Link of the Week #6

Few things seem more outdated today than holding to confessional standards. When the mainline Reformed churches went liberal in the early 20th century they soon revised their traditional confessional standards to mesh with their new methods of theology and hermeneutics. This resulted in a plethora of watered down versions of the historically robust documents throughout the mid-20th century. By the late 20th century the mainline churches (along with most evangelicals) rejected confessions altogether. Indeed, most people today have never heard of (much less read) the Westminster, Scots, or Belgic confessions.

Yet an increasing number of Pastors and theologians are arguing that confessions are exactly what the church needs today. From R. Scott Clark's book "Recovering the Reformed Confessions" to Kevin DeYoung's recent book "The Gospel We Almost Forgot: Rediscovering the Gospel in a 16th Century Catechism" modern Reformed thinkers are wrestling with how to recover the confessional heritage of protestantism. In this vein of thought, J. Ligon Duncan edited a three-volume set called "The Westminster Confession Into the 21st Century" which seeks to show the importance and relevance of the Westminster Standards in today's Church. After the final volume came out, our friends over at Reformed Forum had Dr. Duncan on their show to talk about his book and the importance of confessionalism. We hope you enjoy this week's link!

To listen to this week's link go here

Knowledge, therefore, is essential to Religion.

"The knowledge requisite to a proper understanding of the sacraments includes a knowledge of all the essential doctrines of the gospel. When a man is baptized in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, unless these sacred names represent to his mind some definite idea, unless he know them to be the names of the persons of the Godhead, he cannot know what he does in submitting to be baptized. He does not acknowledge Jehovah; nor does he receive him as his covenant God, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. As baptism is designed to signify and seal our union with Christ, and our deliverance through him from the guilt and dominion of sin, unless we know ourselves to be sinners, and know that it is necessary for us to be united to Christ, and by his blood and Spirit to be pardoned and renewed, the ordinance for us loses all its significance.

Thus a knowledge of the truth concerning God, concerning sin, atonement, and regeneration, is essential to a proper participation to be a memorial of the death. And as the Lord's supper is intended to be a memorial of the death of Christ, unless we know who he was, why he died, and what benefits his death secures, we are incapable of profitably joining in this service. All the affections must have an appropriate object. If we love, we love something; if we fear, we fear something; if we desire, we desire something. There can be neither faith, nor love, nor penitence, nor hope, nor gratitude, but as objects suited to these exercises depends upon the nature of the objects which call them forth. If they are excited by the truth, they are right and good; and just in proportion to the clearness with which the truth is spiritually discerned, will be the purity and strength of the religious emotions. Knowledge, therefore, is essential to religion."

- Charles Hodge, 1841 The Way of Life pg. 198-199

Link of the Week #5

Hello readers! I (Ben) just finished listening to a wonderful class put out by Westminster Theological Seminary on the Medieval Church. The course was taught by the wise, and witty, Dr. Carl Trueman. Dr. Trueman walks us through almost one thousand years of Christian thought and practice in a lucid, and engaging style. Even among students of Church history there is often an appalling ignorance of the Middle Ages. Hopefully, this course will do much to fill in the gap of knowledge that most Protestant's have of this time period.

Westminster has this course (and many others) available on their iTunes page. Simply go to Westminster's website and click on the "iTunes U" button on the right side of your screen (about half-way down). That will take you to all their online audio resources where you will find Dr. Trueman's course at the bottom of the page. Let me stress again the value of this class. It covers critical information in a delightful manner, a rare but wonderful combination.

Jesus Made In America: A Review

There are many good books in the world. However, I feel that I can say with confidence that Stephen J. Nichols new book “Jesus Made in America: A Cultural History from the Puritans to the Passion of the Christ” stands above the rest. Nichols is the Research Professor of Christianity and Culture at Lancaster Bible College and is the author of several other very helpful books. This latest book however tackles an enormous amount of material and sets out on an ambitious goal. Nichols book walks us through four-hundred years of American religious, cultural, theological, and political history; and all in under 240 pages. Each chapter walks us through a different historical perspective that Americans have held about the person of Jesus Christ. As the subtitle says, he begins this journey by describing the lofty and rigorous view of Jesus held by the early Puritans and ends by examining the pop-culture fad-Jesus of our own day. This is where Nichols approach begins to be unique.

There are, after all, a plethora of books on American religious thought and on American church history. One could easily wonder what makes this little book different. Perhaps the first, and most obvious difference, is Nichols approach. By discussing the American view of Jesus (and not discussing the historical development of Christianity per-se) he tackles a much discussed question from a little used perspective. The second difference between Nichols work and many other books on this topic is the clarity and breadth of knowledge that he brings to the table. He manages to avoid the weakness of some church historians (i.e. they haven't read anything outside of their field) and shows a real familiarity with both classic and contemporary, secular and Christian, research and discussion.

In addition to this scholarly touch, Nichols writes in a winsome and humble tone and sifts through the mounds of information to vividly paint a picture of the American mind in process. He does well what so many have found difficult to do. He allows us to see into the minds of our forefathers and understand how they viewed the world (or in this case, how they viewed Christ.) Each chapter concludes by reviewing the information and ideas presented in the previous pages which really helps to keep a sense of perspective. He allows his argument to emerge naturally and persuasively from within the text so nothing feels forced or contrived. But by consciously building on his premises he is able to help us not lose the forest for the trees.

As I said before, this book really is head and shoulders above the rest. I couldn't recommend a better introduction to the study of American intellectual thought, religious development, or American church history than this wonderful little book. I would highly recommend it!

Link of the Week #4

Hello readers! For this "Link of the Week" we've come across a wonderful sermon by the Irish preacher Rev. Stafford Carson. According to his bio page, "Mr Carson served as minister of Kells and Eskylane Presbyterian Churches, Carnmoney Presbyterian Church, and from 2000-05 was Executive Vice President of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia." He also served as the moderator of the General Assembly in 2009. This week's link highlights a wonderful sermon that Rev. Stafford gave on the story of the death of Absalom. If you've ever heard someone talk about "redemptive-historical preaching" but aren't sure what that means, then listen to this sermon for a perfect example of what Christo-centric preaching looks like.

To listen to this week's link go to: here

On a slightly different note, you may have noticed that we haven't had any "normal" articles in a while. But please don't think that we've stopped writing and are only going to post links! We have a couple of (what we hope will be helpful) articles in the works right now. So be keeping an eye out over the month of May as we continue to generate content for the blog. Thanks for reading!