Trinity Talk will be officially moving into a new format. Stay tuned!
I met Jamie at the CREC Council Meeting in 2008. It was then when I purchased my first Jamie Soles’ CD. Since then, I have added two more to my collection. My daughter listens to him everyday and our family has learned to love and sing the Scriptures, even those less familiar passages listing the sacrificial requirements. Jamie wants to restore a love for the whole Bible, even those “embarrassing” passages evangelicals shy away from. If you want your little ones learning the patriarchs or the kings of Israel, Jamie’s music is exactly what you are looking for. As a parent you may discover that you will benefit just as much.
This evening we will be in Valparaiso at Trinity Presbyterian Church to hear Jamie and family sing. If you want to hear samples or purchase Jamie’s music, visit solmusic.ca.
But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
People of God, Christmas can be summarized by that phrase in verse 37: For nothing is impossible with God. How can a virgin conceive? How can a barren woman in her old age conceive? This is all a part of this great cosmic plan of redemption. At a time when there is no hope, no salvation and deliverance, and when the world is most overtaken by sin and misery, it is then when we must remember: Nothing is impossible with God.
But the greatest of all impossibilities is the Coming of God to His own creation in the Lord Jesus Christ. As Mary became the servant of the Lord, the Son she would bear becomes the servant of all. In the incarnation, the eternal Son of God takes the form of the servant as a man, but also giving Himself up to man’s rebellion against God, placing Himself under the judgment under which man has fallen in this rebellion, under the curse of death which rests upon Him.[1]
“He makes his own the being of man under the curse, but in order to do away with it. He acts as Lord over this rebellion even as He subjects Himself to it. He frees the creature in becoming a creature. He overcomes the flesh in becoming flesh.” [2] He reconciles the world by serving the world. Read the rest of this entry »
In the last few years The New York Times has been publishing several articles on Christmas and religious displays. In one article published in 2004, the author complains about the lack of Christian themes in modern Christmas music, while another complained that in a pluralistic society we must be sensitive to Jews and Muslims. This sentimental view of Christmas together with this pluralistic view of Christmas both err. The Coming of Messiah is the coming for the nations. Whether Buddhists or Jews, Messiah must be acknowledged, and indeed He will be acknowledged by all peoples. The Consolation of the world (Luke 2:22-35) will bring light to every man. The question is not so much a question of sentimentalism or pluralism, it is a question of authority and lordship. Christmas declares that Caesar is not Lord, Messiah is, and His kingdom has no interest in sharing its glory with another.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to Greg Gibson for some helpful insights and quotes.
Preface
Covenant and Dispensational theologians have long debated the issue of continuity and discontinuity. Barcellos notes that New Covenant theology is ” a recent entrant into the debate.” (7) NCT seeks to find a middle ground “between stress on continuity in traditional Reformed theology and the radical discontinuity of some older forms of Dispensationalism.” (7) But as Barcellos contends, NCT does not reflect the teaching of Scriptures. This new theology produces ” a reductionistic, myopic and truncated view of Christian ethics.” (7)
Barcellos admits that critiquing NCT is a difficult task for the following reasons:
First, NCT is not monolithic. Advocates of this position have different nuances. Second, it is a relatively new school of thought, hence there is no definitive work on NCT. Third, Barcellos mentions that a major proponent of NCT has altered his view of the Old Covenant.
Barcellos summarizes his own view of the law thusly:
The whole Law of Moses, as it functioned under the Old Covenant, has been abolished, including the Ten Commandments…the New Testament teaches both the abrogation of the law of the Old Covenant and its abiding moral validity under the New Covenant. (p. 61)
Whether he succeeds in proving his theses and offering a response to NCT, we shall see.
Commentary: Covenant theologians also differ immensely with one another. Even the Westminster Confession of Faith was written as a consensus document. There were debates over the idea of a “Covenant of Works,” “active and passive obedience,” etc. Every system will inevitably–in light of continual research–lead to questioning certain details. Even if a document such as the WCF is produced with a clearly laid-out view on all systematic issues, there will still be those who will take exception to it (the Sabbath as a major exception in virtually every PCA examination). Confessions are not Scriptures, so they must be continually examined in light of Scriptures.
