J. I. Packer on Personal Holiness
“At the age of 87, Dr. Packer is not travelling to lecture much these days, but a few weeks ago (January 16th, 2014) he spoke at the Trinity School for Ministries on a subject of his choice.
He says that his desire in his remaining days is to ‘campaign for a renewal of personal holiness, as a project, as a focus of interest, as a reality – which our churches need, which our country needs, which the world needs at this time in its history’.”
– Justin Taylor has the link. 51 minutes. Well worth watching and contemplating.
Adultery: When ‘love’ is a ‘tragedy’
“…So common has it become to describe an extra-marital affair as ‘loving’ that even the dictionaries now define a ‘love affair’ as ‘a romantic or sexual relationship between two people who are not married to each other.’ We know words evolve over time; and the journalist and barrister may just be reflecting the now common meaning of the word.
However, if that is true, our Bible translators and we Christians need to find a different word to describe God’s character, his disposition towards us and his actions on our behalf.”
– Phillip Jensen writes about true love.
The Prayer of the Lord — free eBook
During February 2014, Ligonier Ministries’ Reformation Trust is giving away the eBook edition of R.C. Sproul’s The Prayer of the Lord.
Prosperity Gospel
The latest 9Marks Journal is on the topic of the Prosperity Gospel. Editor Jonathan Leeman writes:
“Here’s a prediction: as Western culture increasingly turns against Christianity, the prosperity gospel will keep growing, at least for a time. …
This trade is hot! God wants to provide you with gabled double-front doors, leather interiors, satisfying sex, and an all-around better you. It’s like a wedding between a Wall Street shark and a self-help guru, all decked out in the paraphernalia of a Christian bookstore.”
– Download the latest issue here.
The Prayer
“Should I pray for a parking spot near the shopping mall entrance or close to the church door?
Should I pray about that swimming costume I’m dying to buy or the twenty-function vegetable peeler I just saw advertised on TV that would make me more like a Masterchef? …
Is not this kind of praying, and the view of spiritual reality that lies behind, it barely more than half a degree of separation from the prosperity theology that has blighted parts of the church for too long?”
– David Mansfield writes about Prayer at SydneyAnglicans.net.
Related:
A Softer Prosperity Gospel: More Common Than You Think – David Schrock at 9 Marks.
Kingdom-advancing prayer – Ray Ortlund at The Gospel Coalition quotes Tim Keller.
Taking God Seriously
Here’s a challenging video clip from Dr J I Packer on Taking God Seriously.
It’s a subtle promotion for the book of the same name – the video was published almost a year after the book.
Runs for 1:52 at Vimeo. Well worth passing on the link.
About the book, Carl Trueman writes:
“Like many people, I first discovered what it meant ‘to take God seriously’ through reading J. I. Packer’s books. It is thus an honour and a delight to be asked to write a commendation for his latest work, a basic catechetical plea for sober, modest, thoughtful and orthodox theology.
In a church world dominated by Barnum and Bailey circus antics and the brash triviality borrowed from the world around in the name of ‘engagement,’ Dr. Packer remains a truly engaging and gentlemanly advocate for those old paths which are ever fresh.”
Related: Dr Packer’s most recent sermon preached at St. John’s Vancouver, 5th January 2014 – on John 4:1-45.
Theology
“During my 26 years working at SMBC, a number of students, from the same era, commented independently to me, that SMBC at their particular time, was in a ‘golden era’. At the time I disregarded this as a flush of student enthusiasm. On reflection, however, I agree that it was, at that time at the College, a ‘golden era’!
Lots of things contributed to making the era what it was, at Faculty, Administration and Student level, but above all, the health of any Christian training college is determined by its strength in the area of Systematic Theology. It was our strength in systematics which made that era, golden.
Bible coverage, the study of Greek and Hebrew, practical studies are all important, but it is Systematic Theology which unites them all. To be a productive pastor, missionary or preacher, one must have an in-depth knowledge of Systematics.
Broughton Knox, Principal at Moore Theological College (1959 – 1985), my Principal, proved that; every student of that era will tell you how Dr Knox’s first year doctrine lectures were such a vital component in his/her own maturing understanding. …”
– David Cook, Moderator General of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, writes about the key place of Theology – in his Moderator Comments (scroll down to the post for 31 December 2013).
