A makeover and some mini Exodus motifs

My thanks to Dave Bish for restoring the Against Heresies banner which had disappeared, and which he had designed in the first place.  He has also, very kindly, upgraded some features and very much improved the design of the blog.  So hats off to him.

The banner itself, which would look great on a t-shirt or a mug, is an adaptation of "Augustine refuting heretics."  And as I'm currently reading Augustine's De Trinitate I will, in due course, post some highlights.

Take a look at his post Of Midwives and Sons - The Exodus and a New Creation

The early chapters of Exodus have some remarkable mini-Exodus motifs, such as the son saved from the waters of judgement and the pursuit of his enemies, a real foretaste of what will happen later in the book.

There are also some NT miniatures.  Moses, of course, is the saviour rejected by his people (Exodus 2:11-14) but welcomed by the Gentiles (2:15-20).  A wonderful glimpse (in fact a type) in miniature of the Christ that Moses both spoke of, served and suffered for (see Stephen's point about God's people rejecting their Saviour in Acts 7:23-53, and the writer to the Hebrew's point about Moses regarding disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt in 11:26).

Death and resurrection in John's Gospel

My friend Nick Batzig has a helpful post on the death and resurrection of Jesus in John 10 & 11. You can read it here

Links of various sizes

The world's tallest and shortest men have met. Sulten Kosen and He Pingping expected it to be a friendly meeting, but in the end didn't really see eye to eye.

Cranmer posts the full script of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's 1988 address to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland

Paul Helm offers some critique and reflections on Carl Trueman's recent essay on J. I. Packer here. Carl in turn will be responding. There is the promise of more to come over at Ref 21 here.

One of my deacons has been raving about a recent Modern Reformation article on funerals. The WHI blog has made this "exceptional article" available online, "Funerals from Hell: Where have all the graveyards gone?"

Guy Davies is taking a look at Stuart Olyott's article Where Luther Got It Wrong - and Why We need To Know about It (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

How a crisis in the Reformed churches was overcome

Scott Clark explains the problem and how it was addressed:

Everyone knows the acronym TULIP, but not everyone knows where this acronym comes from. The Canons of Dordt are among the most famous but unread deliverances of any Reformed Synod. The canons are more than five letters. The canons teach a pastoral doctrine of grace and provide a model for the stewardship of the Gospel.

The Canons (rules) of the Synod of Dordt were written after years of controversy within the Reformed churches in Europe and Britain. In the late sixteenth century the Reformed doctrines of sin, grace, faith, justification, atonement, perseverance, and assurance faced a growing resistance.

Read it all at the Ligonier site here

[NB: The Canons of Dordt are not to be placed in the same category as The Guns of Navarone]

The Father himself loves you

Two great quotations to ponder from Jim Day's blog Thought from the Day:

When we doubt God’s love for us because we think there is something about us that makes us unloveable in his sight, we do God a disservice. God does not love us because of what we’re like, he loves us in spite of what we’re like, and he gives us his Son as proof.

Charles Hodge

The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay on the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to him is not to believe that he loves you.

John Owen

You can read more from Hodge, and get some reflections from Jim here.

The Great Escape: Matthew 2 as the remake of a classic story

The following article of mine was recently published in The Evangelical Magazine.

Here's the intro...

You don’t usually need a TV guide to know what films are on over Christmas. Every year, without fail, there are some classic films that return to our screens. It just wouldn’t be Christmas without The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, or It’s a Wonderful Life.

There are two seasonally shown films that strike a chord with the events recorded in the second chapter of Matthew’s gospel. They are The Great Escape and The Italian Job. The latter is that classic British movie with Michael Caine and Noel Coward, but starring three Mini Coopers. More recently another film with the same name, loosely based on the original, was released.

But a remake rarely lives up to the original. That observation, however, does not hold true for Matthew chapter two. In fact we will miss Matthew’s point unless we see that the events surrounding the birth of Jesus are in fact a remake of Old Testament events that surpass the originals.

Read the rest here

(Thanks to Scott Clark for the link, I had no idea it was online)

You may also be interested in reading David Robertson's article The impact of On the Origin of Species

David Robertson is the author of The Dawkins Letters

Lutheran advent calendar

(HT: Kim Riddlebarger)

John Calvin in the Valley of the Shadow of Death

The following article (based on his conference address from earlier this year) by Garry Williams has been posted on the Banner of Truth site. It was a privilege to hear it and I am sure that you will benefit from reading it. Calvin, as the author says, was a suffering Reformer.

