Meet The Puritans

Audio—The Piety of Thomas Goodwin

Posted on 12. Feb, 2010 by Danny Hyde.

Our own Mark Jones was interviewed for Covenant Radio on the wonderful topic, “The Piety of Thomas Goodwin.” You can have a listen here.

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The Jewish Targums and John’s Logos Theology

Posted on 30. Jan, 2010 by Mark Jones.

This book by my friend John Ronning is one of the best works I’ve read on Christology.  Where did the “logos” title from the Gospel of John come from? Ronning makes the most convincing argument I’ve come across that the “Logos” title was developed from the Aramaic Targums, not from Philo.  The biblical exegesis in this book is stunning, particularly the connections Ronning makes between the Old Testament and John’s gospel.  Another title for this book could have been “And YHWH became flesh.”  I think the translations of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek are all done by Ronning himself.  You can get a preview at google books here.  Interestingly, Thomas Goodwin made a similar argument many years ago, but without the detail that Ronning goes into.

For Goodwin, the title of ‘the Word’ (ho logos) is not a reference to Christ being the thought or counsel of the Father’s mind since this ‘inclines too much unto the Notion of Plato, and other Heathen Philosophers’ (Of the Knowledge, 60). Goodwin is not unaware that the logos title had been used before John’s time by various Greek philosophers. However, in Goodwin’s mind, John refers to Christ as ‘the Word’ (logos) not because of Greek influences but because of the evidence in the Old Testament itself.

As a result, both Philo and Plato, by using the terminology of ‘ho logos’, are guilty of stealing ‘their knowledge from the Jews, and vend[ing] it as their own’ (Ibid, 62). Goodwin shows that the title, ‘the Word’, was used by the Jews, as a reference to the Messiah, in the Aramaic Targums, what Goodwin called the ‘Caldee Paraphrasts’ (Ibid). So, for example, Goodwin quotes the Isaiah Targum (Isa. 45:17) which makes several references to the divine Word (Memra). Hence, ‘Israel is saved by the Memra of the LORD with an everlasting salvation’. The KJV, based on the Masoretic Text (MT) in the OT, reads: ‘But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation’ (Isa. 45:17). Moreover, the MT text of Hosea 1:7 (… and will save them by the LORD their God …) is transliterated by the Aramaic Targum as ‘I will redeem them by the Word of the Lord their God.’

Referring to Christ as ‘the Word’, then, is Christologically loaded in terms of his divinity because of how the Aramaic Targums make use of the title, ‘the Word’ (Owen, 21:354). Not only, then, does the immediate context of John 1 show that Christ is the divine Word who existed in eternity, but the very fact that John calls Christ ‘the Word’ is evidence in itself for the deity of Christ because of how the Jews would have understood such terminology.

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The Two Parts of Seminary Education

Posted on 29. Oct, 2009 by Danny Hyde.

Quick. What should be the two constituent parts of a Reformed theological education? Theology and exegesis? Philosophy and theology? Systematic and practical theology? Good guesses. On July 2, 1651 the Commissioners of the University of Dublin sent a letter to John Owen addressing this issue. Their desire was for Owen and Thomas Goodwin to review the University’s laws, rules, orders, and constitutions and give their advice on how to better the institution.

Here is where this short letter gets interesting. The Commissioners described their desire for their University and the training of men for the ministry in these words:

Wherein we desire that the educating of youth in the knowledge of God and the principles of piety may be in the first place promoted, experience having taught that where learning is attained before the work of grace upon the heart, it serves only to make a sharper opposition against the power of godliness (The Correspondence of John Owen, ed. Peter Toon, 50–51).

The two constituent parts that these Commissioners desired for a thoroughly Reformed and Puritan education were theology and piety. That sounded so odd to me as I read this letter, since I have been conditioned by our current theological training system in which what is emphasized is the school you go to (Westminster CA v. Westminster PA, RTS–Jackson v. Covenant, etc.), the degree you earn, the GPA you receive, your GRE score if you desire to go to grad school in a University, and the amount of reading you have done. Our current system is utterly focused on knowledge—systematics, biblical theology, exegesis, history, etc.

The Commissioners of the University of Dublin were on to something, though. Their experience taught them the necessity of piety in training students. What is interesting is how they qualify what they meant by piety: “where learning is attained before the work of grace upon the heart, it serves only to make a sharper opposition against the power of godliness.” Seminary students need to be born again, they need to be converted, and they need to have experienced the power of grace in their souls. Is it any different today?

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The Puritans on Justifying Faith

Posted on 17. Oct, 2009 by Mark Jones.

“It is harder to believe in Christ for righteousness than to keep all the commandments, because keeping the commandments hath something in the heart of man agreeing with it, but so hath not the way of justification by faith” – Philip Henry

Goodwin and Owen both wrote works on justification (and on the Holy Spirit).  There are, of course, similarities, but there are also differences.  Goodwin had a special concern with assurance and his work is more pastoral than Owen’s.  Owen’s work is technically superb, but I would rate Goodwin’s work above Owen’s on account of better pastoral emphases.

In his work on justification, Goodwin had a burden to maintain the graciousness of the covenant of grace. Chief among his concerns was that graces and grace had been confused, not only by the Arminians, Socinians, and Catholics, but by some of his own (Calvinistic) brethren who were heavily emphasizing the conditional character of the covenant of grace. For example, Goodwin writes: [...]

