Augustin's Conversion Critiqued and Defended

Some have offered critique of how stylized or superstitious or otherwise faulty is the "conversion" of Augustin (e.g., Adolf von Harnack) as he tells his conversion story in book VIII of his justly famous Confessions.

Dealing with this criticism, B. B. Warfield sympathetically considers what Augustin was doing in writing the Confessions:

The person we meet in [the Confessions] is a person, we perceive, who towers in greatness of mind and heart, in the loftiness of his thought and in his soaring aspirations, far above ordinary mortals: and yet he is felt to be compacted of the same clay from which we have ourselves been molded. . . . It is the very purpose of this book to give the impression that Augustine himself was a weak and erring sinner, and that all of good that came into his life was of God. 

It is especially important for us precisely at this point to recall our minds to the fact that to give such an impression is the supreme purpose of the Confessions. This whole account of his life-history which we have tried to follow up to its crisis in his conversion is written, let us remind ourselves, not that we may know Augustine, but that we may know God: and it shows us Augustine only that we may see God. The seeking and saving grace of God is the fundamental theme throughout. The events of Augustine's life are not, then, set forth in it simpliciter. 

Speaking then of the aim of Augustin in recounting the sins of his infancy and childhood, Warfield says:

In these traits of the narrative, however, Augustine is not passing judgment on himself alone, but in himself on humanity at large in its state of sin and misery. By an analysis of his own life-history he realizes for himself, and wishes to make us realize with him, what man is in his sinful development on the earth, that our eyes may be raised from man to see what God is in his loving dealing with the children of men. We err, if from the strong, dark lines in which he paints his picture we should infer that he would have us believe that in his infancy, youth, or manhood he was a sinner far beyond the sinfulness of other men. . . .

He knew his own sinfulness as he knew the sinfulness of no other man, and it was his one burning desire that he should in his recovery to God recognize and celebrate the ineffableness of the grace of God. The pure grace of God is thus his theme throughout, and nowhere is it more completely so than in this culminating scene of his conversion. 

—"Augustine and his 'Confessions,'" in The Works of Benjamin B. Warfield: Studies in Tertullian and Augustine (vol. 4; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003), 267–268.

Goods Well Spent

"O Lord, come to me and use my bread, silver, and gold. How very well they are spent if I spend them in your service. Amen."

—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 96.

N. T. Wright All for Dialogue: Until You Think He's Wrong

Criticizing N. T. Wright's public comments in this post (whether the critique is valid or not) was bound to get a reaction from those for whom one must never do such a thing. And we thought Wright himself was all for dialogue. No? Isn't he up for hearing from people all over the spectrum on all sorts of issues? No? Or is this only the case when someone is kissing the right part of his hind parts?

With all due respect to N. T. Wright (and I do respect him and read and learn from him often), if you wish to see him being a bit of a baby (and condescending) and pulling his oft-repeated "I-don't-recognize-myself" shenanigans, check out his comment in the comments section of this post by Pastor Wilson.

Wilson and Wright are both good men, faithful Christians, and their teachings are worth studying diligently. Wherever one falls on the theological, political, and cultural spectrum on the full range of issues, surely we can agree that these two men disagreeing isn't cause for grave concern. We ought to hang in there with them, that is, if Wright is even willing himself to do so. But it appears he's not willing to dialogue with people who disagree with him quite so sharply.

Update: Wilson's follow-up post responding to Wright's comment in the comments section.

The End for Which God Created the Local Church

With the passing of time and the experience of living longer in this world and in the anemic American evangelical church, and with another year passing of reading through holy writ, I'm convinced that the heartbeat of every church—palpable in doctrinal statements, vision statements, and all of church life—must be a passion and zeal for the glory of God. Anything else is too small, too man-centered, too sub-biblical.

The combination of a pervasive man-centeredness today and the pervasive presence of texts like the one I read this morning—

Help us, O God of our salvation,
for the glory of your name;
deliver us, and atone for our sins,
for your name's sake! (Ps. 79:9)—

conspire to make me more eager than ever for God's name to be hallowed in all things in the life of the Church, in the world, and in homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces. Texts like the one quoted are everywhere in Scripture. It is the major note struck in the Bible. It is the major note God is striking in the symphonic narrative of redemptive history that he has orchestrated. And yet (to my great dismay and grief), it is hardly even a minor note in many, many churches.

As Jonathan Edwards reminds the church so well, the display and approbation of the glory of God is the end for which God made the world. And if it is God's end or goal in creation—and it most certainly is!—it ought to be our end in everything we think, say, plot, and do in the local church. Such a heartbeat ought so to thump in a local church that it is felt immediately and pervasively by all who come in contact with her living and breathing ministries and members. That is, unless she is dead or dying. 

Specifically, the glory of God must be manifestly known and prized. We must manifest that we know something about it, and then we must show how we treasure it above all else. And this must be included in doctrinal and vision statements, but must go way beyond such statements. In other words, it needs to be institutionally up front and center, like the first thing you see when you go to a website; but it must not be a dead letter, either. The glory of God affirmed on paper only is only an indictment. 

Even more specifically, based on Eph. 1:6, the aspect of the glory of God that needs to be highlighted and emphasized and gloried and rejoiced in is the glory of God's free grace for sinners. God's redemption planned from eternity past aims at this: "the praise of the glory of his grace" (Eph. 1:6, translation mine). So we should openly and vocally exist for this ultimate reason. 

So many other things in vision statements are good and right in their own place. But inasmuch as they are penultimate (that is to say, not the display and enjoyment of the glory of God), then they ought to exist openly for the ultimate: the glory of God. Otherwise, they betray a profound betrayal of the Bible's dominant emphasis and the goal of the universe—that is, God's goal to glorify himself in all things. 

So my prayer for local churches today is for the name of God to be esteemed and hallowed and praised and gloried in and valued above all else—manifestly, palpably, pervasively. 

Conviction to Lead: The Leader and Time

I've been reading a very good book by Albert Mohler that has surpassed my expectations: Conviction to Lead. To be honest, I expected to find it helpful and instructive only here and there, but every chapter is chock-full of useful instruction. I would not be surprised if this book turns out to be Mohler's most significant and enduring.

Here's a sample from a chapter I just finished called "The Leader and Time":

I fear that many Christian leaders (including many pastors) have made themselves too unavailable. Leaders must protect time against constant interruption and distraction, but the people placed within their care and influence are not, in themselves, interruptions or distractions. No one said striking the right balance would be easy. The most effective leaders, however, learn to negotiate this balance by both insight and intuition (187).

From another section a little further on:

Long ago, I developed a habit of wearing a watch with an old-fashioned sweep second hand. I like to hear it tick, knowing that every tick marks the passing of time. I like noisy clocks in my study—clocks I can hear marking the time. I can feel the passing of time in my bones, and that knowledge makes me want to be a more faithful steward of time tomorrow than I was today. Time will tell (189). 

—Albert Mohler, The Conviction to Lead: Twenty-five Principles for Leadership that Matters (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2012). 

Affection Among Friends

Augustine on the charms of friendship:

We could talk and laugh together and exchange small acts of kindness. We could join in the pleasure that books can give. We could be grave or gay together. If we sometimes disagreed, it was without spite, as a man might differ with himself, and the rare occasions of dispute were the very spice to season our usual accord. Each of us had something to learn from the others and something to teach in return. If any were away, we missed them with regret and gladly welcomed them when they came home. Such things as these are heartfelt tokens of affection between friends. They are signs to be read on the face and in the eyes, spoken by the tongue and displayed in countless acts of kindness. They can kindle a blaze to melt our hearts and weld them into one.

—Saint Augustine, Confessions, trans. R. S. Pine-Coffin (New York: Penguin, 1961), 79.

True Friendship: A Holy Spirit Bought Bond

"For though they cling together, no friends are true friends unless you, my God, bind them fast to one another through that love which is sown in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us."

—Saint Augustin, Confessions, trans. R. S. Pine-Coffin (New York: Penguin, 1961), 75.