Here's an extract:

Calvin married Idelette de Bure in 1540 and from the little we know they appear to have been very happily married. Yet their only son Jacques died shortly after he was born on 28 July 1542. Calvin expressed his grief to Pierre Viret: ‘The Lord has certainly inflicted a severe and bitter wound in the death of our infant son. But he is himself a Father, and knows best what is good for his children.’ In 1545 Idelette herself became ill, and in March 1549, after just nine years of marriage and with Calvin still under forty, she died. Calvin expressed his grief in a letter to Viret just over a week later:

Truly mine is no common source of grief. I have been bereaved of the best companion of my life, of one who, had it been so ordered, would not only have been the willing sharer of my indigence, but even of my death. During her life she was the faithful helper of my ministry. From her I never experienced the slightest hindrance. She was never troublesome to me throughout the entire course of her illness; she was more anxious about her children than about herself.

A few days later he wrote to Farel: ‘I do what I can to keep myself from being overwhelmed with grief.’

Go read the whole thing here

Dr. Garry Williams is the Director of the John Owen Centre for Theological Study. Find out more about the John Owen Centre here

The Banner of Truth Blog

Check it out here and bookmark it

HT: Iain D. Campbell

Listen carefully...

Westminster Seminary California have launched a new monthly podcast called Office Hours. Season 1 will see you through interviews with the faculty, and one or two others. There is a sneak preview, schedule details, giveaway items, and instructions on how to subscribe here. The first two shows will be broadcast on 31st August and feature Bob Godfrey (President and Professor of Church History) and Julius Kim (Associate Prof of Practical Theology).

This looks like an excellent resource. You can even send in questions that you would like the faculty to discuss.

Gresham Machen's birthday

Here is found the most fundamental difference between liberalism and Christianity--liberalism is altogether in the imperative mood, while Christianity begins with a triumphant indicative; liberalism appeals to man's will, while Christianity announces, first, a gracious act of God.

J. Gresham Machen

J. Gresham Machen was born 28th July 1881. Hat's off to Sean Lucas for the reminder. By the way it is "Gres-ham" rather than "Gresh-am."

Here are some book recommendations, and details of online articles and audio files:

D. G. Hart has written a wonderful biography of Machen, one of my favourites.

It is also great to see a new edition of his classic work Christianity & Liberalism with a foreword by Carl R. Trueman (which you can read here). Of the book Carl has said "Christianity and Liberalism is a masterpiece and without doubt the single most important book ever written by a Westminster professor." Carl writes in the foreword:

If the labyrinthine prose and complicated thought of Karl Barth is seen by some as still being of use to the church in the here and now, I would respond by saying how much more is that the case with the clear thinking and concise (albeit somewhat antiquated) prose of Machen. Love him or hate him, he had a gift possessed by too few theologians: plain speaking combined with straightforward comprehensibility, and that of a kind which, with its passion, forces the reader, even the hostile reader, to reflect upon his or her own convictions.

The whole text of Christianity & Liberalism is available here.

Monergism have fifty-two items mainly by, but some on, Machen available for download here.

You can listen to Robert Godfrey's address on Machen here.

John Piper's audio address on Machen's response to modernism is available here and the text version is available here.

There is a reference to Machen's experience of liberal theology in Germany in my article Liberalism: A warning from history

High up on my list of great reads is David Calhoun's stellar two volume work on Princeton Seminary Vol. 1: Faith and Learning 1812-1868 and Vol. 2: The Majestic Testimony 1869-1929. The second volume is where you will find Machen.

If you think that reading about the history of a seminary is only to be done if every other book in the world has been burned think again. Calhoun's work does for Princeton what George Marsden did for Fuller Seminary. He tells a compelling story about individuals, institutions and the wider movements of which they are a part. All three of these units are caught up in the ebb and flow of ideas that shaped and reshaped the religious, philosophical, political and cultural landscape of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Here are two Machen quotes:

...a large part of the New Testament is polemic; the enunciation of evangelical truth was occasioned by the errors which had arisen in the churches...At the present time, when the opponents of the gospel are almost in control of our churches, the slightest avoidance of the defense of the gospel is just sheer unfaithfulness to the Lord. There have been previous great crises in the history of the Church, crises almost comparable to this. One appeared in the second century, when the very life of Christendom was threatened by the Gnostics. Another came in the Middle Ages when the gospel of God's grace seemed forgotten. In such times of crisis, God has always saved the Church. But he has always saved it not by theological pacifists, but by sturdy contenders for the truth.

