The Athenian Creed

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What is the Athenian Creed? Perhaps it is one of the post-Refomration creeds newly republished thanks to Dennison’s or Van Dixhoorn’s work? Or perhaps it is merely an example of Old Side Presbyterianism skewering unbelief and modernism within the Church? If you’re leaning toward the latter, you’d be spot on.

Recently, over at WHI, Mike Horton highlighted the satire that John Witherspoon used to skewer the modernists and Moderates in the Kirk of Scotland. His Ecclesiastical Characteristics, divided into certain “Maxims,” were a hot iron toward his liberal contemporaries.

One such Maxim was his “creed,” a lampooning article of what he considered to be the reigning ideology of the day. Continue reading →

Resources on Regeneration

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I’m hoping to do some extended thinking (and preaching?!) on regeneration in the next few weeks/months, and I was thinking I should line up a list for reading and meditating on this important doctrine. Unfortunately, it can be a little difficult to find extended discourses on the topic of regeneration. I attribute that to a variety of factors:

    • In the history of doctrine, regeneration has been something of a moving target, especially for Calvin’s successors, where regeneration can mean anything from conversion, repentance, sanctification, or the newer clarification of speaking exclusively of the (initiation of) spiritual life.

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Slavery in the New Testament

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roman-slave-masterDear Zion,
In our sermon series looking at God’s transforming grace in the book of Colossians, we note in chapter three, verse twenty-two: “Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything… Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly…” (Colossians 3:22; 4:1). Slaves?! Reading along about how the Lord wants us to live in the power of Christ’s resurrection (Col. 3:1-4), and how that power should transform our families (Col. 3:18-21), it can be jarring to come to these verses and hear the Apostle Paul talk about slavery. Why doesn’t Paul scream out against slavery? Is he condoning it? Why does Scripture speak this way? Continue reading →

Just In Case You Missed ‘Em

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With the overwhelming influx of information available, discerning readers must become selective in what they give their time to read. Just in case you missed ’em, here are some links I found valuable, and hope you will also.

NYT: The High Cost of Low Teacher Salaries
Being the husband of an amazing teacher, this issue strikes close to home. Why does the entertainment business (pro sports, musicians, Hollywood) command multi-billion dollar industries, but our most formative is nearly broke? I think R.C. Sproul once argued that educators’ compensation reveals a culture’s priorities.

Ligonier: What about “Church is boring?”
When we come into the presence of the Almighty, we come as embodied souls, and there is nothing boring about meeting with the Ancient of Days.

Michael Gerson critiques Ron Paul’s Libertarianism Continue reading →

Calvin: Benefits from Justification for Children

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Calvin wanted Christ’s little lambs to know the doctrine of justification by faith alone, and he wanted them to know that justification also provided:

  1. Sanctification – as distinguished from, but – inseparable with it

    Master.But can this [imputed] righteousness be separated from good works, so that he who has it may be void of them?

    Scholar. That cannot be. For when by faith we receive Christ as he is offered to us, he not only promises us deliverance from death and reconciliation with God [i.e., justification], but also the gift of the Holy Spirit, by which we are regenerated to newness of life [i.e., sanctification]; these things must necessarily be conjoined so as not to divide Christ from himself.

  2. Assurance of salvation

    M. What advantage accrues to us from this forgiveness [which is, of course, included in justification]? Continue reading →