Meet The Puritans

Pursuing Theology

Posted on 27. Feb, 2012 by Lee Gatiss.

People pursue all kinds of things, for all kinds of reasons. They run after fame or wealth and go to any lengths to find the perfect mate, the perfect cappuccino, or the next big thing. But speaking to a bunch of theology students in Strasbourg in 1553, however, the very astute Peter Martyr said:

“Those who pursue theology with unflagging zeal are shown to be acting not unwisely.”

I hope that is an encouragement to all the theologians and ordinands out there! He adds later,

“I beg you, be on guard against pleasure and idleness, the wet nurses of the vices.”

Good advice!

(And by the way, the chap in the photo is NOT me, in case anyone was wondering)

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New Book on Oecolampadius

Posted on 25. Feb, 2012 by Danny Hyde.

Just a quick note to recommend a book I just finished. Diane Poythress’ PhD dissertation on the forgotten first-generation church reformer, Johannes Oecolampadius, has been summarized and simplified. It is entitled, Reformer of Basel: The Life, Thought, and Influence of Johannes Oecolampadius (Reformation Heritage Books, 2011). It was a helpful introduction to the life and career of the reformer with the best name but also whose learning and gifts were a great gift to the church.

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GPTS Conference Lecture – Owen on the Holy Spirit

Posted on 21. Feb, 2012 by Ryan McGraw.

Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary has recently posted the lectures from the 2011 Spring theology conference on the Holy Spirit. Included in these lectures is my material on John Owen on the Holy Spirit. This lecture was both historical and sermonic in form and it is aimed at a popular audience. Lord willing, this material will be published as a chapter in a book on the Holy Spirit through RHB later this year. The written version is much more extensive and “scholarly,” while retaining the application from the lecture. You can listen to the audio here:

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=1111111424200

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Forthcoming Book on the Tabernacle

Posted on 15. Feb, 2012 by Danny Hyde.

Christians often wonder whether it is worth their time to read and study the odd narratives about God’s instructions for the tabernacle in the second half of the book of Exodus. The answer, according to Daniel R. Hyde, is an emphatic yes.

In God in Our Midst: The Tabernacle and Our Relationship with God, Hyde shows that the tabernacle narratives have much to teach us about God Himself, about sin, about redemption in Christ, and about how we are to live for God today. Above all, by interpreting these narratives according to solid hermeneutical principles and New Testament revelation, Hyde shows that these passages reveal Christ.

Ultimately, Hyde says, it is good to read the tabernacle narratives because they are part of our family history. We need to read and meditate on that history because we have the same God, the God who told His old covenant, “I will dwell in your midst,” and who tells us that Christians are the true tabernacle, the dwelling place of God under the new covenant (Eph. 2:22).

—Coming May 15, 2012 from Reformation Trust a division of Ligonier Ministries

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Mystifying or Edifying?

Posted on 13. Feb, 2012 by Lee Gatiss.

Peter Martyr Vermigli, the anniversary of whose death 450 years ago we celebrate this year, has this to say about ministers who do not preach very well (in his commentary on the Apostles’ Creed, on the church) …

“We need the admonitions and expositions which in contemporary Christendom are so deplorably neglected. Here is the principal and supreme apostolic duty, yet these new leaders have put this aside as being beneath their pontifical dignity. They have instead relegated it to some poor friars… and unloaded the responsibility that so definitely belongs to their episcopal office. Although declining to preach themselves, they dictate how others must preach. So Christ’s sheep are badly fed, left to starve, or hardly allowed to graze… They make sermons which contain either nonsense and the impenetrable darkness of ignorance, or words of truth so camouflaged, mutilated, and diluted that they mystify rather than edify their listeners… No word is heard that might build up the pitiable people.”

Pastors, and all “new leaders”, beware of these temptations and dangers, which are just as real in our day as in the 16th century.

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Review of Brian Kay on Owen’s Trinitarianism

Posted on 07. Feb, 2012 by Ryan McGraw.

I recently posted online a previously published review of Brian Kay’s, Trinitarian Spirituality: John Owen and the Doctrine of God in Western Devotion. You can read it here: http://katekomen.gpts.edu/2012/02/model-for-piety.html . This book has significant flaws, but it is a good attempt to aim at the heart of Owen’s theology. In addition, the church today needs a model for a self-conscious and practical Trinitarianism. This book (and hopefully the review) should at least get some good thoughts flowing in that direction.

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Selfish Gain and Disordered Desires

Posted on 06. Feb, 2012 by Lee Gatiss.

Last summer here in the UK we had some riots. People breaking into shops and businesses in opportunistic “smash and grab” raids; cars set on fire and neighbourhoods torn up; people injured and killed by rampaging mobs bent on nothing but disorder, chaos, and anger.

I don’t want to make any particular comment on the social inequality and injustice which may or may not lie behind these particular riots. Others have already done that much better than I could. But it does strike me that this sort of behaviour is actually just a small picture of this rebellious world’s reaction to the gospel.

Or rather, Peter Martyr Vermigli suggested this interpretation to me, when I was reading his 1544 commentary on the Apostles’ Creed. Commenting on Christ’s impartiality in judging the world, he says:

“Partiality is a vice that prevents the enemies of piety from speaking sanely and judging accurately concerning Christianity. Christ and his people are boldly accused and condemned by those whose verdicts are vitiated by selfish gain and disordered desires… Christ’s judgments will differ from the false and corrupt sentences passed by this world’s tyrants against Christianity. Either they will not succeed, or they will do more harm to themselves than to Christians.”

This is a very helpful perspective, not just on riots, but on all the opposition we face as Christians from this miserable and naughty world (to use a phrase from the Book of Common Prayer). I think Vermigli stole the phrase “disordered desires”; at least, I know Aquinas uses it and I’m fairly sure Augustine did before him. But it is a useful way of seeing worldly opposition to Christ and Christians: it is ultimately motivated by selfish gain and disordered desires.

Vermigli’s observation that these will do more harm to our opponents than they could ever do to us, is sobering. It is not just about “this world’s tyrants” of course, but our unbelieving friends and neighbours too, who struggle with their own desires and needs but kick against their most perfect antidote in the person of Jesus Christ, our glorious Prince of Peace. It also forgets that he will come again to judge the living and the dead, to dispense the most perfect and unassailable justice. Pray for our rebellious world!

The picture above comes from http://totallycoolpix.com/2011/08/the-london-riots/ if you want to see more devastation caused by the riots here last summer.

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