J. Gresham Machen, Christianity & Liberalism, p. 174

They (the liberal preachers) speak with disgust of those who believe 'that the blood of our Lord, shed in substitutionary death, placates an alienated deity and makes possible welcome for the returning sinner'. Against the doctrine of the cross they use every weapon of caricature and vilification. Thus they pour out their scorn upon a thing so holy and so precious that in the presence of it the Christian heart melts in gratitude too deep for words. It never seems to occur to modern liberals that in deriding the Christian doctrine of the cross, they are trampling on human hearts.

J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism, p.120

According to Christian belief, Jesus is our Saviour, not by virtue of what he said, not even by virtue of what he was, but by what he did. He is our Saviour, not because he inspired us to live the same kind of life that he lived, but because he took upon himself the dreadful guilt of our sins and bore it instead of us on the cross. Such is the Christian conception of the Cross of Christ. It is ridiculed as being a "subtle theory of the atonement." In reality, it is the plain teaching of the word of God; we know absolutely nothing about an atonement that is not a vicarious atonement, for that is the only atonement of which the New Testament speaks. And this Bible doctrine is not intricate or subtle.

On the contrary, though it involves mysteries, it is itself so simple that a child can understand it. "We deserved eternal death, but the Lord Jesus, because he loved us, died instead of us on the cross"--surely there is nothing very intricate about that. It is not the Bible doctrine of the atonement which is difficult to understand--what are really incomprehensible are the elaborate modern efforts to get rid of the Bible doctrine in the interests of human pride.

Modern liberal preachers do indeed sometimes speak of the "atonement." But they speak of it just as seldom as they possibly can, and one can see plainly that their hearts are elsewhere than at the foot of the Cross. Indeed, at this point, as at many others, one has the feeling that traditional language is being strained to become the expression of totally alien ideas.

J. Gresham Machen, Christianity & Liberalism, p. 118-9

We can have the fact of the atonement, it is said, no matter what particular theory of it we hold, and indeed even without holding any particular theory of it at all. So this substitutionary view, it is said, is after all only one theory among many.

This objection is based upon a mistaken view of the distinction between fact and theory, and upon a somewhat ambiguous use of the word "theory." What is meant by a "theory"?

Undoubtedly the word often has rather an unfavourable sound; and the use of it in the present connection might seem to imply that the view of the atonement which is designated as a "theory" is a mere effort of man to explain in his own way what God has given.

But might not God have revealed the "theory" of a thing just as truly as the thing itself; might he not himself have given the explanation when he gave the thing?

In that case the explanation just as much as the thing itself comes to us with divine authority, and it is impossible to accept one without accepting the other.

We have not yet, however, quite penetrated to the heart of the matter. Men say that they will accept the fact of the atonement without accepting the substitutionary theory of it, and indeed without being sure of any theory of it at all.

The trouble with this attitude is that the moment we say "atonement" we have already overstepped the line that separates fact from theory; an "atonement," even in the most general and most indefinite sense that could conceivably be given to the word, cannot possibly be a mere fact, but is a fact as explained by its purpose and result...What we have really done is to designate the event with an explanation of its meaning.

It is impossible for us to obtain the slightest benefit from a mere contemplation of the death of Christ; all the benefit comes from from our knowledge of the meaning of that death, or in other words (if the term be used in a high sense) from our "theory" of it.

If, therefore, we speak of the bare "fact" of the atonement, as distinguished from the "theory" of it, we are indulging in a misleading use of of words; the bare fact is the death, and the moment we say "atonement" we have committed ourselves to a theory [MD: we are committed to a theory when we say death].

The important thing, then, is, since we must have some theory, that the particular theory that we hold shall be correct.

Gresham Machen, What is Faith?, p. 145-6

Around the web

Here are some links to posts and articles, of varying lengths, that I hope will stimulate your thinking:

D. A. Carson's Themelios editorial on polemical theology

David Strain offers some great diagnostic questions about spiritual health

Are you a five point Calvinist? Are you familiar with the historic references to, and articulation of, those points by Calvinists? Ken Stewart's article "The Points of Calvinism: Retrospect and Prospect" (Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology, 2008) will make you think.

Ever read J. I. Packer's What did the cross achieve? The logic of penal substitution? You must set aside time to do this.

