Reformation Heritage Books has republished my Lectio Continua series exposition of First Corinthians. The second edition is in the NKJV, and updated (slightly). You can order it here: First Corinthians -- Lectio Continua
Thank you, RHB!
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The New Year’s Day Prayer (from the URCNA Forms and Prayers)
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 lovingkindness. But you have especially sustained us with every spiritual blessing by keeping in the midst of us 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 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.
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The Babe in Bethlehem
In their opening chapters, the synoptic gospels give us a wonderful picture of God incarnate, a helpless babe in a manger, virginally conceived, and born to a young woman named Mary. When we see him in Bethlehem, the Christ-child is like a defenseless lamb, anything but a roaring lion.
Yet, in Revelation chapters 4 and 5, the Apostle John gives us an entirely different perspective on this newborn’s true identity. John recounts being caught away by the Holy Spirit where he was given a vision of God’s throne in heaven–a much different perspective upon our Lord’s advent from that given to us in the gospels.
A Different Perspective–The Throne of Heaven
Struggling to describe the scene he is witnessing, John sees one who is both a lion and a lamb. The glory of the one sitting upon the throne, says John, has the appearance of precious gems and reflects virtually every color of the spectrum. A rainbow encircles the throne, from which emanate flashes of lightening and peals of thunder. Surrounding the throne are twenty four elders, representing God’s redeemed people from both testaments. Also present are four living creatures (angels) who have six wings and who are covered with eyes. The living creatures represent all of creation. Together, with the elders, the living creatures worship the one seated on the throne. But they also worship another—a Lamb who was slain and yet who is also the Lion of Judah (Revelation 5:5). He alone is worthy to open the mysterious scroll containing God’s plan for the future chapters of redemptive history.
To read the rest, follow the link below
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A Thanksgiving Prayer (from the URCNA’s Forms and Prayers):
Our Sovereign God, who created all things for your pleasure and who gives to all life, breath, and every good thing, we praise you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life. For rain and sunshine, in abundance and in lack, we acknowledge that our times are in your hands. You supply all of your creatures with your good gifts: the just and the unjust alike. Nevertheless, we especially give you praise for the surpassing greatness of your saving grace that you have shown to us in Christ Jesus our Savior. For our election in him before the foundation of the world; for our redemption by him in his life, death, and resurrection; for our effectual calling, justification, sanctification, and all of the blessings of our union with him, we give you our heartfelt thanks. And we look with great anticipation toward that day when you will raise us to life everlasting, glorified and confirmed in righteousness, so that we may sing your praises without the defilement of our present weaknesses, distractions, and sins. As you have served us with these gifts, we ask that you would give us grateful hearts so that through us you may serve our neighbors. In the name of Jesus Christ our Savior, Amen.
So much for which to be thankful! May you and yours have a very blessed Thanksgiving!
Honey-baked this year—many sandwiches to follow!
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The entire five parts of the Primer on Reformed liturgies have been combined into a single essay. You can find it here: A Primer on Reformed Liturgics
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Continued from . . . A Primer on Reformed Liturgics: Lessons from the Past Applied in the Present (Part One)
Reformed Worship Supports the Church’s Discipline
Churches in the Reformed tradition “fence the table” to preserve the purity of the church and its gospel witness. “Fencing the table” refers to the practice of a church’s elders not permitting unbelievers or those who are under church discipline (as determined by the church’s elders) to receive the Lord’s Supper. Those who anticipate receiving the Lord’s Supper are exhorted to search their hearts for hidden sins and implored to offer sincere repentance before partaking. Lists of specific sins which should keep the unrepentant from the table are often included in that portion of the liturgy designed to prepare the faithful for receiving the elements (bread and wine). The Reformers were not so much concerned that sinners might partake of the supper, rather that unrepentant sinners would eat and drink judgment upon themselves (1 Corinthians 11:29), or that churches who were lax in their practice of discipline might provoke the judgment of God as explained in 1 Corinthians 5.
A proper liturgy warns those under church discipline, or who have a different understanding of the Lord’s Supper than that found in the Reformed confessions, to refrain from partaking until any issues are resolved. A proper liturgy also gives biblical exhortations to communicants to repent of their sins but then come to the table to partake with great comfort and full assurance since Christ’s merits received through faith alone secure our Lord’s welcome and access to the communion table and its benefits.
