Theology Archives - Page 59 of 66 - Kuyperian Commentary

On February 5, 2014 By Luke Welch In Theology Like

Ability to Eat – Calvin’s First Argument Against Paedocommunion

I’ve been writing about Calvin’s treatment of Paedocommunion. I wanted to explain in a list what Calvin’s arguments are in that passage. So I ran the passage through a high tech analytical tabulation engine (complete with exegetical calculatrix) and it spat out this list of “prerequisite for eating test topics”:

Calvin says anyone who will eat the Lord’s meal must be able to…

A – EAT,
B – DISCERN,
C – SELF-EXAMINE,
D – PROCLAIM,
E – REMEMBER, and…
F – INQUIRE

Let us focus on the first point:

A – “Must be able to Eat”

From Calvin: (more…)

On January 24, 2014 By Kuyperian In Books, Culture, Politics, Theology, Wisdom Like

City of God: An August Enterprise

No man can be a good metropolitan if he loves his title but not his task

First Things contributor Collin Garbarino has started an admirable undertaking for the year ahead, and it’s not too late to join in the fun. Participants will be reading St. Augustine’s City of God over the course of a year. And a Facebook Page has been created for reading schedule updates, supporting commentary & readers’ notes, and group accountability. The group has amassed over 1300 participants to date.

Resources:

The Reading Schedule
http://collingarbarino.com/reading-city-of-god/

Translations & formats:

Book list from Amazon
(The moderator of the project is using the Penguin Classics translation)

A digital copy of the 1871 Dods Translation is in the public domain

As well as a Librivox audio version, if you’re into that sort of thing

On Augustine the Man:

An introduction

The Great Courses also has a course on Augustine: Philosopher & Saint (that periodically goes on sale)

There are also great lectures available at WordMP3 from Pastor Steve Wilkins‘ Church Fathers series and a lecture from Pastor Douglas Wilson to the ACCS

As well as Dr. George Grant on Augustine’s Theology of Wonder

Other Resources:

Dr. Peter J Leithart, Senior Fellow at New Saint Andrews College and President of of Trinity House Institute, has many articles about St. Augustine and his writings over at First Things

Mentalfloss will even help you fake your way through a conversation about St. Augustine

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On January 21, 2014 By Luke Welch In Theology Like

The Sections of Calvin’s Argument

Recently, I started a trail of thought on Calvin and Paedocommunion, here:

“Finally Discussion Paedocommunion for Real”

And followed it up with a long quotation from Calvin directly upon giving communion to children, here:

“One of the Most Un-Well Reasoned Things Calvin Ever Said”

In that clipping from Calvin’s Institutes, a section that I posted in full in the last post against Paedocommunion, Calvin himself summarizes his reasons for rejecting paedocommunion, and then he elaborates. (more…)

On January 17, 2014 By Kuyperian In Theology Like

Notes from the Funeral Home

by Marc Hays

I am nearly forty years old and have yet to experience the death of “someone close to me.” My parents both live. My wife, my siblings, my children all remain. My grandparents have all passed, but for one reason or another they were distant. Age, geography, or Alzheimer’s can each create their own kind of distance. A close friend of mine from high school died a few years ago, but his death was nearly twenty years removed from our life together. I cried at his funeral for those who remained. My tears were not for my loss.

Today, we will bury my wife’s grandmother. Jamie’s experience with her “Mema” was the polar opposite of mine. Mema was only 48 when Jamie was born, so they had many years and spent much time together. We lived in Virginia for a four-year period and, until that time, Mema never lived more than 15 miles away from Jamie. The family gathered at least a half dozen times per year for birthdays and holidays and, up until a few months ago, Mema kept an incredible amount of clarity in her thinking. Neither age nor geography nor mental illness removed Mema from Jamie’s life. Only death did, and it did so on the same calendar day that we remember Jamie’s arrival. Today at the funeral, Jamie and her family will weep for their loss, something I’m not sure that I’ve ever done.

Jesus wept. He wept at the tomb of his friend, Lazarus. “When Jesus therefore saw (Mary) weeping and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in his spirit, and was troubled.” (John 11:32) He could have avoided it. He knew early enough to have come and healed Lazarus. After all, he had healed people without being present in the room so what would have stopped him from healing someone from miles away? Mary and Martha lamented, “If you’d have come, he wouldn’t have died.” But Jesus wanted to do more than give them their brother back. He wanted them to see the glory of God. (John 11:40) He wanted them to see that his groaning was not simply for himself. Not only for his loss.