Tearfund and Livability (formerly the Shaftesbury Society) have formed a partnership called Community Mission. They say that they "believe in faith in action and that a commitment to integral mission is at the heart of the gospel." Have a read of their documents What is the Gospel? and What does salvation mean for your local community? They leave you with the distinct impression that we do not really need a Saviour who is both God and man, nor is it clear as to exactly why we need his atoning work. Instead we have the Victorian liberal Jesus, the great example and exhorter, and a downplaying of the centrality of the atonement.

Happy 500th: John Calvin (audio links)

Here are some audio links on John Calvin.

John Piper

John Calvin: The Divine Majesty of the Word

Robert Godfrey (President, Westminster Seminary California)

Heroes of the Faith: John Calvin
John Calvin and the Pentateuch

David Calhoun (Professor Emeritus of Church History, Covenant Seminary)

Knowing God and Ourselves: The Institutes of John Calvin

Calvin's Institutes (This course consists of 27 audio lectures plus lecture transcripts and study guides available as pdf documents)

Michael Haykin (Professor of Church History and Biblical Spirituality at SBTS and Director of the Andrew Fuller Center)

Early Years, 1509-1536
Ministry Years, 1536-1564

These links are available at Sermon Audio.com, Covenant Seminary's Worldwide-Classroom and Monergism.

Paul Helm reviews N.T. Wright's Justification: God's Plan and Paul's Vision

There is more to come but the first post, which is a rewarding read and merits careful attention, can be found here

Nothing much happening on this blog

So you could go and read Guy Waters' review of N. T. Wright's Justification: God's Plan and Paul's Vision here

Or Guy Davies' interview with Tim Ward (author of Words of Life: Scripture as the living and active Word of God)

The Angel of the Lord

If you are interested I am trying to generate a little discussion about the identity of the Angel of the Lord in the OT, and the implications of this for our Christology over at the Coffee Bible Club blog. There was a bit of discussion going on here, but the comments got out of hand and out of order, which was a shame.

The painting, by Caravaggio, is of that test case of one's biblical theology.

And, by the way, Bob Godfrey's biography of Calvin (John Calvin: Pilgrim and Pastor available here and here [with sample pages] and here) is a cracking read. Accessible, moving, brisk, informative. Gives you a great handle on the man, his times, his rich theological reflections, and the controversies he faced.

Lessons from Calvin as a pastor and expositor part deux

"Set out to be useful and helpful to your brethren. Do not try to preach great sermons! Try to preach useful sermons. Do not try to write great books. Try to write helpful books. Do not try to do great things. Try to do useful things. Find out how you can best help the church and do that. Think about how you can most effectively minister to your brethren. Then give yourself to that in humble service."

Again, hats off to Alan Davey for the link to Sam Waldron's series.

III. Calvin’s ministry shows the importance of simply trying to be useful to your brethren, rather than trying to be great.

Our tendency to pride, self-importance, and inflated views of ourselves cannot be overstated. We all, I think, have this deep, subtle, and ineradicable desire to do or be someone great. We do not really mean it when we sing “content to fill a little place if God be glorified.” One of the ways this manifests itself is in the desire to write a “great book.”

Calvin did write a great book. In fact he wrote one of the greatest books ever written, because he wrote The Institutes of the Christian Religion. This was Calvin’s life work. For over 23 years after he authored its first edition he expanded it and edited it many times. In its earliest edition in 1536 it was six chapters. By its last in 1559 it was 80 chapters in 4 books. Calvin’s book literally changed the world. It was the book that set the course for Reformed Christianity until today. It was perhaps the greatest book written in 16th century.

But precisely here is my point. Calvin never set out to write a great book. Here are his own words from his preface to the first edition.

“…all I had in mind was to hand on some rudiments by which anyone who was touched with an interest in religion might be formed to true godliness. I laboured at the task for our own Frenchmen in particular, for I saw that many were hungering and thirsting after Christ and yet that only a very few had even the slightest knowledge of him. The book itself betrays that this was my purpose by its simple and primitive form of teaching.” (Parker, John Calvin, 42)

The lesson which fairly screams from these words is this. Do not set out to be great! Set out to be useful and helpful to your brethren. Do not try to preach great sermons! Try to preach useful sermons. Do not try to write great books. Try to write helpful books. Do not try to do great things. Try to do useful things. Find out how you can best help the church and do that. Think about how you can most effectively minister to your brethren. Then give yourself to that in humble service. In this sense too, the one who loses his life will find it.

John 12:24-26 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.

