Indiana, November Snow

Indiana sings a new song to its Lord. Julie, in the back yard clearing the walk, joins in song.

Triune, Thus Creator

God is Triune, thus the Creator. So argues Robert Letham via Herman Bavinck:

"It is impossible to think of creation (this creation, this multifaceted and coherent creation, the only one we know and the only one there is) coming into existence apart from its maker being relational, and so in accordance with his full revelation as triune, as Bavinck so cogently argues. Bavinck goes even further, arguing that 'without generation [the generation of the Son by the Father] creation would not be possible. If in an absolute sense God could not communicate himself to the Son, he would be even less able, in a relative sense, to communicate himself to his creature. If God were not triune, creation would not be possible.' This is borne out by hints in the OT of distinction within the unity of the one God" (Robert Letham, The Holy Trinity, 22).

Bible Translation, Christian Missions

In Robert Alter's 1996 translation and commentary on Genesis, he says there is an "unacknowledged heresy underlying most modern English versions of the Bible," and that error is "the use of translation as a vehicle for explaining the Bible instead of representing it in another language." I agree. A translation's chief aim should be to re-present the Word.

And we can apply this thinking to Christian Missions. What happens when we craft a theology and practice of missions in the vein of the above heresy? A raft of errors will occur, indeed. If missions is a vehicle for explaining Christ, you will end up with an ism. However, if missions re-presents Christ to another language, that is, another culture, then you will end up with Christendom. The former turns missionaries into explainers of Christianity, the latter is a Biblical view of missions--you are an ambassador of Christ and Bride, the Church.

Bible translation should represent the Bible in to another language and missions should represent Christ in to another language, in to another culture.

Human Heart - Danger of Deception

"The human heart has so many recesses for vanity, so many lurking places for falsehood, is so shrouded by fraud and hypocrisy, that it often deceives itself” (Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, III.II.10).

Self Discipline: Words, Speech

Thoughts on Proverbs 6:1-5:

1 My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,
2 Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth; thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.
3 Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend.
4 Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids.
5 Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

Self-control exercised over the tongue, the words of our mouth, will be like a wall around a city; disciplined speech is protection.

“Christian prudence will keep us clear from such engagements, which bring distress upon our families, dishonor upon our name, and reproach upon our religion. While the “good man sheweth favor, and lendeth, he must guide his affairs with discretion (Psalm 62:5)” (Charles Bridges, Exposition of the Book of Proverbs).

Self-control/prudence with the words of our mouth will protect:

1) Our families
2) Our name
3) Our religion (Christ & Church)

Self-control/prudence with the words of our mouth will protect us and our friends:

“Even to the recipient, an unconditional pledge may be an unintended disservice by exposing him to temptation and to the subsequent grief of having brought a friend to ruin” (Commentator Derek Kidner).

Christ's Satisfaction: Efficacious

“So far is the doctrine of Christ’s satisfaction from throwing open a door to impiety and spreading a couch for security and negligence that it is the most efficacious means of holiness and the death of sin itself (which Christ assigns as one among others of the ends for his death. ‘That being dead unto sin, we may live unto righteousness; that henceforth we may no more live unto ourselves, but to him who died for us and was raised again for our justification,’ as Paul so often reasons on this subject (Rom. 6; Tit. 2:14; 1 Pet. 2:24)” (Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, Volume 2, 437-438).

Building Culture

"Reaction to pagan culture is not the same as building a biblical culture" (Douglas Wilson, Standing on the Promises: A Handbook of Biblical Childrearing, 12).

Power in Prayer

Jesus’ words bring power in prayer: “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7).

Comprehending the Whole Christ

“We must face the fact that in history Jesus has proved a gigantic figure. It is not at all impossible, accordingly, that he is the sitter behind both Gospel portraits, and that the Synoptists depict him from one aspect, John from another. The fact that we are not able to put the two together to our satisfaction may mean no more than that we are not big enough to comprehend the whole Christ” (Leon Morris, The New International Commentary on the New Testament: The Gospel According to John, Revised Edition, (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 15).

Marriage: Bestowing Loveliness

The Bible teaches that a Christian husband is responsible for the loveliness of his wife (Douglas Wilson, Reforming Marriage, 53).

. . .

"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish." (Eph. 5:25-27)

God therefore requires husbands to love their wives with effect. In loving our wives, we are not to imitate the sentimental loving of that modern idol, "gentle jesus," but rather we are to imitate the efficacious loving of the Lord Jesus Christ who came to earth in order to purchase His people, and save them from their sins.

. . .

So when a man takes a woman into his home, all who know them should expect to see her flourish and grow in loveliness in the years to come. If their wedding ceremony referred at all to the fifth chapter of Ephesians, was this not what he vowed he would do (53-54)?

Reforming Marriage: Constant Love, Imitative Love

The kind of love Paul requires here [Eph. 5] is constant. So godly husbandry is constant husbandry.

And as the context makes clear, the love in this passage is also imitative. It is learned from a Person; it is learned through watching Jesus Christ (Douglas Wilson, Reforming Marriage, 10).

. . .

The love and affection of Christ has been set upon His people alone. In the same way, husbands are to love their wives alone. This is the duty I hope to explain in this book in some detail (11).

Death of Christ: A Ransom

The death of Christ is a ransom, Matt. xx. 28, paid by compact for the deliverance of captives for whom it was a ransom" (121).

