Credo Magazine — May 2012
The latest issue of Credo Magazine is available online. Executive Editor Matthew Barrett writes:
“the title of this May’s issue of Credo Magazine is ‘Chosen by Grace’.
Timothy George starts us off by taking us into the mind of the colossal reformer Martin Luther, exploring how he understood the doctrine of predestination, particularly in light of his famous debate on the bondage of the will with Erasmus.
Then, Paul Helm navigates new territory, investigating the contours of Calvin’s first controversy on predestination with Bolsec.
Next, I look at three Pauline passages that support the unconditional nature of election, demonstrating that God’s choice is not made on the basis of anything within the sinner, including faith.
Bruce Ware follows with a piercing article on the relationship between election and suffering, showing that suffering is a means ordained by God to spread the gospel for the salvation of his elect.
And finally, Fred Zaspel concludes by introducing us to B. B. Warfield’s understanding of predestination and providence, and the relationship between the two.”
The 75 page issue is 20MB PDF download from this page.
Papers from the FCA leaders conference available
More papers from the FCA leaders conference in London have been uploaded to the GAFCON website.
See this page for the complete listing of resources from the GAFCON website.
The newly available papers are –
What is the Gospel? – from a seminar led by Drs Ngozi Okeke & Mark Thompson
A Summary of Anglican Ecclesiology – Ashley Null
16th Century Anglican Ecclesiology – Ashley Null
The Anglican Mind in Caroline and Tractarian Thought – Arthur MiddletonFaithful and Effective – Evangelism and Church Planting.
Queen’s Birthday Convention 2012
Coming up at St. Andrew’s Cathedral on Monday June 11. Early bird before June 01.
Details here.
J I Packer interviewed by Carl Trueman
Carl Trueman recently interviewed Dr J I Packer. He writes, “the testimony to God’s grace in his own life, his reflections on the Puritans and on Lloyd-Jones and his advice to young ministers is invaluable”.
Wonderful interview – watch it here (16 minutes).
BCP’s 350th!
“I love my historical anniversaries. (Regular readers will know this, as do members of my church!) Anyway, 350 years ago today, on 19 May 1662, The Act of Uniformity received the royal assent in England. This enforced use of the Book of Common Prayer. … Today I want to share a little about the famous 1662 BCP, as it’s often called for short.”
– Sandy Grant gives thanks for the BCP – at The Briefing.
1662 and all that
A talk given by John Richardson –
“1662 and all that: How the Prayer Book changed the Church of England, and how the Church of England Changed the Prayer Book
An address given in our Benefice to mark the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer
On March 21st 1556, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer was burned at the stake in Broad Street, Oxford. A metal X still marks the spot where you can, if you’re very careful, briefly pause in the middle of the traffic. The charges against him of treason and heresy both merited the death penalty…”
‘A table of the Lord’
Dr Barry Newman has been blogging on the meaning of the expression in 1 Corinthians 10: 21 –
“Focussing on the phrase, ‘a table of the Lord’, the aim of this blog series is to present a case that suggests that this phrase has nothing to do with any practice associated with a sacrament…”
– Barry has now posted the full series as a single PDF file on this page. You can follow his arguments and see what you think.
Nehemiah Found!
“Among the Dead Sea Scrolls, scholars found fragments (and, in some cases, fuller scrolls) of every biblical book except for Esther and Nehemiah. Until now…”
– George Athas at Moore College has news of an interesting find.
9Marks Journal – Wanted: Apostolic Pastors
“Jesus hasn’t called our churches to fulfill the great commission alone. So look up, look out, and see what encouragement and unexpected fruit God may have in store for you as you work to bless other pastors and churches…”
– The latest 9Marks Journal looks at caring for the work of the gospel outside your local patch.
Making the most of the Cross
“The second sermon I ever gave was a cracker. People told me! It was logical, engaging and humorous. I succeeded in explaining, illustrating and applying the Bible in a way that captivated the listeners. My girlfriend (now wife) even started to believe that I might have some hope of becoming a preacher! But, it’s time for public confession. I basically pinched the whole talk, idea for idea, point for point, from John Chapman.
I don’t think I was the first to do this, and I’m certain that I wasn’t the last. You see, I’d looked over the Bible passage again and again, and I couldn’t see any way to make it clearer than Chappo…”
– Dave McDonald commends Chappo’s book Making the Most of the Cross.
Prayers for Defence ministry
Our friends who minister to Australia’s Defence personnel would be very glad of your prayers on a regular basis.
There’s the current Prayer Diary (pdf) and other prayer resources at this link.
Simple Bible reading advice
“Wherever you settle on this question, be sure to ignore headings as much as possible. In fact, the best exegesis experience I ever had in the gospel of Mark was using a text without headings, paragraphs, or verses. Just 40 pages of a block of text with page and line numbers. A wonderful teaching tool I used for years and highly recommend.”
– In a discussion about ‘the spirituals’ in 1 Corinthians 12, Bill Mounce offers this advice for reading the Scriptures.
Same-Sex Marriage ‘makes a lot of sense’
“Same-sex marriage makes sense if you assume that the individual is the center of the universe, that God—if he exists—is there to make us happy, and that our choices are not grounded in a nature created by God but in arbitrary self-construction…”
– Michael Horton’s piece at The White Horse Inn is well worth reading. (h/t Tim Challies.)
What I say is who I am!
“When a lot of our time is spent within the Christian community, or when we talk about Christian things with fellow-believers rather than non-believers, we easily get used to what we sound like and it just sounds normal. To us, the words we say mean what we know they mean. But for others, the words we use may be giving a very different signal…”
– Greg Anderson, Head of the Missions Department at Moore College, appeals to Christians to think about how we communicate.
The Working Mother
“If you want to divide a church, cause a rift in a family, ruin a dinner party, and bring hatred upon yourself – raise the issue of working mothers. Few subjects create more heat and antagonism than this one. There are not many more sacred cows, nor more strident voices bullying opposition into silence, than this topic.
So most people keep their wisdom to themselves. And woe-betide any man who cares to venture an opinion. He is not a mother, does not understand, has a vested interest in having somebody to stay at home and serve his needs and never adequately shares the housework, so has no right to speak. Thus, with nervous fingers I approach the keyboard, remembering that there is not much difference between a brave man and a fool…”
– Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen approaches a hot topic in his weekly column.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…