The addition of NCT is a helpful attempt to examine the role of the Mosaic Law in the New Covenant. I welcome this attempt to distance itself from Dispensationalism with its fundamentally flawed separation of Israel and Church. As a Covenant Theology advocate I too find places in which traditional CT expressions need to be improved upon. For instance, the idea of a “Covenant of Works” seems largely foreign to a grace-saturated revelation. This over emphasis in a works-based Edenic administration has led to the abomination of Klinean covenantalism.
New systems need to be welcomed and examined. Barcellos has done the extraordinary task of examining the claims of NCT and offering a response.
In the next post, I will focus on the Introduction to the book.
New Covenant Theology and the Decalogue, Part II
Leithart writes:
Clarke’s account of the Reformed tradition is hardly fair; as Richard Muller has shown (Christ and the Decree), the Reformed tradition has always affirmed that election is “in Christ.” Yet, Clarke may be right to wonder if, when the doctrine gets translated into preaching and popular teaching, that in Christ gets communicated just as strongly as the sovereignty of God’s will. Popular Reformed theology could certainly take a cue from Athanasius, who declares that Christ the eternal Son is the “living will” of the Father, and as such His Advent is the advent of the decree, God’s choice, in human flesh.
The good bishop says Protestantism is a much better alternative than Rome. In describing Rome’s view of authority he writes:
Rome is a big, splendid, dusty old ocean liner, with lots of grand cabins, and, at present, quite a fine captain and some excellent officers — but also quite a few rooms in need of repair. Yes, it may take you places, but it’s slow and you might get seasick from time to time. And the navigators have been told that they must never acknowledge when they’ve been going in the wrong direction . . .
And concerning Trent’s teaching he says:
Sacramental, yes, but in a muddled way with an unhelpful ontology; Transformational, yes, but far too dependent on unbiblical techniques and practices; Communal, yes, but don’t let the laity (or the women) get any fancy ideas about God working new things through them; Eschatological? Eschatology in the biblical sense didn’t loom large, and indeed that was a key element in the Reformers’ protest: the once-for-allness of the events of Jesus’ death and resurrection as producing, not a new system for doing the same stuff over and over, but a new world.
In my sermon this past week I argued that John’s leaping in the womb (Luke 1) is a sure sign that God does not need a certain IQ before He can grant faith. He works even in the unborn (brethos). This also proves that God recognizes those in utero as persons. So yes, baptized infants do have faith; a faith given from above. Leithart observes in his book Baptized Body that infants learn to respond to their mother’s voice even before birth. They are able to quickly distinguish between strangers and members of the family. Leithart asks: “If infants trust and distrust human persons, why can’t they trust in God?” Behind certain assumptions about infant faith is the idea that infants must express their faith through certain theological truths, implying that only those of a certain age of maturity can do this, but the Scriptures never require that all faith is expressed in the same manner. The faith of a down syndrome child is differently expressed than the faith of a healthy adult. Leithart also adds that another assumption is that God is less available to an infant than to other humans. But God’s work of grace is not dependent on intellect or certain verbal abilities. Covenant infants mature in their faith just as new adult converts mature in their new faith.
Leithart writes:
The church will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever transcend the cross. Whatever we say about “latter day glory,” we can’t forget that we follow a crucified and risen Savior to the end.
(NYT) Whose Christmas is it? by Michael Feinstein
As Jews, Christians, Muslims, Mormons, Buddhists and everything in between, we are all more alike than we are different. That’s something to celebrate.
Note: This type of sentimental, pluralistic non-sense is to be expected this Christmas; nevertheless, still a good article from the perspective of a Jewish singer celebrating Christmas.
Every week when we come to this table, we are declaring that Jesus is King, and that His kingdom has a real, physical, tangible presence in the world. Every week as we come to this table, we are declaring that the gospel of Jesus is political. Every week as we come to this table, we are announcing to the kings of the earth that there is another King, one Jesus, and that they must submit to Him. Every Eucharist is a challenge to the kings and kingdoms of this world, to every murderous Herod.[1] This table is a table for those who will leap for joy when they are in the fellowship of the righteous, for those who will greet one another with the peace of Christ. So, come all you faithful and let us be nourished by the Prince of Peace.