Love (2)

Immortal Heat, O let thy greater flame
    Attract the lesser to it: let those fires,
    Which shall consume the world, first make it tame;
And kindle in our hearts such true desires,
As may consume our lusts, and make thee way.
    Then shall our hearts pant thee; then shall our brain
    All here invention on thine Altar lay,
And there in hymns send back thy fire again:
Our eyes shall see thee, which before saw dust;
    Dust blown by wit, till that they both were blind:
    Thou shalt recover all they goods in kind,
Who wert disseised by usurping lust:
    All knees shall bow to thee; all wits shall rise,
    And praise him who did make and mend our eyes.

—George Herbert, The Complete English Poems (New York: Penguin, 1991), 48.

Persevering Prayer

Andrew Murray:

When our repeated prayers remain unanswered, it is easy for our lazy flesh—maintaining the appearance of pious submission—to think that we must stop praying because God may have a secret reason for withholding his answer to our request. Faith alone can overcome difficulty. Once faith has taken its stand on God's Word and the Name of Jesus, and has yielded itself to the leading of the Spirit to seek only God's will and honor in its prayer, it need not be discouraged by delay. It knows from Scripture that the power of believing prayer is considerable; real faith can never be disappointed. It knows that to exercise its power, it must be gathered up, just like water, until the stream can come down in full force. Prayer must often be "heaped up" until God sees that its measure is full. Then the answer comes. 

—With Christ in the School of Prayer (Springdale: Whitaker House, 1981), 119.

The Actual Subject of Augustin's "Autobiography"

B. B. Warfield:

His actual subject is not himself, but the goodness of God; and he [Augustin] introduces his own experiences only as the most lively of illustrations of the dealings of God with the human soul as he makes it restless until it finds its rest in him. 

A little further on, after discussing how the Confessions of Augustin are in a different class from Rousseau's Confessions, Warfield makes a nearer generic comparison to bring out what sort of book the Confessions is:

 The closest analogy to Augustine's Confessions, among books, at least, which have attained anything like the same popular influence, is furnished by John Bunan's Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. Bunyan's purpose is precisely the same as Augustine's—to glorify the grace of God.

Furthermore, he says:

The interval that divides Augustine's Confessions from the Pilgrim's Progress is less than that which separates them from any simple autobiography—veracious and searching autobiography though a great portion of it is. For the whole concernment of the book is with the grace of God to a lost sinner. It is this, and not himself, that is its theme. 

—"Augustine and his 'Confessions,'" in The Works of Benjamin B. Warfield: Studies in Tertullian and Augustine (vol. 4; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003), 240–241.

For Love of Your Love, O Lord, I Recall the Chains from which You Released Me

Recently I read sections 1 and 2 of book 2 of Augustin's Confessions as part of my "devotional" reading. And this portion carries me back to the sins of my youth as so much of what Augustin recalls recalls for me what I don't recall so well left to myself. It felt like a wave breaking over my life that carried up from my past onto the shore of my present the evils from which God has wondrously now rescued me for almost longer than I was immersed in the mire of sin. I'm exceedingly grateful to God and moved with "love of [his] love."

Here are portions of the portions that move me so deeply:

I must now carry my thoughts back to the abominable things I did in those days, the sins of the flesh that defiled my soul. I do this, my God, not because I love those sins, but so that I may love you. For love of your love I shall retrace my wicked ways. The memory is bitter, but it will help me to savor your sweetness, the sweetness that does not deceive but brings real joy and never fails. For love of your love I shall retrieve myself from the havoc of disruption that tore me to pieces when I turned away from you, whom alone I should have sought, and lost myself instead on many a different quest. For as I grew to manhood I was inflamed with desire for a surfeit of hell's pleasures. Foolhardy as I was, I ran wild with lust that was manifold and rank. In your eyes my beauty vanished and I was foul to the core, yet I was pleased with my own condition and anxious to be pleasing in the eyes of men.  

I cared for nothing but to love and be loved. But my love went beyond the affection of one mind for another, beyond the arc of the bright beam of friendship. Bodily desire, like a morass, and adolescent sex welling up within me exuded mists that clouded over and obscured my heart, so that I could not distinguish the clear light of true love from the murk of lust. Love and lust together seethed within me. In my tender youth they swept me away over the precipice of my body's appetites and plunged me in the whirlpool of sin. More and more I angered you, unawares. For I had been deafened by the clank of my chains, the fetters of the death that was my due to punish the pride in my soul. I strayed still further from you and you did not restrain me. I was tossed and spilled, floundering in the broiling sea of my fornication, and you said no word. How long it was before I learned that you were my true joy! You were silent then, and I went on my way, further and further from you, proud in my distress and restless in fatigue, sowing more and more seeds whose only crop was grief.

—Saint Augustine, Confessions, trans. R. S. Pine-Coffin (New York: Penguin, 1961), 43–44.

Following Christ in Handling Genesis

Speaking of how to approach the opening chapters of Genesis, Henri Blocher says this:

We must approach the opening chapters of Genesis as inspired texts, rich with the truth of God, clothed with the authority of God. We must also, in order to understand them better, make use of the harmony of the Scriptures. We must take advantage of the common inspiration, bringing other passages to illumine the difficulties. That we shall do. We shall trust the method of interpreting Scripture by Scripture, according to "the analogy of faith." How could we reject that method if we claim to follow Christ?

—In the Beginning: The Opening Chapters of Genesis, transl. David G. Preston (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1984), 17.

Grace

My stock lies dead, and no increase
Doth my dull husbandry improve:
O let thy graces without cease
                                      Drop from above!

If still the sun should hide his face,
Thy house would but a dungeon prove,
Thy works night's captives: O let grace
                                      Drop from above!

The dew doth ev'ry morning fall;
And shall the dew out-strip thy Dove?
The dew, for which grass cannot call,
                                      Drop from above.

Death is still working like a mole,
And digs my grave at each remove:
Let grace work too, and on my soul
                                     Drop from above.

Sin is still hammering my heart
Unto a hardness, void of love:
Let suppling grace, to cross his art,
                                      Drop from above.

O come! for thou dost know the way.
Or if to me thou wilt not move,
Remove me, where I need not say,
                                      Drop from above.

—George Herbert, The Complete English Poems (New York: Penguin, 1991), 54.

The Christian Brother Outstrips the Psychiatrist for Depth

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

The most experienced psychologist or observer of human nature knows infinitely less of the human heart than the simplest Christian who lives beneath the Cross of Jesus. The greatest psychological insight, ability, and experience cannot grasp this one thing: what sin is. Worldly wisdom knows what distress and weakness and failure are, but it does not know the godlessness of men. And so it also does not know that man is destroyed only by his sin and can be healed only by forgiveness. Only the Christian knows this. In the presence of a psychiatrist I can only be a sick man; in the presence of a Christian brother I can dare to be a sinner. The psychiatrist must first search my heart and yet he never plumbs its ultimate depth. The Christian brother knows when I come to him: here is a sinner like myself, a godless man who wants to confess and yearns for God's forgiveness. The psychiatrist views me as if there were no God. The brother views me as I am before the judging and merciful God in the Cross of Jesus Christ. 

—Life Together (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993), 142–143.

Pastor as Professional Counselor?

Speaking of how the Christian counseling of the pastor differs from the "arm's-length professional reserve of the therapist," David Powlison says this:

After all, we follow David, Jeremiah, Jesus, and Paul. Shouts of delight along with loud cries and groaning are part of the whole package. No real pastor can be clinically detached. The Paul who wrote 1 Thessalonians 2:7–12 is far too emotionally involved. Like Jesus, he cares too much to ever stand at arm's length from people and their troubles. If Jesus had entered into purely consultative, professional relationships, he'd have had to stop being a pastor.

—"The Pastor as Counselor," in For the Fame of God's Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 424.

O YHWH, How Majestic Is Your Name in All the Earth!

Here's the congregational prayer at NCC from this past Ascension Sunday and Mother's Day, shaped by Psalm 8:

O YHWH, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth, the name above every name, the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord, you have exalted your holy majesty above the heavens.

Out of the mouth of children and infants you have established strength—the praise of your people. Because of your adversaries, O Lord, you produce this praise. You establish, through powerless children no less, this strength, this praise, and you do so to silence the enemy and the avenger.