Death is the nemesis of life. Archenemies they are, and there is no reconciling them. Never any accord. Never any peace. One must win and the other die. Jesus is life. He not only created life or gives life, although he did do those things; He is life. If he is life, then he and death can never be reconciled. Life is the antithesis of death. One must conquer and the other must be conquered. Jesus must be the death of death.

Adam ate from the tree that had been kept from him, and he died. Jesus drank from the cup that had been given to him, and he died. Adam’s death, as a consequence of his disobedience, plunged him and his bride headlong into death; Jesus’ death, as a result of his obedience, conquered death and gave life to his bride in him.

By his death and resurrection, Jesus trampled down death. In his life, he showed his power over the effects of death by resuscitating the victims of death. He could restore life in those who had succumbed to death. By his own resurrection, which could only follow his own death, Jesus showed that it is impossible for him to actually succumb. His “laying down of his life” is just as active as his “taking it back up again.” By “giving up the ghost” he never gave up any ground. Not one square inch.

Today, we will lay Mema to rest. But the day is coming when she shall be raised incorruptible. The trumpet shall sound. The Earth will give up her dead in the resurrection. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the first-fruits of them that slept, shall return for those who sleep; he shall return for those who weep.<>информер тиц и pr

On January 14, 2014 By Luke Welch In Theology 1

Paedocommunion – One of the Most Un-Well Reasoned Things Calvin Ever Said

A tough audience.

Back in College, in the halcyon days of youth, when theology was funny and doctrine was power (if you had the luck to be the winner in an emotional debate) – oh, back then, there was an oft repeated joke. I have no idea its source, and I still think it is pretty funny:

Calvinist 1: “I’m a six-point Calvinist. T-U-L-I-P-I!”

Calvinist 2: “What does the last ‘I’ stand for?”

Calvinist 1: “Why, the Imminent return of John Calvin, of course!”

Okay, I know I wrote that in the format of clean joke books I read as a child that had been printed in the fifties. And if you are offended by the joke, then (more…)

On January 8, 2014 By Luke Welch In Theology Like

Finally Discussing Paedocommunion for Real

By Luke Welch

At Kuyperian, it would be fair to peg us as proponents of including all the baptized in the Lord’s Supper. In earlier months, I kept writing as if I were going to be discussing the topic, but I kept falling short and only talking about baptism. So I have been dying for a chance to finally enter into the discussion of that blessed fourteen letter word: paedocommunion.

And here we are. I will start now. And today’s post will be relatively short: a summary of longer, future arguments.

LOCUS CLASSICUS
1 Corinthians is the place the battle must be won or lost, though many other passages matter to the discussion. For today’s listeners, 1 Cor 11 is the roadblock. In soon-to-come posts the following will be spelled out. For now a summary of my series of arguments.

THESIS
1 Corinthians 10-13 teaches paedocommunion implicitly, and does not exclude children from the Lord’s table.

A – BODY means THE CHURCH
1 Corinthians 10-13 is a section intensely focused on the unity of the church; the controlling metaphor for the section is “one body made of many members (body parts).” We should expect “body” in this section to be a reference to the church, unless in some instance it is clearly a reference to something else.

B – IF YOU ARE WASHED, YOU EAT
There is a one to one correspondence between those who are baptized and those who are in the body, and then also between those who commune and those who are in the body. All the baptized commune. There is no non-communing member of the church.

C – PAEDOCOMMUNION PRECEDENCE
In this section, Paul explains the Eucharist by telling story after story illustrated by feasts that included children.

D – THE “WORTHINESS-TEST” IS NOT NEW IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
Those same feasts also required that participants be worthy and examine themselves. All the while, they included children.

E – THE WARNINGS ARE NOT TO CHILDREN
The major problems being addressed are high-handed sins: idolatry, flagrant immorality, and hypocritical use of the unity meal to treat the poor as second class citizens in the kingdom.

F – PAUL WANTS REPENTANT EATERS, NOT HARD HEARTED ABSTAINERS
No positive command is given as a prerequisite for entrance to the meal. Mostly we mistake corporate or liturgical actions as individual tests of worthiness.
—

SINCE YOU ARE ITCHING FOR HOMEWORK

See if you can identify what I mean before I post longer explanations!

