Seminary Course — Justification; The Article by which the Church Stands of Falls

Main Texts

1.) The Doctrine of Justification by Faith — John Owen
2.) The Doctrine of Justification — James Buchanan
3.) Justification — Francis Turretin (Author), Jr. James T. Dennison (Editor), George Musgrave Giger (Translator)

Assignment — Read the main texts. Write a 25 page paper explaining and defending the Biblical Doctrine of Justification by faith alone.

Supplemental Texts

1.) Romans: Atonement and Justification: An Exposition of Chapters 3:20 – 4:25 — Martyn Lloyd Jones
2.) Faith Alone: The Evangelical Doctrine of Justification — R. C. Sproul
3.) Justification by Faith Alone — Jonathan Edwards
4.) http://www.the-highway.com/antidote_Calvin.html
5.) The Current Justification Controversy — O. Palmer Robertson
6.) By Faith Alone: Answering the Challenges to the Doctrine of Justification — Guy Waters (Editor)
7.) Justification Reconsidered: Rethinking A Pauline Theme — Stephen Westerholm

Assignments

1.) Go online and find a rabid Roman Catholic and get into a debate on Justification
2.) Go online and find a rabid Federal Vision proponent and get into a debate on Justification
3.) Write a 10 page paper on the Controversies surrounding Justification (Books 5-7)

Audio

1.) What Still Divides Us?
A Protestant & Roman Catholic Debate : Are the Scriptures Sufficient? Are We Justified By Faith Alone?

Assignment — Listen to the debate section on Justification

The Opposition

1.) The Federal Vision — Steve Wilkins (Editor) — pages 151-262
2.) Council of Trent — Look up Cannon’s 9, 12, 14, 23, 24, 30, 33

Assignments

1.) 4 page paper on each of the three Chapters in the Wilkins book refuting Federal Vision errant versions of Justification

2.) Refute the Council of Trent Canons

3.) 5 page paper locating the harmonies you see between Trent and Federal Vision

12 Books Recommended for the Newer Reformed Christian or High School Curriculum

Purpose — To root and ground the reader in the fundamentals of Biblical Christianity.  It is hoped that by absorbing the material of this course the result will be a Christian who is set upon Christianity as the life of the mind.

Goal — upon completion of the course the student will begin to understand that Christianity and the Christian faith is one wherein one finds their complete identity.

1.) By What Standard? — R. J. Rushdoony (Epistemology)

a.) 1 typed page chapter summaries.
b.) Upon completion a 4 page page paper on the importance of Epistemology.

2.) Understanding and Applying the Bible — J. Robertson McQuilkin (Hermeneutics)

a.) 1 typed page (200 words) chapter summaries
b.) Upon completion a 4 page page paper explaining basic hermeneutics and the importance of hermeneutics for reading the Scriptures aright.

3.) Knowing God — J. I. Packer (Theology Proper)

a.) 1 typed page chapter summaries
b.) 4 page paper on the Attributes of God

4.) O. Palmer Robertson — The Christ of the Covenants (Covenant Theology)

a.) 1 typed page chapter summaries
b.) 4 page paper giving an overview of covenant theology

5.) Putting Amazing back into Grace — Michael Horton (Basic Reformed Theology)

The author of this book ^ is R2K. I most certainly do not recommend anything he writes touching his theological dualism. Still, having said that I still think this book a good primer on Reformed theology.

a.)  1 typed page chapter summaries
b.) 4 page paper on the graciousness of Grace. Make sure to include a section explaining how in Reformed Theology when it comes to salvation “God does all the doing.”

6.) A Summary of Christian Doctrine — Louis Berkhof (Systematic Theology)

a.) 1 typed pages chapter summaries
b.) 4 page paper delineating why these doctrines are necessary for the Christian life

7.) When the Time Had Fully Come: Studies in New Testament Theology — Herman Ridderbos (Biblical Theology)

a.) 1 typed page chapter summaries
b.) 4 page paper explaining the Reformed “Now, Not yet.”

8.) The Cross of Christ — John Stott (Soteriology)

a.) 1 typed page chapter summaries
b.) 4 paged paper setting forth a basic understanding of the centrality of the Cross Work of Jesus Christ

9.) Holy Spirit — John Owen /abridged version (Pneumatology)

a.)1 typed page chapter summaries
b.) 4 page paper on the person and work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer

10.) Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God — J. I. Packer (Evangelism)

a.) 1 typed page chapter summaries
b.) 4 page paper explaining why Reformed folks are evangelistically minded

11.) The Pursuit of Holiness — Jerry Bridges (Sanctification)

a.) 1 typed page chapter summaries
b.) 4 typed page paper explaining the different nuances of Holiness and why it is necessary for the Christian life.

