The Riddleblog

An Exposition of Article Nineteen of the Belgic Confession: The Two Natures of Christ

In order for any of Adam’s fallen race to be saved, God must act to rescue us from the consequences of our sin. God does so in the person of his eternal son, Jesus Christ, through whom God reveals his justice and mercy. In Jesus Christ, God takes to himself a true human nature and comes to earth to do for us those very things sinners cannot do for themselves; fulfill all the righteous requirements of the law and provide an all-sufficient sacrifice for sin. This is why we must believe and confess that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. We must also believe and confess that Jesus Christ remains but one person. But how can this be? How can two distinct natures–one human and one divine–co-exist in one person? This very important question brings us to a discussion of what theologians call the “hypostatic union” of Christ–two natures, yet one person.

Article Nineteen deals with the two natures in Christ (the divine and the human) and the way in which they are related and yet remain distinct. The reason this question must be addressed at this point in our confession is because the prior article dealt with the incarnation of our Lord. When the word became flesh so as to save us from our sins, the question necessarily arises, how can God truly take to himself a human nature? And if he does, how can both human and divine natures co-exist in a single person? Thus the question we seek to answer is not something theologians speculate about to give them something to do. Rather, it is a question raised by the biblical data itself. How we understand these two natures and their relationship to each other says a great deal about what God did in Jesus Christ to save us from our sins.

Click here to read this exposition: Article Nineteen: "We Profess Him to be True Man and True God"

Belgic ConfessionKim RiddlebargerJanuary 24, 2022Christ's Two Natures

The Blessed Hope Podcast -- Episode Fourteen (Season Finale): "Boasting in the Cross of Christ" (Galatians 6:11-18)

In the first century Greco-Roman world crucifixion was something that polite and well mannered people didn’t talk about. Considered a cruel instrument of torture and shame, nevertheless, the cross is the one thing in which the Apostle Paul chooses to boast–not just any cross, but the cross of Jesus Christ, where the guilt and power of sin which enslaved us are removed and broken. And yet, because it was an instrument of shame, Paul’s opponents in Galatia (the Judaizers) refuse to preach the cross of Christ. Instead, they are the champions of human merit earned through “works of the law.” They boast about the number of coverts they have made, yet they neither obey the commandments the champion nor can they see that the crucified and risen Jesus has ushered in the New Creation and established the true Israel of God. We have come to the end of Paul’s Galatian letter–the Magna Carta of Christian liberty. When he closes out this letter, Paul points us back to the cross of Jesus Christ, a fitting way to conclude our time in this remarkable letter.

Note: We have completed the first season—our series on Galatians. Please get your questions about Galatians in for the postscript episode. Use the “contact me” tab to send them my way.

To listen to this episode, follow the link below.

To listen to the series: The Blessed Hope Podcast

I Was On Distilling Theology Discussing Credo Baptism (LBC 1689) and Paedo Baptism (3FU/WCF)

I was recently a guest on the Distilling Theology Podcast. We had a great discussion about Credo Baptism (of the London Baptist Confession of 1689 sort) and Paedo Baptism of the Reformed Confessions (The Three Forms of Unity, and the Westminster Confession).

You can listen here: Distilling Theology: Episode 80 -- A Discussion of Credo v. Paedo Baptism

Kim RiddlebargerJanuary 18, 2022Comment

Job -- The Suffering Prophet (8): Job's Argument with Eliphaz About Suffering

The Pain Inflicted by Friends Trying to Help

There is a much greater pain than his sores, sleeplessness, and loss of all his children and possessions–the knowledge that Job’s friends think he has committed some secret sin, that he is guilty before God, is lying when he denies he’s sinned, and has therefore brought about his terrible ordeal.

From the perspective of Job’s friends (Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar), the reason why Job lost all of his possessions, his children and his health is very simple. God is holy, therefore he must punish all sin. In this they are correct. Since it is obvious that Job is being punished by God (to their way of thinking), there can only be one explanation. Either Job, or his children, have committed some horrible sin which has kindled the wrath of God.