Lessons from Calvin as a pastor and expositor

"What an example Calvin sets here for us to follow! We are too apt to find fault with others and be able to see no good in them merely because in this or that we disagree with them. It is a lack of humility that makes us unable to appreciate others and leads us to focus exclusively on their faults."

My old friend Alan Davey, from the Rhondda Valley no less (and of course my predecessor at Deeside before become a missionary in Bordeaux), has posted some excellent links to Sam Waldron's Lessons from Calvin as a pastor and expositor. You can read the all if you go here. I found the following words challenging, convicting and encouraging:

IX. Calvin’s ministry manifests great humility and appreciation for the ministry of others.

Perhaps the greatest illustration of the ministerial humility of Calvin is his conduct toward the ministers who replaced Calvin and Farel when they were ejected from Geneva in 1538. Calvin and Farel had many sympathizers and followers still in Geneva. You can imagine that they would not have much use for their replacements. Nevertheless, Calvin wrote in support of those who replaced him and told his followers to accept their ministry.

God not only commands us to render a willing obedience with fear and trembling to the Word when it is preaced to us, but also commands that the ministers of the Word are to be treated with honour and reverance, for they are to be clothed with his authority as his ambassadors, and he wishes them to be acknowledged as his own angels and envoys. (Parker, John Calvin, 94)

Another illustration of the humility of Calvin in this matter has to do with his attitude toward Luther. By the time Calvin came on the scene there was an open breach between the Swiss Reformed and the German Lutherans. Yet Calvin never let the hostility of Luther to the Swiss deter him from showing great respect for Luther. The influence of Luther is everywhere evident in the first (1536) edition of the Institutes. Calvin’s doctrine of justification by faith alone—the crucial doctrine of the Reformation—is plainly Luther’s doctrine. Calvin built the road of reformation exactly along the trail blazed the pioneer Luther. Calvin wrote Bullinger about Luther:

Consider how great a man Luther is, and what excellent gifts he has; the strength of mind and resolute constancy, the skillfulness, efficiency and theological power he has used in devoting all his energies to overthrowing the reign of Antichrist and to spread far and near the teaching of salvation. I have often said that even if he were to call me a devil I should still regard him as an outstanding servant of God. (Parker, John Calvin, 163)

The funny thing about this statement is that Luther was quite capable of calling his enemies devils. (I don’t think, however, he ever called Calvin this.)

What an example Calvin sets here for us to follow! We are too apt to find fault with others and be able to see no good in them merely because in this or that we disagree with them. It is a lack of humility that makes us unable to appreciate others and leads us to focus exclusively on their faults. What would have happened to the Reformation if the Calvin had allowed Luther’s well-know faults to prejudice him against everything good and wonderful and scriptural that Luther taught? There are great lessons in this for us.

19th Century Spurgeon audio recording discovered

A short audio file of C. H. Spurgeon preaching at the Metropolitan Tabernacle around 1890 has recently been found in the BBC archives. The clip, originally recorded on an Edison phonograph cylinder, is only thirty seconds long, and the quality is pretty poor. But if you have ever wondered what the great preacher's voice sounded like then listen in here.

There is an article about it in the Telegraph here

Tramadol and Preaching

Tramadol is a wonderful painkiller. Although it has taken my mind off the pain it is not a great help when I want to concentrate on a subject. Even so, there are one or two things that have got beyond my medicated haziness and have made me think.

The little that I have read from T. David Gordon I have found to be helpful, bold, and shrewd. He is a good writer. I particularly liked the following excerpt from his new book Why Johnny Can't Preach that I found over at Kevin DeYoung's blog:

Ministers [in our culture] are not at home with what is significant; ministers whose attention span is less than that of a four-year-old in the 1940s, who race around like the rest of us, constantly distracted by sounds and images of inconsequential trivialities, and out of touch with what is weighty.

It is not surprising that their sermons, and the alleged worship that surrounds them, are often trifling, thoughtless, uninspiring, and mundane...

The great seriousness of the reality of being human, the dreadful seriousness of the coming judgment of God, the sheer insignificance of the present in light of eternity–realities that once were the subtext of virtually every sermon–have now disappeared, and have been replaced by one triviality after another

Scott Clark also has a post on the book here.

As well as a brief review of the book Kevin also has some worthwhile posts on essential doctrines that are worth checking out:

Truths that transform, doctrines that damn (1)
Truths that transform, doctrines that damn (2)
Truths that transform, doctrines that damn (3)