So we praise you, O great God, for mothers who love your praise, for mothers zealous to pass on “the heritage of those who fear your name.” We praise you, exalted Lord, for mothers who labored in the trenches faithfully for years without concern for the world’s smiles and honors. We praise you, Father of the fatherless, for putting into mothers’ hearts the gospel longing to adopt the powerless and helpless for your praise. We praise you, our kind Maker, for our earthly mothers, who gave us bodily life and tenderly cared for us; for our heavenly mother the church, who gave us new life, and sustains that new life, all for your high honor.

As we think of your gift of life, O Giver of life, we think of the loss of life in this broken and fallen world. We think of those who’ve lost a little one, and the barren womb. Send the comfort of your presence, O God of all comfort, God of all grace. We praise you for the desire in the hearts of these women to want children to raise for your praise. And we pray that you would “fulfill every desire for good.” With the fingers that fashioned the stars, touch the womb with new life, O Lord—we ask this for the sake of your name!

                        O YHWH, our Lord, how majestic 

                        is your name in all the earth.

When we consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you put in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.

In subjecting all things to man, male and female, made in your image, you left nothing, O Creator, you left nothing not subject to man. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him. But we see Jesus, born of a woman, made a little lower than angels; we see him crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, by the grace of God tasting death for everyone. We see Jesus, raised from the dead, exalted to the right Hand, above all rule and authority and power and dominion, above every name that is named. We see Jesus, all things under his feet, head over all things for us, the church, his body, reigning til we reign with him in a new heavens and new earth.

                        O YHWH, our Lord Jesus, how majestic 

                        is your name in all the earth.

So establish strength, almighty God, in the new humanity risen with Christ. In our weakness and the weakness of our children, establish strength, prepare praise. Help our mothers to press on in this greatest, highest calling of nurturing children for your praise. We pray, God Most High, for Christ-like mothers who humble themselves, stooping daily to take concern for the weak, lowly, despised things, offering up their bodies as sacrifices for your praise across the generations. Supply them with grace for this high and holy calling!

We, your children and your church—made for your praise!—we praise you, O Lord. We adore you! We adore your wisdom, we adore your power. What wisdom, what power, designed all this! Taking the weak, lowly, despised things of this world, to shame the strong, the high, the praised things of this world. Even taking children and their mothers and the cross to establish strength, the praise of your people—the praise of your great name! 

Blessed be that name above all names, the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, generation after generation, forever and ever.

O YHWH, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

Amen, and amen. 

Time Well Spent, O Pastor?

"Is your preaching worth the time you put into it and the time others spend listening? The proof lies in whether they are growing up into wise mutual counselors."

—David Powlison, "The Pastor as Counselor," in For the Fame of God's Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 420.

Redemption

Having been tenant long to a rich Lord,
       Not thriving, I resolved to be bold,
       And make a suit unto him, to afford
A new small-rented lease, and cancel th' old.
In heaven at his manor I him sought:
       They told me there, that he was lately gone
       About some land, which he had dearly bought
Long since on earth, to take possession.
I straight returned, and knowing his great birth,
       Sought him accordingly in great resorts;
       In cities, theaters, gardens, parks, and courts:
At length I heard a ragged noise and mirth
       Of thieves and murderers: there I him espied,
       Who straight, Your suit is granted, said, and died.

—George Herbert, The Complete English Poems (New York: Penguin, 1991), 35–36.

My God, My Life, My Holy Delight

Shortly Em and I will start reading Augustin's Confessions together along with some friends. This book may well be my top all-time read. The sample that follows (to my mind) ought to supply ample reason for my thinking so. Where else have you read anything like this?

What, then, is the God I worship? He can be none but the Lord God himself, for who but the Lord is God? What other refuge can there be, except our God?  

You, my God, are supreme, utmost in goodness, mightiest and all-powerful, most merciful and most just. You are the most hidden from us and yet the most present amongst us, the most beautiful and yet the most strong, ever enduring and yet we cannot comprehend you. You are unchangeable and yet you change all things. You are never new, never old, and yet all things have new life from you. You are the unseen power that brings decline upon the proud. You are ever active, yet always at rest. You gather all things to yourself, though you suffer no need. You support, you fill, and you protect all things. You create them, nourish them, and bring them to perfection. You seek to make them your own, though you lack for nothing. You love your creatures, but with a gentle love. You treasure them, but without apprehension. You grieve for wrong, but suffer no pain. You can be angry and yet serene. Your works are varied, but your purpose is one and the same. You welcome all who come to you, though you never lost them. You are never in need yet are glad to gain, never covetous yet you exact a return for your gifts. We give abundantly to you so that we may deserve a reward; yet which of us has anything that does not come from you? You repay us what we deserve, and yet you owe
nothing to any. You release us from our debts, but you lose nothing thereby.

You are my God, my Life, my holy Delight, but is this enough to say of you? Can any man say enough when he speaks of you? Yet woe betide those who are silent about you! For even those who are most gifted with speech cannot find words to describe you. 

—Saint Augustine, Confessions, trans. R. S. Pine-Coffin (New York: Penguin, 1961), 23.

The "Confessions" in Community

For those who'll be reading the Confessions of Saint Augustine this spring and summer, here's the schedule we'll be following, along with some links to recommended translations:

Week of 5/12–5/18: Book I
Week of 5/19–5/25: Book II
Week of 5/26–6/1: Book III
Week of 6/2–6/8: Book IV
Week of 6/9–6/15: Book V
Week of 6/16–6/22: Book VI
Week of 6/23–6/29: Book VII
Week of 6/30–7/6: Book VIII
Week of 7/7–7/13: Book IX
Week of 7/14–7/20: Book X
Week of 7/21–7/27: Book XI
Week of 7/28–8/3: Book XII
Week of 8/4–8/10: Book XIII

You might want to purchase either the Penguin Classics or the Oxford World's Classics translation if you don't already have a copy. I have read both, and they both read well. For what it's worth, Em and I will be reading the Penguin translation this time around. 

Tolle lege!

Were the Apostles Good Expositors and Exegetes?

R. T. France:

It may be something of a surprise to those brought up in the tradition of biblical exposition to find that the biblical writers themselves do not often seem to use other biblical texts in the same way that we have come to use their own writings. In particular, extended exposition of Old Testament passages in an expository fashion does not seem to be a characteristic of most of the New Testament writers.

—"The Writer of Hebrews as a Biblical Expositor," TynBul 47 (1996):245–76.

Luther on a Life of Repentance

Luther's first thesis from his Ninety-Five Theses:

"When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, 'Repent' [Matt. 4:17], he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance."

—Martin Luther, "Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences," in Luther's Works: Career of the Reformer I (vol. 31; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1957), 25.

O Lord, Awaken Us to Receive and Serve Your Son

Luther:

Dear Lord, awaken us that we may be prepared to receive your Son with joy when he comes and to serve him with a pure heart. Graciously hurry the coming of that day. Bless and prepare us with wisdom and strength that in the meantime we may walk wisely and uprightly. May we joyfully wait for the coming of your dear Son and so depart blessed from this valley of sorrow. Amen.

—Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 106.

The Manger Is not Clean, but Abundant Crops Are Coming

My study looks like the end of a semester with three final term papers well underway.

The sight of this sorry mess calls to mind Prov. 14:4.

The "manger" is not clean. But "abundant crops" are coming.

Seeing Jesus at the Supper Poetically Put

I'm on the lookout for good poetry about seeing Jesus by faith at the Lord's Table. I want something to help with expressing this glory! Someone, somewhere must have penned a poem about experiencing Jesus at the Supper with that blessed sixth sense.

When I said this publicly, a kind friend sent me a poem by Huss and a Greek poem from the fourth century. Both are good poems and express the glory of the table and exercising faith there. I'm looking for some, however, that express as their main theme what Edwards called that "divine and supernatural light immediately imparted to the soul."

If none exists, I just might learn how to write poetry one of these days and give it my best go. For the first time in years, I believe, I once again beheld the glory of Christ and his kingdom at the Table this last Lord's Day. And oh how sweet it was to look on Jesus there! And oh how that table can cure ten thousand ills of soul!