To read the rest, follow the link below
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For the Reformers, Recovering the Gospel Also Meant Recovery of Proper Worship
The Reformers understood that the recovery of the gospel was directly connected to proper Christian worship. John Calvin, for one, saw his own conversion and subsequent work of reform tied directly to the removal of all forms of Roman idolatry (especially the mass) from Christian worship. The centrality of the gospel to the life of the church must be made manifest in the pure worship of God. This meant a Word-centered liturgy in which biblical texts were preached upon, biblical exhortations and commands were made clear, and biblical promises made to the people of God were to be read for their comfort and assurance. As one writer puts it, “the recovery of the gospel in the Reformation was ultimately a worship war–a war against the idols, a war for the pure worship of God.”[2] Our worship must reflect our gospel, and our gospel must define our worship.
The Reformers Sought to “Reform” the Church’s Worship
While affirming Sola Scriptura and striving to base all liturgical reform on biblical principles of worship, the Reformers carefully considered the practices of the ancient church and the teaching of the church fathers when revising the liturgies they inherited. The goal was to reform the church’s ancient liturgies by striping them of all unbiblical additions, not to compose entirely new liturgies from scratch. “New” and “contemporary” when used in the Reformed tradition in connection to worship, are therefore best understood as “reforming” (i.e., removing all unbiblical accretions, as well as adding those things which are missing), not replacing the ancient liturgies with contemporary fads grounded in popular preferences.
Martin Luther stated that his intention was to not to abolish, but to cleanse the liturgies of “wicked additions” (i.e., Roman inventions) and recover their proper (pious) use. Calvin too sought to remove Roman additions made to the liturgies of the ancient church, which is why his Genevan liturgy (The Form of Ecclesiastical Prayers) was subtitled “According to the Custom of the Ancient Church.” Like Luther, he was no innovator, but a “Reformer.” It was said of Heinrich Bullinger (the Reformed pastor in Zurich and a contemporary of Calvin) that he restored “all things to the first and simplest form of the most ancient, and indeed apostolic tradition.”[3] It is fair to say that “tradition mattered to the Reformers. It was the living faith of the dead, not the dead faith of the living.” [4]
Returning to the ancient ways meant, in part, incorporating the reading of the Ten Commandments (or “law” texts from throughout the Scriptures), using the Lord’s Prayer (either recited or as a model for prayer), reciting the Apostles’ or Nicene Creeds, God’s people thereby confessing the orthodox faith while effectively uniting the church of the present to the people of God of the past—the so-called “cloud of witnesses” mentioned in Hebrews 12:1.
To read the rest, follow the link below
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Elements and Circumstances [1]
The Reformed divide liturgical practice into two categories: elements and circumstances. Elements are limited to what Scripture authorizes (either by command or good and necessary inference) along the line of Acts 2:42, while circumstances refer to how we put elements into practice. Circumstances are matters left to our judgment and discretion, but remaining within the general bounds of God’s word.
Elements are a distinct and usually ordinary act of worship (e.g., prayer, Scripture reading, the preaching of word, the administration of sacraments, etc.). Circumstances pertain to practices not unique to religious worship, but common to “human actions and societies” (WCF 1.6). Circumstances refer to matters such as where and when to meet, how many hymns should be sung, how the church furniture should be arranged, etc. Circumstances are not indifferent nor ungoverned, but are regulated by the light of nature, Christian prudence, and the general rules of Scripture (WCF 1.6). For example, we can choose what times to meet on Sunday, but we cannot move our Lord’s Day worship to another day of the week.
As the Reformed liturgical traditions took shape (the elements), there were wide variations in circumstantial practice. The various church orders (the constitutional documents of the churches) often developed along national/local lines. Most liturgies were full services, while others were partial liturgies or set forth guidelines for parts of the service—i.e., John Knox’s Practice of the Lord’s Supper. And there was the collection and publication of prayers to be used in worship (i.e., Thomas Cranmer’s Collects which are found the Book of Common Prayer (BCP).
To read the rest, follow the link below
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General Characteristics of Early Reformed Liturgies.[1]
As the Reformation got underway and the Reformed churches began to develop their own distinct theological identity and practices, general characteristics of Reformed liturgical practice emerged. The following are found in the majority of Reformed liturgies in the Reformation era and can be summarized as follows: (1) The assumption that the church is the assembly of the covenant community. (2) The assembled people of God participate in worship in the common tongue. (3). Simplicity. (4). The centrality of word and sacrament. (5) A central role for Psalms. (6). Adaptability to need and circumstance.
