my burg

"The truth is that what remains in Christianity when the supernaturalism of the Bible is given up is not Christianity at all. Liberal Christianity and liberal Judaism, for example, turn out to be exactly alike. They have the same God, or rather the same fundamental skepticism about God, the same complacency about man, and the same mild admiration for the prophet of Nazareth. Tolerance has had its perfect work. The equilibrium has been restored. The consuming fire of Christianity has burned out, and we have merely the same feeble moralism that was in the world before Christianity took its rise. It is a drab, dreary world-this modern world of which men are so proud. I for my part feel oppressed when I look out upon it.' I admire, indeed, those who try to hold on with heart to what they have given up with the head; but as for me, any religion that is to claim my devotion must be founded squarely upon truth. Where shall such a religion he found? At this point, I have it truly r...

"The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law."  (Deuteronomy 29:29 ESV) John Calvin, in his commentary on Deuteronomy, says about this verse... To me there appears no doubt that, by antithesis, there is a comparison here made between the doctrine openly set forth in the Law, and the hidden and incomprehensible counsel of God, concerning which it is not lawful to inquire. In my opinion, therefore, the copula is used for the adversative particle; as though it were said, “God indeed retains to Himself secret things, which it neither concerns nor profits us to know, and which surpass our comprehension; but these things, which He has declared to us, belong to us and to our children.” It is a remarkable passage, and especially deserving of our observation, for by it audacity and excessive curiosity are condemned, whilst pious minds are aroused to be zea...

"God does not control the world merely by setting limits for the world’s free activity, as a teacher 'controlling' his classroom. Rather, like the author of a well-wrought novel, he conceives and brings about every event that happens, without compromising the integrity of his creaturely others."  - John Frame, Systematic Theology

I have begun reading Martyn Lloyd-Jones' Experiencing the New Birth   (Crossway Books, 2015),  based upon a series of sermons on John chapter 3 that he preached at  Westminster Chapel (London) almost fifty years ago (in 1966). I'm so very thankful to see Lloyd-Jones' sermons are still being published, and that Crossway is offering these previously-unpublished messages in book form .   The subject -- experiencing the new birth -- is also a very timely and needed topic for study today.  Much has been written in recent years (it seems to me) on the nature of justification and sanctification, but not as much on regeneration, or the new birth.  Lloyd-Jones is always biblical, thoughtful, insightful, and practical. His pastoral heart is evident in these messages. MLJ was a Spirit-anointed preacher and has been for decades a kind of historical mentor to many ministers. I was first  introduced to his writings in 1997, when I read Knowing The Times , a se...

Came upon the following in B. B. Warfield's work, The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible , pp 80-81... "...the series of redemptive acts of God has not been left to explain itself, but the explanatory word has been added to it.  Revelation thus appears, however, not as the mere reflection of the redeeming acts of God in the minds of men, but as a factor in the redeeming work of God, a component part of the series of His redeeming acts, without which that series would be incomplete and so far inoperative for its main end.  Thus the Scriptures represent it, not as confounding revelation with the series of the redemptive acts of God, but placing it among the redemptive acts of God and giving it a function as a substantive element in the operations by which the merciful God saves sinful men.  It is therefore not made even a mere constant accompaniment of the redemptive acts of God, giving their explanation that they may be understood.  It occupies a far more indepe...

But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:4-5 ESV) I have begun working my way through Carl Henry's fourth volume in God, Revelation, and Authority . He begins on his eleventh thesis: "The Bible is the reservoir and conduit of divine truth, the authoritative written record and exposition of God's nature and will."   He opens chapter 1 with, "The problem of authority is one of the most deeply distressing concerns of contemporary civilization."   He notes that anti-authoritarianism -- or positively stated, self-autonomy -- is not something which faces religious institutions only, but also every area of modern life.  And it's not a new phenomenon. It's as old as the garden of Eden (Gen. 3) I was struck with the following summary of the nature of authority in the Bible... "Beyond all d...