All praise be to the risen Christ, who lives and reigns forever as the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world for serial sinners like me!

Depression, Mental Illness, and Suicide

A helpful group of resources on depression, mental illness, and suicide may be found here.

Heidelberg on Baptism

Question 73: Why doth the Holy Ghost call baptism the washing of regeneration and the washing away of sins?

Answer: God speaks thus not without great cause: namely, not only to teach us thereby that like as the filthiness of the body is taken away by water, so our sins also are taken away by the blood and Spirit of Christ; but much more, that by this divine pledge and token he may assure us that we are as really washed from our sins spiritually as our bodies are washed with water.

Question 74: Are infants also to be baptized?

Answer: Yes; for since they, as well as their parents, belong to the covenant and people of God, and both redemption from sin and the Holy Ghost, who works faith, are through the blood of Christ promised to them no less than to their parents, they are also by baptism, as a sign of the covenant, to be ingrafted into the Christian Church, and distinguished from the children of unbelievers, as was done in the Old Testament by circumcision, in place of which in the New Testament baptism is appointed.

—Philip Schaff, ed., The Creeds of Christendom (vol. 3; Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996), 330–331.

Dullness

Why do I languish, thus, drooping and dull,
                    As if I were all earth?
O give me quickness, that I may with mirth
                          Praise thee brimfull!

The wanton lover in a curious strain
                   Can praise his fairest fair;
And with quaint metaphors her curled hair
                           Curl o'er again.

Thou art my loveliness, my life, my light,
                   Beauty alone to me:
Thy bloody death and undeserved, makes thee
                          Pure red and white.

When all perfections as but one appear,
                    That those thy form doth show,
The very dust, where thou dost tread and go,
                           Makes beauties here;

Where are my lines then? my approaches? views?
                    Where are my window-songs?
Lovers are still pretending, and ev'n wrongs
                            Sharpen their Muse:

But I am lost in flesh, whose sugared lies
                   Still mock me, and grow bold;
Sure thou didst put a mind there, if I could
                           Find where it lies.

Lord, clear thy gift, that with a constant wit
                    I may but look towards thee:
Look only; for to love thee, who can be,
                            What angel fit?
                 
—George Herbert, The Complete English Poems (New York: Penguin Classics, 1991), 107–108.
 

A Successful Hermeneutic: Confirmed by Scripture Itself

"A successful hermeneutic is a consistent interpretative procedure yielding a consistent understanding of Scripture that in turn confirms the propriety of the procedure itself."

—Packer, J. I., Celebrating the Saving Work of God: The Collected Shorter Writings of J. I. Packer (Carlisle: Paternoster, 1998), 9–10.

The Inverted Valuations of Western Culture

"God, society, family, individuals, sex, property. It is an order of values that western culture has more or less completely reversed."

—Christopher Wright, Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1992), 210.

Simple Obedience

"Obedience ought not to be complicated, either by the competing claims of other gods (the moral maze of polytheism), or by the confusing rules of human experts (the moral bondage of legalism)."

—Christopher J. H. Wright, Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1992), 190.

Faith Looks Forward to Unfulfilled Divine Promises

N. T. Wright speaking on genuine faith as resurrection faith:

The main point of 'faith' in [Hebrews 11], as has often been emphasized, is that it looks forward to what has been promised but not yet granted. Noah was warned about things yet to come. Abraham set out for a place he had been promised but had not yet seen. The main antithesis the writer is making is not between an 'upstairs' or 'spiritual' world in the hellenistic sense and a 'downstairs' or 'material' world, but between the present world and the future one, the promised new world which will be God's gift from heaven.

—The Resurrection of the Son of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003), 458.

How Prophecy Does and Does not Work

Christopher H. J. Wright on how OT prophecy works:

To expect that all the details of Old Testament prophecies have to be literally fulfilled is to classify them all in the category of flat predictions which have to ‘come true’, or be judged to have failed. . . . The Old Testament did make predictions and they were fulfilled with remarkable accuracy—as in the case of Jesus’s birth in Bethlehem. . . . [But] to insist on literal fulfillment of prophecies can be to overlook their actual nature within the category of promise, with the potential of different and progressively superior levels of fulfillment. To look for direct fulfillments of, say, Ezekiel in the 20^th-century Middle East is to bypass and short-circuit the reality and the finality of what we already have in Christ as the fulfillment of those great assurances. 

—Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1992), 76-77.

Giving Application the Attention It Deserves in the Sermon

Haddon Robinson:

Homileticians have not given accurate application the attention it deserves. To my knowledge, no book has been published that is devoted exclusively, or even primarily, to the knotty problems raised by application. As a result many church members, having listened to orthodox sermons all their lives, may be practicing heretics. Our creeds affirm the central doctrines of the faith and remind us what Christians should believe, but they do not tell us how belief in these doctrines should make us behave. That is part of the expositor's responsibility, and you must give it diligent attention.

—Biblical Preaching: The Development and Delivery of Expository Messages (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001), 86.

A Two-Way Process at Work, Yielding a Double Benefit

Christopher J. H. Wright on whole-Bible methodology:

When we take the Old Testament history seriously in relation to its completion in Jesus Christ, a two-way process is at work, yielding a double benefit in our understanding of the whole Bible. On the one hand, we are able to see the full significance of the Old Testament story in the light of where it leads—the climactic achievement of Christ; and on the other hand, we are able to appreciate the full dimensions of what God did through Christ in the light of his historical declarations and demonstrations of intent in the Old Testament.

—Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1992), 33.

God's Only Son a Missionary

"God had only one son and he made him a missionary."— David Livingstone

To Submit, or Not to Submit, That Is the Question

Which of the following may Evangelicals disobey? Or where do Evangelicals allow for disobedience? Or perhaps putting the questions that way is slanting things too much. After all, there are differences of opinion on some of these. Or maybe we can have differences of opinion on all of these. Things that make you go hmmm. . . .

1. "Let everyone submit to the governing authorities" (Rom. 13:1; cf. Tit. 3:1).

2. "You who are younger, submit to the elders" (1 Pet. 5:5; cf. Heb. 13:17).

3. "Wives, submit to your husbands . . ." (Col. 3:18; cf. Eph. 5:22; 1 Pet. 3:1).

4. "Servants, submit to your masters with all respect. . ." (1 Pet. 2:18; cf. Eph. 6:5).

In case you were wondering, the same Greek word is behind the word "submit" in all the verses listed here in one through four. Following the verses listed, some of the additional verses cited in parentheses (Heb. 13:17; Eph. 6:5) use different words that are often translated "obey" or the like.

A Guide to the Classics

Leland Ryken on the classics: here. I rejoice as one who has found great spoil!

True Love for God

I'm enjoying thoroughly sitting at Professor Dan Block's feet in an exegesis class on Deuteronomy at Wheaton College. And one of the main reasons for this is Dr. Block's manifest devotion to YHWH— Father, Son, and Spirit.

Commenting on the significance of Deut. 6:4-9 for contemporary life, here are some applications Block gives that rejoice my heart:

True love for God is rooted in the heart, but it is demonstrated in life, specifically in a passion to speak of one's faith in the context of the family and to declare one's allegiance publicly to the world. This passage suggests that the very decoration of our homes should bear testimony to our faith, declaring to all guests and passers-by the fundamentally theological outlook of those who live within, and serving as reminders to residents to live in dependence on God and to realize that blessing is contingent on obedience.

—Daniel I. Block, Deuteronomy (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012), 189.

O Lord God, I Am Weak and Fearful

Luther:

O Lord God, I am weak and fearful. I flee evil and do all I can to guard myself against it. Nevertheless, I am in your hands as I face this evil and every other evil that may overtake me. To flee is not enough, for evil and misery are everywhere. The devil, who has been murdering since the beginning, tries to bring misery, and he never rests nor sleeps. Now you have confined me to this place. Your will be done, for I am your poor creature. You are able to deliver me in this extreme danger as easily as though it were but fire, water, thirst, or any other peril.

—Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 105.

Queen of the Sciences?

