]

[1] J. I. Packer, From the Forward of The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament (Phillipsburg: P&R, 1988), 8.
[2] Peter Leithart, A House for My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament (Moscow: Canon Press, 2000), 27-28.
[3] Quoted in Robin Routledge, Old Testament Theology: A Thematic Approach (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2008), 45. 

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

No Fixed Rules of Interpretation

Luther on hermeneutics:
I acknowledge no fixed rules of interpretation of the Word of God, since the Word of God, which teaches freedom in all other matters, must not be bound.
The Freedom of the Christian (Luther's Works, vol. 31; ed. Harold J. Grimm; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1957), 341.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

YHWH's Majestic Royal Voice

Here's trying my hand at translating Psalm 29. I've attempted to bring out something of the structure, flow, force, and poetics of the Hebrew, while maintaing an essentially literal translation.

A Psalm of David.

Give to YHWH, O sons of God,
     Give to YHWH glory and strength.
     Give to YHWH the glory of his name;
Worship YHWH in holy array.

YHWH's voice is over the waters,
     The God of glory thunders,
          YHWH, over vast waters;
YHWH's voice in power,
YHWH's voice in majesty;
YHWH's voice breaking cedars,
     YHWH shattering the cedars of Lebanon,
          making them skip like a calf,
               Lebanon and Sirion, like a young wild ox.
YHWH's voice hews flames of fire.
YHWH's voice cunvulses the wilderness,
     YHWH convulses the wilderness of Kadesh.
YHWH's voice brings birth pangs on does
          as it strips the forests bare,
               And all in his temple cry, "Glory!"

YHWH sat enthroned at the flood;
      YHWH sits enthroned, King forever.
YHWH grants strength to his people;
     YHWH blesses his people with peace.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Apprehending the Meaning and Power of the Word of God

From The Presbyterian Guardian, February 25, 1945, John Murray pleads for "concentrated, sustained, devoted study of the Bible, the kind of study that is not fulfilled by the perfunctory reading of some passages each day":
The set periods of family worship are not, of course, by any means to be disparaged. This is a highly necessary and most fruitful exercise. The influence for good exerted by honouring God's Word in this way is incalculable for all concerned. Indeed, the minimal use of the Bible in this way has often left an indelible impression for good. And furthermore, the set periods of family worship may become the occasions for very concentrated and systematic study of the Bible.
But what I am going to stress is the necessity for diligent and persevering searching of the Scriptures; study whereby we shall turn and turn again the pages of Scripture; the study of prolonged thought and meditation by which our hearts and minds may become soaked with the truth of the Bible and by which the deepest springs of thought, feeling and action may be stirred and directed; the study by which the Word of God will grip us, bind us, hold us, pull us, drive us, raise us up from the dunghill, bring us down from our high conceits and make us its bondservants in all of thought, life and conduct. 
The Word of God is a great deep; the commandment is exceeding broad; and so we cannot by merely occasional, hurried and perfunctory use of it understand its meaning and power.
Collected Writings of John Murray (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1976), 3.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Edwards on Righteousness and Covenant Faithfulness

Here's a quotation from Edwards' A History of the Work of Redemption that might surprise you:
By God's righteousness here [Isa. 51:8] is meant his faithfulness in fulfilling his covenant promises to his church, or his faithfulness towards his church and people in bestowing the benefits of the covenant of grace upon them. . . .
 So the word righteousness is very often used in Scripture for his covenant faithfulness; so 'tis in Neh. 9:8, "Thou hast performed thy words for thou art righteous." And so we are to understand righteousness and covenant mercy to be the same thing, as in Ps. 24:5, "He shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of [his salvation]"; Ps. 36:10, "O continue thy lovingkindness to them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright"; and Ps. 51:14, "Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, though God of my salvation; and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness"; and Dan. 9:16, "O Lord, according to thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away"; and so in innumerable places.
—Jonathan Edwards, A History of the Work of Redemption (ed. John F. Wilson; vol. 21, Works; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), 114-115.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Secularism and Separation of Church and State

Hunter Baker on the difference between secularism and the notion of the separation of church and state:
Secularism is not and should not be synonymous with the separation of church and state. The separation of church and state, in the classical sense, simply means that the state does not collect fees to support the church; neither does it mandate membership in the church. . . . 
When Christians rail against the separation of church and state and heatedly charge that those words do not appear in the Constitution, they are really reacting to secularism. The problem is that the language of the separation of church and state is often used to push for more secularistic understandings. Given a right understanding of secularism as the separation of religion from public life and the separation of church and state as nothing more than formal institutional independence of church and state, citizens should value church-state separation as the healthier and more justifiable state of affairs. 
—Hunter Baker, The End of Secularism (Wheaton: Crossway, 2009), 19-20.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Parting with Your Isaac for God's Sake