But Job knows he is innocent of such a sin. His heart is broken because he has no idea why God is subjecting him to such terrible suffering. Even as he cries out to God, lamenting his sad state and asking “why?” Job knows that his friends have no clue as to why he is suffering. Although arising from a sense of loyal friendship, Job knows their attempts to “comfort him” are actually cruel, self-righteous diatribes which have no basis in fact.

To read the rest of this reflection, follow the link below

Reflections on Job, Biblical Events, Biblical TheologyKim RiddlebargerJanuary 17, 2022

Should I Get a Bus and Go on Tour? (Best of the old Riddleblog # 6)

From the March 2011 Riddleblog, Harold Camping’s “Save the Date” Tour.

I've been thinking about going on tour to promote my own two books on eschatology (A Case for Amillennialism and The Man of Sin).

I could get a rig like this one, and use flashy graphics to announce that "No one knows the day or the hour” -- Matthew 24:36

From the Old RiddleblogKim RiddlebargerJanuary 15, 2022Harold Camping, Date setting Comments

Jesus Christ -- The Israel of God

If we stand within the field of prophetic vision typical of Israel’s prophets after the exile, and we look to the future, what do we see? Israel’s prophets clearly anticipate a time when Israel will be restored to its former greatness. But will that restoration of Israel to its former glory mirror the former days of the Davidic monarchy—i.e. a restored national kingdom? Or does the prophetic vision of restoration point beyond a monarchy to the ultimate monarch, Jesus the Messiah, who is the descendant of David, YHWH’s servant, and the true Israel?

The prophetic vision given the prophets is remarkably comprehensive. The nation had been divided, and the people of both kingdoms (Israel and Judah) were taken into captivity or dispersed as exiles throughout the region. Judah was exiled to Babylon five centuries before the coming of Jesus. Since the magnificent temple of Solomon was destroyed by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar and the Levitical priesthood was in disarray, any prophetic expectation related to Israel’s future would naturally speak of a reversal of fortune and the undoing of terrible calamity which had come upon the nation. The restoration to come in the messianic age therefore includes not only the fate of the nation, but also the land of Canaan, the city of Jerusalem, a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem (the so-called “second temple”), as well as the long anticipated heir to David’s throne—the coming Messiah.

Yet, once Israel’s Messiah had come, and the messianic age was a reality, how do the writers of the New Testament understand these Old Testament prophecies associated with Israel’s future restoration?

To read the rest of this essay, follow the link below

Amillennialism, eschatology, Biblical Events, Biblical TheologyKim RiddlebargerJanuary 13, 2022 Comments

Job -- The Suffering Prophet (7): "Why?"

Satan’s Challenge Fails–Job Does Not Curse God

His memories of wealth and joy began to fade, largely erased by Job’s current misery. The presence of Job’s friends mourning his wretched condition brings forth a torrent of heartfelt but provocative words. Job’s doxology gives way to a lament of his birth. The greatest man of the east, is now crushed.

We read in Job 3:1-3, “After this,” [the arrival of his friends and the week spent in mourning] “Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job said: `Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’” Job dares to plead with the Lord to remove that day when Job was conceived from human history. Job continues in verses 4-7, pleading “let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it. Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. That night—let thick darkness seize it! Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months. Behold, let that night be barren; let no joyful cry enter it.” Job’s cry can be summarized, “it would have been better if I had never been born.”

The saddest part of Job’s ordeal is that his present pain has obscured the wonderful memories of all the joys he had known before. When life is viewed through the lens of pain and loss, it is easy for the sufferer to reason, “it would be better to have never existed at all than to endure my present sufferings.” Some of us have been there. Some of us are there now. Sustained pain robs us of so much–our joy often goes first, but at times pain even robs us of the assurance of our salvation.