Emerging Liturgical Forms and Practices
Given the stress upon congregational participation in worship as central among the changes brought about by the Reformation, the assembled worshipers sang, prayed, heard the word of God read and preached, and received the sacraments regularly. These things were not limited to the clergy, choirs, etc. Full congregational participation can be seen in the common liturgical practices adapted early on. Worship in the Reformed churches was grounded in a word-centered liturgy in the vernacular (the common language). This was a departure from pre-Reformation practices, amounting to a . . .
Far-reaching change . . . The whole service [was read] in a clear audible voice [not Latin] and in the vernacular tongue. Low mass had been the popular form of service for a considerable period before the Reformation, and this meant that the old service had been said in Latin and also inaudibly. Now, for the first time, the people both heard the words and understood them, while at one stroke the old secret prayers disappeared and the central rite [i.e., the mass] stood clear of medieval accretions.”[2]
Much of the Reformation era liturgical reform was adapted from the ancient church, in part, to demonstrate that Reformation churches were not schismatic–a charge often leveled against them by Rome. Because the goal was the reform of the true church, the following became mainstays of the Reformed liturgies: The Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, a confession of sin with absolution or declaration of pardon, and intercessory prayers.
To read the rest, follow the link below
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Daniel G. Hummel, The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism: How the Evangelical Battle Over the End times Shaped a Nation (Eerdmans, 2023), 400 pages, $29.99
What Sort of Book Is This?
Daniel Hummel’s book is not written to defend or refute the dispensational approach to biblical prophecy and the end times. I noticed a fair bit of pre-publication chatter to that effect, so it is important to tamp down that expectation now that the volume is available. What Hummel has done is to write a thorough, quick-paced, and well-sourced history of the origin, development, and current status of what we speak of today as “dispensationalism.” Hummel’s “nothing but the facts” approach makes the book hard to review since the author moves quickly through the history of the movement with but minimal amounts of evaluation along the way. This is the proper method for a volume such as this one, but leaves little about which a reviewer might quibble.
The most significant thing to note about The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism is that Hummel situates the rise of a distinct dispensational theology within the broader context of what we often identify as “American evangelicalism.” This is Hummel’s purpose, one which he accomplishes quite well, and which is very valuable in its own right. But this broader perspective can also be a bit frustrating for those who participate in a more nuanced and related space which Hummel only addresses tangentially—the internecine debate about whether or not dispensationalism provides a helpful, and dare I say “biblical” manner of interpreting the Bible. Those readers of the Riddleblog who are interested in Hummel’s volume should keep his purpose in mind so as not be disappointed in what they will find. This is not a refutation of dispensationalism. Hummel’s book is exactly what it claims to be—an account of the rise of a distinctive dispensational theology in the 1830’s until its most recent period of development, which Hummel identifies as the “pop dispensationalism” of the Trump era. This is an historical account of dispensationalism and the role it has played in the development of American evangelicalism, and a well-written and important one at that. Hummel’s book is therefore must reading for anyone interested in eschatology, the rise of American evangelicalism, or who might have deep dispensational roots as does the author and this reviewer.
To read the review, click here: A "Review" of Hummel's Rise and Fall of Dipsensationalism
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A New Year’s Day Prayer (from the URCNA Forms and Prayers)
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 lovingkindness. But you have especially sustained us with every spiritual blessing by keeping in the midst of us 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 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.
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New Year — A Time to Reflect Upon the Past
In the minds of most Americans, New Year’s Day is a day for parades and college football. But the coming of the new year is also considered a time of new beginning–coming as it does a week after the busy Christmas holiday. This time of year, people are often in the mood to stop and reflect upon all the significant events of the past year.
The various news outlets and social media venues will spend much time this week recounting the names and faces of those influential figures and celebrities who have died in the past year. I am always amazed at how many of these people are already largely forgotten within a year of their death. Life is fleeting. News programming will broadcast a number of video montages of the significant events of the past year–from the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, the threat of nuclear war, the huge cultural shifts and tribal political warfare now under way, the on-going effects of Covid-19 and lockdowns, to a host of other human tragedies and poignant moments. A great deal has happened the past year.