From his Signs of Godliness notebook, Edwards commenting on Gen. 22:12:
God would teach us this by it: that that is a sign of the truth of grace, when men have a preparedness of mind to part with their Isaac, that is, that which is dearest to them of all things earthly, for God's sake.
—Jonathan Edwards, Writings on the Trinity, Grace, and Faith (ed. Sang Hyun Lee; vol. 21, Works; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), 483.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

The Fruits of Grace in the Life

From Edwards' Signs of Godliness notebook:
The fruits of grace in the life must needs be the proper evidences of it. What can be the proper evidence of a person's loving God above all but his actually preferring him, or preferring him indeed when it comes to a trial? What can be the proper evidences of the heart's forsaking all for Christ, or of his willingness to forsake all for him, than his actually doing of it, as there is occasion? What can be the proper evidence of trusting in the promises of God, than his actually running the venture of their truth when it comes to a trial? 
The act of the man must be the proper evidence of the act of the heart. The will must be shown by the voluntary actions. We find the promises of God sometimes made to conversion and sometimes to perseverance: 'tis because perseverance is but the actual fulfillment of that which is virtually done in conversion, and the accomplishment is the proper evidence of the virtual accomplishment. When two things are set before a man to see which he will choose, the proper evidence which he chooses, is which he takes. So is practice the evidence of sincerity, and the fruit that by which the tree is known. Surely the proper evidence of a man's heart's being prepared to cleave to Christ above all, is his actually doing it; the proper manifestation of choice is act. 
'Tis true it is the heart that God looks at; godliness lies in the disposition of the heart, but godliness consists not in an heart to purpose to fulfill God's commandments, but in an heart actually to do it.
—Jonathan Edwards, Writings on the Trinity, Grace, and Faith (ed. Sang Hyun Lee; vol. 21, Works; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), 476.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Relativism Commits Cosmic Treason

Piper speaks to the cosmic treason of relativism:
Relativism is a pervasive rebellion against the very concept of divine law. Therefore, it is a profound rebellion against God. It is a treason that is worse than outright revolt, because it is devious. Instead of saying to God's face, "Your word is false," it says to man, "There is no such thing as a universally binding divine word." This is treason against the King of the universe.
 —John Piper, Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 106.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Authentic Biblical Interpretation

Packer on inauthentic interpretation versus the real deal:
Historical exegesis is only the preliminary part of interpretation; application is its essence. Exegesis without application should not be called interpretation at all (27).
And further on,
This is biblical interpretation: seeing first what the text meant and then what it means—that is, how what it says touches our lives (45).
And even further on,
Historical exegesis becomes interpretation only when the application is truly made (45).
—J. I. Packer, Honouring the Written Word of God: Collected Shorter Writings on the Authority and Interpretation of Scripture (Vancoover: Regent College Publishing, 1999).

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Ten Words Amid Intolerance

D. A. Carson concludes his book The Intolerance of Tolerance with a chapter entitled "Ways Ahead: Ten Words." What follows are the headings of these ten words:

1. Expose the New Tolerance's Moral and Epistemological Bankruptcy
2. Preserve a Place for Truth
3. Expose the New Tolerance's Condescending Arrogance
4. Insist That the New Tolerance Is Not Progress
5. Distinguish Between Empirical Diversity and the Inherent Goodness of All Diversity
6. Challenge Secularism's Ostensible Neutrality and Superiority
7. Practice and Encourage Civility
8. Evangelize
9. Be Prepared to Suffer
10. Delight in and Trust God

Under the tenth heading, so important that I include it, Carson says this:
Delight in God, and trust him. God remains sovereign, wise, and good. Our ultimate confidence is not in any government or party, still less in our ability to mold the culture in which we live. God may bring about changes that reflect the more robust understanding of tolerance better known in earlier times, and that would be very helpful; alternatively, he may send "a powerful delusion so that [people] will believe the lie" (2 Thessalonians 2:11), and in consequence we may enter into more suffering for Jesus than the West has known for some time. That would have the effect of aligning us with brothers and sisters in Christ in other parts of the world, and enable us to share something of the apostle's joy (Acts 5:41). 
 —D. A. Carson, The Intolerance of Tolerance (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012), 161-176.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Dear Lord, Make Me a Devout Parent

A Lutheran prayer for parenting:
O Lord Jesus Christ, you have opened my eyes for me to see how through your death you have redeemed me from sin, and through your resurrection have made me an heir of heaven and eternal life. 
Now, dear Lord, I thank you for these great and unspeakable gifts. I will in turn gladly do what you require of me. You have commanded me to serve my wife (husband) faithfully, and to bear the responsibilities of family life diligently and submissively. I will gladly do this. You have made me father (mother) of a family. 
Dear Lord, make me a devout parent. Help me to discharge my parental duties with heart and soul. I would rather lose my life than disobey you by offending my children and members of my household or by failing to guide them faithfully. You will not permit this ordinance and blessing of yours to be disturbed or destroyed, but will graciously protect it through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1994), 94.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Shallow Reductionism and Homosexuality

