David said he ‘only sinned against God.’ But he actually sinned against many others also. The key is that no one is more offended than God himself.
–D.A. Carson
Psalm 51:4
Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just.
I wrote about Mark Driscoll’s New Calvinism a couple of weeks ago. I’m still rather mystified. Many of the Old Calvinists are actually New ones. You can go to The Resurgence and find all the posts on the New Calvinists that he’s written about since then (which may be of interest to some of you), most of which are Old New Calvinists. So I’m wondering who the Old (but not Old New) Calvinists are.
Most of the stuff I wrote about is null and void now but as I said, there was no context to go on.
Somebody clue us in here.
I’m a relatively young New Calvinist and hope to eventually be an Old New Calvinist but not a plain Old Calvinist. Or just a respectable Reformed guy.
Revelation 1:3
God blesses the one who reads the words of this prophecy to the church, and he blesses all who listen to its message and obey what it says, for the time is near.
This blessing seems to be pronounced with a design to encourage us to study this book, and not be weary of looking into it upon account of the obscurity of many things in it; it will repay the labour of the careful and attentive reader. Observe, 1. It is a blessed privilege to enjoy the oracles of God. This was one of the principal advantages the Jews had above the Gentiles. 2. It is a blessed thing to study the scriptures; those are well employed who search the scriptures. 3. It is a privilege not only to read the scriptures ourselves, but to hear them read by others, who are qualified to give us the sense of what they read and to lead us into an understanding of them. 4. It is not sufficient to our blessedness that we read and hear the scriptures, but we must keep the things that are written; we must keep them in our memories, in our minds, in our affections, and in practice, and we shall be blessed in the deed. 5. The nearer we come to the accomplishment of the scriptures, the greater regard we shall give to them. The time is at hand, and we should be so much the more attentive as we see the day approaching.
–Matthew Henry, Commentary
I was reading a blog post by Brian Thornton at Voice of the Sheep entitled Father, Forgive Them and saw a reference to the book Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross: Experiencing the Passion and Power of Easter.
I was extremely impressed with the line-up of contributors which include in part, Nancy Guthrie (Author), John Piper, Timothy J. Keller, Jonathan Edwards, John Owen, Stephen F. Olford, Joseph “Skip” Ryan, Martin Luther, Adrian Rogers, Philip Graham Ryken, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, J. Ligon Duncan, C. J. Mahaney, Charles H. Spurgeon, Augustine, J. I. Packer.
Fellow blogger Trevin Wax has a review on Amazon’s site.
If a non-Christian is suffering from chronic conditions and asks, “Why am I here? What’s my purpose?” What would you say? Have any of you encountered this?
I have an online friend who asked me this. We commiserate because we both suffer from multiple chronic conditions. I’ve talked about God, shown him tracts online etc. I see this question as another opportunity.
I could write volumes about what God has done, how I can feel joy and be thankful even though I’m not happy etc. But that doesn’t mean anything to him. I’m always there to listen (and he for me) and he seems open.
The first thing that comes to my mind is the first item in the Westminster Shorter Catechism:
Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
but I’m not sure how helpful that would be without elaboration.
What would you say?
…reply here and you will be put into a drawing. We’ll be buying a phone and I wanted to buy it through someone else’s search form so that they can get a little money. Sunday night at 7:00pm central time is the deadline. Afterwords I’ll ask for your link if I can’t find it on your blog. This would be for Amazon.com USA.
Please consider supporting each other’s blogs by buying books through their search forms or book links.
Brian talks about the Trinity on his blog and links to Dr. Derek Vreeland.
As somewhat of an aside, Michael Horton’s Christless Christianity is mentioned above and there is also a post at Baker Book House’s blog related to a visit by the author.
John MacArthur writes about the Trinity at Shepherd’s Fellowship blog.
I’m not a diary writer but wrote a diary of a 2 week camping trip while in school and found it valuable, and then sadly I lost it. I wrote this surgery diary down on paper before I had a notebook computer, much of it a couple days after the fact remembering as best as I could. I want to type it out so it doesn’t get lost.
It may not completely fit the subject matter of this blog but I thought it might be interesting to some of you.
Although I still have some back pain, the surgery was successful and definitely worth it.
Standard microdiscectomy L4/L5, January 27, 2009, 7:30-9:15 a.m.