Scriptural Redemption

Under the heading "Scriptural Redemption," John Owen maintained that:

1. Christ died for the elect only.
2. All those for whom Christ died are certainly saved.
3. Christ by his death purchased all saving grace for them for whom he died.
4. Christ sends the means and reveals the way of life to all them for whom he died.
5. The new covenant of grace was confirmed to all the elect in the blood of Jesus.
6. Christ, by his death, purchased, upon covenant and compact, an assured peculiar people, the pleasure of the Lord prospering to the end in his hand.
7. Christ loved his church, and gave himself for it.
8. Christ died for the infidelity of the elect (302-303).

Death of Christ: Justice of God Satisfied

The end of every free agent is either that which he effecteth, or that for whose sake he doth effect it.

. . .

The end which God effected by the death of Christ was the satisfaction of his own justice: the end for whose sake he did it was either supreme, or his own glory; or subordinate, ours with him (John Owen, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ,Vol. 10 of the Works of John Owen, 1852 (reprinted, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2007), 50).

. . .

Now, the end of the death of Christ is either supreme and ultimate, or intermediate and subservient to the last end.

1. The first is the glory of God, or the manifestation of his glorious attributes, especially of his justice, and mercy tempered with justice, unto us (89).

. . .

2. There is an end of the death of Christ which is intermediate and subservient to that other, which is the last and most supreme, even the effects which it hath in respect of us, and that is it of which we now treat; which, as we before affirmed, is the bringing of us unto God (90).

Calvinism: J.I. Packer

From J.I. Packer's Introductory Essay to John Owen's The Death of Death in the Death of Christ(The Banner of Truth Trust, 5).

Calvinism is something much broader than the "five points" indicate. Calvinism is a whole world-view, stemming from a clear vision of God as the whole world's Maker and King. Calvinism is the consistent endeavor to acknowledge the Creator as the Lord, working all things after the counsel of His will. Calvinism is a theocentric way of thinking about all life under the direction and control of God's own Word. Calvinism, in other words, is the theology of the Bible viewed from the perspective of the Bible--the God-centered outlook which sees the Creator as the source, and means, and end, of everything that is, both in nature and in grace.

Reality is Real

G.K. Chesterton in 1908: “You cannot call up any wilder vision than a city in which men ask themselves if they have any selves. You cannot fancy a more skeptical world that that in which men doubt if there is a world.”

N.D. Wilson in 2009: “Hide behind big words, or listen to a child’s first laugh and know that this world is here, that you are in it, and that its flavors are deep and layered and its lights are bright. Know that it’s real.”

John Calvin: Mere Christianity

"If it be inquired then by what things chiefly the Christian religion has a standing existence amongst us, and maintains its truth, it will be found that the following two not only occupy the principal place, but comprehend under them all the other parts , and consequently the whole substance of Christianity, viz., a knowledge, first, of the mode in which God is duly worshipped; and, secondly, of the source from which salvation is to be obtained. When these are kept out of view, though we may glory in the name of Christians, our profession is empty and vain. After these come the Sacraments and the Government of the Church, which as they were instituted for the preservation of these branches of doctrine, ought not to be employed for any other purpose and, indeed, the only means of ascertaining whether they are administered purely and in due form, or otherwise, is to bring them to this test" (John Calvin, The Necessity of Reforming the Church, 13-14).

Christ of the Covenants

O. Palmer Robertson introduces The Christ of the Covenants with two aims: To foster a correct understanding of the significance of God's covenants and the relation of the two testaments. He argues that the various covenants and the testaments are organically unified in Christ; they are unified by the "Immanuel principle"--a principle that "binds the whole of Scripture together" (51). Christ is the fulfillment of that principle; Jesus Christ is the Immanuel--God with us. Below is an extended quote from Robertson's book:

Classically, covenant theology has spoken of a “covenant of works” and a “covenant of grace.”

The term “covenant of works” has been applied to God’s relation to man prior to his fall into sin. This relationship has been characterized as a covenant of “works” in an effort to emphasize the testing period of Adam. If Adam should “work” properly, he would receive the blessings promised by God.

The phrase “covenant of grace” has been used to describe the relationship of God to his people subsequent to man’s fall into sin. Since man became incapable of works suitable for meriting salvation, this period has been understood as being controller primarily by the grace of God.

This division of God’s covenant dealings with men in terms of “covenant of works” and a “covenant of grace” has much to commend it. It emphasizes properly the absolute necessity of recognizing a pre-fall relationship between God and man which required perfect obedience as the meritorious ground of blessing. In this structure, Adam cannot be regarded purely as a mythical figure. In real history God bound himself to the man he had made to be “very good.”

This distinction also provides an overarching structure to unite the totality of God’s relation to man in his fallen state. Because of its inherent emphasis on the unity of God’ redemptive program, this structure delivers the church from the temptation to draw too strongly a dichotomy between old and new testaments.

However, the terminology traditionally associated with this scheme has significant limitations. No criticism may be offered with respect to the general structure of this distinction. Two basic epochs of God’s dealings with man must be recognized: pre-fall and post-fall. All the dealings of God with man since the fall must be seen as possessing a basic unity....The terms “covenant of creation” and “covenant of redemption” may serve much more appropriately as categorizations of God’s bond with man before and after the fall. The “covenant of creation” refers to the bond with God established with man by creation. The “covenant of redemption” encompasses the various administrations by which God has bound himself to man since the fall.

Love, Again

"Love is the overflow of joy in God that gladly meets the needs of others....[Love] is first a deeply satisfying experience of the fullness of God's grace, and then a doubly satisfying experience of sharing that grace with another person" (John Piper, Desiring God, 119-120).

Love

"Love is not a bare choice or a mere act. It involves the affections. It does not just do the truth. Nor does it just choose the right. It rejoices in the way of truth" (John Piper, Desiring God, 114-115).