12.) The Basic Ideas of Calvinism — H. Henry Meeter (Holistic Calvinism)

a.) 1 typed page chapter summaries
b.) 4 typed pages that demonstrate that you understand that Christianity is a religion that is totalistic in its claims over every area of life.

— Warning on this book; Ignore Meeter’s “insights” on Economics

This list could be used in a High School curriculum for covenant children in Christian families.

Assignments … Knights of the Rectangular Table

Knights,

Go to this web site.

http://www.wordmp3.com/details.aspx?id=538#.VGvIyXMWL9g.facebook

Click where it says “stream.” Listen to Dr. Grant’s Lecture onAlfred the/the Great

Go here

Start at the 4:45 section mark and listen through the rest of this lecture.

Then go here

and you can stop once you have arrived at the 7:45 mark of this Video.

Pay close attention to what is said about Art, Music and Architecture.

Deconstructing Vanderklay on Rob Bell

Over at this link

http://paulvanderklay.wordpress.com/2014/12/04/rob-bell-as-gateway-drug-but-in-which-direction/

we find a mild rebuke of anyone who would be so arrogant as to question the orthodoxy of Rob Bell. Of course the author of the piece has no problem questioning the integrity of those who question Rob Bell.

What follows is my response to Paul’s thoughts,

1.) The fact that false teachers have always existed, do exist now, and will always exist does not mean that we should support said false teachers in any way. Rob Bell is clearly,

a.) A universalist

Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis, 83:

“This reality, this forgiveness, this reconciliation, is true for everybody. Paul insisted that when Jesus died on the cross he was reconciling ‘all things, in heaven and on earth, to God. This reality then isn’t something we make true about ourselves by doing something. It is already true.”

b.) A denier of the unique authority of Scripture

Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis, 67–68:

“It wasn’t until the 300s that what we know as the sixty-six books of the Bible were actually agreed upon as the ‘Bible’. This is part of the problem with continually insisting that one of the absolutes of the Christian faith must be a belief that “Scripture alone” is our guide. It sounds nice, but it is not true.

c.) Dubious on the central Christian doctrine of the Atonement

The God’s Aren’t Angry. DVD. Authored by Rob Bell

“The blood was never for God, that was just to help humans live with, absorb, and trust, the love of a God who keeps on insisting, trust me.”

Anyone of these would place Bell outside the circle of orthodoxy. All of them taken together distinguishes him very little, in terms of orthodoxy as a whole, from Joseph Smith, The Medieval Cathari, or my ex Brother-in-law who insists he himself is Jesus.

3.) God has even used talking donkeys in the past but that does not mean we should support talking Donkeys as evangelists.

4.) Bell most certainly does not present the Gospel in any positive way. If he is not presenting the Gospel at all (and he is not) then it is not possible to present it in a positive way.

5.) All because there is not a lot more harm that can be done doesn’t mean we should support those who keep doing harm.

6.) Paul Vander Klay said,

“Again, for those of us who are deep into church and the theological landscape if we were to research something we’d have an entire theological filter we’d use to automatically select or de-select churches, books, leaders in order to do our exploration. Normal people don’t work this way. ”

Actually, this is not even close to being true. All people come equipped with a theological filter. Now they may not be epistemologically self conscious about it but they have it all the same and they use that filter just as much as anyone who is “deep into church and the theological landscape.” Paul is just in error here.

7.) Paul V.K. wrote,

“Rob Bell in all of the ways that irritate me is going to put Jesus on the map for millions of people in an attractive way.”

This is another errant statement by Paul.

a.) When Bell speaks about “Jesus” what makes you think he is talking about the Jesus that walks through the Scriptures? Bell’s Jesus is an alien Jesus having precious little, if anything in common with the Jesus in the Bible.

b.) By this reasoning of Paul’s (and yours?) we should rejoice in Mary Baker Eddy, or Sun Myung Moon or Jan Matthys since thy presented Jesus in an attractive manner and gained lots of listeners.

c.) Bell’s “Jesus” is grotesquely ugly. There is nothing attractive at all about Bell’s Jesus.

8.) I do not envy Bell. In point of fact, I pity Bell.

9.) Paul ends by warning us about the “log and speck” danger and yet here is Paul looking to take the speck out of those who critique Bell while missing potential logs in his own eye. This warning about “log and speck” when absolutized would mean that we could not point out error in any one or anything since, as fallen men, we all have our logs with which to contend.