My wife and I had to be there at 6:00 a.m. I’m a cold blooded person in the winter, especially in the morning and they kept putting more and more blankets on me. I never did get warm. I was somewhat nauseated because that’s how I am in the morning and it was worse because of how early it was. The good thing about that is I wasn’t hungry from the requirement of no food since the night before.
I can’t lie down with my legs straight because of the back pain so I felt like a woman with a skirt (gown) on and no underwear when they were putting long stockings on my legs (to prevent clotting) and doing other stuff.
I thought I would read during part of the time beforehand but they were doing stuff to me nearly the whole time–asking questions, signing papers, taking blood, putting electrodes on, putting the IV in, etc.
When the nurse scanned my hospital bracelet I asked her how much I cost. She said today I cost a lot.
Respiration specialist came in and instructed me how to breathe deeply for after surgery (because pain and drugs can cause shallow breathing). I didn’t tell her I used to be a semi-professional trombone player. I knew it was policy for her to do that.
Then they wheeled me out of there so fast I hardly had time to say bye to my wife.
I wasn’t nervous about the surgery at all. And yet I get anxious about stuff that might not even happen. How strange. I can’t imagine how scary it would be for someone who is squeamish about that stuff even though my surgery is relatively minor.
Right before surgery:
I had no fear of dying. If I did I would finally be in my happy place, the place I have been longing for all of my adult life. It does break my heart to think of how sad my wife would be though.
I thanked God for the opportunity to have the surgery.
I asked what my pulse is (for some reason I always like to know this). They said 60 which is perfect. I said I try my best.
A nurse had me breathe some oxygen from the mask and then was about to put it on my face. I asked, “Am I going under now?” She said yes. I thought they would have said something about that. As people often do, I tried my hardest to stay awake just to see if I had the will power. Of course within 5 seconds I was out. Not gradually, just out.
After surgery:
I woke up and thought, “I just had surgery!” Surprisingly I could recite the verse I was memorizing at the time (James 3:17).
I could hardly talk because I was so tired and found out later that they tubed me for anesthesia. They didn’t tell me that beforehand.
In the recovery room I kept putting my hand on the nurse’s arm. What’s my pulse? (76) Can my wife come in? (No because of other patients’ privacy) Am I lying downhill? It felt like there was so much pressure and pull on the incision area I really thought I was at an angle with my back stuck to it.
She asked for my pain level (1-10) and I said 8.5. She gave me a Demerol shot.
Back in the hospital room:
It was so nice to see my wife’s face when wheeled into the room. It seemed like I was in the recovery room for five minutes and then her face appeared but I was there for an hour.
I’m a rather particular person. The bed wasn’t perfectly parallel and my pillow wasn’t perfectly centered. They tried to straighten the bed and it wasn’t right. I asked them to look at the floor. No tiles or lines on the floor. I asked them to look at the ceiling. They got it right.
The ceiling was moving and I jokingly asked the nurse to turn it off.
The nurse asked me if I wanted anything to drink. I did and she gave me choices. I have a hard time making choices when I’m under any stress at all and I had a hard time deciding. I rolled my eyes and my wife knew what I was feeling. Then when I said something, because I had no voice the nurse kept misunderstanding me and my wife finally figured it out. Grape juice was the choice because anything too acidic would upset my stomach more and I knew I needed some carbs. But I didn’t want any with added sugar.
I couldn’t relax, as much as I tried. My pain was still 8.5. They gave me two Percoset (not sure the dose of each pill but most likely 5mg Oxycodone). After a half hour the pain was still about an 8. So the nurse gave me another Demerol shot.
I had to go to the bathroom and they called in another nurse to help me. She was a skinny looking thing and I wondered… I didn’t know how to sit up but they helped me. Then I felt some trapezius muscles in the skinny nurse and felt better about that. Thanks for lifting weights, skinny nurse.
I pulled a lever to signal that I was done in there. A nurse asked me a question through a speaker and that’s when I really realized I had no voice and when I learned they tubed me.
The Demerol shot kicked in and my pain went from 8 to about 1 or 2. I was also so tired from it that I could hardly move. Right then the nurse told us now that the pain is under control I’m ready to go home. How can I go home if I can hardly move?
Getting dressed was quite a chore. Because of my aforementioned cold bloodedness I had a lot of clothes to put on. They put me in a wheelchair and it was off to the car. I was sure to thank the nurse before leaving. She and everyone were so nice and helpful. All of the nurses that have cared for me in the last two years have been super nice. That includes family doc, cortisone injections, x-ray, blood letting (as I call it), MRI, etc.