—

UPDATE: Part 2 of this discussion can be found here:

Paedocommunion – One of the Most Un-Well Reasoned Things Calvin Ever Said

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Luke Welch has a master’s degree from Covenant Seminary and preaches regularly in a conservative Anglican church in Maryland. He blogs about Bible structure at SUBTEXT. Follow him on Twitter: @lukeawelch<>neobrut раскрутка а 1с

On December 25, 2013 By Adam McIntosh In Culture, Politics, Theology Like

Two Births of Jesus

One night in Nazareth, God became man in the virgin womb of Mary, a young lady betrothed to Joseph of Nazareth. Three trimesters later, Jesus was born on Christmas day. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes (Lk. 2:7). Gentile worshipers brought him gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Mt. 2:11). The infant’s life was threatened by an evil king, but he escaped death (Mt. 2:13-15).

Thirty-three years later, Jesus had his life threatened again by evil rulers (Mt. 26:65-68). Instead of escaping, he volunteered to die (Jn. 10:18). At his death in Jerusalem, Israelite worshipers prepared spices and oils for him (Lk. 23:55-56; Jn. 19:39-40). He was wrapped in fine linens and buried in a virgin tomb, a tomb owned by Joseph of Arimathea (Mt. 27:57-60; Lk. 23:53). Three days later, he was reborn on Easter Sunday.

As we celebrate the nativity of our Lord today, let us recall the glorious providence of God. Let us remember that not only does Christ’s first coming look forward to his second coming, but that his birth out of the womb foreshadows his birth out of the tomb. King Jesus conquered death and now sits on heaven’s throne. We join his mother in singing these words from the Magnificat: (more…)

On December 24, 2013 By Kuyperian In Culture, Theology Like

Christmas in the Tropics

by Marc Hays

As I write, I sit under an umbrella on the patio behind a house that I cannot afford. Somehow, my brother-in-law, Steve Griffin, a missionary with Daystar Baptist Missions, has connections that put us here for around the cost of a decent hotel. The villa where we’re staying could just as likely be found on the Mediterranean as the Caribbean, but I don’t know that it could be any more exotic. The sky is clear and blue; the sun is shining and warm; and palm trees are the norm. There’s always a chance of rain and never a chance of snow.

My brother-in-law and his family do not live in this town. They live about 15 minutes east in the city of San Pedro de Macoris. San Pedro is a city teeming with people – about 250,000 of them. It is dirty, and it is loud, like many cities. There must be 50 motorcycles for every car, and at least 4 people for every motorcycle. It is common to see a family of four riding down the street on the same motorcycle.

I like to drive, but I am glad I am not driving here. There are lines on some roads, but a painted line has never kept a car in it’s lane. There are lights at some intersections, but a light has never stopped a car, or a motorcycle, yet. I have not witnessed a traffic accident, but I have seen thousands of near-misses. It seems like every car or motorcycle you pass is a near-miss.

The buildings here are all made of concrete. They build a single-story house like we build sky-scrapers in the States. The support structure is made of steel reinforced, concrete columns. The walls are made of concrete blocks and finished with a layer of stucco. The floors are concrete. The ceilings are concrete. The roofs are concrete covered in tiles. Wood rots. Concrete doesn’t. They laugh at us for building houses with “sticks.” The termites and the humidity will not allow for stick-built homes here.

When you build a house in San Pedro, you need more blocks than just the ones for your house. You need blocks for the walls that encircle your house. Virtually every home is surrounded by a concrete wall, and entry to the property is secured by a steel gate. Due to the alarmingly high number of petty thefts, even the doors and windows of the house are covered in iron bars. The Dominicans have done well in adapting though. Many of the homes’ anti-theft protection is made of intricately woven patterns of iron and steel, painted in blacks and golds. The bars and gates are as beautiful as they are necessary.

But, oh, how the gospel could change all that. “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.” (Eph 4:28) Oh, how the gospel will change all that. The earth will be full of the knowledge and glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. (Is. 11:9; Hab. 2:14) A city with no need for walls may sound like some utopian ideal, but it’s not. It’s much simpler than that. It’s heaven on earth.

This Christmas, we remember that when Jesus began to grow inside the womb of Mary, heaven and earth overlapped. It was small at first, but God likes to start small. He starts with a trickle from under the altar. (Ezek 47) Jesus grew and the overlap grew with him. Kings murdered; demons railed; hypocrites pontificated; traitors kissed; witnesses lied; and soldiers nailed; but no one could stop the overlap from growing. The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers took counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed (Ps 2), but the water had already begun to flow out from under the altar. Immanuel, God with us, was here, and he was not returning to the Father unsatisfied. The Kingdom was his for the taking; all he had to do was die, and die he did. The veil was torn in two. The waters that flowed from under the altar had overflowed the threshold of the temple and were becoming a river.

