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Martin Luther wrote in his most famous hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God,” a paraphrase of Psalm 46, that Christians fight against the “ancient foe,” “the prince of darkness,” with “that Word above all earthly powers.” With “one little Word,” Christ, “the Man of God’s own choosing… shall fell him.” “We will not fear” our enemy because we have “the Spirit and the gifts” and the Word of Christ whose “kingdom is forever.”

All Christians from all ages and backgrounds are welcome to this free seminar and celebration. If you can’t make it to the seminar, you’re welcome to join our Reformation Sunday worship service at 2:30 p.m.

Schedule:

Friday November 2: 9-12 a.m.
Saturday November 3: 9-12 a.m.; 1-4 p.m.
Sunday November 4: Preaching 9:30 a.m. Trinity Covenant Reformed Church, Imus; 2:30 p.m. Pasig Covenant Reformed Church

Topics:

General and Special Revelation
Inspiration
History of Redemption
Textual Criticism
Inerrancy and charges that the Bible contradicts itself
Perfections of Scripture: authority, necessity, clarity, sufficiency
The Canon and the Apocrypha
Benny Hinn, other Word of Faith preachers, and the Bible

There is no registration fee. RSVP by October 31 so we can estimate number of attendees. Call or text 0927-863-6364. Or go to our Facebook page to register.

Merienda will be served.

For location and directions, go to: http://twoagespilgrims.com/pasigucrc/index.html/our-location/

A-B • C-F • G-H • I-L • M-O • P-S • T-Z

Indexed by Call No. (Subject) • Indexed by Title

To be a borrower, you must fill out an application form with your name, address, contact nos., email address, church name and address, and the name of a mutual acquaintance. Fill out Borrower’s Application Form here.

Books will be lent out only two weeks at a time.

The following articles will be useful reading before the discussion:

“An Emergentist Theory of the Origin of the Soul” by John C. Yates (pdf) (An alternative to the traditional theories of the origin of the soul.)

“Trichotomy: A Beachhead For Gnostic Influences” by Kim Riddlebarger (pdf)

“Dichotomy, Trichotomy, or Polychotomy?” by Nollie Malabuyo (pdf) (webpage)

“Man as the Image of God in Reformed Confessions” by Nollie Malabuyo (pdf)

Open to all interested men and women. Free, except for the cost of handouts.

Announcing a Saturday Expository Preaching Class in Imus, Cavite. We will start this Saturday, August 18, 2012, from 9-12 a.m. and will meet every other Saturday.

This informal class is an introduction to the principles of and the processes involved in the preparation and delivery of sermons. This course includes a review of the history and theology of preaching and preachers, and a consideration of alternative approaches to preaching, with special emphasis on expository redemptive-historical proclamation; preparing sermons using different Scripture texts, including narrative, prophetical, apocalyptic, gospel, and doctrinal/ethical; preparing sermons that address special occasions and situations that arise in the typical congregation; and improving the preacher’s sermon delivery skills.

There will be opportunities for practice preaching.

Free to all pastors and elders and others who have preaching duties. Class materials will be provided at the cost of copying.

Class will meet every other Saturday at Trinity Covenant Reformed Church in Imus, Cavite. Here’s the address, location map, and directions to our venue:

T. De Castro Bldg, 4th Flr
Palico 1, Aguinaldo Hway
Imus, Cavite

From any point in EDSA: Take any bus or jeepney going to Imus, Dasmariñas, or beyond. The building is about 100 meters past Imus welcome arch on the right. It’s right across Imus Family Hospital.

From Dasmariñas or Silang and beyond: Take any bus or jeepney going to Imus, Bacoor, Cubao or Lawton. The building is about 100 meters on the left before the Imus welcome arch. It’s about 2 kilometers past Robinson’s Imus.

For inquiries, please call (02) 661-0653 or (0927) 863-6364.

We continue with our lectures and discussions following Berkhof’s Systematic Theology.

Here’s Berkhof’s outline on Creation and Providence:

Outline of Berkhof’s Systematic Theology  Parts 1 and 2 (PDF)

You can download his Summary of Christian Doctrine (abridged Systematic Theology) here. Creation and Providence are in pages 28-35.