I’m able to stand up straight right away which was painful before the surgery.
The day after the surgery I really could have used another Demerol shot even though I was taking a max dose of Percoset. But after that day they did the job pretty well even though I was still in pain, especially getting up and down. My wife said she didn’t like seeing the pained look on my face so I tried to be more stoic.
I was really in the mood to pray. Not for myself, just praying in general. But the pain pills left me in a state of half sleep all the time. Soon after I would start to pray, very strange thoughts would come in. One that I remember is using coffee beans as a walkie-talkie. What?
There’s no way I can sit in the recliner or any kind of chair. The incision area hurts too much. Thankfully I can lie down. Lying on my side hurts just as much as lying on my back for some reason. Since I don’t have a laptop yet I kneel in front of the computer a few minutes a day to catch up on e-mail. Standing and walking through the house is extremely fatiguing for my lower back. I later learned that they basically burn the muscle off the spine and cauterize it so that may be part of it.
Taking a shower a few days after the surgery was a huge deal. My wife had to take some of the clothes off, put plastic over the incision and wash my legs. I washed my upper body. They dry. Then get dressed. This whole process left me in more pain and more fatigued than any other part of the process. It was probably the worst part of the whole week.
I can’t concentrate enough to do any intense reading like a commentary but I do have a book on my D2 (Personal Media Player) and am able to review memorized Scripture which I also have on it.
I have no appetite for normal food because of pain and pain pills.
February 1 (five days after surgery)
My nightly bad dreams have been better since the surgery but that ended last night unfortunately.
February 2
Unexplained anxiety attack this morning. Starting to very gradually taper off pain med which could be part of it.
February 3
Slept in the bed for the first time last night.
February 5
Starting to exercise just a bit. Pain is very gradually improving.
February 8
Ate normal dinner food for the first time.
February 15
The fogginess and stupidness seems to finally be lifting.
March ?
I went to two stores and was able to stand up straight and not have worse nerve pain from standing. This is a major improvement.
My normally bad insomnia has been as bad or worse than it’s ever been. I later learned that this can be an effect of anesthesia. Nobody told me that.
March 26
Progress is slower than I thought it would be but the right side pain from the herniated disk is drastically improved. I’m so thankful for this.
I still have “sitting pain” under my tailbone and pelvis. Today the back doc people said this isn’t a back/spine thing and while being sensitive to the fact that they don’t want to pass me around from doc to doc, they said I need to go back to my primary physician who is pretty knowledgeable about this type of thing and see what he says. He may refer me to someone else. I’m very disheartened about this. Sitting in a hard chair feels like sitting on a jagged rock. This is how it was before surgery too and I didn’t know how much surgery would help this. Not at all unfortunately. It’s very difficult for me to trust that God knows, cares and will provide either a solution (drugs and a beer are usually helpful) or comfort and strength to cope.
Just when I think I’m doing well with trusting Him and abandoning myself to Him a weak area comes up. I know He’s conforming me to His image. I wouldn’t have it any other way but it still stinks! But I have so much to be thankful for.
I will be going through Revelation and hope to get caught up in the imagery and God’s reality.
The Command Line alone is a wondrous thing. So many different types of searches can be performed that I can’t think of much of anything that couldn’t be done. There is an extensive Help file page devoted to the Command Line. In English, any number of searches can be performed and for geeks, regular expressions can be used.
An example of a more complex search would be:
(/grac* faith*).5(/law* work*)
would give you:
a form of “grac…” OR “faith…” AND a form of “law…” OR “work…” within 5 verses
There is also a more user friendly Command Line Assistant and plenty of examples. For even more complex searches that the Command Line can’t do there is the Graphical Search Engine.
A number of Greek syntax searches can be done. You could search for all verbs within a range of verses, narrow that down to first person singular and/or plural, or any number of other syntactical searches.
“Which Version Uses that Word?
Do you or have you used more than one translation in your life? Do you sometimes try to find a word or phrase that you are certain is in the Bible, but cannot remember which translation has it? BibleWorks can help you find a word or phrase even if you cannot remember which translation contains it.”
Vocabulary Flashcards
You can find vocabulary sets for Hebrew and Greek including Greek sets from Croy (a book I’m going through), Mounce, Black and others. These include sound files with a choice of Erasmian Greek or thankfully, modern pronunciation! I don’t use Erasmian and if I want to hear something pronounced I would rather hear something closer to what I use.
