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8 Mar 2010

Introduction to the Basics of the Reformed Faith Series
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I picked up Basics of the Reformed Faith from Westminster Bookstore at a great deal. These books cover a variety of topics designed to introduce people to Reformed Faith. They will be great to loan someone (friends, parents, relatives etc) who have questions about Reformed Churches or theology. I will also use them to help simply explain to my children (well not for a few years anyway) the concepts of the faith. The books in this series are, in no particular order:

Why Do We Baptize Infants? — Bryan Chapell

What is Providence? — Derek W H Thomas

What is Spiritual Warfare? — Stanley D Gale

How Our Children Come to Faith — Stephen Smallman

What is the Lord’s Supper? — Richard D Philips

What is Biblical Preaching? — Eric J Alexander

What is the Christian Worldview? — Philip Graham Ryken

How do we Glorify God? — John D Hannah

What is a True Calvinist? — Philip Graham Ryken

What is a Reformed Church? —Stephen Smallman

What is Church Government? — Sean Michael Lucas
What is True Conversion? — Stephen Smallman

What is Perseverance of the Saints? — Michael A Milton

What is Justification by Faith Alone? — J V Fesko

What are Election and Predestination? — Richard D Philips

(Actually this is probably the order I'll blog my reviews.) I look forward to writing each of the reviews over the next few months.
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10 Jul 2009

John Calvin: 500 years
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Today marks the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's birth. Born Jean Cauvin, in a small town in northern France, he became the most well known and influential theologian of the second generation of Reformers.

As many of my readers already know, Calvin fever is high this year in both popular and scholastic circles. Conferences are running in Geneva (and elsewhere) as many undertake a Protestant pilgrimage. A few new biographies have come out this year (John Calvin: A Pilgrim's Life, John Calvin: Pilgrim and Pastor, etc.) as well as studies, coffee table books (The Piety of John Calvin: A Collection of His Spiritual Prose, Poems, and Hymns, and a historical fiction novel (Betrayal). Undoubtedly, Calvin himself would be embarrassed by this publicity; his will directed he be buried in an unmarked grave.

However, there is good reason to study John Calvin; he systematized Protestant theology in his The Institutes of Christian Religion; he (along with other Reformers) helped create the 'Protestant work ethic' with his teachings on vocation. Like Luther, he expounded the sovereignty of God in all things and our absolute dependence on grace for our salvation. His definition of justification in his Institutes is classic:

Now he is justified who is reckoned in the condition not of a sinner, but of a righteous man: and for that reason, he stands firm before God's judgment seat while all sinners fall....Thus, justified before God is the man who, freed from the company of sinners, has God to witness and affirm his righteousness. In the same way, therefore, he in whose life that purity and holiness will be found which deserves a testimony of righteousness before God's throne will be said to be justified by works, or else he who, by the wholeness of his works, can meet and satisfy God's judgment. On the contrary, justified by faith is he who, excluded from the righteousness of works, grasps the righteousness of Christ through faith, and clothed in it, appears in God's sight not as a sinner but as a righteous man.

Although John Calvin is known primarily as a great theologian, he considered himself primarily a pastor. His letter-writing was prolific, offering godly counsel and practical advice. Likewise, his sermons have also been overlooked. (Fortunately, some previously untranslated sermons are now available in English.) As we remember Calvin, let us not only remember his great contributions to systematic theology or the logic of his description of salvation; let us also remember his piety, his zeal for godliness, and passion to see Christ preached.

As for myself, I'll read a Calvin biography this year and probably pick up a copy of his sermons on Genesis.
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24 Dec 2008

Winter Rime
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My friend Sean called me and challenged me to a little competition as to who could create the best Christmas poem. (I later found out that he had already written his before calling me.) I accepted and finished late yesterday. Enjoy and do leave comments as to what you like about each poem. (You may also vote for best.) Maybe next year more can join in the competition.

The Incarnation
©2008 Sean McGinty

The birthing cry announces the situation.
Into space, time and this dreary ghetto town
Comes something new, at least from our perception.
Joy, hope, fear embodied has to us come down.
This child will bring about the end,
In one way or another, of all.
The turning point of the immutable trend
Set about by the most treacherous of falls.
Our friends and lovers have failed and left.
All our expectations have crashed down on our heads.
God help us, the poor, the lonely, the bereft,
The sick, the tired, the living, the dead.
We who swallow our tears cry out
And tonight we are answered.
Blinding hosts invade to tell about
The long sought cure for our cancer.
These winter rifts will soon be healed.
The tattered things, certainly mended.
Tombs of every sort will be unsealed,
And this aching darkness ended.
Peace upon our wretched hearts,
Peace upon our addled brains.
Sin resolved by our Lord’s art
Of drawing mercy from His pain.

Christmas Chiasmus
©2008 Christopher Hall
And the Word became flesh.
The King of Glory descending,
Took on humanity.
Unplumbed of mysteries;
In pure humility
He left his throne condescending.
Human and Divine mesh.
Born fallen man to redeem,
Like us in every respect;
Unlike Adam he obeyed
The Saviour committed no wrong;
And the whole Law he portrayed;
Yes, sin did he reject.
Repealed Adam’s curse as theme.
Agreed before all time
Mercy to shower mankind.
God’s wrath on God pourèd;
Our covenant curses he took;
His ire now assuagèd.
Grace toward us God aligned;
God Triune in full rhyme.
This mystery ushers us praise;
Praise for his complete redemption!
The Trinity in Unity,
Exalt the Triune God who secured life!
Lo, Unity in Trinity.
Praise for God’s wrought salvation!
In song let us our voices raise.
Works we could not do;
Adam fully did deprave
Seed, Hope is Christ, keeping
Covenant blessings does he give
To his chosen. Sweeping
Second Adam burst the grave;
His pure work makes all new.
By his perfect life and death,
Our guilt he exchanged.
Evil broken evermore,
The Saviour left undone no good.
His people’s sin he bore
And our nature he changed.
His righteousness bequeaths breath.
God and man: Jesus,
Second Person of Trinity.
Come to earth, humbly born,
In hypostatic union,
To be counted forlorn.
Son of God from eternity,
And he dwelt among us.
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30 Oct 2008

Reflexions on a Journey
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This past weekend I finished reading John Calvin’s Institutes of Christian Religion. Five or six years ago I began reading while at the University. It is as if a journey has drawn to a close. As my reader no doubt knows, the Institutes are Calvin’s systematic theology. Better histories have been written of the work so I won’t bore my reader here. Likewise I will not attempt to write a full review of Calvin's magnum opus. When I reflect on the work, I am amazed by the depth of John Calvin and his knowledge of the Word and the Church Fathers. Calvin packs much information into his paragraphs; frequently one has to reread him a few times to grasp what he is saying. It also helps to read him with a dictionary in hand, but where else would one learn the words ‘concupiscence’ and ‘anagogic’ and more than score of other words? The sovereignty of God features prominently in this book. Calvin’s writing is saturated with this. Not only did God sovereignly work creation, but he sovereignly works redemption. Salvation is all of God, our faith (given to us by God) receives his gift of grace. Some of the many excellent passages include the beginning where Calvin asserts that true knowledge of self leads to true knowledge of God leads to true knowledge of self. The more we see our own sin, it causes us to look outside ourselves for the remedy, and the more that we look to Christ and his grace, the more it causes us to be aware of our evil. Calvin also has great sections on how we receive grace from Christ and the great benefits of justification and adoption. Truly God has lavished his riches upon us in Christ. A wonderful read, Calvin was a student of the Word and marvelled at the depth of the grace of God. May we take this spirit into our own time and enjoy the work of a sovereign God!
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