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Four Kuyperians walk into a bar.
Close enough.
Four KC contributors attended the 2019 ACCS Conference in Atlanta, GA. On this episode, filled with humorous teaching stories, they discuss the impact and lessons learned from the conference and the future of classical education. Anyone who teaches or whose children attend a classical school need to listen to this episode.
Many Christians know little about the Church Calendar, which means that many evangelicals will treat this Sunday like any other day. This Sunday marks the beginning of the Ordinary Season (not in the mundane or common sense, but the term comes from the word “ordinal,” which probably means “counted time”). This season is composed of 23-28 Sundays, and it fleshes out the mission of the Church. To put it simply, Pentecost is the out-working of the mission of Jesus through his people.
Some pastors–myself included–usually take these few months to focus on passages and topics pertaining to the specific life of the Church, and how the Church can be more faithful and active in the affairs of the world. The Pentecost Season emphasizes the unleashing of the Spirit’s work and power through the Bride of Jesus Christ, the Church.
Liturgically, many congregations wear red as a symbol of the fiery-Spirit that befell the Church. The Season brings with it a renewed emphasis on the Church as the central institution to the fulfillment of God’s plans in history. As such, it brings out the practical nature of Christian theology. Joan Chittister defines Pentecost as “the period of unmitigated joy, of total immersion in the implications of what it means to be a Christian, to live a Christian life” (The Liturgical Year, 171).
There is a Spiritlessness in Reformed teaching and worship today. Pentecost exhorts us to be spiritual (Spirit-led) while emphasizing the titanic role of the Third Person of the Trinity in beautifying the world to reflect the glory of the Father and the Son.
Calvin was known as the “Theologian of the Spirit.” This is hardly manifested in many of his followers who tend to flee from the implications of Spirit-led applications, choosing a mental overdose of theological categories. However, the Spirit is crucial to the forming and re-forming of any environment. It communicates our thoughts, emotions, and prayers to our Meditator. The Third Person of the Trinity intercedes on our behalf in the midst of our ignorance (Rom. 8:26-30).
Further, the Spirit draws individuals (John 6:44) to enter into one baptized community of faith. The Spirit, in the words of James Jordan, is the “divine match-maker.” He brings isolated individuals into a Pentecostalized body, a body that has many parts, but one Head.
So, let us embrace this Season! Let us join this cosmic Pentecostal movement and embrace the mission of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
Imagine a lawyer sitting down to write about the laws of the United States. She knows it is an impossibly broad task to sum up the vast expanse of federal law, but she wants to express to the reader that the laws of the United States are, in the main, right and just. Suppose also, that she chooses to address her writing to the “United States” personified, and she writes in the mode of a modern panegyric.
Even under these eccentric circumstances, can we imagine her writing something like, “Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes! Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments . . . With my
If she did, she would feel very alone if she had done much reading in her subject. Many legal treatises and law journal articles have passed dully over my eyes and none of them extol the law in this way. Even lawmakers, when they’re introducing a bill they’re sponsoring, do not speak of their proposed law in such terms. The most enthusiastic supporter of civil rights would not praise the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in this way. At their best, such laws are expedient, or practical, or groundbreaking, or necessary. They are never wondrous, wonderful, sure, true, or righteous.
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On this episode, Pastor Uri Brito sat down with Dr. Jeff Meyers to discuss the book of Ecclesiastes. Jeff wrote a fascinating commentary on this wisdom literature book many years ago, and it still remains one of the most insightful commentaries to this day. Among other things, the conversation focuses on the use of the word generally translated as
Resources:
You can purchase Dr. Meyers’ book on Athanasius Press.
Three Essays on The Wisdom of Ecclesiastes By Jeff Meyers
“Call me Ishmael.” This opening line, one of the most famous in literature, is actually a rather strange turn of phrase, considering that Ishmael appears to be the narrator’s real name. In normal speech, we don’t say “Call me ____.” Instead, we say, “My name is ____.” We only ask people to call us a certain way when our given name does not match what we want to be called. Imagine a college student introducing herself at orientation saying, “My name’s Elizabeth, but call me Liz” when her parents and everyone else who knew her up to that point called her “Beth.” Assuming she’s successful in getting her friends to call her Liz, what has she done? Is it a momentous change, or fairly trivial? What if she chose a completely different name for her new friends to call her, like, “Brittany?” Is that different? In short, what are we doing when we try to change our names? I submit that we are attempting to play God.
God is the supreme “namer.” He named day and night (1:5), Heaven (1:8), Earth and Seas (1:9), and he named Man (1:26). From the beginning, mankind names creation as an act of dominion and image-bearing. Adam named the animals that God brought to him, and those were their names. (1:19-20). In the act of naming the animals God brought to him, Adam became wiser to their nature. He became aware that there was not a helper fit for him among them. In Adam’s most significant act of naming, he named the woman that God had formed from his ribs. In doing so, he also penned the first poem, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” (2:23).