The Synopsis Window helps you to find predefined parallel Gospel passages, places where the New Testament quotes the Old Testament and parallel passages in the Old Testament. Another feature that helps you find similar information but wider in scope is the Related Verses Tool. When choosing a Greek morphology version, it will automatically remove words of lesser importance like contractions, articles, etc. In the example below you can see that I clicked on the verse in Isaiah in the middle window and it shows up in the right window.
Search and Display Favorites
You can create favorite lists of translations to display when doing a search. I have a main favorite (which I named f1), one for the Old Testament (which will display a Hebrew Bible that can be linked to a lexicon), one that displays mainly formal (more literal) translations, one that displays mainly dynamic and paraphrases etc.
Regarding commentaries: An advantage of using BibleWorks is that when displaying a verse in the Browse window, you will find all of the resources available pertaining to that verse in the Resources window. When looking at a commentary, it will not only give you a link to the commentary for that verse, but also links for every other instance that verse is mentioned in the whole commentary.
The learning curve is as shallow or as steep as you’d like to make it. The box that the CDs come in has a 16 page Quick-Start Guide for guiding you through installation and basic functions. That, along with right clicking and pressing F1 everywhere in the program, and going through all of the menu items at the top of the program will show you most of what the program has to offer.
Going from the Command Line/Results window on the left, to the Browse window in the middle and to the Analysis window at the right is intuitive and easy to navigate.
If you’d like to go deeper into exegesis, sermon preparation, etc. the aforementioned Performing Common Tasks in BibleWorks will guide you through only what you need to know.
If you are like me and like to read owner’s manuals you will be greatly rewarded by going through the whole help file system. You won’t remember everything you read because of the program’s vast capabilities, but you will know what every function of the program does and you can go back and relearn whatever is necessary when the time comes.
There is also their official BibleWorks User Forums where I’ve gotten quick replies to a couple of questions I had that don’t fall under the area of technical support.
I hope that gives you a glimpse of just some of the things that this software can do and help you with making a decision in which Bible software to purchase.
I had a problem installing the software on my desktop computer. I quickly found this helpful post on their forum:
What Do I Do if the Installation Stalls at Disc x?
My CD drive died a while ago and I replaced it with an ancient one that a friend gave me. This most likely caused the problem. After following the instructions I got it installed. Installing it on the laptop was no problem. Be sure to choose custom installation and choose the languages you want to install and whether or not you want sound, videos and maps depending on the size of your hard drive. I strongly recommend the instructional videos.
I also had a glitch in applying a program update. I was unable to fix this on my own so I wrote to their e-mail tech support and got the problem resolved. They also offer toll free phone support and they have a forum of BibleWorks users for various other questions you may have.
The software comes with copious help files which are in sort of a two tiered system. First there is the Getting Started section which includes Performing Common Tasks in BibleWorks. The tasks listed are Major Tasks, Analyzing Bible Text, Displaying Bible Text and Reference Works, and Miscellaneous Tasks.
Under Major Tasks you will find “Getting Started” (redundant?), Preparing a Book Study, Preparing a Topical Study, Preparing an Exegetical Paper, Using BibleWorks in the Classroom, Using BibleWorks for Bible Translation Projects, Using BibleWorks and Only English Bibles, and Performing New Testament Textual Criticism.
As an example, Prepare an Exegetical Paper guides you through the steps required, not just BibleWorks features but a description of how to actually do exegesis, and even provides a bibliography of printed works on the subjects involved. Although there is a separate category for textual criticism in the Help file system, it’s also included in this section and is something I was previously unable to do on my own. If the videos are installed, you can find links (within the program) to videos of some of the tasks described which will show you basic procedures along with the text description.
Then there is a main Help section which has the usual index, search etc. The index is organized in such a way that you can progressively go through each item in order to learn how to use every function in the program.
The BibleWorks Blog (unofficial) is a helpful resource not only for the blog but for the additional resources listed across the top of the page. For example, you can find Calvin’s commentaries on the Modules page and a great tutorial on using Louw-Nida on the Tutorials page.
A huge thanks goes to Jim Barr at BibleWorks for sending a review copy of BibleWorks 8.