But that is not all we associate with the New Year. As is the custom, we are all supposed to make a series of New Year’s resolutions about what we will do better next year, or not do, as the case may be. If we break our resolutions within moments after making them, it really does not matter, it is the making of them that counts.
The combination of all these things makes the coming new year a great time to stop and reflect upon the events of the recent past, as well as our hope for the future. Such a time of reflection has been the historic practice of Reformed churches. Article 37 of the URCNA church order lists New Year’s Day (along with New Year’s Eve, Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Pentecost and Ascension Day) as occasions when the consistory may call the congregation together for worship, although, to my knowledge, New Year’s day services are not widely held in our churches except perhaps when New Year’s Day falls on a Sunday.
Henry Ford on History as “Bunk”
As with most things, the Christian take on the events of the past and our expectations for the future stands in sharp contrast to the non-Christians around us. One place where the antithesis (i.e., the stark contrast) between Christian and non-Christian thinking is most striking is in how we as Christians view the past and ground our hope for the future. Most Americans, I think, would agree with Henry Ford (the founder of the automotive company which still bears his name) who is widely quoted to have said, “History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history we make today.”
To read the rest, follow the link below
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Using God — The Entrepreneurial Spirit of American Christianity
It has been said that pride is the oldest sin in the universe and that it shows no signs of growing weaker with age. Pride is the overestimation of our own worth and the inevitable tendency to exaggerate our own accomplishments. If the Bible is clear about anything, it is that ours is a fallen race and that human pride is the inevitable consequence of the fall. God warned the people of Israel to exercise great care in this regard, “lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery . . . . Beware lest you say in your heart, `My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’” In Romans 1:22, Paul speaks of human pride in these terms; “Claiming to be wise, they became fools.” Because of sin, we suppress the fact that God is the source of all that we have. We see ourselves as far more important than we are. We act as though all of life rises and sets upon our own shadow. Therefore, we are constantly tempted to use God to suit our own sinful ends.
Perhaps it might help to frame the matter like this. When we become great in our own eyes, our estimation of God and his purposes is necessarily diminished. Like two people sitting on opposite ends of a playground teeter-totter, when the person sitting on one end goes up, the other person goes down. The same applies to our estimation of God. When our own desires and whims are elevated over God and his glory–the very essence of sinful pride–God is necessarily diminished in our estimation. When this happens, our own skewed self-estimation replaces the uncomfortable truth we seek to evade–that God is great and we are not.
To read the rest of this essay, click here Using God
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We begin by noting that the nature of our Lord’s incarnation almost guarantees the presence of false Jesuses. The very idea of God taking to himself a true human nature is in and of itself a unique and somewhat mysterious historical event. That Jesus was a real flesh and blood human, who is also the second person of the Holy Trinity, and nevertheless remains one person, raises many profound and important questions. Questions regarding Jesus’ person and his origin are closely related, and arise throughout the ministry of Jesus as recounted in the gospels.
Those who actually heard Jesus preach about the kingdom of God, were said to marveled at his words, for Jesus spoke as someone having authority–unlike anyone they had heard preach previously. Jesus performed miraculous signs and wonders which were obviously not trickery or chicanery. He instantaneously healed people well-known to crowds who were following him. Jesus even raised the dead–several times. All of this was to confirm that the content of his preaching had its origins in the will of YHWH. The buzz surrounding Jesus was that he might be the long-expected messianic prophet, and some among his followers understood Jesus to claim he was older than Abraham or Moses.
It was impossible to hear or see Jesus and not ask, “who is this?” “Where is he from?” In Matthew 16:13–15 we read of an interesting exchange between Jesus and his disciples regarding this very matter. “When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, `Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ They said, `Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, `But who do you say that I am?’” People have been attempting to answer Jesus’ question ever since.
To read the rest, click here: False Jesuses
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In this essay, I address the postmillennial eschatology of the famous “Old Princeton” theologians, Charles Hodge, A. A. Hodge, and B. B. Warfield. I look at the postmillennialism of Daniel Whitby and Jonathan Edwards, move on to discuss the various postmillennial distinctives, the rise of a distinct Amillennial view (which had previously been discussed under the heading “postmillennialism”) before I draw a series of conclusions about how each of the Princeton theologians modified and moderated the postmillennialism which they inherited from Whitby and Edwards.
You can find the essay here: Princeton and the Millennium: A Study of American Postmillennialism
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