διαθήκη

Happy Reformation Day!!

    The beers are on me!

Definitely worth a look is this short series of lectures by Carl Trueman on the Reformation. Trueman is entertaining and really gets to the principles. Enjoy.

Lecture 1 - “The Road to Reformation”

Lecture 2 - “The Theology of the Cross”

Lecture 3 - “Freedom from Babylon, Freedom for Christ”

RS

So, 31 October approaches, the day when Martin Luther may or may not have nailed his 95 theses to a wooden door in Wittenberg. In some traditions this is a day that is celebrated, but here in England it doesn’t get much attention in many churches, mine included, so I will celebrate it in my own quiet way. Actually, celebrate would not be the best word. Remember and give thanks, yes. Celebrate in any triumphalistic sense, no.

The words of Richard Baxter, whatever one might think of his theology, are sobering:

I can well remember the time when I was earnest for the reformation of matters of ceremony; and, if I should be cold in such substantial matter as this, how disorderly and disproportionable would my zeal appear! Alas! can we think that the reformation is wrought, when we cast out a few ceremonies, and changed some vestures, and gestures, and forms! Oh no, sirs! it is the converting and saving of souls that is our business. That is the chiefest part of reformation, that doth most good, and tendeth most to the salvation of the people. (The Reformed Pastor)

Let’s remember our Reformation heritage. But let’s remember too the millions in this country who walk in darkness, and remember the churches that have fallen back into error and the prevalence of false teaching.

Semper reformanda.

RS.

Hot off the press - a new book from Alister McGrath. Yes, another one. He has attempted a study of the Reformation and Protestantism up to the 21st century. The dangerous idea in question is that any man or woman should be able to read the Bible for themselves and come to their own conclusions. This is a racy and readable account of the seemingly uncontrollable forces unleashed at the Reformation which have led to the diversity of expressions of Protestant belief today. Heavily discounted at Amazon.co.uk.

This morning, as I sit here pounding away at my laptop, I feel that I have gotten closer to James Ussher, that I have somehow entered into his experience, and felt what he felt. Yes, my central heating has broken down.

For those of you not on the mailing list, the details of this year’s Westminster Conference have been sent out. It’s on Tuesday/Wednesday 11th-12th December at Friend’s House, 173 Euston Rd, London, opposite Euston Station. The cost is £35 (£20 for full-time students). The programme is:

Tuesday 11th December

The Clapham Sect and the Abolition of Slavery - Roger Fay

Charles Wesley and his Hymns - Graham Harrison

Preaching - “ex opere operato” - Robert Strivens

Wednesday 12th December

Turretin and the place of Systematic Theology - Maurice Roberts

Stephen Charnock and the Knowledge of God in Christ - Jeremy Walker

The Preaching of John Newton - John Harris

Further information and booking forms available from John Harris, 8 Back Knowl Rd, Mirfield, W. Yorks, WF14 9SA 

Sometimes I feel tired. Like right now. Easy to whinge. But then I look at some of the Puritans and their committment to do the work entrusted to them, and I’m humbled. I was struck recently by some words of John Preston (1587-1628):

Spend your fat and sweetnesse for God and man; weare out, not rust out; flame out, not smoke out; burne out, bee not blowne out. (Foure Treatises, 1632)

Master of Emmanuel College, he was also Trinity Lecturer, preacher at Lincoln’s Inn (not a pub!), and a court preacher. Rushing constantly between Cambridge and London, he contended for the Reformed faith against the rise of the Laudian party, and died aged 40.

Here there was no talk of work-life balance.

So, you thought the NIV had its problems. This is an excerpt from Exodus 20 in a 1631 King James Bible. Spot the missing word. Needless to say, as soon as the mistake was realised the edition was recalled and only 11 copies are known to exist today. The printers were fined a small fortune and this edition has ever since been known as ‘The Wicked Bible’.

Those nice folks at Reformed Theological Seminary have put 16 lectures on the Puritans by Jim Packer on their i-Tunes site. The lecture titles are listed below:

The Puritan Identity - 01 
The Puritan Identity - 02 
Puritan Theological Concerns - 01 
Puritan Theological Concerns - 02 
The Bible in Puritan Theology - 01 
The Bible in Puritan Theology - 02 
Salvation by Grace - 01 
Salvation by Grace - 02 
Faith and Assurance - 01 
Faith and Assurance - 02 
The Good Fight - 01 
The Good Fight - 02 
Conscience 
Reformed Monasticism 
The Christian Minister 
Worship, Fellowship, and Discipline in the Church 

You can download them for FREE at this address. What’s stopping you??

http://itunes.rts.edu/

I’m teaching the Gospel of Mark this term and have arrived at chapter 4 and a familiar passage. The ‘Parable of the Sower’ is often preached as the ‘Parable of the Soils’ nowadays, a disturbing psychologising tendency reflecting the anthropocentric nature of much modern preaching. A Christ-centred reading sensitive to the context in Mark’s narrative flow is required and I have not found better than that given in James R. Edwards’ commentary in the Pillar series, which is a joy to read. Edwards writes:

The parable represents the historical inbreaking of God’s kingdom in Jesus, the sower of the gospel. The astounding harvest in v. 8 is an important clue that the growth is not owing to human activity but to God’s providential power. God is at work - hidden and unobserved - in Jesus and the gospel to produce a yield wholly disproportionate to human prospects and merit. The sower’s earnest and profligate sowing, which at first looked mistaken and futile, is vindicated by a bumper crop… Despite resistance and rejection, there is an irrepressible empowerment behind the work of Jesus, as momentous as the generative agency of the seed… Let not hearers suppose the opposition of scribes, Pharisees, crowds and even his own associates, as adversarial as the hardpan, rocks, and thorns of Galilee, will be the last word. Despite discouraging odds, the harvest in Jesus’ ministry will be beyond compare.

Only when this message about Jesus is understood, can we consider the issue of discipleship, the other core theme of Mark’s Gospel. The responsive hearers of v.20 are distinguished from the others by the present tense rather than the aorist. They hear, and go on hearing, and do the will of God as they produce a crop. To them is given the secret of the kingdom - the knowledge that God is being revealed in Jesus. 

I suppose I should add a bit of Puritan colour. I like Matthew Henry’s observations on those who are ever hearing and never understanding:

That of the many that hear the word of the gospel, and read it, and are conversant with it, there are, comparatively, but few that receive it, so as to bring forth the fruits of it… It is sad to think, how much of the precious seed of the word of God is lost, and sown in vain; but there is a day coming when lost sermons must be accounted for. Many that have heard Christ himself preach in their streets, will hereafter be bidden to depart from him; those therefore who place all their religion in hearing, as if that alone would save them, do but deceive themselves, and build their hope upon the sand.