As a preface to this review: I do not have any other commercial Bible software or a previous version of BibleWorks so I won’t be able to make any comparisons. I am an avid e-Sword user and was going to write about why it might be worth it to upgrade to BibleWorks. When I found out that BibleWorks has more features than I could ever imagine, I scrapped that idea. e-Sword is a great program, and not just for the price (free, with additional paid add-ons) but it’s not comparable to BibleWorks.
I will say that for pastors, students and Bible translators, this software in my estimation will save a lot of time. It will make sermon preparation and writing papers go much faster, leaving more time for other duties or studying. For lay people, it depends on your budget and how far you like to go with Bible study. I can’t imagine anyone with the budget for it being disappointed.
Just buying all the translations, books and other reference materials alone would cost far more than the software. To have them not only within the program but all linked to the passage, verse or word you’re studying at lightning fast speed makes it all the more valuable. There are quite a few Hebrew and Greek grammar books like Wallace’s Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics included in the program. I assumed that these were just for reading but I was pleasantly surprised to see that the contents of the books are linked to original language words–so you can learn more about the syntax of a word you’re studying–as is nearly everything else within BibleWorks.
Although one of the strengths of BibleWorks is in working with the original languages, it has so many features for working with English only translations and text that it would be worth the price of the program for this alone. Even if you do work with the original languages, I would suggest starting out with Using BibleWorks and Only English Bibles in the Help file system under Getting Started – Major Tasks.
In this review I would like to write about installing and learning to use the program, highlight a few features that are of interest to me and show you some screenshots in Part 3. See the Full Contents (and capabilities) and their brochure (PDF file) for a feature list.
Some Saturday stream of consciousness thoughts:
In reading various blog posts and quotes from authors, I’m getting tired of hearing people talk about how we need to do stuff, not just learn stuff. Or how we need to learn stuff because we don’t know enough stuff before we can do stuff. If someone is regenerated and has God dwelling in them how could they not want to know God better and do the good works that He predestined us to do as part of living a holy life? Why emphasize one over the other?
I also see a general malaise in living holy lives. I’m afraid that our culture has influenced some of us to lower our standards.
Sometimes I’m saddened by what people say and do and are entertained by, but at the same time I have to look at my own life and some of the TV shows that I’m entertained by etc.
This all came up when I came across this quote by D.A. Carson today in some notes on a Q&A Session:
We haven’t concentrated on God and the gospel, that’s why we don’t have enough holiness. Everything is tied to that. Don’t think about it only in terms of ‘not doing stuff’ or ‘doing stuff’ and that reduces to moralism.
1 Peter 1:15-16
But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”
Matthew 22:37
Jesus replied, ” ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ ”
Ephesians 2:10
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
First of all, I’ve added some other blog posts related to Mark Driscoll’s “Old Versus New Calvinism”. If you’re interested, see the bottom of the post for links to other related blog posts.
Second, there is is an excellent Ligonier Conference – Q&A at Challies.com on Why is Calvin still important 500 years later? Although the panel is comprised of Calvinists, I think it may be interesting to anyone. Some questions that a variety of people have are briefly addressed. Another version of this can be found at Ligonier.
Third, related to a comment in the first post mentioned, Nik asked, “Can an obsessive Calvinist or Arminian be drawn away from God after losing sight of the One who exists outside of the all isms?” In the Q&A you’ll find:
How has Calvinism become to be seen as a loyalty that takes precedent over our identity as Christians?
Ferguson – When Calvin’s teaching came under attack and others rushed to his defense, you tend to get -isms. This is one of the reasons people need to go back and read Calvin himself and when they do so they find a world very different from the one they expected to find.
Mohler – [I couldn’t quite catch or nicely summarize this one. Apologies]*. I did appreciate his exhortation to read Calvin (whether sermons or books) with an open Bible. Calvin would expect no less!
Duncan – Our non-Calvinistic friends can be hurt by the attitude that Calvinism is Christianity. It is helpful that someone have a high view of God, of Christ, of the Bible, than it is to attach themselves to any label. The good reason that we use label is for theological shorthand, as it allows us to say a lot really quickly. It allows us to affirm and deny certain things in just a word. If people are afraid of Calvinistic terms and analogies, simply go in as a Bible-believing Christian, go to Scripture, and see what God says to you and to them from his Word.
*I believe this is Tim Challies’ comment in brackets.