Please take the two surveys about the Trinity in the two sidebars on the right.Here are some other articles on Creation:

“The Origin, Essence, and Purpose of Man” by Herman Bavinck (Download PDF)

URCNA Creation Position, Adopted by Synod Escondido (2001) (Download PDF)

“Report of the Creation Study Committee” by the Presbyterian Church in America 28th General Assembly (2000)

“The Time Element in Genesis 1 and 2″ by Oswald T. Allis (Download PDF)

“Designed for Dignity” by R. Fowler White (Download PDF)

“The Covenant Way” by Susan Hunt (Download PDF)

“Can Christians Use Birth Control?” by Albert Mohler (Download PDF)

Here are some other articles on Providence:

“Providence” by Louis Berkhof (Download PDF)

“Pilgrims in Providence: Does God have a Wonderful Plan for My Life?” by A. Craig Troxel (Download PDF)

“God’s Providence: A Two-Edged Sword” by John H. Gerstner (Download PDF)

“Providence” by John Calvin (from Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book I, Chapter 16 • Chapter 17 • Chapter 18)

“The Task of Seeking God’s Mysterious Will” by Sinclair Ferguson (Download PDF)

“Providence in Reformed Confessions” compiled by Nollie Malabuyo (Download PDF)

Join us for a thorough discussion of Creation and issues relating to it this Saturday, August 25, 9:30-11:30 a.m.

Most North American evangelical Christians when asked to state the doctrine of the Trinity (if they can do it at all) will almost always give a heretical answer. The most common heresy among Western Christians has been “modalism,” which is the notion that God is not really one God in three persons, but rather only appears to be three persons. This is what we often teach in our Sunday Schools by way of the illustrations we use which imply that God wears a series of masks (first Father, then Son, then Spirit) or takes different forms under different conditions (e.g., water in solid, liquid, and gas forms). ~ R. Scott Clark in “The Splendor of the Three-In-One God”

The Scutum Fidei (Shield of the Trinity), diagram expressing the doctrine of the Trinity from the 12th century (click to enlarge)

We will continue Berkhof’s Systematic Theology. This week, we’ll be studying Part 1, Chapter VIII: The Holy Trinity. We’ll do a brief sketch of the patristic development of this doctrine in response to heresies, and how and where these heresies are still with us today. Then if time permits, we’ll go on to Part II, Chapter 1: The Divine Decrees in General. It gets more interesting here, where the terms sovereignty, predestination, free will, etc., are introduced. We might even mention infralapsarianism and supralapsarianism.

Here are a few recommended articles:

The Holy Trinity:

“The Splendor of the Three-In-One God” by Dr. R. Scott Clark (PDF booklet) (webpage)

“The Divine Trinity” by Herman Bavinck (PDF)

“What is the Trinity?” by R. C. Sproul (PDF)

“The Holy Trinity and Christian Worship” by Robert Letham (PDF)

“The Trinity” by The ESV Study Bible (PDF), with the modern version of the above diagram

Coat of Arms of the Anglican Diocese of Trinidad

The Decrees of God:

Summary of Christian Doctrine by Louis Berkhof, Part II, Chapter VIII: The Divine Decrees (webpage)

“Supralapsarianism and Infralapsarianism” by Herman Bavinck (PDF)

Westminster Shorter Catechism Project: Question 7 (links to Puritan writings)

Here’s a useful quote from Robert Letham’s “The Holy Trinity and Christian Worship”:

Putting it another way, from the other side as it were, the worship of the church is the communion of the holy Trinity with us his people. We are inclined to view worship as what we do, but if we follow our argument, it is first and foremost something the triune God does, our actions initiated and encompassed by his… Christ is, in reality, the one true worshiper, our worship being a participation in his. A focus on our worship, on what we do, is inherently Pelagian. Further, our worship is by the Holy Spirit in Christ. As John Thompson puts it: “If one understands the New Testament and the view it gives of how we meet with and know God and worship him as triune, then worship is not primarily our act but, like our salvation, is God’s gift before or as it is our task.”

See you there at 9 a.m.!

For our next couple of meetings, here are the readings from Louis Berkhof’s Systematic Theology:

I. The Existence of God

C. Denial of the existence of God in its various forms

1. Absolute Denial of the Existence of God (pages 22-23)

2. Present Day False Conceptions of God Involving a Denial of the True God (pages 24-25)

D. The So-Called Rational Proofs for the Existence of God

1. The Ontological Argument (page 26)

2. The Cosmological Argument (page 26)

3. The Teleological Argument (page 26)

4. The Moral Argument (page 27)

5. The Historical or Ethnological Argument (pages 27, 28)

II. The Knowability of God

A. God Incomprehensible but Knowable (pages 29, 30)

B. Denial of the Knowability of God (pages 30-31, 32-33, 34)

C. Self-revelation the Prerequisite of All Knowledge of God

1. God Communicates Knowledge of Himself to Man (pages 34-35)

2. Innate and Acquired Knowledge of God (page 35)

3. General and Special Revelation (pages 36-37, 38-39, 40)

The Bible also uses many literary forms into account. I thought the following definitions from a couple of Ligonier Ministries articles would help in our discussions this week or next week of General and Special Revelation. I already briefly mentioned anthropomorphisms in an earlier post.