For the love of God, I have a question for Christians. A serious one. It's not meant to be rhetorical. 

The question comes out of a context. It comes on account of an observation: in our modern-day way of doing things—that is, in a pluralistic, democratic, and egalitarian fashion—it appears to be very difficult, even for those who claim to think world-viewishly, for Christians to think from a center, from an integration point. 

It appears to me that often we only give lip-service to such an endeavor, while deep down, if we’re honest with the way we really carry out business, we don’t think there is an integrating center. The world is a fragmented place, and nothing really holds it all together. The theologians do their thing. And political scientists do theirs. And when we're in one field, we appeal to the specialists there; when in another, we appeal to the specialists there. But there's no fundamental reality that speaks to all of reality and holds together the parts of the whole. 

So here is the question: Is theology still the queen of the sciences? Or should we just give her a place at the table? And whether the first question gets answered yes or no, what is the upshot? Not least in institutions like churches, universities and colleges, the family, and in the public square?

I wonder if the question just seems passé as we press on with progress, leaving bygone days in the dust, along with the primitive folks who came before these days of enlightenment where we throw off—with shouts of liberation!—the shackles of the past. And  by "we," I mean us, professing Christians. 

The Art of Persuasion: Emotion

People "decide far more problems by hate or love, or lust or rage, or sorrow or joy, or hope or fear than by rational argument" (Cicero, De oratore 2.42). 

The Greatest Christian Paradox of All

Ross Douthat:

Indeed, this is perhaps the greatest Christian paradox of all—that the world's most paradoxical religion has cultivated rationalism and scientific rigor more diligently than any of its rivals, making the Christian world safe for philosophy as well as fervor, for the study of nature as well as the contemplation of divinity.

—Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics (New York: Free Press, 2012), 11.

Christianity vis–à–vis Secularism

"Though Christians often bemoan the separation of church and state and claim angrily that the separation of church and state is not in the Constitution, they are actually expressing their frustration with secularism as the preferred ideology of many elites in politics, media, and education.

Christians should absolutely bring their faith to bear in the public square. They should reject the influence of secularism urging them to keep their faith private and not to argue for a Christian perspective in areas like politics and education. What they must not do is to repeat the mistake of mingling the church's future with that of the state. Temporal kingoms have no eternal destiny. The church does."

—Hunter Baker, The End of Secularism (Wheaton: Crossway, 2009), 148.

Edwards on "Affectionate" Preaching

In Part 3 of Jonathan Edwards’ work Some Thoughts Concerning the Revival of Religion in New England,[1] he answers criticisms of the revival. This part is entitled “Shewing in Many Instances Wherein the Subjects or Zealous Promoters of This Work Have Been Injuriously Blamed.”[2]

The first criticism Edwards answers involves the accusation that ministers were addressing themselves to the affections of their hearers instead of their understandings.[3] I shall quote the criticism restated by Edwards and then at length much of Edwards’ response to this first of ten criticisms.

The criticism:

One thing that has been complained of, is ministers addressing themselves rather to the affections of their hearers than to their understandings, and striving to raise their passions to the utmost height, rather by a very affectionate manner of speaking and a great appearance of earnestness in voice and gesture, than by clear reasoning and informing their judgment. . . .

Edwards' answer:

To which I would say, I am far from thinking that it is not very profitable, for ministers in their preaching, to endeavor clearly and distinctly to explain the doctrines of religion, and unravel the difficulties that attend them, and to confirm them with strength of reason and argumentation, and also to observe some easy and clear method and order in their discourses, for the help of the understanding and memory; and ’tis very probably  that these things have been of late, too much neglected by many ministers; yet, I believe that the objection that is made, of affections raised without enlightening the understanding, is in a great measure built on a mistake, and confused notions that some have about the nature and cause of the affections, and the manner in which they depend on the understanding. All affections are raised either by light in the understanding, or by some error and delusion in the understanding; for all affections do certainly arise from some apprehension in the understanding. . . .

Therefore the thing to be inquired into is, whether the apprehensions or notions of divine and eternal things, that are raised in people’s minds by these affectionate preachers, whence their affections are excited, be apprehensions that are agreeable to truth, or whether they are mistakes. If the former, then the affections are raised the way they should be, viz. by informing the mind, or conveying light to the understanding. They go away with a wrong notion, that think that those preachers can’t affect their hearers by enlightening their understandings, that don’t do it by such a distinct, and learned handling of the doctrinal points of religion, as depends on human discipline, or the strength of natural reason, and tends to enlarge their hearers’ learning, and speculative knowledge of divinity. The manner of preaching without this, may be such as shall tend very much to set divine and eternal things in a right view, and to give the hearers such ideas and apprehensions of them as are agreeable to truth, and such impressions on their hearts, as are answerable to the real nature of things: and not only the words that are spoken, but the manner of speaking,[4] is one thing that has a great tendency to this.

The "Bottom" of All True Spiritual Mortification

"Hatred of sin as sin, not only as galling or disquieting, a sense of the love of Christ in the cross, lie at the bottom of all true spiritual mortification."

— John Owen, On the Mortification of Sin (vol. 6 in The Works of John Owen; ed. William H. Gould; Carlisle: Banner of Truth, 2000), 41.

A Changing Landscape

In John Piper's sermon this last Lord's Day, he spoke of how the moral landscape is different now from when he first became a pastor. Speaking of where we were in this land 33 years ago versus where we are now, he says:

It would have been unthinkable to suggest that anyone would seriously propose defining marriage as between two men or two women; and it would have been even more unthinkable that in a mere thirty years America would have lost its soul so profoundly that most Americans would approve of a definition of marriage that no society in the history of the world has ever embraced. And it would have been unthinkable that instead of rejecting the unreality of so-called same-sex marriage, the culture would begin to criminalize the naming of same-sex intercourse as sin — which it is.

And along with this tragic loss of our moral compass has come the increasing loss of freedoms and the increasing compulsion from government to conform to unbiblical views. Freedom of speech is disappearing as the secular consensus grows that our shame is our glory (Phil. 3:19), and that to use biblical language to describe sin is hateful and already in some places prosecuted as illegal. Freedom of worship is disappearing as metropolitan commissions and councils take the prerogative to prohibit worship spaces and activities. And along with the loss of freedoms to act in biblical ways, comes the governmental compulsion to act in unbiblical ways — to fund the killing of unborn children, to endorse the legitimacy of sinful behavior, and soon to participate in it (for example, if you are a military chaplain), and the compulsory normalizing of sin in public institutions that will probably force most biblical Christians out of the public schools.

How then shall we live? We must think soberly about our times and face the facts. We must not act like things are not all that bad, heads in the sand. And we must think about the way forward. Piper faces the facts and answers the how-then-shall-we-live question in this sermon.

The Broken Sinai Covenant and Pleading the Promise

More on Sinai:

This [covenant at Sinai and its priestly purpose] is an ideal picture. One serious problem remains. It is not Pharaoh this time but Israel itself. Separating the planning and description of the sanctuary (Exod. 25-31) from its construction in the middle of the camp (Exod. 35-40) is Israel’s sin (Exod. 32-34). . . . Within forty days, Israel breaks its covenant with God, violating the first and second commands. Impatient with waiting for Moses on the mountain, Israel creates an image of a golden calf to represent its God, and engages in false worship. The sin forces God to threaten to destroy Israel in agreement with the covenant and to start again with Moses. But Moses pleads (certainly not on the basis of the recently broken Sinai covenant) on the basis of the descendants promised in the covenant with Abraham as grounds for saving Israel (Exod. 32:13). It is only this reason that decisively moves God to have mercy on Israel.

—Stephen G. Dempster, Dominion and Dynasty: A Theology of the Hebrew Bible (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2003), 104. Italics his. 

Man Well Drest

Prayer the Church's banquet, Angels' age,
             God's breath in man returning to his birth,
             The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth;
Engine against th' Almighty, sinners' tower,
             Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
             The six-days-world transposing in an hour,
A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;
Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,
             Exalted Manna, gladness of the best,
             Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,
The milky way, the bird of Paradise,
             Church bells beyond the stars heard, the soul's blood,
             The land of spices; something understood.