Recapitulation in Matthew 2:13-23

Introduction

Concept of Recapitulation.

Read Text

God is giving another Exodus of His people who have suffered under another King who has again murdered their children in hopes of keeping Israel oppressed. Like the first Exodus under Moses the leadership of the 2nd Exodus is led by one who escaped the wicked King’s murderous designs.

There is thus re-capitulation going on here in Matthew’s Gospel. Just as Israel of old was persecuted but delivered by the child (Moses) who had escaped the Tyrant’s persecution so the God has granted another Deliverer to Israel by another deliverer who likewise has escaped the Tyrant’s persecution.

So, what Matthew is doing here is a retelling of Israel’s story. Jesus is the greater Israel who is repeating Israel’s drama. In Matthew’s Christology Christ is faithful-obedient Israel where Israel was unfaithful and disobedient. In Christ there is a final Exodus with a faithful deliverer.

Matthew is thus giving us Literary clues that all that God intended with Israel was now coming to pass in Christ.

There is continuity then with the OT except at this point the recapitulated covenant story is marked by the success of God’s suffering servant Messiah as opposed to the failure that OT Israel had been. This success of the suffering servant Messiah is what makes the covenant now a “new and better covenant.”

That this is the purpose of Matthew is seen in the genealogy with which he opens his book. Jesus, descendant of Abraham, descendant of David, is the culmination of true Israel. Indeed Jesus is the TRUE Israel and as the true Israel He recapitulates the story of Israel so that Matthew wants us to see Jesus as Israel.

This recapitulation motif is underscored by the fact that Jesus is taken down into Egypt. When finally Jesus returns from Egypt there is then a connection to Israel’s ancient History of coming out of Egypt.

Matthew is giving us a literary and redemptive history akin to the work of the Pointilist Artist at the end of the 19th century. Pointilism is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image. This is what Matthew is doing with his Gospel. He is painting His Gospel with small distinct dots of narrative in such a way that when one looks at his Gospel they see points of contact with Israel’s history so that the two together form one History. Matthew thus is not only a literary Pointilist but he is also one of those artists who gives you two works in one work.

You know the kind I’m speaking of. We’ve all seen those pictures that if you stare long enough at them you being to see another picture. Matthew is giving us two pointilist pictures. One is of OT history but the other is of Jesus participating in that History now fulfilled and culminating in Him.

In our text today we have that not only here with the parallel’s between Moses as divinely ordained deliverer who escapes the slaughter of the infants and the Lord Christ as divinely ordained deliverer who escapes the slaughter of the infants (2:16) but we have it also in the fact just as OT Israel was God’s son and came out of Egypt (2:15) so the Lord Jesus is God’s embodiment of Israel who is called out of Egypt.

This recapitulation continues in vs. 18 where Mt. quotes from Jer. 31:15. Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, sees Jerusalem being sacked by the Babylonian invasion and with that sacking he sees the judicially innocent children being slaughtered by the Heathens. The prophet Jeremiah imagines, with his poetic vision, that Rachel, the wife of Jacob and mother of Joseph (who would be associated with Israel through Ephraim and Manasseh) and Benjamin (Judah), is weeping for her descendants, her children. Rachel is thus, for Matthew, the OT epitome of Israel’s mothers who are now weeping for their children brutally massacred by another occupying force. For Matthew then, the Lord Christ is thus caught up with not only Israel’s Exodus but also in the great historical event of their Exile.

However, there is a note of promise here also for Jeremiah’s lamentation is in the middle of four chapters, Jeremiah 30-33, that are filled with comfort and consolation and joy. Jeremiah 30-33 gives us a prophetic vision of hope though as well as misery. Jeremiah will speak of a Messianic age to come when the new and better covenant will bring in everlasting peace and righteousness. Despite all the despair that Jeremiah records there is a promise of a time when sins will be forgiven, the Holy Spirit poured out, and eternal life present. That time that Jeremiah had spoken of has now come but what Matthew wants to do is that he wants his readers to see that the Lord Christ, as the new and better Israel, bringing a new and better covenant, shares in the brokenness of Israel’s redemptive History. He is the Deliverer saved from the Pagan King. He is part of the history of Israel’s Exile. Matthew is identifying Christ’s History with Israel’s redemptive history.

This recapitulation is also seen in vs. 23. When the Lord Christ is eventually led out of Egypt back to Israel his family settles in Nazareth. The scorn for Nazareth is seen later in John’s Gospel when one of the future disciples asks, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” upon hearing that Jesus came from that hamlet. Nazareth was to Israel what Burr Oak might be to Michigan or Longtown might be to South Carolina. Every state has there Nazareths. Remote nowhere hamlets occupied by those considered untermensh by the elite. Nazareth was a no account village in a no account region (Galilee).