[1] Leithart
Brothers and sisters, the reading of God’s word is the very voice of God. It is no secret that the modern church has abandoned the importance of the public reading and hearing the word of God. This is one of the central reasons for a biblically illiterate evangelical population. Some will say that the reading of the Scriptures belongs in a private setting, but the Bible will not allow you to keep the public reading away from the congregation. ‘The Spirit uses the oral reading and preaching combined with the congregation’s hearing of the Word in the church to bring life to His people.”[1] The Bible calls us again and again to hear the word of the Lord. It is in hearing the word that we become formed by the word.
This is why our Scripture readings are all framed around a central theme. They come from both covenants, so the people of God can hear the whole counsel of God as one united message proclaiming the glories of the Triune God in every page. My exhortation to you is to hear the Word attentively, respectfully, and joyfully.
When we have whole-heartedly received the word, the minister says “This is the Word of the Lord, and our only response is one of gratitude, and so we answer: Thanks be to God!
Prayer: Our God, your word is truth. May it shape us to become more and more like the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ in whose Name we pray, Amen.
[1] Meyers, 199.
Beatus vir qui non abiit
- Happy are they who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked, *
nor lingered in the way of sinners,
nor sat in the seats of the scornful! - Their delight is in the law of the LORD, *
and they meditate on his law day and night.! - They are like trees planted by streams of water,
bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither; *
everything they do shall prosper.! - It is not so with the wicked; *
they are like chaff which the wind blows away.! - Therefore the wicked shall not stand upright when judgment comes, *
nor the sinner in the council of the righteous.! - For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, *
but the way of the wicked is doomed.!
Leithart concludes:
Berry is right that the Bible contains no “contempt or hatred for nature,” and he is right that the Bible instructs us to care for a world that is a gift. Contact with untouched creation is a good as well, but in the biblical story it is not the ultimate good. There are trees and rivers – clean ones – in the new heavens and new earth, but there are also gates of pearl and streets of gold. It is, after all, a city. As our life is in the Last Adam not the first, so our hopes are directed toward the descent of a new Jerusalem not toward a return to old Eden.
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Speaker: Pastor Uriesou Tenorio Brito
Date: 12/13/2009
Type: Sunday Sermon
Topic: Sermon
Sermon, Uri Brito, “A Triumphal Prophet”, Luke 7:18-28.
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Editor’s Note: This is a short devotional delivered at Trinitas Christian School in Pensacola.
The Season of Advent teaches us that Christ comes again and again for us, and He will come again at the end of History for us and bring us to a new world of righteousness and glory. And at Christmas we find the hopes of all humanity, the hope of 2,000 years, the hope of Israel, and of the entire world coming to pass in the birth of a little child who is truly flesh, truly human, God of God and Light of Lights. We celebrate the Christmas story only because we celebrate the Easter story. The God/Man born in a manger is the God/Man crucified on a tree, is the God/Man raised to save and set His people free. We give to one another this Christmas because Christ was given for us, we serve one another this Christmas because Christ served us, we rejoice with one another this Christmas because the joy of the world has come.
Some in the Reformed world insist in divorcing religion from society. This view of the world minimizes the importance of baptism in the life of the Church. Baptism not only marks entrance into the Body, but it is also a political declaration. It says that the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our God. Accepting membership in the Church means accepting God’s claims for the world and how we are called to live in the world. As Leithart observes: “Christians who baptize babies implictly confess that religion and society are inseparable.”
We have heard in these past sermons about the work of John the Forerunner. He plays a significant role in redemptive history. John himself is beheaded for speaking the truth to political figures. He does not see the death of His Lord, He does not see resurrection or ascension. But yet his role of preparation for Messiah was fulfilled so perfectly that He pointed his contemporaries to the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. And we are familiar with John’s motto: He must increase, but I must decrease. “Though Luke does not quote this saying, the early chapters of his gospel are written to illustrate exactly this principle. Luke tells about the greatness and miraculous conception of John (1:5-25), and then tells about the superior greatness and even more miraculous conception of Jesus (1:26-56). He tells about the birth, circumcision, and naming of John, which evokes song from a Jewish priest (1:57-80); then he tells us about the birth of Jesus, and angels fill heaven with song (2:1-14). John is the son of a priest who serves in the temple, but the Master of the temple is Jesus’ father (2:41-51).”[1] Read the rest of this entry »
Baptism gives us a new identity. Leithart observes that “a non-priest becomes a priest through the rite of ordination, a single man becomes a husband through the wedding ceremony, a public citizen gains public authority by inauguration,” so too the rite of baptism makes an individual a new person. Having received a new name and a new identity, he is called to a new future.