To read the rest of this reflection, follow the link below

Reflections on JobKim RiddlebargerJanuary 10, 2022Job asks `why?'Comment

The Blessed Hope Podcast -- Episode Thirteen: "Sowing and Reaping" (Galatians 6:1-10)

In the concluding chapter of Galatians (6), Paul addresses the fallout caused by the Judaizers who were spying on those Christians exercising their liberty in Christ. It should not come as a surprise that the Judaizers would find people engaging in sinful conduct, misusing their freedom, and then shame them. The Judaizers, apparently, were singling out these people as examples of why Paul’s gospel supposedly leads to license and sinful behavior. Paul instructs the leaders of the churches of Galatia to bear with those struggling with sin and work to restore them–not shame them, nor leave them to the Judaizing wolves. Paul describes the actions of the Judaizers as “sowing to the flesh” and warns them that if they they continue to sow to the flesh, well then, they will reap from the flesh, because God is not deceived. Rather, Christians are to bear one another’s burdens and do those things which benefit their neighbors, especially those in the household of faith.

To listen to this episode, follow the link below.

To listen to the series: The Blessed Hope Podcast

An Exposition of the Belgic Confession: The Incarnation

God keeps his promises. The incarnation of Jesus Christ proves this assertion because this event lies at the center of what is truly the greatest story ever told. You know how that story begins. At the dawn of human history, God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden and commanded him not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But as we know, Adam ate from the forbidden tree, plunging the entire human race into sin and death. But even as God was pronouncing the curse upon Adam, Eve, and the serpent, God also promised to rescue Adam from his sin through the seed of the woman. The promise seed would be a biological descendant from Eve who would somehow redeem our fallen race from sin and restore us to the place of honor we once occupied before the fall. It will take a second Adam–one who obeys the covenant of works which Adam broke and who can redeem us from the guilt and power of sin to undo the consequences brought upon us by the first Adam. This brings us to the person in whom God fulfills his promises, Jesus Christ, the second Adam, who is truly our Immanuel, God with us.

Our confession treats the doctrine of election in Article Sixteen, the promise of redemption and the covenant of grace in Article Seventeen, and the incarnation of our Lord in Article Eighteen. The structure of our confession reminds us that all of these doctrines are necessarily connected. You cannot talk about God’s sovereign choice to save particular sinners without talking about God’s promise to save his chosen ones and give them to the Son as his bride. We cannot discuss this covenant of redemption (the so-called covenant before the covenant) apart from a discussion of the covenant of grace, since this is the means by which God will actually save those whom he chooses. And we certainly cannot talk about the covenant of grace without talking about the mediator of that covenant, Jesus Christ, the one in whom God fulfills his promises.

To read the rest of this exposition: An Exposition of Article Eighteen: "In This Way He Is Truly Our Immanuel"

Kim RiddlebargerJanuary 5, 2022

Job--The Suffering Prophet (6): Job's Counselors Arrive

Job’s Counselors Arrive

As the story of Job unfolds, we learn that there was a reason why Satan did not kill Job’s wife, when he took the lives of Job’s seven sons and three daughters. Satan used Mrs. Job in the same way in which he had used Eve in Eden–to vocalize the ends which Satan hoped to bring to pass, that Job would curse God to his face. The same holds true of Job’s three friends, who respond to their friend’s predicament with every intention of comforting Job in his suffering, but who, whether they know it or not, are actually doing the devil’s bidding. It is their presence in the city of Uz, which plunges Job into greater depths of despair than previously witnessed. With the arrival of these three “wise men,” Job descends from a state of physical misery into a state of spiritual torment and lament, as will be revealed in Job 3.