But Matthew, under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration is going to use that origin of residence of Jesus to exercise another example of Historical recapitualation. Matthew tells us that the Lord Christ “being called a Nazarene,” is a fulfillment of the prophetic word. The problem comes though that you can exhaustively search the Prophets and will find nothing that explicitly says that the Messiah will come from Nazareth.

So … how do we handle that.

Well, we suspect that what Matthew is doing is that he is appealing to Isaiah 11.

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit

Here is the connection.

In the Hebrew the word for Branch in Isaiah 11:1 is neser (nay-tser) and to the hearing it sounds like “Nazareth.” The connection is that just as a branch (nay-tser) from a stump is a humble and lowly origin so the Lord Christ as Messiah coming from (nay-tser) Nazareth is one from a humble and lowly origin. The Lord Christ as the Messiah is Isaiah’s nay-ster (Branch) hailing from nay-ster (Nazareth).

Of course this is all typical of the way God often works. Throughout the OT he takes people from the backwaters of life … the people who are of lowly estate … the people the elite consider the poor white trash and he uses them to change the course of History. Jesus was a mere (nay-ster) Branch, from (nay-ster) Nazareth.

Here there is prophetic fulfillment and recapitulation. In terms of prophetic fulfillment Jesus not only shares Israel’s History but He is the one whom Israel’s History is pointed. In terms of prophetic fulfillment The Lord Christ is the lowly branch (the remnant / Isaiah 6) — the only thing left of the great Kingdom of Israel that God cut down with the captivity. The fact that Jesus hails from despised Nazareth is consistent with a lowly branch being all that was left of a great Kingdom.

However, like the context where the Jeremiah passage is taken that records Rachel’s weeping there is in the Isaiah 11 context where the branch language is taken a great amount of hopefulness. There in Isaiah 11 you also find the record of the Messiah becoming King that rules over a re-creation of peace,

10 In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious. 11 In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush,[b] from Elam, from Babylonia,[c] from Hamath and from the islands of the Mediterranean.

12 He will raise a banner for the nations
and gather the exiles of Israel;
he will assemble the scattered people of Judah
from the four quarters of the earth.

In these verses (Mt. 2:13-23) then we find pointilist recapitulation. The Lord Christ shares in Israel’s history as the greater deliverer who escapes the blood-lust of a wicked King. The Lord Christ shares in Israel’s history as one who goes down into Egypt because of travail and comes out of Egypt to peace. The Lord Christ shares in Israel’s history as the weeping of Mothers in his time in Israel, during the time of Herod, parallels the weeping of Mother’s in the Babylonian slaughter. The Lord Christ recapitulates Israel’s history has being the foretold lowly nay-ster (branch) who comes from lowly nay-ster (Nazareth).

What Matthew is communicating is that the one has come who is the embodiment of all that Israel was intended to be. Messiah IS Israel.

Application

1.) Herod was a paranoid madman. He executed one of his favorite wives as well as at least three of his sons.

In view of such executions, the emperor Augustus reportedly quipped, “It is better to be Herod’s pig than son”

Those who begin by hating THE Child end by hurting children. Hating God and God’s Revelation leads to hurting people. If people will be ungodly they will act inhumane. Herod is the proof-text for this but not the only proof text. Adam and Eve hate God and His Revelation and so turn on each other. Cain hates God and His Revelation and so turns on Abel.

2.) Iraneus “Against Heresies” posits that the babies of Jerusalem killed were the first Christian martyrs.

3.) With the played out drama of Herod’s maniacal slaughter it is not beyond reason to suggest that as the Word is Incarnated in Christ so the anti-word is Incarnated in Herod. At the very least, I think we are to see here the long warfare that God spoke of in Genesis between the seed of the woman (the Lord Christ) and the seed of the Serpent. The Serpent, via Herod, lashes out to strike the seed of the woman but He misses due to God’s providence.

4.) The slaughter and Christmas

There is, in the combination of the Triumph of the Christ child’s escape with the slaughter of the innocent the reminder that hope should not be buried in the context of calamity. For those who live with tragedy and sorrow in lands that know something of persecution and slaughter there is, in Matthew’s Christmas account the understanding that midst untold sorrow and suffering God’s plans are not being snuffed out. Hope remains. It is a bitter-sweet consolation coated in God’s severe mercy but a consolation all the same.

5.) Already a fulfillment of

Luke 2:34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35 so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”