A careful reading of scripture, especially the book of Genesis, reveals that names are vastly important. Names reveal covenant significance as well as character. In some cases, a person arrives on the scene with a name that already says something about their character. For example, James Jordan has pointed out that Rebecca’s name is a pun with the Hebrew word for “myriads.” She was providentially named that before any human thought that she would be part of the covenant line. In other cases, God renames the person. When God renames the person, it is generally in the context of cutting a covenant. Whenever God gives a person a new name, God’s renaming is efficacious. That is their name. Abraham is Abraham; he is no longer Abram. Sarah is Sarah; she is not Sarai.
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Galatians 6:14: But far be it from me to boast [in anything or anyone], except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
We are told not to boast. Boasting assumes our excessive trust in our own achievements. It’s the talk of pompous and powerful men. Yet, the Apostle Paul urges us to boast. For Paul, our boasting is not in our own conquest, it’s the conquest of Another. We boast in a tree that was cut down to save us. We pride in a tree, shaped in the form of a sword where our Savior hung.
Jesus died to become the sword of salvation to all who believe; the protector of all those born anew. In him, we are rescued, restored, and redeemed. We boast in a Savior who conquers by dying.
In these remaining thirty-three days, let’s boast! Let us proudly exalt the cross of Jesus. Let’s show Christian pride in a bloody cross bearing a beautiful Savior.
Guest Post by Joseph Bailey
It’s hard to measure the significant impact of Benedictine monasteries upon the church and Western culture. At a time of tremendous upheaval, uncertainty, and dark paganism in Europe, these tiny communities living under the Rule set forth by St. Benedict both preserved the light of Scripture and learning and, at the same time, advanced the light of the gospel within the gates of Germanic warrior culture.
While it was far from neat and tidy in its efforts, the monastic movement sought to lay down roots of biblical living within the fertile ground of paganism that would produce a spiritual vineyard to choke out the weeds of worldliness. Far from being isolationist, they were on a reclamation project- reclaim the truth of Scripture, reclaim the life of holiness, reclaim the earth under its rightful lord, King Jesus.
St. Benedict states at the end of his Rule that this way of life was not meant as an end in itself. He set down a blueprint of monastic life that was meant for beginners, to begin the process of true discipleship. It was not for the chosen few who were super-saints. It was to lay a foundation of biblical community that could (and did!) overcome the darkness around it.
Is there a Gospel invitation? To many evangelical Christians, the answer to that question is an unqualified “yes.” Some calvinists, reacting against the misleading character of the “altar call,” seem less interested in inviting men to anything than they are in sending men away to think about the message they have heard. The answer to this conflict is to understand that the Gospel invitation is an invitation to come into Jesus’ house and have supper with Him. The psychological instinct in the “altar call” is correct: Men should do something and come somewhere in response to the call of the Gospel. Physical response, holistic response by the whole person, is the proper response to the Gospel. It is a perversion to hide the Lord’s Supper from view and to ask men to make some hidden, inward motion of the “soul” in coming to Christ. The Biblical gospel addresses the whole man, and the whole person is expected to respond.
To come into Jesus’ house to eat His Supper, a person has to cross the threshold of the house. That threshold crossing is the sacrament of Baptism. We do not invite men to be baptized; we invite them to come in and eat, but they must cross the threshold and be baptized before they can sit down. In the parable of the wedding supper (Matt. 22:1-13), one man shows up without the proper garment. Obviously, he did not come in through the door, or he would have been washed and given one (cf. also John 10:1-9).
It is interesting to note how the Greek philosophical influence has gutted Scripture of its clear meaning for so much of Christendom. In Revelation 3:20, for example, Christ asks to be admitted to the church so that He can participate in His own Supper! This, however, is instinctively read by the modern mind as “asking Jesus into your heart,” which the passage really has next to nothing to do with. Revelation 3:20 is speaking of the covenant meal.
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From the faculty room of Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Pastor Brito interviews Associate Editor of Ligonier Ministries, Robert Rothwell. The famous TableTalk magazine, read by over 250 thousand people around the globe is one of the most treasured devotional in our day. Robert writes those devotionals as well as contributes to theological articles.
In this interview we discuss the history of the magazine, as well as delve into some questions concerning the Trinity. Robert is considering a dissertation on the topic. Take a listen.
Resources:
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In this interview, Pastor Uri Brito speaks to Andrew Sandlin, the president of the Center for Cultural Leadership. We discuss the legacy of Professor Greg Bahnsen and the lessons he left us as we celebrate the 23rd anniversary of his death.
Andrew was a friend of Dr. Bahnsen and one who continues the Bahnsenian legacy of faithfulness to the Scriptures and commitment to the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ over all areas of life.
Resources:
David Bahnsen honors his father.
Kuyperian Commentary Podcast