—George  Herbert (1594-1633)

Slowing Down at Sinai

Dempster on the significance of Sinai:

After the exodus narrative the Israelites move to Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai stands in the way of Canaan, the land of their inheritance, but it is certainly no diversion, nor is it incidental. The centrality of this mountain is shown by a number of narrative signals. First and most obvious is the virtual suspension of narrative pace. Israel stays at Sinai for eleven months in real time (Exod. 19:1—Num. 10:11) and fifty-seven chapters in narrative time. This is important given the fact that sixty-eight chapters precede Sinai and fifty-nine chapters follow it. Sinai is central to the Torah.

—Stephen G. Dempster, Dominion and Dynasty: A Theology of the Hebrew Bible (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2003), 100.

The Task of Taking the Gospel to the Globe

Here is some perspective on the task of the gospel going global into all the nooks and crannies of unreached or unengaged people groups.

Let's be praying the Lord will send out some (more) from our midst to unreached and unengaged people groups!

Outstanding Sermon Series on Ecclesiastes

If you were looking for a good sermon series on Ecclesiastes, look no further. Pastor Doug O'Donnell, senior pastor of my local church, wrapped up today a 17-part sermon series that will find its way in due course into the Reformed Expository Commentary series published by P&R.

Pastor O'Donnell demonstrates care and sensitivity with this difficult to interpret book, and provides many good contemporary applications from the wise words of "Pastor Solomon." As a man of literature, one of O'Donnell's great strengths is his sensitivity to the literary dimensions and devices of the sacred text. So his handling of Ecclesiastes models rather well how to preach the genre of wisdom literature for those who want to hear how it might be done.

Have a listen!

Boy Meets Girl

Would you like to dance?

Lovely.

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely . . ." (Phil. 4:8).

We Have Become the Offscouring of All Things. Or Have We?

Piper on professionalism and the pastorate:

We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus (professionally?) so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested (professionally?) in our bodies (2 Cor. 4:9-11). 

I think God has exhibited us preachers as last of all in the world. We are fools for Christ's sake, but professionals are wise. We are weak, but professionals are strong. Professionals are held in honor, we are in disrepute. We do not try to secure a professional lifestyle, but we are ready to hunger and thirst and be ill-clad and homeless. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all things (1 Cor. 4:9-13). Or have we? 

Brothers, we are not professionals! We are outcasts. We are aliens and exiles in the world (1 Pet. 2:11). Our citizenship is in heaven, and we wait with eager expectation for the Lord (Phil. 3:20). You cannot professionalize the love for His appearing without killing it. And it is being killed.  

The aims of our ministry are eternal and spiritual. They are not shared by any of the professions. It is precisely by the failure to see this that we are dying. 

—John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for a Radical Ministry (Nashville: B&H, 2013), 2.

Piper on Professionalization in the Pastorate

What does professionalization in the pastorate look like?

Professionalization carries the connotation of an education, a set of skills, and a set of guild-defined standards which are possible without faith in Jesus. Professionalism is not supernatural. The heart of ministry is. 

—John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for a Radical Ministry (Nashville: B&H, 2013), x.

God's Father-Love in the School of Prayer

A good lesson in the school of prayer:

The knowledge of God's Father-love is the first and simplest, but also the last and highest lesson in the school of prayer. Prayer begins in a personal relationship with the living God as well as a personal, conscious fellowship of love with Him. In the knowledge of God's Fatherliness revealed by the Holy Spirit, the power of prayer will root and grow. The life of prayer has its joy in the infinite tenderness, care, and patience of an infinite Father who is read to hear and help.

—Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer (Springdale: Whitaker House, 1981), 31.

Gossip and Flattery Defined

Kent Hughes:

Gossip involves saying behind a person’s back what you would never say to his or her face.

Flattery means saying to a person’s face what you would never say behind his or her back.

HT: Justin Taylor

I recall hearing Pastor Hughes give these definitions when I sat under his preaching. And they were so convicting that I've never forgotten them.  

O Heavenly Father, I Know I Will Remain with You Forever

Luther:

O heavenly Father, God and Father of my Lord Jesus Christ and God of all comfort, I thank you for revealing to me your dear Son, Jesus Christ, whom I believe. Him I have known and preached. Him I have loved and praised. Him heretics and all godless people do blaspheme and persecute. I pray, Lord Jesus, let my soul please you. O heavenly Father, although I must be separated from this body, I know I will remain with you forever. No one can pluck me from your hands. Amen.

—Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 102.

A God-Besotted Ministry

Murray on Edwards' God-intoxicated ministry:

For Edwards, the reality of communion with God belongs to the very nature of redemptive Christianity. All Christians, therefore, are to be people of prayer. "Seeing we have such a prayer-hearing God as we have," he tells his hearers, "let us all be much employed in the duty of prayer, let us live prayerful lives, continuing instant in prayer." For ministers this is a yet greater privilege and obligation. To serve God aright the priorities of Christ's ministry must also be their own. 

— Iain H. Murray, Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1987), 144.

Debating as a Christian Duty

Here Doug Wilson ably, biblically, and persuasively argues that debating is a Christian duty. Well, if the man Jesus is to be the believer's model, of course he's right. And of course it can be done in the wrong spirit, too. Wilson also addresses that nicely.

I fear the main reason Christians and Christian leaders (who are called to it) shrink from this duty is cowardice, plain and simple. Cowardice is the biblical word for refusing ever "to get into it." But Jesus "got into it" all the time. Shouldn't we follow him? Or should we be the "Jesus, meek and mild flower child" of 21st century evangelicalism, rather than the real Jesus of the Bible? I mean, just read the gospels. As Wilson rightly points out.

This cowardice, this fear of man and fear of the loss of status and possessions can be cloaked under all sorts of good reasons to "just stay out of it, and be a gospel witness." But it's not really a gospel witness if doesn't imitate Jesus. And it's cowardice nonetheless, and we know where cowards go (Rev. 21:8).

Killing Sin Does Not Consist in the Improvement of One's Natural Temperament

In the fifth chapter of Owen's work On the Mortification of Sin, he discusses what does not pass for truly killing sin. He refers to five things that are not true mortification. I reproduce the third one here because of how often we go wrong here today:

The mortification of sin does not consist in the improvement of a quiet, sedate nature. Some men have an advantage by their natural constitution so far as they are not exposed to such violence of unruly passions and tumultuous affections as many others are. Let now these men cultivate and improve their natural frame and temper by discipline, consideration, and prudence, and they may seem to themselves and others very mortified men, when, perhaps, their hearts are a standing sink of all abominations. Some man is never so much troubled all his life, perhaps, with anger and passion, nor doth trouble others, as another is almost every day; and yet the latter hath done more to the mortification of the sin than the former. Let not such persons try their mortification by such things as their natural temper gives no life or vigour to. Let them bring themselves to self-denial, unbelief, envy, or some such spiritual sin, and they will have a better view of themselves.

 — John Owen, On the Mortification of Sin (vol. 6 in The Works of John Owen; ed. William H. Gould; Carlisle: Banner of Truth, 2000), 25.

O Lord, Grant a Strong and Firm Faith

Luther:

O my dear Lord Jesus Christ, you have said: Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you (Matt. 7:7). In keeping with this promise, give to me, Lord. I ask for neither gold nor silver, but for a strong and firm faith. While I search, let me find not lust and pleasure of the world, but comfort and refreshment through your blessed and healing Word. Open to me, while I knock. I desire nothing that the world cherishes, for by it I would not be uplifted even for so much as the breadth of a hair. Grant me your Holy Spirit, who enlightens my heart, and comforts and strengthens me in my cares and trials. He secures my right faith and trust in your grace to the very end. Amen. 

—Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 102.

New City Catechism

Here's a new catechism produced by Tim Keller and Sam Shammas— New City Catechism—adapted from Calvin's Geneva Catechism, the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms, and especially the Heidelberg catechism. May it receive wide use and be blessed greatly by God!

You may download the app to your iPad for free. It also includes helpful videos explaining the teaching from Gospel Coalition teachers.

Our church, New Covenant Church in Naperville, has commended its use. And in this I rejoice!

