Archive for March, 2006
Friday, March 31st, 2006
Carl Truman posts some good thoughts on the dangers of theological gurus here. In days when conferences are being used self-consciously as extra-legal alternative church courst (where there is no need to follow process and grant rights to the accused) I think these meditations are timely.
Of course, this doesn’t mean all conferences are wrong [...]
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Friday, March 31st, 2006
Transforming Sermons led me here where the “personal relationship” language is accused of betraying, “a creeping sort of secularization of our language about God.”
This dovetails quite well with a couple of articles on “Doctrine,” recently publish in the Act 3 Journal in which I try to explore some of Peter Leithart’s thoughts. But it [...]
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Friday, March 31st, 2006
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, vol i, p. 11 (emphasis added):
It may be admitted that the truths which the theologian has to reduce to a science, or, to speak more humbly, which he has to arrange and harmonize, are revealed partly in the external works of God, partly in the consitution of our nature, and partly [...]
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Friday, March 31st, 2006
Obviously (for literate Reformed types who have read John Frame) it is ancient news to criticize Charles Hodge’s “scientific induction” model for how theology ought to be done. Still, it is hard to read this without commenting even when aware one is not saying anything new.
According to Hodge, the Bible presents us with facts and [...]
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Thursday, March 30th, 2006
Reading Hodge on the inductive method in theology with all his discussion of “facts” and “truths” that are all there in the Bible, but must be ordered, reminds me of nothing so much as Logical Atomism and Wittgenstein’s Tractaetus. Of course, Hodge would demand a systematic relations between these truths, but the truths are [...]
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Thursday, March 30th, 2006
Wow. Trying to bring Calvin up to speed for his memory test tomorrow on Luther’s Smaller Catechism and the Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed led to our most detailed discussion yet of how babies are formed.
If you want to know where christological heresies came from, examine squeamishness.
And it leads me to think that [...]
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Wednesday, March 29th, 2006
In discussing the forecourt, before getting to the items in the inner sanctuary, we are told that Solomon made ten tables, five for the South and five for the North (Second Chronicles 4.8). What were these tables for?
Later, Ezekiel is given plans for an ideal Temple that is close enough to Solomon’s to answer [...]
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Wednesday, March 29th, 2006
Among other problems in Clark’s lecture, he insists that Romans 2.27-29 is somehow a blanket condemnation of his targets:
Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor [...]
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Tuesday, March 28th, 2006
More on the woman warrior.
Here’s the typical scenario: a woman or women do amazing heroic feats under the direction of a male (in the case of the title above he’s even disembodied). Whether its the Powerpuff girls, Buffy (most seasons), Max (working for Eyes Only) or Sidney Bristow it is always the same pattern. [...]
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Monday, March 27th, 2006
Why do liturgical churches practice kneeling at the table for the Eucharist?
Kneeling at the Table is defended by virtue of the Real Presence. But why should this matter? If God invites us to sit and relax in his presence, it is a strange form of devotion that says we must disobey him in order [...]
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Monday, March 27th, 2006
Still more.
Note: I have altered the claims of this entry in keeping with a couple of posts (I made him give me two witnesses before backing down) in the comments section. I still think the “fatwah” has a sort of unique quality that can’t be appreciated without reading it, so here it remains:
And last thing [...]
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Sunday, March 26th, 2006
Postscript to this:
First of all, John Barlow writes that you ought to read. Not only is Jon insightful and pithy, but he shows that the word “fatwa” works quite well in a Presbyterian context rather than one of international Islamic terrorism. Very sad.
Also, before all the Professor’s enemies have been put under tha [...]
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Sunday, March 26th, 2006
Four hundred and fifty years ago, and twelve days and an odd number of hours (depending on the time in which the service was held), in Geneva, Switzerland, John Calvin preached on Deuteronomy 28.15-24. At the beginning of the sermon he explained why God not only encouraged with promised blessings, but warned with threats. [...]
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Saturday, March 25th, 2006
I just heard a lecture that was, despite my low expectations, worse than I expected it to be in its portrayal of its targets, its use of Scripture, and its appeal to Reformed traditon. A pretty typical example is the point at which we are informed that the “federal visionists” all agree with a [...]
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Saturday, March 25th, 2006
“Standing up to a bully.”
Hat Tip: BHT
That’s would cover just about all posts about theological controversy.
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Saturday, March 25th, 2006
Press I can be proud of.
But I think Horne is correct that the PCA will soon become “truly national and international and the archaic regionalisms [will] simply wither and die…” When that happens, we “racists” will want nothing to do with the PCA, and this will delight Mark Horne and many others.
No, it will delight [...]
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Friday, March 24th, 2006
PART ONE
PART TWO
PART THREE
God is a righteous judge,
And a God who has indignation every day.
If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword;
He has bent His bow and made it ready (Psalm 7.11, 12).
David’s inspired lyrics do not sound very encouraging to modern ears–especially to modern Christian ears. The idea that God [...]
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Friday, March 24th, 2006
Interesting stuff from the Blue Raja about the dangers in theological blogging.
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Friday, March 24th, 2006
I had objections to the doctrine of predestination but, eventually, these were overcome. What happened is R. C. Sproul’s original (black hair, turtleneck, plaid pants) lectures on “The Holiness of God”powerfully reintroduced me to my own depravity and guilt. The new understanding of my depravity broke down my objections to facing the passages [...]
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Thursday, March 23rd, 2006
From Jim Jordan’s “Elijah’s War with Baal”
In the third year — the year of judgment and resurrection — God told Elijah to show himself to Ahab. So, Elijah set out from Zarapheth in Sidon (he’d been hiding in Jezebel’s home territory!) and came toward Samaria.
He met Obadiah, Ahab’s Prime Minister, and told him to find [...]
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