R.C. Sproul Commentary on John — free eBook
“During the month of January, Reformation Trust is giving away the eBook edition of R.C. Sproul’s commentary on the Gospel of John.
In John, the second volume in the St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary series, Dr. Sproul deals with major themes in his easily understandable style.”
– Sign up for this free eBook from Ligonier Ministries.
First two talks from Summer School 2014
CMS has made available the first two talks from the 2014 NSW Summer School at Katoomba.
Andrew Reid is preaching from the Book of Exodus.
The English Reformers’ teaching on Salvation
Church Society has posted a talk given by Donald Allister, now Bishop of Peterborough, at the 1991 Church Society Conference. (At the time, Bishop Allister was Rector of St. Mary’s Cheadle, near Manchester.)
How can you be right with God? Hear the “joyful and liberating truth” Bilney, Tyndale, Cranmer, Latimer and other English Reformers discovered.
60 minute talk – it’s a 30MB mp3 file. Take the time to listen – a very good way to start the new year.
Kirsty Birkett on The Pilling Report
Dr Kirsty Birkett, at Oak Hill College in London, takes a look at The Pilling Report’s approach to Scripture –
“The majority of those writing the Pilling report felt unable to articulate what scripture actually says on the issue of homosexual activity.”
2. What if scripture really is unclear?
“‘But we do not all believe that the evidence of scripture points to only one set of ethical conclusions. In short, Christians who share an equal commitment to scripture do not agree on the implications of scripture for same sex relationships’ (The Pilling Report, 235).
This is one of many statements that the Pilling Report makes to the effect that it was impossible for the group to come to one mind on the meaning of scripture as regards homosexual relationships.”
Mike Ovey on The Pilling Report
Principal of Oak Hill College, Dr Mike Ovey, has now posted eight responses to the Pilling Report (“the Report of the House of Bishops Working Group on Human Sexuality’).
1. God’s work versus God’s will?
“ultimately in practice, it prefers our judgment of what we think good to God’s judgment expressed in the scriptures of what is good.”
2. Does sincerity grant a veto?
“This creates the bizarre situation of an explicit submission to the authority of scripture, while not in fact applying what scripture says, either against same-sex marriages, or in favour.”
3. Groundhog Day: ‘scripture’s lack of clarity’
“As we have seen, judgments about the obscurity of scripture have been made before, notably in Roman Catholic responses to the Reformation.”
4. How common is the common ground?
“Like an iceberg, the most significant parts of the Pilling Report lie beneath the surface.”
“They have talked at length, listened at length and have had both clerical and expert help in all their deliberations. They have listened both to each other and to a wide range of witnesses. But this process has not enabled them to reach a collective conclusion as to whether or not same-sex sexual relations in the context of a faithful long-term commitment are right or wrong.”
6. Common grace and stolen fruit
“After noting that the tradition of the church for 2,000 years and indeed worldwide at the moment is against recognition of same-sex marriages and relationships, the report nevertheless goes on to speak in laudatory terms about the same-sex couples who have testified before it.”
“If we want a biblical precedent for a hermeneutics of suspicion where the hermeneutics of suspicion is wrongly placed, then we need look no further than Genesis 3:1ff.”
“Churches can get things wrong. One of the more disturbing moments in the Thirty-Nine Articles comes in Article 19 which deals with the doctrine of the church.”
Monergism updated
If you haven’t check out Monergism.com before, now is a good time to start – the site has just been updated.
Themelios 38.3 available now
The latest issue of Themelios (November 2013) has just been published.
The definitive work on Definite Atonement
From Heaven He Came and Sought Her: Definite Atonement in Historical, Biblical, Theological, and Pastoral Perspective, edited by David Gibson and Jonathan Gibson, is a major publication. …
David Wells says, “This is the definitive study. It is careful, comprehensive, deep, pastoral, and thoroughly persuasive.”
Michael Horton calls it “the most impressive defense of definite atonement in over a century.”
Read about it from Justin Taylor, see John Piper commending it, check out the book’s website and read an excerpt (PDF).
J. I. Packer: “I count it an honor to be asked to supply a foreword to this massive product of exact and well-informed scholarship.”
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…