Exegesis and Theology

The Blog of Brian Collins

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Baxter

April 1, 2010 by Brian

Men have learned in books, that God is the chief Good, and only
the enjoyment of him in heaven will make us happy ;  but their hearts do not unfeignedly take him to be so.   Most men take the present contentments of the flesh, consisting in pleasures, profits, and honours, to be their happiness indeed.  This hath their very hearts, while God hath the tongue and knee ; this  is seriously sought after, while God is hypocritically complimented with ;   heaven is  heartlesslv commended, while the world is  eagerly pursued ; Christ is called Master, while this flesh bears all the sway :    only because they cannot choose but know that the world will shortly leave them in the grave, and this flesh, which is so cherished, must lie rotting in the dust ;   therefore, they will allow God the leavings of the world, and Christ shall have all that the flesh can spare; so far they will be religious and godly, lest they should be thrust into hell ; and they look for heaven as a reserve, when they can keep their worldly happiness no longer. This is  the self-deluding religion of thousands.

Richard Baxter, The Saints Everlasting Rest, in The Practical Works of Richard Baxter, vol. 22 (London: Duncan, 1830), 20-21

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Seminary Survival Labs

March 26, 2010 by Brian

Since both of my readers also subscribe to Mark’s blog, they’ve probably already read about the lectures Duncan Johnson will deliver next Saturday.

If not, here’s the information:

 

Saturday, April 3, 9:00 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 1:00 p.m. Computer Classroom, Mack Library

Turning in quality seminary projects is hard work, and technological challenges don’t make it any easier. The Mack Library is offering three workshop labs for undergrad Religion majors, Seminary students and faculty. These sessions will explain and demonstrate key technologies necessary for seminary research, including Greek and Hebrew fonts, a Turabian template for Microsoft Word and Zotero (the premier tool for research organization and citation). All sessions will occur in the Mack Library Classroom (the former Testing Center, next to the e-mail stations) Saturday, April 3 and are free of charge. Register at the LibGuide for the Seminary Survival Labs. Drop-ins will also be welcome.

  • 9 a.m. Greek/Hebrew fonts – Demonstrates the two ways to use biblical language text in your documents, the BibleWorks fonts and Unicode.

  • 10:30 a.m. Turabian – Demonstrates the Turabian Wizard, with some time for individual practice.

  • 1 p.m. Zotero – Demonstrates using Zotero to organize your research and insert footnotes into your papers.

The LibGuide will soon include how-to videos demonstrating the techniques explained during the sessions.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

A Prayer for Quickening Grace

September 30, 2009 by Brian

I acknowledge and bewail before thee, O thou living and all-seeing God, my sinful dullness, and backwardness to the duties of thy holy service. When I should delight in the law or God, and serve thee with gladness, and make it my meat and drink to do the will of my heavenly Father, O how cold and listless am I in the performance or that which is best for me, and which most nearly and eternally concerns me! I am alive to the world, and very apt to be transported with the objects of sense: but O how heavy and dead in those offices or attendance on my Lord, which are the joy and glory of all the hosts of heaven: my soul cleaveth to the dust; quicken me, O Lord, according to thy word: according to thy precept, which commands us to be spiritually-minded, and to be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. And quicken me, O my God, according to the word or thy promise, that sin shall not have dominion over thy servants, and that thou wilt perfect that which concerneth them. Dear Lord! be thou pleased to perfect that which concerns my soul, and engage the love of my heart to thy service. Let it be my delight to do thy will, O God, and with an enlarged heart to run the way of thy commands. O help me to put forth myself with vigour and activity in thy holy ways: and to apply myself to the performance of thy blessed will, not only because I must, but because it is the desire of my soul, and the joy of my heart, to be so engaged: let nothing in the world give me so much pleasure and satisfaction as to approve my heart unto thee, my God, and to have all my works acceptable in thy sight, through Jesus Christ, my only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.

Benjamin Jenks, Prayers and Offices for Devotion, altered and improved by Charles Simeon (New York: Stanford and Sword, 1850), 162.

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Public Policy and Deuteronomic Curses

July 22, 2009 by Brian

Our era imagines social policy to be determinative for a people’s future: if disaster strikes, policy is how we address it. However, the social act that leads any policy in Israel to succeed is obeying YHWH’s voice. No other change—political reform, economic development, social revolution, not even the many policies in Duet. 12-26—can counter the covenant’s curses on rebels; only repentance and restoration to fruitful obedience can accomplish it.

Telford Work, Deuteronomy, Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible, ed. R. R. Reno (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2009), 246.