Give us, O Lord, a steadfast heart, which no unworthy affection may drag downwards; give us an unconquered heart, which no tribulation can wear out; give us an upright heart, which no unworthy purpose may tempt aside. Bestow upon us also, O Lord, our God, understanding to know You, diligence to seek You, and a faithfulness that may finally embrace You; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
–Thomas Aquinas
I don’t think so. Moderation schmoderation.
Matthew 22:37
Jesus replied, ” ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ ”
Luke 9:23
Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me.”
1 Thessalonians 5:17
Never stop praying.
1 Peter 1:16
For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”
1 John 3:16
We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.
Grace does not annul our responsibility but fits us to discharge it; it relieves from no duties, but equips for the performance of them.
–John Owen, The Works of John Owen (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1965), 6:165
2 Corinthians 9:8 HCSB
And God is able to make every grace overflow to you, so that in every way, always having everything you need, you may excel in every good work.
The blogs are starting to be lit up by Time Magazine’s listing of the ‘New Calvinism’ as the third biggest idea that is changing the world right now.
Mark Driscoll capitalized on this right away with a post on New Calvinism Versus Old Calvinism which really annoyed me. “Old” Calvinism is portrayed negatively and I think erroneously.
I have mixed feelings about Mr. Driscoll and don’t need to comment on them here (and why would anyone care). I’m only addressing his post/article here because his blog doesn’t have comments enabled.
The short version is: Did Driscoll’s Calvinist hero, Charles Spurgeon exhibit any of the negative qualities of an Old Calvinist? The answer is a definite no.
To address each point to the best of my ability realizing that I’m not the best historian or expert on Calvinism:
Old Calvinism was fundamental or liberal and separated from or syncretized with culture. New Calvinism is missional and seeks to create and redeem culture.
I don’t know about Calvin, but I know that Spurgeon smoked cigars, didn’t shy away from alcohol (although he was before the prohibition) and often preached in a theater to help people feel more comfortable in hearing his message. I suppose though this could be seen as syncretized. Is Mark Driscoll not syncretized with the culture? What’s the middle point between syncretized and separated?
The Puritans, who are almost always mis-characterized, contributed significantly to culture in a positive way.
I’m still not sure exactly what missional means other than being a hip and trendy term, but Calvin’s sermons were very evangelistic and he himself traveled to Brazil on a missionary journey against the advice of his friends. Spurgeon, George Whitefield and Jonathon Edwards heralded great revivals.
Old Calvinism fled from the cities. New Calvinism is flooding into cities.
I don’t know what this means.
Old Calvinism was cessationistic and fearful of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. New Calvinism is continuationist and joyful in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
From what I’ve read, Spurgeon had the gift of healing and there were charismatic elements to his ministry. I wouldn’t doubt that Calvinists in general are cessationists but this certainly isn’t across the board or anything dogmatic as far as I know (correct me if I’m wrong). John Piper is charismatic but he’s probably considered an old New Calvinist being mentioned in the Time Magazine article.
The Holy Spirit played a vital role in Calvinist theology but I would gather that he’s talking about a charismatic type of power here. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve never thought of Calvinists as being “fearful” of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in a negative way. See The Holy Spirit and Good Works in Reformed Theology (not fully relevant but I thought I’d provide the link)
Old Calvinism was fearful and suspicious of other Christians and burned bridges. New Calvinism loves all Christians and builds bridges between them.
Again with Spurgeon and others like Whitefield, they had dear friends who weren’t Calvinists. See Spurgeon: A Defense of Calvinism (and Arminians)
I would say that there are many new or hyper-Calvinists who exhibit more of the tendencies of the “Old Calvinists” so that’s why I’m annoyed and confused by this.
I may be taking this out of context, but there is no context to go on in his short article. I’m not going to make any assumptions as to why he wrote this because I don’t know what his motives are and I can’t read his mind. I tried but I think my WiFi is interfering with the signal.
Again, I’m not addressing Driscoll himself in general here or meaning to slam him, I just felt like writing my thoughts on this.
Update: Mark Driscoll posted More Thoughts on Time Magazine and New Calvinism.
More Updates:
Living for God’s Glory: An Introduction to Calvinism by Joel R. Beeke with contributions from: Sinclair B. Ferguson, James Grier, Michael A. G. Haykin, Nelson Kloosterman, Ray Lanning, Robert Oliver, Ray Pennings, Derek W. H. Thomas
Joel Beeke says, “The target audience for this book is laypeople and ministers who are interested in learning the basics of Calvinism. I hope it also will serve as a stimulating summary and refresher course for those who are already avid Calvinists, much as Steven J. Lawson’s The Expository Genius of John Calvin from Reformation Trust excites those of us who are already familiar with much of its content. I have worked hard to keep this book simple, clear, and non-technical, in the hope that you might hand it to others to help them understand how you think as a Calvinist.”