We are introduced to Job’s three friends in verses 11-13 of Job 2. According to Job 2:11, “When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him.” The fact that Job’s three friends had to travel from their homes indicates that several months had transpired (cf. Job 7:3) between the time of Job’s loss of everything and the speeches from Job and his friends which begin in Job 3:1 ff. Some months earlier, when Job’s wife told him to admit that he had sinned and then to curse God and die, Job’s response was resolute (2:10). “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”

To read the rest of this reflection, follow the link below

Reflections on Job, Biblical TheologyKim RiddlebargerJanuary 4, 2022Job's CounselorsComment

Musings (1/3/2022)

God’s richest blessings in the New Year to you all!

If your New Year’s resolution is to read your Bible more frequently (and even if it isn’t) here are a number of Bible reading plans from Ligonier. Ligonier's Bible Reading Plans
Why do we tend to view those outside our political tribe in the worst possible light? The Atlantic: "The Myth of Tribalism"
I ran across a new podcast which I highly recommend. If you love military history, strategy and tactics, and are interested in the lives of great historical figures, then you’ll love the The School of War
More great stuff from Dr. Godfrey:

Dr. Robert Godfrey: "Whats Going on Right Now? (Lecture 7)
Dr. Robert Godfrey: "What's Going on Right Now?" (Lecture 8)

To read the rest, follow the link below:

Kim RiddlebargerJanuary 3, 2022Comment

A Blessed, Healthy, Happy, and Prosperous New Year to You All!

A Prayer for New Year’s Eve (The Year’s End)

Almighty and most gracious God, as we close the year with this day, we thank You for all Your tender mercies bestowed upon us during the whole course of our lives, and especially during this past year. Accept our thanksgivings for all Your blessings; fill our hearts with humility and love, with gratitude and trust. [Specific thanksgiving may be offered.]

For all these blessings we offer to You the sacrifice of our praises, and we acknowledge that through Your great goodness and help we are enabled to live our lives in peace, even though we have offended You in countless ways. O merciful God, pardon all who sincerely repent of their sins. Grant that, while our years are passing away, we may work out our salvation with fear and trembling in the time You give to us.

Enable us to press onward, always towards the end of our heavenly calling, even that blessed eternity, which Jesus Christ, Your Son and our Lord, has prepared for us. Amen.

New Year’s Day

Eternal and almighty God, we humble ourselves in Your presence to dedicate to You the beginning of this year by adoration, prayer, and praise.

We come before Your Supreme Majesty and acknowledge with gratitude the manifold blessings which You have freely bestowed upon us through the whole course of our lives. We thank You that, having preserved us to the present time, You have permitted us to enter upon a new year. You have not ceased, O most gracious God, to give to us the abundance of Your loving-kindness.

But You have especially sustained us with every spiritual blessing by keeping in our midst the light of Your gospel. You have granted us repentance through Your mighty help, through Your great goodness, and through the warnings of Your Word and Spirit, and have mercifully given to us favorable opportunities to grow in grace. Despite our unworthiness, for the love of Jesus Christ, take not away from us Your protection and favor.

Moved by Your grace, we devote ourselves to You at the beginning of this year, desiring to employ it better than we have done in the years that are past. And since this day also warns us that our years pass away like a flood, like a dream, give us grace that we may seriously number our days, that we may have a heart of wisdom, that we may discern the vanity of this life, and that we may aspire to that better life, when days and months and years shall be counted no more, forever.

While we continue in the flesh, may we more and more live, not according to its desires, but according to Your will. And grant, O God, that when our years shall come to an end, and the day of our death arrives, we may depart in the peace that passes all understanding and in the sure hope of life everlasting.

Favorably hear us through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

From the Liturgical Forms and Prayer of the URCNA

Riddleblog PublicationKim RiddlebargerDecember 31, 2021New Year PrayersComment

Review of Tim Bouverie's "Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the Road to War"

Tim Bouverie: Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the Road to War (London: Vintage, 2019) 497 pgs.

