The Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University has made a sermon index for Jonathan Edwards’ sermons available. One of the first places I go when I am preparing a sermon is to the Yale University Press volumes of Edwards’ sermons, the Miscellanies, and Notes on Scripture. The indices in the Yale publications are invaluable sources for Edwards research. Below is the list of sermons in canonical order (Many of the sermons are also available there):
Read the full story »It’s been more than 2 months since we ended our year long series in Herman Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics. We covered two of the volumes and some material from ‘Philosophy of Revelation’ and ‘The Certainty of Faith.’ As the new year takes shape it feels like the work is only half done. Personally I can’t read Bavinck without some sense of guilt for not sharing it.
So if we get ten positive responses from those interested in more Herman Bavinck we will bring back the series. Please post “yes” to the comment field on this post between now and Friday for continued articles on Bavinck’s Doctrine of God (vol. 2). Cheers
Texts, Contexts, Cultures is a new departure in graduate research and training in Ireland. It offers candidates a multi-disciplinary PhD programme delivered in co-operation between Arts and Humanities research institutes at Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork and NUI Galway. The programme investigates the most basic component of Arts and Humanities research – the text as material object.
Texts, Contexts, Cultures offers a structured research path to the completion of a fourth level degree. It allows candidates to engage with the research knowledge and skills of scholars from three universities. It encourages candidates to develop their research interests, ideas and skills in challenging, supportive interdisciplinary contexts. Their research interests develop through a series of foundation year modules which are delivered at participating institutions by online learning media and video conferencing. PhD candidates have the benefit of wide-ranging guidance from supervisory panels comprised of leading scholars in discrete and related fields, as well as opportunity to share and present research at unique academic events.
Texts, Contexts, Cultures offers candidates extensive opportunity to develop national and international research networks through a series of seminars and colloquia. Across the network of participating institutions, students participate in the events [read more»]
Handing out resumes and shuffling investments have two things in common: uncertainty and Ecclesiastes 11:6. John Trapp (1601 – 1669) noted that the only works guaranteed to succeed in this life are pure acts of mercy and kindness. He’s right. But it can be such a frustrating answer to those who have lost 1/3 of retirement or can’t get even one interview. For those of us asking, “What is God doing?” Trapp’s exposition needs attention. Trapp’s concern here is the contrast between the wonder of uncertainty and the comfort of faith against the anxiety and despair of unbelief.
Ecclesiastes 11:5 contrasts two kinds of knowledge: natural phenomena and the knowledge of God. Ancient Israel did not have pediatric science or the technology to predict the weather forecast for a whole week as enjoyed today. The point is not the difference between scientific progress and religious faith. The point Ecclesiastes 11:5 is making is something like, “the more we learn the less we know.” This is especially true when it comes to knowing God. Writing in a post-Hamlet climate Trapp places the progress of his age on par with Qoheleth’s: what a work is man! The microcosm of life in the body is, “and abridgment of the visible world, as the soul is of the invisible.”
Like most Puritans, Trapp was not caught in the headlights of uncertainty. The mystery of life presented in the [read more»]
New Covenant Presbyterian Church had its first morning worship service yesterday. We began a series on the book of Acts. The first sermon was titled “The Acts of the Ascended Christ.”The text was Acts 1:1-11. You can watch the video below.
If you have never read T. D. Bernard’s The Progress of Doctrine you really must do so as soon as possible. It is a treasure chest of rich theological exposition with regard to the development of doctrine in the New Testament. It is a New Testament introduction of sorts. This work was highly commended by Reformed Presbyterian ministers at the time of its release, though Bernard was himself an Anglican minister.
In his Apocalyptic Writings (WJE Online Vol. 5) Jonathan Edwards explained that the Holy Spirit is the principle blessing purchased by Christ in the work of redemption. He wrote:
The sum of the blessings Christ sought, by what he did and suffered in the work of redemption, was the Holy Spirit. So is the affair of our redemption constituted; the Father provides and gives the Redeemer, and the price of redemption is offered to him, and he grants the benefit purchased; the Son is the Redeemer that gives the price, and also is the price offered; and the Holy Spirit is the grand blessing, obtained by the price offered, and bestowed on the redeemed. The Holy Spirit, in his indwelling, his influences and fruits, is the sum of all grace, holiness, comfort and joy, or in one word, of all the spiritual good Christ purchased for men in this world: and is also the sum of all perfection, glory and eternal joy, that he purchased for them in another world. The Holy Spirit is that great benefit, that is the subject matter of the promises, both of the eternal covenant of redemption, and also of the covenant of grace; the grand subject of the promises of the Old Testament, in the prophecies of the blessings of the Messiah’s kingdom; and the chief subject of the promises of the New Testament; and particularly of the covenant of grace delivered by Jesus Christ to his disciples, [read more»]
I had the privilege of preaching a New Year’s sermon for 2010 at Kirk of the Isles (PCA) in Savannah, GA. The text I preached was Exodus 12:1-30. the institution of the Passover. The title of the message was New Year’s Redemption. You can listen to it here.
There is a legitimate, as well as an illegitimate, approach to a biblical theology of numbers in Scripture. The majority of those who have approached this subject have, by and large, delved into the realm of the speculative and imaginative,–perplexing or leading astray their readers. O.T. Allis, first Professor of Old Testament History and Exegesis at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia (1929-1930), wrote a small booklet on the subject of numerology in which he noted the commonly occurring abuses in some of the more well known attempts to make sense of numbers in the Bible. You can read his work here. An abuse, however, ought not necessitate an abandonment of the subject. In fact, it must be argued that a large portion of our Bibles (specifically the ceremonial portions of the OT, and the symbolic books of the Old and New Testaments) can only be understood accurately by employing principles of biblical numerology. The purpose of this post is to help give several principles to help guide the interpreter of Scripture in this regard.
The starting point, in seeking a biblical theology of numbers, is to consider the very first place numbers are found in Scripture. This is, of course, Genesis 1–the first chapter of the first book of the Bible. In “six days” the Lord “created the Heavens and the Earth and all that is in them.” It is there that we learn that God rested on the [read more»]
This is a 3:21 excerpt of a talk that Jay Adams gave at a NANC Conference. It is based on the last two verses of the book of James. The introduction to this message is pretty funny!
Have you ever noticed that just about every song Johnny Cash wrote with Scriptural lyrics comes from the book of Revelation?
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