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Calvin on Theological Speculation

June 23, 2009 by Brian

Is it not evidence of stubbornness rather than of diligence to raise strife over the time and order in which [angels] were created . . . . Not to take too long, let us remember here, as in all religious doctrine, that we ought to hold to one rule of modesty and sobriety: not to speak, or guess, or even to seek to know, concerning obscure matters anything except what has been imparted to us by God’s Word. Furthermore, in the reading of Scripture we ought ceaselessly to endeavor to seek out and meditate upon those things which make for edification. let us not indulge in curiosity or in the investigation of unprofitable things. And because the Lord willed to instruct us, not in fruitless questions, but in sound godliness, in the fear of his name, in true trust, and in the duties of holiness, let us be satisfied with this knowledge. For this reason, if we would be duly wise, we must leave those empty speculations which idle men have taught apart from God’s word concerning the nature, orders, and number of angels. I know that many persons more greedily seize upon and take more delight in them than in such things as have been put to daily use. But, if we are not ashamed of being Christ’s disciples, let us not be ashamed to follow that method which he has prescribed. Thus it will come to pass that, content with his teaching, wee shall not only abandon, but also abhor those utterly empty speculations from which he calls us back.

Calvin, Institutes, 1.14.4

Filed Under: Church History, Dogmatics, Uncategorized

Keep a window always on top

April 3, 2009 by Brian

I just figured out this useful script for AutoHotKey.

;Windows key+a will toggle a window to always on top or not.
#a::WinSet, AlwaysOnTop, toggle, A

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Thoughts on the Theology of Joshua – Obedience

January 29, 2009 by Brian

As noted previously, Israel’s obedience to the covenant stipulations bookends this book. The importance of obedience is stressed in the body of the book through examples of Israel’s disobedience (e.g., Achan, the Gibeonites).

If Israel was to live out its purpose for living in the land—showing the nations what good and wise dominion of the earth looked like—it had to live in obedience to the covenant.

Ominously, Joshua closes the book by telling the people that they will not be able to serve the Lord (Josh. 24:19).

Filed Under: Joshua, Uncategorized

Calvin on General Revelation and Scripture

January 29, 2009 by Brian

It is therefore in vain that so many burning lamps shine for us in the workmanship of the universe to show forth the glory of its Author. Although they bathe us wholly in their radiance, yet they can of themselves in no way lead us into the right path. Surely they strike some sparks, but before their fuller light shines forth these are smothered. For this reason, the apostle, in that very passage where he calls the worlds images of things invisible, adds that through faith we understand that they have been fashioned by God’s word [Heb. 11:3]. He means by this that the invisible divinity is made manifest in such spectacles but that we have not the eyes to see this unless hey be illumined by the inner revelation of God through faith.

Institutes, 1.5.14

That brightness which is borne in upon the eyes of all men both in heaven and on earth is more than enough to withdraw all support from men’s ingratitude—just as God, to involve the human race in the same guilt, sets forth to all without exception his presence portrayed in his creatures. Despite this, it is needful that another better help be added to direct us aright to the very Creator of the universe. It was not in vain, then, that he added the light of his Word by which to become known unto salvation . . . . Just as old or bleary-eyed men and those with weak vision, if you thrust before them a most beautiful volume, even if they recognize it to be some sort of writing, yet can scarcely construe two words, but with the aid of spectacles will begin to read distinctly; so Scripture, gathering up the otherwise confused knowledge of God in our minds, having dispensed with our dullness, clearly shows us the true God.

Institutes, 1.6.1

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Calvin on the Role of Systematic Theology

January 13, 2009 by Brian

Although Holy Scripture contains a perfect doctrine, to which one can add nothing, since in it our Lord has meant to display the infinite treasures of his wisdom, yet a person who has not much practice in it has good reason for some guidance and direction, to know what he ought to look for in it, in order not to wander hither and thither, but to hold to a sure path, that he may always be pressing toward the end to which the Holy Spirit calls him.

John Calvin, “Subject Matter of the Present Work: From the French Edition of 1560,” in The Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), 6.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Calvin on Disagreement among Commentators 2

January 8, 2009 by Brian

The quotation cited in a previous post is interesting because

  1. It addresses a objection that the Romanists launched against Protestantism: the diversity of opinion that results from the lack of an infallible interpreter.
  2. Calvin doesn’t try to resolve the problem of subjectivity on hermeneutical grounds as the critics who followed did (i.e., follow this interpretive method, turn the crank, and out comes an objective interpretation). He, instead, located a great part of the problem in the moral realm.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

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