Hell: Remembering the Awful Reality
“To speak of hell is to speak of things so overwhelming that it cannot be done with ease.
Yet hell exists; this is the testimony of the Scriptures, of the apostles, and of the Lord Jesus himself. The emotionally intolerable is also the truth — and therein lies its awfulness.
It is incumbent on the Christian pastor to be familiar with it, to feel the weight of it, to preach it, and to counsel his flock in connection with its meaning and personal implications.”
– Sinclair Ferguson is one of the contributors to the latest 9Marks eJournal, just released.
Read online – or download as a PDF file – from 9Marks.
Carl Trueman interviewed at Oak Hill
Carl Trueman, Professor of Historical Theology and Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary was a Visiting Lecturer at Oak Hill College in London earlier this year.
Principal Mike Ovey asked him about the doctrines of Scripture and of Justification in three videos just posted on the Oak Hill website.
Part 1: The doctrine of Scripture.
Part 2: The doctrine of Justification.
Part 3: Holiness and the New Perspective on Paul.
Total running time of about 24 minutes. Worth watching.
Christ-centred Communion – Further thoughts (full series)
Barry Newman has been adding to his series on ‘Christ-centred Communion’ and has now completed his ‘further thoughts’.
Even if you don’t agree with it all, you’ll find it stimulating and edifying.
John Woodhouse on 1 Samuel at Christ the Center
Recently Moore College Principal John Woodhouse was interviewed on 1 Samuel for the Christ the Center programme.
It’s at 21MB download – see the small [»] play and [↓] download links at the top of this page. Variable audio quality, but well worth hearing.
“Any faithful exposition of God’s word will proclaim Chrust.”
(h/t Faith by hearing.)
Christ Centred Communion – further thoughts (part V)
“…in all future Passover meal celebrations, the disciples could do nothing other than see in such meals remembrance events that focussed on the death of Jesus rather than on the Exodus event.”
– Barry Newman recaps on his earlier posts on Christ Centred Communion.
Barry’s blog is very helpful in encouraging readers to think about the meaning of Scripture.
Why we still need Confession of Sin
It’s become trendy for churches to drop a corporate confession of sin. Kevin DeYoung writes:
“If your church does not regularly confess sin and receive God’s assurance of pardon you are missing an essential element of corporate worship. It’s in the weekly prayer of confession that we experience the gospel. It’s here that we find punk kids and Ph.D.’s humbled together, admitting the same human nature. It’s here we, like Pilgrim, can unload our burden at the foot of the cross.”
– read his full article here. Want some help? One place to start is Better Gatherings.
Expecting what God promises
Richard Baxter:
“What keeps us under trouble is either we do not expect what God has promised [suffering], or we expect what he did not promise [an easy life]. We are grieved at crosses, losses, wrongs of our enemies, unkind dealings of our friends, sickness, or for contempt and scorn in the world. But who encouraged you to expect any better?” (Voices From the Past, 138)
– quoted by Stephen Altrogge at The Blazing Center.
Thomas Cranmer’s ‘True and Catholick Doctrine of the Sacrament’
In 1990, D A Scales wrote a paper for Churchman on Cranmer’s doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. Church Society has just republished it.
“The doctrine of the Lord’s Supper was not unimportant in Cranmer’s eyes, because that Sacrament speaks of the central doctrines of the Christian faith—of salvation through the atoning death of Christ. It was instituted, in St. Paul’s words, to proclaim the Lord’s death till he come: right views of the death of Christ and right views of the sacrament will tend to go together; false views of the sacrament will tend to obscure an understanding of our salvation through the finished work of Christ…”
See it here – PDF file.