D. A. Carson on popular discourse about homosexuality:
Not for a moment should anyone deny that the evidence as to what "makes" a homosexual is extraordinarily complex. Few have matched the care and objectivity of the study by Stanton L. Jones and Mark A. Yarhouse. In popular discourse, however, virtually none of that complexity is allowed to surface in the public square. It is everywhere assumed that people are simply born that way, and that's all there is to it. Even if that were the case—and the evidence simply will not allow such shallow reductionism—it would not in itself establish that the practice of homosexuality is a good thing, absent a number of other assumptions
 —D. A. Carson, The Intolerance of Tolerance (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012), 134.

Monday, August 6, 2012

The Destruction of Sennacherib

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay wither'd and strown.

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he pass'd;
and the eyes of the sleepers wax'd deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
But through it there roll'd not the breath of his pride:
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
With the dew on his brow and the rust on his mail;
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!

—George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824)

Saturday, August 4, 2012

On Controversy and a Little Math

A good word over at Ligonier from John Newton about engaging in controversy. If you are sixty years old or older, read it twice a year, or roughly every six months. Multiply this recommendation of twice a year by two for every ten years that you fall short of sixty. If you are over eighty, you don't need to read it anymore.

I can hear the sophomoric nineteen-year-old's voice crying out vehemently in objection and gathering up a steam of polemic against legalism: "But where does the Bible require that!? And, in any case, if I did that, do you know how little time I'd have for fighting the enemy who is threatening to overthrow Christendom if I don't act now." Exactly.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Jesus Hates the Fed

Doug Wilson posts on legalized governmental theft:
Christian preachers need to just cut to the chase. Obamacare is not just theft, and not just grand larceny, it is mega larceny. Life is simple. Taking money from one group of people in order to give it to another group of people is larceny.
And further on:
I would have no problem condemning our modern banking and finance system, from the Fed on down, and I would have no problem issuing this condemnation from the pulpit in the name of Jesus. Why? Thou shalt not steal, as someone once said. 
"But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the Lord thy God" (Deut. 25:15-16). 
"Divers weights, and divers measures, Both of them are alike abomination to the Lord" (Prov. 20:10). 
"Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water" (Isa. 1:22).
This is why we can say that Jesus Christ hates the Fed. He hates it because it is an abomination to Him, and we can say this for the same reason that we can say He hates it when a butcher has his thumb on the scales. 
Pumping unbacked currency into the economy is the same sin in principle as having different sets of weights and measures. It is the same sin as mixing low-grade wheat into the silo, and pretending you didn't. It is the same sin as cutting the wine with water, and selling it as though you hadn't. 
It is the sin of putting copper into your quarters. That's not a little thing—the Bible calls it an abomination.
The whole post, which is quite good, may be found here.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Atheism, Secularism, and Oceans of Spilled Blood

D. A. Carson on the legacy of secularism in the twentieth century:
The twentieth century, the bloodiest in human history, exhibited spectacular instances of intolerance—and the most violent exemplars had very little to do with religion. Of course, there was at least a religious component in the strife in the Balkans and again in the bloody violence between the Tutsis and Hutus. Yet most observers recognized that even here the more important factors were tribalism, racism, perceived economic injustice, very different interpretations of history, and "honor" and vengeance killings that escalated to the scale of genocide.  
Few religious factors played much part in the largest of the slaughters of the twentieth century, the violence espoused by Fascism and Communism. Perhaps fifty million Chinese died under Mao, about twenty million Ukrainians under Stalin, and then we come to World War II and the Holocaust. In both its Russian and its Chinese forms, Communism was overtly atheistic. In both its German and its Italian forms, Fascism was nominally Christian but only in the sense that it was happy to appeal to God and religion in pursuit of its own social and political agendas, never so as to be reformed by Scripture or Christian truth or morality, never in any sense to belong to the great tradition of historic creeds. . . . Atheism, whether theoretical (as in Communism) or practical (as in Fascism), far from being tolerant, spilled oceans of blood. 
 —D. A. Carson, The Intolerance of Tolerance (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012), 72-73.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Reformation and the Liberal Arts

Doug Wilson offers a helpful review of The Liberal Arts: A Student's Guide by Gene C. Fant Jr. What these educators point out about that state of education and the needs of the hour really should be taken to heart by every thinking man, woman, boy, and girl, but especially by every nonthinking man, woman, boy, and girl. Such would be part of moving the church and country in the direction of much-needed reformation. I doubt that cultural reform and church reform can happen without serious educational reform, starting with our own children in the church.