I know, it sounds cliche. If you look in a dictionary under “appeasement” you will likely find mention or a picture of Neville Chamberlain—possibly both. Yet, as Tim Bouverie contends in his recent book, Appeasing Hitler, there is far more than “appeasement” to the story of Neville Chamberlain’s diplomatic efforts as English Prime Minister in the eighteen months or so before World War Two. The disaster which everyone feared was coming, yet could do nothing to stop, was at hand. Chamberlain tried and failed to prevent it from happening. Postwar history has not been kind to him. His name is synonymous with political appeasement and naivete.

A political journalist now writing in the field of history, in Appeasing Hitler, Tim Bouverie covers the period from Hitler’s rise to power in Germany (January 1933) until England’s declaration of war on Germany (September 1939). Bouverie recounts the behind the scenes diplomatic efforts made by the British government to prevent the Second World War. If you’ve watched any of the recent Churchill movies (i.e., The Darkest Hour, which, for the most part, is outstanding) and wondered about the tensions between Neville Chamberlain (the current PM), Lord Halifax (the king’s personal friend and the likely P.M. after Chamberlain), and Churchill (the loudest voice opposed to Hitler, but discredited in the eyes of his contemporaries due to his role in the Gallipoli debacle of 1915), Bouverie gives the backstory to the distrust (if not dislike) between Chamberlain, Halifax, and Churchill. Appeasing Hitler is well-written and cogently argued. Bouverie captures quite well the sense of futility on the part of the British government which went with trying to change the mind of a megalomaniac (Hitler) with nothing available to them to stop him but Chamberlain’s best of intentions.

To read the rest of the review, Tim Bouverie: Appeasing Hitler

Jack Bauer and His Man Bag--Remember That? (Best of the Old Riddleblog # 5)

From June 30, 2006

OK. I admit it. I love "24." I don't get to watch it on TV, but do enjoy it on DVD when I can watch more than one episode at a time.

If you are a 24 fan, you are probably aware of all the Jack Bauer jokes making their way around the internet.

More than likely, you've also seen the discussion about Jack's "man bag," (as seen in the picture). Some have used this to challenge Jack's legendary toughness. "If Jack Bauer is so tough, why does he carry a purse?" His defenders reply, "That's not a purse, its a sack of whoop-ass!"

In the bag, Bauer carries his handgun, numerous magazines (he seems to have an unlimited supply for any gun and caliber he happens to be using), his cell (which always has four bars--who is his provider?), and his trusty PDA which keeps him connected to Chloe and others back at CTU.

To read the rest, follow the link below

Kim RiddlebargerDecember 29, 2021

A Blessed Christmas from the Riddleblog!

Merciful Father, You so loved the world that You gave Your only begotten Son.

He who was rich became poor for us, the eternal Word made flesh, a great Light shining in the darkness.

Only because of Your Word and Spirit have we seen that Light and been drawn into its brightness.

Give us the grace humbly and joyfully to receive Your Son, even as the shepherds and princes who welcomed Him, and to look no further for our redemption than to this child lying in a manger.

This we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.

From Liturgical Forms and Prayers of the URCNA

Riddleblog PublicationKim RiddlebargerDecember 24, 2021The Word Made Flesh John 1:14Comment

A Few Changes to the Riddleblog Layout

1). The old “Amillennialism (Audio)” tab is now Amillennialism (Audio, Links, and Charts). I’ve added a section to that tab containing links to all the eschatology related posts in the blog section so they can be easily found in one place. I also relocated the links to all eschatology charts as well as the related eschatology links there as well. Everything related to amillennialism and eschatology is now on a single page.

2). The old Tab, “Charts, Resources, Links,” has been renamed Links to Friends and Co-Laborers, since the links to charts and eschatology resources have been moved to the new tab, Amillennialism (Audio, Links, and Charts).