Preaching and the Priority of Personal Communion

"Edwards' whole ministry, as that of the Puritans, was based upon the conviction that the usefulness of a preacher's work is invariably related to the nature of his inner life. Personal communion with God must come first."

— Iain H. Murray, Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1987), 142.

Christian Political Witness

The upcoming theology conference at Wheaton College on "Christian Political Witness" will take place on Apr. 4-6.

Evangelical Christians are often superficial in their thinking about this matter, and about the relation between the church and state. It's an area where we desperately need to repent and need help from some frontline thinkers.

I'm especially eager to hear Peter Leithart's talk. 

Character in Leadership and Public Life

"Fairly regularly, we see debates over the meaning of character in leadership and public life. Most of it is nonsense. We know that character matters when we hire a baby-sitter. How can it not matter when we are calling a leader?"

—Albert Mohler, The Conviction to Lead: Twenty-five Principles for Leadership that Matters (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2012), 81. 

Heidelberg 450 Years Old and Going Strong

I'm convinced by these five reasons. So our family will be reading through the Heidelberg yet again, this year on the Lord's Day.

Happy birthday, Heidelberg! And, thanks, Kevin DeYoung!

The Cowardice of Concealing Convictions

Piper on cowardice in the pastorate:

We are surrounded in America by people like [the chief priests and elders in Matt. 21:23-27]. Instead of using their minds to come to strong convictions and let the chips fall where they will and suffer for what's true, they are repeatedly angling to get out of traps. Don't be like this, if for no other reason than because it is bad scholarship! If your mind, in studying the truth, leads you to a conviction that will get you into trouble, believe it! Speak it! There are so many pastors who conceal their convictions from their people because they are so afraid of conflict.

—John Piper & D. A. Carson, The Pastor as Scholar & the Scholar as Pastor: Reflections on Life and Ministry (Wheaton: Crossway, 2011), 58.

Deuteronomy, Romans, and Hammurabi

In an exegesis class on Deuteronomy at Wheaton College, Professor Dan Block was making the point that Deuteronomy is didactic material, not legal.

And in this regard, he said this today to the class: "Deuteronomy has more in common with Romans than with Hammurabi."

Choice.

Hypocrisy Defined

"If you try to do deeds 'for the glory of God' without treasuring the glory of God in your heart, it is a sham. The word hypocrisy was created precisely for the effort to say with deeds what we do not feel in our hearts."

—John Piper & D. A. Carson, The Pastor as Scholar & the Scholar as Pastor: Reflections on Life and Ministry (Wheaton: Crossway, 2011), 47.

The Formation of Believers' Identity

"Parents who constantly remind us that we belong to Christ, ministers who week by week pronounce absolution, fellow believers who communicate the love of God in word and deed—these are the means by which God's gracious Word comes to us and forms our identity as believers."

—Peter Leithart, The Baptized Body, 126.

Reflective Reading and Other Kinds of Reading

D. A. Carson:

For all that the web makes information gloriously accessible, it has two huge shortcomings. First, it is so democratized that it is more difficult than ever to distinguish between truth and error, between authoritative opinion and fatuous opinion, between speculation and learning. Second, it swamps us with brief information and opinion; it entices us into endless worthless discussion even on blogs that may themselves be valuable.  

One of the things that thoughtful scholar-pastors will do is preserve time for reflective reading of the best books. You can find out what those books are by having probing conversations with a variety of scholar-pastors who are more mature than you are—but be sure you seek out the opinions of several people, not just one. Through their books, get to know some epochal thinkers reasonably well. Slow down; read, take notes, think, evaluate.

Critical Interpretation of Scripture

D. A. Carson:

The essence of all critical thought, in the best sense of that abused expression, is the justification of opinions. A critical interpretation of Scripture is one that has adequate justification—lexical, grammatical, cultural, theological, historical, geographical, or other justification. In other words, critical exegesis in this sense is exegesis that provides sound reasons for the choices it makes and the positions it adopts. 

—Exegetical Fallacies (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996), 16.

Going After God's Heart in Prayer

In 2 Kings 20, Hezekiah falls ill and draws near to death. Isaiah the prophet tells him to set his house in order to prepare for his demise (v. 1). Hezekiah then prays, pleading his faithfulness and how he's done what is good in YHWH's sight (vv. 2-3). YHWH responds and sends a word to Hezekiah through Isaiah: "I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you" (vv. 4-5). YHWH says he'll add fifteen years to his life, and promises to deliver him and the city of Jerusalem out of the hand of Sennacherib, king of Assyria (v. 6).

Why does God hear Hezekiah's prayer? Look closely, listen carefully. Does God respond to Hezekiah's prayer in this way by acknowledging Hezekiah's fidelity and good deeds? He says he had heard his prayer and seen his tears, right? Yes, but he doesn't say, "I know you have been faithful; I have seen your good deeds." No, but he does go on to tell us that he has a regard for his name and covenant. Doesn't he?

Is this line of interpretation heading in the right direction? It seems so. Look at v. 6b. There YHWH tells us why he's going to heal Hezekiah and protect the city. He's repeatedly appealed to the same reasons throughout Kings and indeed throughout the whole of Scripture. What are the reasons that YHWH will act? He tells us unambiguously: "for my own sake and for my servant David's sake." Not for Hezekiah's sake does God do what he does, at least not as the deepest motivation for his acting. No, it's for his own sake: for his glory and fame. It's for his servant David's sake: recalling God's sure covenant promises to David, fulfilled in great David's greater son, the Son.

God hears our prayers for the sake of his name, and in line with what he's promised in his word. This ought to instruct our prayers. We ought not to plead our goodness as the basis for God to act on our behalf. But we should go right after God's heart, asking him to stand forth in mercy and might for his glory, for his honor—for his name's sake! If there's anything that resounds throughout Scripture loud and clear, it's that God does all that he does for his reputation and fame. This needs to get into our bloodstream and prayers. And God's name, since it's who he is, and betrays his character, includes his faithfulness to what he's spoken. He will keep his word! Let's depend on it. And let's pray prayers that highlight that unassailable word and God's unswerving covenant purposes and promises.

And not incidentally, this is why we pray in Jesus' name. All God's promises are "Yes!" in Christ (2 Cor. 1:20). Jesus' name holds sway in heaven. Jesus' name is the name above every name. He's the king par excellence. He's kept the covenant, he's lived well, he's never sinned, he's been obedient to death on the cross, and he's risen to that exalted place at the right hand of God, as King of kings and Lord of lords! Forever, and ever! Allelujah! Allelujah!

Leitharted Instruction for Writers

A witty word for writers from Peter Leithart.

Hermeneutical Myopia in Centuries of Scholarship

In an introductory chapter on "a literary approach to Old Testament theology" in his book Dominion and Dynasty, Stephen Dempster speaks of the "hermeneutical myopia of the last few centuries of biblical scholarship." This hermeneutical myopia has come about through "presuppositions that magnify the texts and minimize the Text. One of the philosophical assumptions that has produced this situation has been a diminution in the belief that the Bible is the Word of God. . . ."

Dempster continues, saying that there has been "an enchantment with the minute details of the biblical text rather than with its more global features, which ipso facto cannot exist. The concern for studying smaller and smaller sections of the biblical text and the increasing specialization of scholars studying the minutiae of philology and morphology have resulted in a loss of perspective." [1]

I've found this to be commonplace in my dealings with biblical scholarship. In an effort to take the human authors seriously (so they say), extremely bright PhD types forget the Author behind the authors and the whole larger work—the whole canon, the big Book of which the smaller books are but chapters. So the Text of which Dempster speaks is the whole Bible. And the texts (individual books) are not rightly understood, more strongly stated, are distorted and twisted if it is not considered how they are to be understood in the light of the larger narrative framework provided by Genesis through Revelation. 

---

[1] Stephen G. Dempster, Dominion and Dynasty: A Theology of the Hebrew Bible (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2003), 28.

