August 5th, 2011
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Most Americans operate on the sincere but completely misguided assumption that deep down inside people are basically good. When we compare ourselves to others, we might be able to measure up pretty well. Sure, there are some who we might begrudgingly admit are better people than we are, but we still do pretty well in most of our self-comparison tests against others.
August 1st, 2011
In part one of this series we considered Calvin’s interpretation of several biblical passages on consolation. In part two we looked at how he harvested a theology of consolation from his exegetical work. In part three we examined what he wrote in his Institutes on consolation, and in part four consolation in pastoral ministry. In this section we will analyze how Calvin preached the biblical doctrine of consolation to his congregation.
July 29th, 2011
In Hosea 6:7, the prophet records the word of the Lord as follows: “But like Adam they [Israel and Judah] transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.” Based upon this declaration it is clear that Adam stood in a covenant relationship to his creator while in Eden, and that Adam had indeed violated the terms of that covenant through a personal act of disobedience.
July 25th, 2011
For Calvin, Christian consolation is not only a theological reality but it is also the result of good pastoral practice. Christians often fail to appropriate the consolation they might have because they don’t humble themselves to confess their sins to one another.
July 22nd, 2011
As C. S. Lewis was fond of saying, “God likes matter. He invented it.” Although people can easily overlook this important theological connection, the Christian doctrine of God demands a corresponding Christian doctrine of creation. There are…
July 18th, 2011
In the previous installment we looked at the way Calvin read Paul’s epistles and how he drew from them a doctrine of consolation, of God’s presence with his people in Christ, by the Spirit, in the gospel, in the sacraments, and in prayer. In this (third) part of this series we consider Calvin as a theologian of consolation.
July 15th, 2011
Far too often we hear people speak of the Holy Spirit as an “it,” not a “who.” One reason why this is the case is that the nature of the Holy Spirit’s work is to bring glory to Jesus Christ, not to himself. This is why J. I. Packer calls the Holy Spirit the “shy…
July 11th, 2011
In the first part we saw that Calvin was a pilgrim who himself needed the consolation of the gospel, given by the Spirit, through the ministry of Word, sacrament, and prayer. He was also a careful, thoughtful, and sophisticated reader of texts and principally Scripture.
July 8th, 2011
Like Jews and Muslims, Christians are monotheists. But unlike Jews and Muslims, Christians are also Trinitarians. We believe that the one God is triune, and is revealed as three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When it comes to the Son (Jesus Christ), the Bible everywhere affirms that Jesus is true and eternal God, uncreated, and without beginning or end.
July 4th, 2011
Wikipedia, that ubiquitous source of unimpeachable scholarship, defines “consolation” as “something of value, when one fails to get something of higher value….” That is precisely the opposite of what John Calvin (1509–64) meant by “consolation.”For Calvin, the consolation that Christ gives to his people, by the gospel, through the Spirit, is not second prize but to be valued above that which we lost. When we consider Calvin, “consolation” might not be the thing we first associate with him.
July 1st, 2011
What is the church’s role in culture? In this video from the Gospel Coalition, Westminster’s own Mike Horton participates in a round-table discussion with Matt Chandler and Tim Keller.
June 13th, 2011
Of course, at Westminster California you can get a good taste for 16th and 17th century theology while getting your M.Div. Not because the faculty are romantic golden-age types lost in the past, but because the faculty across the board is so thoroughly conversant with their Reformed confessions and the thought of the period that spawned them.
June 6th, 2011
Just last night, a new member of our church — an adult convert and an avid reader — asked me if I preached according to the “redemptive historical” method. He had come across the term in reading Geerhardus Vos, and instantly realized that it was descriptive of what he had discovered (and enjoyed) about my preaching.
June 3rd, 2011
Linguists have provided significant help to biblical scholars, not the least in the area of lexical semantics. “Lexical” here means words and phrases and “semantics” deals with meanings, so that “lexical semantics” is the study of how words mean. One area of particular help is that linguists posit that individual words often have what is called a “semantic range,” which will be explained and illustrated below.
May 30th, 2011
The redemptive historical unity and unfolding of the Bible was one of the great revelations of my time of study at Westminster; I felt like the scales fell from my eyes in virtually every biblical lecture. And Cocceius and the story of covenant in the early Reformed tradition shows that this redemptive historical perspective is essential to the Reformation’s turn ad fontes, to the sources of our faith in Scripture. It is essential in a crucial sense to the Gospel. I’m convinced that this insight sets Westminster California apart from every other seminary out there, and it is a reflection of its fidelity to the Word of God and the Scriptures.
May 27th, 2011
Last time, I mentioned that the great Aaronic benediction in Num. 6:22-27 concludes with the wonderful line: “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.” The notion of God putting his name upon someone is an interesting one. One passage that has always stuck with me in this connection is in Exodus: “Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him” (Exod. 23:20-21; ESV; emphasis added). Having God’s name is really something!
May 2nd, 2011
Last time, we looked at the difference between glosses and word meanings. A gloss is an English word substitute and is of concern primarily to translators, while meaning is a brief description of a word’s referent. I illustrated this difference with some rather simple nouns, but now let’s look at a more theologically rich example of the difference with a verb dear to the heart of any Protestant: “I justify” (Greek dikaioõ; pronounced: dee-kai-AH-oh).
April 27th, 2011
It is common to hear people claim that Christians, Jews, and Muslims all worship the same God. Not true. Unlike those who worship Allah, or those Jews who claim to worship the God of Abraham, Christians worship the true and living God, who reveals himself in three persons as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
April 22nd, 2011
Harold Camping has not only deserted the church, he seems also to have deserted Christ and his Gospel. In his online book The End of the Church…and After, he began to reject a number of teachings on salvation common in Reformed churches. Consider this strange amalgam of biblical truths and errors all of which Camping rejects as errors so serious that Christ has ended the church age because of them: “Such conclusions that there can be divorce for fornication, baptismal regeneration, our faith is an instrument that God uses to bring us to salvation, a future millennium, women can pastor a church, universal atonement, our acceptance of Christ as a requirement for salvation, are typical of many doctrines solemnly adopted by churches.” In this statement are indications of serious confusion on the doctrine of salvation.
April 18th, 2011
When working with foreign words, we should be aware of a very important distinction: the distinction between meaning and gloss. For our purposes, a gloss is an English word substitute for a Greek word. In simple cases, a gloss is perfectly satisfactory to get the job done. For example, if I were to define Greek patr with the gloss, “father,” akouM with “I hear,” or hagios with “holy” this would be adequate for most purposes. But not for all and maybe not for many.
