The next chapter in Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry is entitled “The Covenant Before the Covenants,” and is written by Scott Clark and David VanDrunen. In the course of reviewing it, I intend to quote Ambrose Bierce not once, but twice. The first citation is of a more general nature. The topic of this chapter …
The Metaphorical Bonnet
The exhortation last Lord’s Day spoke to austere fathers. Today I want to address women who tear down their households with their own hands, and with their own tongues. Scripture has a great deal to say to us in our particular stations and callings. Men are addressed one way, and women another. In a community …
Your Temper is a Doctrine of God
As we come to worship the Lord this morning, I want to deliver a particular exhortation to a particular part of our congregation. I want to speak to fathers about the dangers of austerity. Austere fathers are often attracted to certain elements of the Reformed faith, and by emphasizing that faith partially, they often stumble …
Westminster XXXIII: Of the Last Judgment
1. God hath appointed a day, wherein He will judge the world, in righteousness, by Jesus Christ (Acts 17:31), to whom all power and judgment is given of the Father (John 5:22, 27). In which day, not only the apostate angels shall be judged (1 Cor. 6:3; Jude 6; 2 Pet. 2:4), but likewise all …
Preaching to No One in Particular
Ministers and preachers have a dangerous tendency to emphasize timeless truths to such an extent that they wind up preaching to no one in particular. And yet the letters to the Ephesians, Galatians, Corinthians and Romans are quite different — this is because their respectively different stories require that that God’s eternal Word be brought …
Uphill From Here
I thoroughly enjoyed the next chapter in Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry. This was the chapter by S.M. Baugh, and was entitled “The New Perspective, Mediation, and Justification.” In it he tackled the central confusion of E.P. Sanders, along with some of the resultant muddles, and does an effective job with it. One particular thing …
A Regular Gun Show
The next essay in Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry is by Bryan Estelle, and is entitled “The Covenant of Works in Moses and Paul.” Estelle is plainly acquainted with a vast amount of theological and biblical studies literature, and his close handling of that literature is obviously competent. If footnotes were biceps, this thing would …
In Which I Give Merit Demerits
I honestly do not see how it can be considered possible to separate Christ from His benefits. So when I speak of the imputation of the active obedience of Christ, this means that I am ultimately speaking of the imputation of Christ Himself, and there is no way to understand this apart from the Pauline …
Rocking Back and Forth in His Name
When we come before God, when we gather our families together to worship Him, we are doing something that we have been summoned to do. God speaks and we respond. We are to respond in the words He has given us, and with the heart He has given us. We do this submissively, and this …
Some Headway, Maybe
Green Baggins is reviewing a new book on the Federal Vision, and, if you check out the comments section of this entry, you will find that an ecumenical dialogue of sorts has broken out. Well, not exactly, but I think the exchange was more productive than not.