Book 3/Chapter 5 The crucial passage (section 9) 1. What passage in Paul was considered by Calvin to be crucial to the purgatory debate? 2. How does Calvin handle this passage? 3. And what class of men does this testing come upon? The fathers (section 10) 1. Does Calvin acknowledge that many of the fathers …
Lord, Give Us Men
Last Lord’s Day, David Bayly preached a fine sermon to the president. All we need now is about 50,000 more sermons like it, and not from the same fifty churches either.
Listening Beforehand
“You must not only prepare the sermon, you must let the sermon prepare you” (Wagner, Tongues Aflame, p. 76).
The Authenticity Jive
“Moreover, there is something deeply attractive, at least to quite a lot of people, about squalor, misery, and vice. They are regarded as more authentic, and certainly more exciting, than cleanliness, happiness and virtue” (Dalrymple, Romancing Opiates, p. 88).
The Queen of Sheba and Ivan the Terrible
The word envy enters a lot of political and economic discussion, but it is usually referred to the envy of those who stand to gain materially after the smoke of redistribution all clears away. When someone runs on a platform of free choocolate milk for everybody, envy is driving the whole thing, and it is …
Calvin and Purgatory
Book 3/Chapter 5 Indulgences and the unity of redemption (section 5) 1. What does the practice of offering indulgences do to the redemption of Christ? Purgatory (section 6) 1. What destroys the notion of purgatory before it is even discussed? 2. Could the idea of purgatory be a trifle not worth discussing at all? Proofs …
Making Christ a Saintlet
Book 3/Chapter 5 Indulgences (section 1) 1. From which doctrine does the practice of granting indulgences flow? 2. Does Calvin want to argue with the men who advance these notions? Root and fruit (section 2) 1. What do many people see, and what do they miss? 2. What do indulgences establish? Fathers against indulgences (section …
Oaks, Not Cabbages
On the physical level, the whole body is involved in singing, and in making music with various instruments. This means there is something else to remember as we pursue musical reformation in our congregation. The apostle Paul addresses a common problem with body life, a mistake that is easy to make. That is the mistake …
Round About
Keeping the Supper faithfully is not a matter of jinning up holy feelings. It is not a matter of introspection, figuring out a hundred and one reasons why you ought not to be partaking. Neither is it a summons to theological logic-chopping, where you try to figure out what happens to the bread and why, …
The Brightness of the Trinkets
Our Father and God, You have established Your Church as a royal priesthood in this world, and so we intercede for the nations of men now, confessing on their behalf so that the grace of Your forgiveness will soon be extended to them all. Father, we live among a people that have been dazzled and …