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Grace in the CoW?

Posted on 30. Sep, 2009 by Mark Jones.

Was the covenant of works gracious in any way? Or should we talk about “divine favor” instead of grace?  I’ve heard some Klineans argue that if you reject a “strict justice” view of the covenant of works you inevitably end up doing irreperable harm to the doctrine of justification by faith.  Theologians in the Reformed tradition have never been shy of speaking of grace during the “Adamic administration” or what one person calls the “covenant of works” (do I have that backwards?)

Francis Roberts wrote the longest work on covenant theology in the seventeenth century and his thoughts on grace in the covenant of works are interesting.  He argues that God’s entering into the covenant of works with Adam was an “act of divine grace and favour, not of debt” (God’s Covenants, 23).

God could have dealt only in terms of “command”, requiring duty from Adam without a reward.  However, because he condescended to Adam and entered into a covenant with him, it was “meer grace” (Ibid).  Roberts insists that Adam could not merit any reward.  In fact, even if Adam had rendered perfect obedience he would still have “been an unprofitable servant, having done nothing but what was duty” (Ibid).  On account of Creation, Adam owed God obedience.  On account of God instituting a covenant at creation, Adam had to be “double dutiful” (Ibid).  In fact, Roberts suggests that if God’s dealings with Adam in the covenant of works was an “Act of Divine Grace”, then God’s covenant of grace was an act of “superabounding and transcendent grace” (Ibid).

What is interesting is that Thomas Goodwin takes a rather different approach than Roberts, which is yet more evidence of the diversity among theologians in the Reformed tradition.  Sure, the covenant of works became firmly entrenched in our confessional tradition, but the details of the covenant of works have never been fully agreed upon. [...]

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Puritan “Copying” and “Pasting”

Posted on 28. Sep, 2009 by Mark Jones.

If you read a writer carefully you can pick up on some rather interesting things.  In reading through Goodwin’s corpus I noted that he has his own form of “copying and pasting”.  I’ve provided an example below from his excellent work on Christology, “Of Christ the Mediator” (vol. 5 in the Nichols edition), and a sermon on  Hebrews 10:4-7. [...]

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Judgment According to Works Bibliography

Posted on 21. Sep, 2009 by Mark Jones.

If you are interested in both old and modern views on how the Reformed orthodox have typically argued for a judgment according to works I think you may find the following references helpful in the first instance.  I’m not saying that the Reformed have always said the same thing on this issue.  In fact, I rarely ever say that.  Several of the first of ten references are going to form the substance of an essay I am writing on this theme in Reformed orthodoxy.

1. Herman Witsius, The Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man, pages 418-419. For example, Witsius writes:

Let us briefly explain the whole manner of this justification in the next world. Christ, the judge, being delegated to that office by the Father, Acts x.42. Acts xvii. 32. will pronounce two things concerning his elect. 1st. That they are truly pious, righteous and holy. And so far this justification will differ from the former; for by that the ungodly is justified, Rom. iv.5. Whereas here, God, when he enjoins his angels to summon one of the parties to be judged, says, ‘gather my saints together’ … these words refer to the last judgment …. The ground of the former is inherent righteousness, graciously communicated to man by the Spirit of sanctification, and good works proceeding therefrom … [...]

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A Warning from Owen to Students

Posted on 17. Sep, 2009 by Mark Jones.

The nature of engaging in theological discourse and reflection was an important topic for the Puritans.  John Owen, in Theologoumena (“Biblical Theology”), suggests that students of theology should be aware that in their reading and meditation, “the all-holy God is, in a special manner, close to him as he works” (699).  God speaks to us in his Word no less directly than if he spoke audibly from heaven.  As a result, we should be overcome with humility and conduct our studies with appropriate reverence.  The same exhortation might prove valuable for those who write and comment on blogs.

Owen continues: “Wherever fear and caution have not infused the student’s heart, God is despised.  His pleasure is only to dwell in hearts which tremble at His Word.  Light or frivolous perusal of the Scriptures is a sickness of soul which leads on to the death of atheism” (699). [...]

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Puritan Moralism?

Posted on 13. Sep, 2009 by Mark Jones.

Antinomianism has always been an enemy of the true Christian faith.   As Rabbi Duncan said: “All sin is antinomianism” because all sin is against God’s law.  The recent work of Chad van Dixhoorn has demonstrated that the major enemies of the Westminster divines were not the Roman Catholics or even the crypto-Popish Laudians, but instead Antinomian theologians whose influence in the 1640s was rapidly gaining ground. Other examples, besides the 17thC, would be the Majoristic controversy in 16thC or the Marrow debate in 18thC.  But, in this post, I want to focus on the Puritans and their views on the necessity of holiness for all Christians. [...]

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Goodwin on Weekly Communion

Posted on 10. Sep, 2009 by Mark Jones.

The question of the Lord’s Supper interests me on a number of levels (e.g. pastoral, personal, theological, and Christological).  The “Calvin versus the Calvinists” issue on the Lord’s Supper is admittedly complex.  I’m not personally persuaded that the Westminster divines shared the same view of the Lord’s Supper as Calvin.  That may surprise some, but there has been some diversity in the Reformed tradition on this question.  But, one area where there is complete unanimity with Calvin and the Puritans is on the frequency of Communion. [...]

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