The point, as Leithart observes, is not that there is no distinction between “inner and outer.” The idea is that there is no “impermeable membrane between my inner life and outer life.” What happens within us come to outer expression and what happens on the outside “affects my inner man.” Leithart concludes: “These are two dimensions of one united human life.”
Leithart concludes:
I have a dream: My dream is that Confessional Protestants, having devoted themselves to their rites and hymnals, having assembled for Eucharist and common prayer, having studied to be irrelevant, will find that their trumpets have brought down the walls of a city, and, standing stupefied before the rubble of Jericho, they will stare at the evangelical hoards that surround them, and ask, What next?
Leithart is one of those who dares reconsider in light of Scriptures the traditional Westminsterian understanding of baptism and its efficacy. For Leithart, there is much work to be done, especially when it comes to the questions we ask concerning baptism. He writes that ”before we can progress in providing answers to our questions on baptism, we have to repent of our questions.”
Where do these bad questions come from? Leithart concludes that it is “largely a product of modern individualism.”
Toby Sumpter writes:
“The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children.” (Mt. 11:19)
We have said before that in one sense Advent occurs every Lord’s Day. Every Lord’s Day the Lord comes to His people in worship. One of the ways that God reminds us of this fact is through this meal. Jesus came the first time eating and drinking and fellowshipping with outcasts, and every week Jesus still comes through the power of the Spirit, eating and drinking and fellowshipping with sinners. This is how God came into the world in Jesus, and through the Spirit this is how Jesus continues His Advent among us. Our collective list of sins is very long and embarrassing. We are not respectable society.
And perhaps this gathering looks a little dangerous. A bunch of sinners and tax collectors eating and drinking together: like that’s a good idea. Or maybe it just looks really silly, a bunch of sinners gathered around drinking wine from thimbles and sharing little bits of bread. How is that potent or powerful? But wisdom is justified by her children.
Here is the feast of Wisdom, and as we eat in faith and joy, and as we live this Eucharistic thankfulness in our lives, God promises to justify this wisdom through us. We are the children of Wisdom, as we feast on Jesus, as we cling to Jesus, as He is our strength, our security, our identity, our everything. Then as the children of Jesus, the Wisdom of God is justified to the watching world. This silly feast is for us the glory of God because here we enact the justice and the mercy and the peace of God for the world. And God promises to use this little feast to draw us and all of history up to great and final Feast. So come in faith and with rejoicing.
Mark Horne concludes:
The typical interpretations of Luke 10.25-37 and 18.18-30 along the lines of a Law-Gospel hermeneutic are obviously flawed and end up undermining the very doctrine they are trying to protect. They allow Jesus to actually encourage people to be justified by good works and then try to save the Reformation slogan sola fide (”faith alone”) by claiming Jesus really was using a clever ploy to get people to give up trying to be justified by good works.
A better interpretation allows Jesus to simply call people to repentance and faith. Because faith involves trusting God’s promises, it involves concrete actions. Nevertheless, such works are not meritorious nor an attempt to earn God’s favor. Rather they are manifestations of a trust in God to save us and take care of us.
People of God, we will ask you today: In Whom do you trust? On what do you place your trust? Do you trust in chariots and horses, do you trust in the American Military to defend you from the wiles of the devil? Do you trust in your family lineage? Or do you do trust in the Lord your God, who made heaven and earth; Father, Son, and Spirit, One God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity?
Answering that question means everything to us. “Everything hinges on how you understand the Bible and on what you profess as biblical truth.” It is not just belief in the Bible; it is belief in the True God of Scriptures. Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons all claim to love and trust the Scriptures, but we see clearly that their understanding is very different than ours. We believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, begotten not made. The cults will deny the truth of the Advent Season, which teaches that God became man incarnate.