How to Do Biblical Theology Evangelically and Doxologically

Regarding what biblical theology is, many have commented, even lamented, that the definitions on offer abound. Paul R. Williamson proffers one helpful and faithful way of thinking about biblical theology evangelically, to which I recently referred in another post. I reproduce it here again: 

Biblical theology is arguably best thought of as a holistic enterprise tracing unfolding theological trajectories throughout Scripture and exploring no biblical concept, theme, or book in isolation from the whole. Rather, each concept, theme, or book is considered ultimately in terms of how it contributes to and advances the Bible's meta-narrative . . . .[1]

Williamson’s definition comports well with a number of the emphases of other definitions given,[2] and it picks up a number of important elements that should be included in doing biblical theology. An evangelical biblical theology should be theological, holistic, whole-Bible, synthetic, follow Scripture’s storyline, and follow Scriptures own trajectories. After briefly discussing these key elements, I'll also go beyond Williams' definition and add two other essentials.

It should be theological because the Bible is primarily revelation about God, about his person, works, ways, and words. 

It should be holistic in that it takes into account the Bible’s historical and literary dimensions, that is, it considers genre, literary devices, linguistic features, historical methods, and the like. 

It should be whole-Bible since the Bible ultimately has one Author and one Mind behind it. In other words, the OT should not be sealed off from the NT, nor vice versa. The Bible is therefore understood as a unity—without sacrificing its diversity!—and neither the OT nor the NT is rightly fully understood apart from the other (even though each has its distinctive voice and distinctive contributions). 

Dovetailing with this whole-Bible emphasis, evangelical biblical theology should be synthetic. That is, it should seek to relate the distinctive and diverse parts of the Bible “to uncover all that holds them together,” all the while maintaining and not muting “the glorious diversity of the biblical documents.”[3] 

It should consider the Bible’s metanarrative as well.[4] Whatever else the Bible is, it is certainly a story with a definite beginning and ending. In between the beginning and ending comes progression or development or expansion of various sorts—embedded in a breathtaking array of literary variety. In this vein, evangelical biblical theology will take into account the Bible’s chronology in thinking about how the parts relate and develop theologically. In this regard, it ought to attempt “to uncover and understand how words and themes in earlier canonical texts are used in later canonical texts.”[5] 

Moreover, it will seek to follow trajectories warranted by Scripture itself, that is, by discerning aright what Scripture is and what it is doing, in its parts, and as a whole. This relates to the emphasis on following the Bible’s chronological storyline as words and concepts are traced across God’s covenant and redemptive revelation. These words and concepts or themes are traced when warrant is discerned in the text for doing so. 

So an interpreter trying to do sound biblical theology will want to provide canonical reasons for tracing out a text along a proposed trajectory. There are no infallible methods for doing this tracing, but warrant ought to be provided for one’s choice. A reasonable and reasoned warrant might include, for example, discerning key words or concepts deployed in similar contexts; or it might include, for example, discerning a later development of an earlier text that is part of the later text’s illocution.[6] 

Now not all of these elements in Williams’ definition and similar definitions need be emphasized equally when looking at a given chunk of text. As already stated, the text itself should set the agenda. But given that any given text is part of a larger Text, these elements will be likely emphases in doing biblical theology. 

Moreover, and I judge this to be all-important, what is not included explicitly in Williams’ definition, and what is often missing in treatments of biblical theology today, is that an evangelical biblical theology—because it is theological—ought to be not only descriptive, but also prescriptive and confessional.[7] I would even be prepared to argue that everything else that has been said about what biblical theology ought to be and do must aim at this prescribing and confessing. Otherwise, the biblical theology ceases to be biblical, and is worse than worthless.

[1] Paul R. Williamson, Sealed with an Oath: Covenant in God’s Unfolding Purpose (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2007), 17.
[2] See, for example, Carson, "Systematic and Biblical Theology," NDBT, 100-101; and B. S. Rosner, “Biblical Theology,” NDBT, 10.
[3] Carson, NDBT, 100-101.
[4] The OT is not the whole story, nor is the NT the whole story. The OT and NT together tell God’s whole story and together provide the full revelation of God.
[5] Carson, NDBT, 101.
[6] Richard Schultz sets forth a helpful way for working out the theological themes across the canon. See “Integrating Old Testament Theology and Exegesis: Literary, Thematic, and Canonical Issues,” in vol. 1 of New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis (ed. Willem A. VanGemeren; 5 vols.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997), 185-205; see also Carson, NDBT, 97-98.
[7] For example, Carson notes this, NDBT, 101.

Then and Now

I'm toying with the idea here of regular posts of a then-versus-now variety. I'm not doing this because of the belief that the past—well, "them's were the good 'ol days." No, that's not my thinking at all. I do believe the past has many glories and lessons to instruct us, even guard us and warn us. But I also believe that scriptural eschatology teaches us that the best days lie still yet ahead.

Instead, I want to start a then-versus-now category of posts simply for the sake of gaining whatever illumination might come about from making comparisons, guarding against drawing the wrong conclusions, guarding against succumbing to the "them's-were-the-good-'ol-days" mentality. With the brief quotation that follows, perhaps you'll get a sense of what I'm after.

Speaking of some of the problems (like one church member in Northampton punching another) and the influence of Christianity in rural New England in the days of Jonathan Edwards, Iain Murray records:

Much that we take for granted today— such as the existence of a criminal class in society— was unknown in rural New England. One fight was the sensation of a generation. Everyone in Northampton knew that Joseph Hawley, the town lawyer, could never find enough work to live on in that occupation; he was also town merchant, besides, no doubt, [doing] his own measure of farming (Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography, 88). 

Lawyers couldn't find enough work? Interesting. One fight was the sensation of a generation? Incredible. Now, it's quite easy to think of the stark contrasts of today, isn't it? Is this illuminating? You must decide for yourself. I find it so.

O Lord, You Are the Lord of Life and Death

Containing echoes of Rom. 14:7-8, here's a Lutheran prayer when facing death:

My dear God, if you want this to be the hour of death, let your will be done. Lord God, you are most precious to me. You know how gladly I would have shed my blood for the sake of your Word, but I may not deserve this honor. Your will be done. If it is your will, I shall die gladly. Only let your holy name be praised and glorified by my sufferings and death. If it were possible, dear God, I would live longer for the cause of your blessed and chosen people. But if the hour has come, then have your way. You are the Lord of life and death. Amen. 

—Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 101.

The Glories of Christianity

Edwards in his diary dated Jan. 21, 1723:

"I do not spend time enough in endeavoring to affect myself with the glories of Christianity."

—Jonathan Edwards, Letters and Personal Writings (vol. 16 in the Works of Jonathan Edwards; ed. George S. Clanghorn; New Haven: Yale University, 1998), 766.

What Is Biblical Theology?

What is biblical theology? As many have pointed out, well, it depends on who's answering the question. There are a variety of ways biblical theology has been defined.

In his Sealed with an Oath: Covenant in God's Unfolding Purpose, Paul R. Williamson proffers a helpful and faithful way of thinking about biblical theology:

Biblical theology is arguably best thought of as a holistic enterprise tracing unfolding theological trajectories throughout Scripture and exploring no biblical concept, theme, or book in isolation from the whole. Rather, each concept, theme, or book is considered ultimately in terms of how it contributes to and advances the Bible's meta-narrative . . . (17).

But if one accepts this, one must move from the common tendency in academia toward atomistic handling of texts. Which many are unwilling to do. I suggest that not only should we be willing to move away from this tendency, but we must be willing. Indeed, faithfulness to the way Scripture intends itself to be understood requires this of us.

Musing Over the Word of God

John Piper on the practice of Christian meditation:

What does meditation involve? The word meditation in Hebrew means basically to speak or to mutter. When this is done in the heart, it is called musing or meditation. So meditating on the Word of God day and night [Ps. 1:2] means to speak to yourself the Word of God day and night and to speak to yourself about it—to mull it over, to ask questions about it and answer them from the Scripture itself, to ask yourself how this might apply to you and others, and to ponder its implications for life and church and culture and missions.

—John Piper, When I Don't Desire God: How to Fight for Joy (Wheaton: Crossway, 2004), 124-125.

Political Philosophy Resources

Resources galore on political philosophy. Rejoice!

Powlison on Christian Resolutions

Look here.