Book 3/Chapter 16 Answering slander (section 1) 1. What slanderous charge does Calvin answer next? 2. How does Calvin answer this? 3. So what is the relationship of our salvation to our works? Zeal for works (section 2) 1. Does Calvin acknowledge rewards? 2. What is our calling? Judgment according to works (section 3) 1. …
The Pie Topping Left
I have been quiet about Sarah Palin for a bit, not needing my comments count to soar into the stratosphere again, but I do want to give her a little bit of free advice. If you see her, pass this on, wouldja? You clearly won the round with David Letterman, but you were sailing a …
The Sum of All Piety
Book 3/Chapter 15 The sole foundation (section 5) 1. What is the sole foundation for our lives, according to Calvin? 2. What did Jesus not come to do? 3. If Christ is all, what follows? Death and life (section 6) 1. What are those in the state of death unable to do? Mother of errors …
No, No . . . Not a Handout
Can’t stand it. Gotta say something. As John Stott wrote somewhere, fuzzy thinking is one of the sins of the age. I was watching the tube this afternoon, and a commercial came on, urging us all to get behind the Affordable Health Care Rationing System, or whatever it is they are calling it these days. …
The Problem With Merit
Book 3/Chapter 15 The main thing (section 1) 1. For Calvin, what is justification by faith alone? A pernicious word (section 2) 1. What problem does Calvin have with the use of the word merit? 2. Can someone use it without corrupting the gospel? Merit or good works (section 3)? 1. If we don’t use …
Making the Cut
As Christians, we hold to the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo, creation from nothing. God spoke and it was. But we are not Deists; we do not believe that God created a static thing, capable of ongoing existence by itself. God did not create the heavens and the earth, and then walk away. In His …
Faith Needs to Believe
We partake of this Supper every week. But we do not do this because we have some superstitious attachment to it. We do not believe that God wants us to shuffle along, looking down, our sight rising no higher than the lip of the Table. No, we are Christians, and we are called to set …
True Liberty
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 humble ourselves before you, as citizens of a nation …
All I Have Around Here is Kindling
Not sure what the cause of my lollygagging was, but I just now got around to reading Scott Clark’s gentle rebuke of John Piper, for the sin of having anything to do with me. You can read that rebuke here. If you want, you can slog through all the comments (which I didn’t quite get …
The Economics of Sin
So, it is the Fourth of July. Eat your burgers and set off your squibs. Remember that we are not allowed to turn this into a lamentation commemoration until the president has us neck deep in five year plans and new deals, wrapped in golden chains, and they have to be at least as onerous …