So there is more than simply saying “No Creed, but the Bible.” In fact, this statement is useless, and we should avoid it all costs. Creeds and confessions are not as authoritative as the Bible, but they still play a crucial role in the life of the Church. They are unavoidable. When someone asks you what you believe, and if you pause and answer with a statement, well, that is a creed. What we are claiming at Providence, and virtually what the Church universal has said for almost two thousand years, is that the Church needs to summarize those things which are most important in the teachings of the Bible. Read the rest of this entry »
In light of current debates of Leithart’s Baptismal theology, here’s his latest work free on-line.
What does baptism do to the baptized? Nothing? Something? In this study, Peter Leithart examines this single question of baptismal efficacy. He challenges several common but false assumptions about God, man, the church, salvation, and more that confuse discussions about baptism. He aims to offer a careful and simple discussion of all the central biblical texts that speak to us about baptism, the nature of signs and rites, the character of the church as the body of Christ, and the possibility of apostasy. In the end, the author urges us to face up to the wonderful conclusion that Scripture attributes an astonishing power to the initiation rite of baptism.
In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, Paul begins in chapter three by calling us to rejoice in the Lord. In verse 9-11, he calls us to die and then he calls us to know the power of Jesus’ resurrection. This is the Purpose Driven Life: Die and you shall be raised. It won’t sell many books, but this is the call of the apostle.
First, we die. We become like Christ. We know that the Advent of Christ was one of mercy and grace to others. He came as a servant. He came to bring humanity from the rubbish and the stench of Adam’s sin and make us into sweet smelling herbs and spices, a glorified and beautiful humanity to God. When we follow Him, we esteem others better than ourselves. We make meals for those who are sick and recovering, we invite people over for a movie or fellowship during the week, we call them, we send them a card, we smile when we meet, we weep with those who weep. This is all a part of dying to self, because dying to self is to make others alive in Christ.
Secondly, we desire to know the power of Christ’s resurrection. We now live out our faith in the middle of the assembly. Because you are resurrected, you join the resurrected Christ in His mission. You desire resurrected living. This means you forget your former life and former ways, you move forward. You press on toward your goal of Christ-likeness. You have been forgiven in Jesus’ Name, and now in Jesus’ Name you live the life of faithfulness. Do you want to know how to walk like Christ? Paul says look to those who do it better than you. Look to those who are walking as Christ did. Learn from them. Watch them as they imitate Christ. Watch them as they interact with their children. Learn from one another. I will never forget what Randy Booth told us in Advance Family Conference. He said that we are to be 10% more like our neighbor. Not just like him, but 10% more like our neighbor. If we have weaknesses in one area, become 10% more like your neighbor who is strong in that area. In this manner, we become like one another in the ways that reflect Christ-likeness, while maintaining our distinct personalities and gifts, which are so crucial for the well-being of the Church.
I exhort you brother and sisters, to live the life of death and to be raised into the newness of Christ’s image in the year to come. Amen.
The more than 12,000 pages of documents relating to lawsuits alleging decades of sexual abuse of children by its priests have now been released. Cardinal Egan, who defended the secrecy of these documents concludes his op-ed in the New York Times by stating:
It’s marvelous when you think of the hundreds and hundreds of priests and how very few have even been accused, and how very few have even come close to having anyone prove anything.
Responses to Egan’s remarks took various sides, but mainly in opposition to this stunning statement. One responder who was sexually abused writes that “Priests, after all, were next to God.” Priest received an incredible amount of protection. Their superior status and the enormous fear, including the guilt and manipulation suffered by priests, hindered many from ever being known. As one responder observed:
The question, then, for Cardinal Egan is not how many priests actually do not abuse children, but how many abusing priests have gotten away with it.
This morning at Providence we sang one of the most glorious Advent hymns called: Arise, Sons of the Kingdom. Here is the first verse:
Arise, sons of the kingdom!
The King is drawing nigh;
Arise, and hail with gladness
The Ruler from on high.
Ye Christians, hasten forth!
Your praise and homage bring Him
And glad hosannas sing Him,
Naught else your love is worth.
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