I felt this was the case except the chapter on philosophy can be a more difficult read for those of us not well versed on the subject.
While John Calvin – A Heart for Devotion Doctrine & Doxology, also from Reformation Trust and reviewed here, is about John Calvin himself and a brief introduction to his theology, this book is less about Calvin himself and more about Calvinism from the beginnings of the Reformation through the time of the Puritans both in Europe and after they arrived in the U.S. It’s longer and more thorough than the previous mentioned book but is still introductory.
Included in this history are the Reformed canons, confessions and catechisms. There is a lengthy treatment of these documents which may be of interest to some who are unfamiliar with their content and origins.
Other notable figures from Martin Luther (including an explanation of the differences between Lutheranism and Calvinism) to Jonathan Edwards are mentioned in the book.
Although the acronym TULIP wasn’t developed until the 1900’s, the Canons of Dort contain a response to the Remonstrance of 1610, a response to Calvinism by forty-three of Arminius’ followers. “The canons were structured to correspond with the five articles of the 1610 Remonstrance” which correspond to the contents of TULIP but in a different order. This is covered quite a bit in the book. Therefore, this book isn’t an objective look at Calvinism as compared to other areas of theology and Arminianism is talked about negatively and even called “heretical” (or at least referring to what Arminius’ followers had to say) which is going too far. Just when I thought there may have been too much time spent refuting Arminian theology, the book moved on from there.
The book doesn’t dwell too much on TULIP though, as Calvinism is much more than that:
“It is important to note that the five points do not summarize all of Calvinism; that would be a truncated view of the Reformed faith. One of the aims of this book is to show the panoramic grandeur of the Reformed faith’s worldview.”
The book also covers the popular 5 Solas–Scripture alone (sola Scriptura), grace alone (sola gratia), faith alone (sola fide), Christ alone (solus Christus), and the glory of God alone (soli Deo gloria).
A couple of ancillary benefits to this book are the extensive citations and bibliographies at the end of each chapter and an introduction to the history and theology of the Puritans who carried on the Reformed tradition.
Other than listing some of the current denominations that are Reformed, I would like to have seen the history go even farther–past the Puritan era–but that may have been beyond the size and scope of the book.
This book is very readable, enjoyable and educational. I highly recommend it.
Hardcover: 414 pages
Publisher: Reformation Trust Publishing
Publication Date: September 12, 2008
ISBN-10: 1567691056
ISBN-13: 978-1567691054
Buy it from:
This question has probably been asked often in the past, but if fighting as a sport was considered sinful or hedonistic would Paul have used it as a metaphor?
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 Lattimore Translation
Do you not know that when they run in the stadium they all run, but only one wins the prize? Run to win. And everyone who competes keeps in training in every way; but they, to win a perishable wreath; we, for an imperishable one. I myself do not race without a goal; I do not box to punish the air; but I batter my own body to enslave it; so that, while calling others to action, I may not myself be disqualified.
I don’t think he would, but I can’t really back this up. I would appreciate it if you could give me grounds for this or refute it.
I may or may not have a followup post on this.
Richard Foster pretty much covers all the basics in his book and more that aren’t found in Scripture.
Much of the book is based on the mystics like Madam Guyon, Jean Pierre de Caussade etc. I’ve read books by them and others and admire their spirituality but don’t find a lot of what they say and do based on principles and commands found in Scripture.
Foster seems to rely more on the experience of these saints of the past and his own experience than on Scripture.
When he does quote Scripture it’s often out of context. One example is in the chapter on Contemplative Prayer. He quotes Psalm 62:1, “For God alone my soul waits in silence;” which is referring to waiting not to prayer. In fact he even quotes other great saints of the past out of context.
In his section on Repenting on Behalf of Others he offers no Scripture and says, “…our repenting prayers on behalf of others somehow seems to make it easier, more possible for them to turn on their own. How this works I do not know.”
There are good tidbits and reminders in this book that one can benefit from. But given how highly touted this book is I was pretty disappointed and surprised at some of what was written.
Good books on prayer that I’ve read:
Not read:
What are your favorite books on prayer?
Colossians 4:2
Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving.
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