But Jesus did not stay dead; for death had no power over him. He arose, and the river swelled deeper than the knees, the waist, the chest. The overlap between heaven and earth was ever growing. Jesus returned to the Father and the Holy Spirit was sent. The river from the temple made it all the way to the sea, and the salt waters were made fresh. Jews and Gentiles became brothers and sisters. The middle wall of partition was taken down, and the overlap grew.

But how will the Dominicans, or anyone else, know that Jesus came so that they could stop building walls? How will they learn that a poor man with a crust of bread that he bought is happier than a poor man with a stolen plasma screen? How did the people of Bethlehem find out that heaven was overlapping earth in a stable just outside of town? “When they (the shepherds) had seen this (Jesus in the manger), they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds.” (Lk 2:17,18) How will they hear unless there’s a preacher? (Rom 10:14)

This Christmas, I’m happy to be in the tropics, meeting some fellow Gentiles that Jesus came to redeem. I’m glad I got to give my children the gift of seeing other Christians, other people, in other places. This Christmas, I’m glad that Jesus sent preachers into my life and is sending preachers into every nation until the overlap is complete – until the earth is as full of the knowledge and glory of God as the waters cover the sea through the Son of God, who is also the Son of Man, Jesus Christ.

Merry Christmas!

Go to www.drvision.org to find out more about the mission organization that Steve and Julia are working with.

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On December 24, 2013 By Uri Brito In Theology Like

How Can Christmas Be Merry When I Am Grieving?

By Uri Brito

My three-year old son and I have a wonderful little work we do on Mondays and Thursday evenings. Our neighbor, who is a widow, no longer possesses the balance and strength to take her garbage can out. We head to her back yard and my son’s little hands grasp the garbage handle and out we go to drop it off at the curb. It is great training in service. And he is a true little gentleman already.

But something different happened this past Thursday. Our neighbor asked us to go inside and plug something in she was not able to do, which we did promptly. On our way out my boy looked at her and said “Merry Christmas.” She smiled at him, but as he rushed to get on his bike, our 86 year old neighbor looked at me and started to cry. Her husband, a dear man, and a grandfatherly figure to my children, died last year. “Don’t ask me to have a merry Christmas. I don’t know if I can,” she said. Her words were piercing. Her grief evident. Her husband of 60 years was no longer here with her. Her comfort and joy had departed.

And then last night we were struck again. In the middle of a cheery evening, my cell phone rang. The number was foreign to me, but I decided to pick it up anyway. It was my old college professor. She and her husband both taught my wife and I in a small Christian College in Central Florida. Since retiring, they both moved to beloved Pensacola, Fl. Once in a while we see each other and exchange greetings and memories. Last week, while visiting my chiropractor, she was there. It was a delight to see her again. She told me about her husband and how it would be lovely if we met for lunch one of these days. Then last night, that foreign number was hers. She called me to let me know that her husband of more than 50 years past away two days earlier.

My sister-in-law told us it was a difficult day for her and close friends who lost a loved one of 19 years of age. Death’s sting lost much of its potency, but its affects are very present.

How can Christmas be merry for those who are grieving? We often overlook those grieving this time of the year. In the midst of the grand narrative of the nativity, the incarnation of joy is reason for sorrow.

No more let sins and sorrows grow…

There is a paradoxical dimension to Christmas. In one sense, the “hopes and fears of all the years” are met in the God-man. But sorrows are still here. Incarnation theology always needs to be connected to a healthy psalmic lament. Our lives provide plenty of moments of disorientation. A loved one who dies days before one of the most festive days in the Christian calendar offers a lesson to all of us. The light of the world is here. The life of the world is here, but still death is not fully destroyed. The “tidings of comfort and joy” may be for some of us an exhortation to become comfort and joy to those who are comfortless and filled with grief this time of the year. Who are these people? Who are they in our own congregations? That mother who lost a son and whose memories are still freshly imprinted? That widow or widower who lost a lover and comforter? Who are they? Let us seek them out. Do not let their grief be a lonely grief. Only grieving together makes grieving a profoundly biblical emotion.