This should make things much easier to find. Adjust your links and bookmarks accordingly

Riddleblog UpdateKim RiddlebargerDecember 20, 2021Links and tabs rearrangedComment

Job -- The Suffering Prophet (5): Job Loses Everything

Satan Comes to Rob, Steal, and Destroy

Everyone reading this essay has suffered loss. We have all lost something we prize. Some of us have suffered greatly and must live in constant pain, either physical or emotional, and sometimes both. Yet, no one reading this has lost as much as Job. Like a series of Tsunamis, the bad news of Satan’s handiwork begins to come, wave after wave after wave.

As we continue our look at Job, the suffering prophet, we come to verse 13 of chapter one, where we read “one day [probably that day when Job offered burnt offerings] when Job's sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, a messenger came to Job and said, `The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, and the Sabeans attacked and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!” The Sabeans are Arab Bedouins, who not only took all of Job’s livestock, they killed all of the servants. But this is only the beginning.

To read the rest of this essay, follow the link below

Reflections on JobKim RiddlebargerDecember 20, 2021Job loses all, Job praises God despite his lossComment

Evil in the Millennial Age? An Exposition of Zechariah 14

I am convinced that one of the major weaknesses of all forms of premillennialism is the presence of evil in the millennial age (The Presence of Evil in the Millennium -- A Huge Problem for Premillennarians). How do people in natural human bodies pass through the events associated with Christ’s return (the general resurrection, the final judgment, and the creation of a new heaven and earth) without being raised from the dead and appointed to their eternal destiny (heaven or hell)? There is a related question also raised by the premillennial understanding of redemptive history: “how can evil exist on the earth, while Jesus rules over the nations from David’s throne in Jerusalem after he has judged the nations?” Premillennarians seek to avoid this conundrum by assigning final judgment and elimination of evil to the close of the millennial age, fully one thousand years after Jesus returns. But the millennial age is not future as premillennarians claim, it is a present reality. Christ’s return is the final consummation, the summing up of all things, not but another step on the way to the final consummation a thousand years later.

Premillennarians respond to this amillennial challenge by asserting that the presence of evil in the millennial age was foretold by the Prophet Zechariah in the fourteenth chapter of his prophecy, thereby parrying the thrust of the amillennial argument.[1] The purpose of this essay is to set Zechariah’s prophecy in its context, summarize the varying interpretations of Zechariah 14 (including premillennialism and Reformed amillennialism), then interpret the entirety of the chapter, before drawing some final conclusions.

To read the rest of the essay: Evil in the Millennial Age? An Exposition of Zechariah 14

An Exposition of Article Seventeen of the Belgic Confession -- God Seeks Sinners: The Covenants of Works and Grace

One of the most poignant passages in all the Bible is Genesis 3:8-9. Adam sinned against God and is hiding among the trees, fully aware of what he has done and absolutely terrified of God’s presence. Before Adam sinned, God’s approach was the most delightful moment of the day. Now Adam is completely ashamed of what he had done. He is crushed by the guilt of his sins, the sentence of death hangs over his head. For the first time in his life, Adam is alienated from his creator. In his grace and mercy, it is God who approaches Adam, calling out to him, “where are you?”—not because God didn’t know where Adam was, but to rescue Adam from the consequences of what he had just done. It has been the case that God sets out to find lost sinners ever since.

Adam’s guilt and alienation from God is our own. Because we all sinned in Adam (he, being our biological and federal head), and have committed numerous sins ourselves, we too are estranged from God, guilty for our sins, and terrified of God’s approach. Nevertheless, God is as merciful to us as he was to Adam. He still comes to each one of us in the person of Jesus Christ, calling out, “where are you?” to deliver us from the guilt and power of our sins and to comfort us with the promise of his favor toward us in the person of his son.

To read the rest of this exposition: Article Seventeen of the Belgic Confession: "God Set Out to Find Him"

Musings (12/14)

Michael Kruger discusses The Inclusion of the Book of Revelation into the New Testament Canon
How should Christians respond to the anger generated by political tribalism? This is what it means to love our neighbor. Nancy French: Extending Civility in an Age of Tribalism

To read the rest of the 12/14 musings, follow the link below