Unbelief fragments. Faith integrates. God created a world abounding in distinctions, but not abounding in shattered pieces. From the beginning there were glorious distinctions between heaven and earth, between male and female, between land and sea, between soul and body. Faith received these distinctions with integrated understanding, without trying to tear one away from the …
No Adoration of the Elements
Book 4/Chapter 17 Unbelief at the Supper (section 34) 1. According to Calvin’s opponents, what do the wicked receive in the Supper? 2. Which church father does Calvin cite in opposition to this? 3. Where alone, according to Augustine, do the sacraments effects what they symbolize? Perverted rashness (section 35) 1. What has perverted rashness …
Gakkk
Soft despots love “the fact that the citizens enjoy themselves provided they dream solely of their own enjoyment. It works willingly for their happiness, but it wishes to be the only agent and sole arbiter of that happiness. It provides for their security, foresees and supplies their needs, guides them in their principal affairs, directs …
Ohio Bound
In a different kind of event for us, Nancy and I will both be speaking at a large home school convention in Cincinnati this coming April. More info on that event can be found here.
The Bond of our Union
Book 4/Chapter 17 Not brought down (section 31) 1. Are we fed by Christ’s body through Him coming down from Heaven in any way? A secret too lofty (section 32) 1. Does Calvin claim to comprehend this mystery? 2. What teaching does Calvin emphatically reject? What unbelievers receive (section 33) 1. What do inquisitive men …
A Through Composed Canon
This one is sung in the form of a canon, and is through composed also. It is Psalm 134, composed by David Erb. Psalm 134 – Behold Bless the Lord from Daniel Foucachon on Vimeo.
The Suburbs of Sin
As we come, week after week, to confess our sins, we need to learn to make certain fine distinctions. In one direction is the peril of a false scrupulousness, and in the other we see the error of rejecting that, and settling in complacently to substandard Christian living. We don’t want hyper-scrupulousness of conscience, but …
Chalcedon and Communion
When we come here to partake of the body and blood of the Lord, we use that language—because Scripture does. But at the same time, we want to guard against a crass literalism that throws out something else that the Bible teaches with equal clarity. Christ assumed a human body, and He did so forever. …
Confessing Autonomous Virtues
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, as every people must, when they turn away from Your …
Like He Was David Copperfield
Like virtually all evangelicals trying to go with the zeitgeist flow, John Franke has to do some foot dragging here and there. He has to throw in a few sturdy absolutes from time to time, and this puts some believers at their ease. “The Spirit is guiding the community of faith into the truth, purposes, …