I weep for those whose loved ones are not here to share in the feast of the Christmas season. But Christmas is not just a message for the jolly; it is a message for the grieving also. Christmas means that grieving is not meaningless. In fact, grieving only makes sense in a world incarnated by God. Christ came for those who grieve. As the Psalmist cries out:

Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress;

my eye is wasted from grief;

my soul and my body also (Psalm 31:9).

The incarnation answers the Psalmists’ petition.

Frederick Buechner once wrote that “The incarnation is a kind of vast joke whereby the Creator of the ends of the earth comes among us in diapers… Until we too have taken the idea of the God-man seriously enough to be scandalized by it, we have not taken it as seriously as it demands to be taken.” Those who are scandalized rightly by this profound event are those who can grieve rightly.

As I look across the street I notice that my neighbor’s sons have arrived. They will help her in her grief. The merriness of Christmas is not dependent on whether we are ready to receive it or not, Christmas is merry because the Rod of Jesse is here. But still our hearts ache and we are called to grieve with those who grieve. We grieve, however, with hope because our hope is here. And so we pray:

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

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On December 17, 2013 By Peter Jones In Culture, Theology Like

Darkness and Hell at Christmastime

By Peter Jones

For some reason Christmas has become too angelic, all lights, Santa, glitter, and shining cherubs on gaudy Christmas cards. There is a sliver of truth to this, of course. When Christ came as a child the true light shineth. When Christ came he did bring gifts. But Christmas is also (maybe even mostly) about demons and Hell and darkness. It is about the darkness of eternal fire. It is about the worm that does not die. It is about the terrors of death. It is about the dragons that live in our own hearts. There is nothing wrong with rejoicing in the light, but if we forget the darkness the light loses its potency. It is easy at Christmas time to take the light for granted, to forget what Christ actually came to do. Christmas songs can be a great remedy for this memory lapse.

It may come as a surprise that many of the Advent and Christmas songs we sing mention this darkness and hell. I thought I would quote a few lines from these songs to give some perspective on what exactly Christ came to do.

O Come, O Come Emmanuel is one of the best carols to show who we were before Christ came. It views God’s people as in exile and bondage to Satan and in need of rescue. Verses 3 and 4 clearly bring this out.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o’er the grave

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

Anytime you are tempted to believe that Christmas has nothing to do with evil, Hell, death, and Satan sing this song.

The fourth verse of the song Savior of the Nations, Come has these lines in it:

From the Father forth he came and returneth to the same
Captive leading death and hell, High the song of triumph swell.

The final verse of Good Christian Men Rejoice, says, “now ye need not fear the grave.”

Of course, Joy to the World, talks about Christ coming to make his blessings flow “far as the curse is found.”

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, says that Christ descends ‘from the realms of endless day, that the powers of hell may vanish.”

Lo, How a Rose E’re Blooming, states that Christ “dispels with glorious splendor/the darkness everywhere.”

Of the Father’s Love Begotten says in verse 3:

He is found in human fashion death and sorrow here to know
That the race of Adam’s children doomed by law to endless woe
May not henceforth die and perish In the
dreadful gulf below evermore and evermore.

I am sure there are some I have missed. In addition to these references to Hell and darkness, numerous Christmas songs speak specifically of Christ’s victory over sin, which means his victory over death and Hell.

And of course, the Scriptures speak to this as well. In Matthew Jesus’ birth is not follow by peace on earth, but by Herod killing the children and Joseph fleeing with his family to Egypt. The battle begins at the Incarnation. Herod knew this. Unfortunately, we often do not.

In Luke the power of Christ’s birth is sung about. Mary states that when God sent Christ he:

Showed strength with his arm
Scattered the proud
Put down the mighty
Filled the hungry
But sent the rich away empty

Christ’s entrance into the world was not warm and fuzzy. He came to crush the serpent and all those who align themselves with him.

Zacharias says that Christ came so:

We should be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us..
That we will be delivered from the hand of our enemies.

Christmas is about a King who came to banish all the powers of darkness and Hell, not just a baby born in a manger. When the angel came to Mary and the angels sung to the shepherds the end of our enemies was already at hand. Christ came to destroy all our enemies. Don’t let Old Saint Nick and fat baby faced angels and “Santa Baby” cause you to forget about darkness, Hell, Satan, Herod, death, and sin during this Christmas. To forget these things is to forget why Christ came.

Cross posted at Singing and Slaying<>продвижение турфирмы