Phenomenological Language. Much of the Bible comes to us with language that describes the way things appear to the naked eye. The language used is descriptive of the ways things look from our perspective and is not necessarily asserting precise scientific fact. An example of this is the description of the sun rising. Unless we understand the use of phenomenological language, we might think that the Bible teaches that the earth is at the center of the universe. When we realize that the Bible describes things according to appearance, we see that the Bible is not really saying that the sun revolves around the earth. Rather, it is merely saying that the sun rises because, to our naked eye, it looks like the sun moves and the earth does not. This use of language is still current. The meteorologist gives us the time of sunrise, but nobody assumes he is teaching that the sun revolves around the earth.

Anthropomorphic Language. This is language that ascribes uniquely human characteristics to God. A text that reads “the finger of God” is an example of this. When the Bible describes things in this way, it is not really asserting that God has physical parts like human beings. It is only describing things in ways that we can relate to. Errors like the Mormon teaching that God has a body result when we do not take the use of anthropomorphic language seriously.

Hyperbole. A hyperbole is an intentional exaggeration used to make a point. It is not the same as a lie or a distortion because the speaker expects his audience to understand that he is exaggerating the truth in order to make a point — not that he is giving a specific statement of fact. One clear example of the use of hyperbole in Scripture is Jesus’ parable about the mustard seed (Matt. 13:31–32). In this parable, He says that the mustard seed is the smallest of all the seeds. It is well known, however, that there are seeds smaller than the mustard seed. Thus, if we do not understand the use of hyperbole we might think that Jesus is teaching error. The use of hyperbole, however, demonstrates that Jesus’ primary point in this parable is not to give a precise, horticultural fact. Rather, He is pointing out that the Kingdom of God starts out very small but will grow to be very large.

Metaphor. This use of language makes implicit comparisons by using a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing in order to designate another. One example of this in the Bible is when Jesus says about Himself: “I am the door of the sheep” (John 10:7). In this statement, Jesus is not teaching that He is made out of wood, has hinges, and so forth. He uses the word “door” in order to show His disciples that He is the entryway into the presence of God, much like normal doors are entryways into various rooms and other areas.

Personification. Personification occurs when personal forms of description are used for impersonal things. When we impart human characteristics to inhuman things, we engage in personification. A good example of this is found in Isaiah 55:12. This verse speaks about mountains singing and trees clapping their hands. Obviously, Isaiah does not really think that the mountains will literally sing or the trees literally clap. Rather, he is using poetic license to express vividly the tremendous joy that will come to the whole world when the people of God repent and turn back to the Lord.

See you this Saturday.

“The relation of God’s own self-knowledge to our knowledge of God used to be expressed by saying that the former was archetypal of the latter and the latter ectypal of the former. Our knowledge of God is the imprint of the knowledge God has of himself but always on a creaturely level and in a creaturely way. The knowledge of God present in his creatures is only a weak likeness, a finite, limited sketch, of the absolute self-consciousness of God accommodated to the capacities of the human or creaturely consciousness. But however great the distance is, the source (principium essendi) of our knowledge of God is solely God himself, the God who reveals himself freely, self-consciously, and genuinely” (Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1, p. 212).

Louis Berkhof (1873 – 1957) also explains this same idea:

Alongside of the archetypal knowledge of God, found in himself, there is also an ectypal knowledge of Him, given to man by revelation. The latter is related to the former as a copy to the original, and therefore does not possess the same measure of clearness and perfection. All our knowledge of God is derived from His self-revelation in nature and in Scripture. Consequently, our knowledge of God is on the one hand ectypal and analogical, but on the other hand also true and accurate, since it is a copy of the archetypal knowledge which God has of himself (Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, p. 35).

Did Bavinck and Berkohof just pluck this idea from thin air? Yes, and that “thin air” is not so thin, because it is Isaiah 55:8-9:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

John Calvin’s (1509-64) doctrine of accommodation is identical to this archetypal/ectypal distinction (otherwise also known as the Creator/creature distinction). For example, he explains words that God uses about himself, such as when he “repents” or “relents” or “regrets” in such verses as Genesis 6:5-6, Jonah 3:10, Jeremiah 18:8, 10, and Amos 7:3 (Open Theists say God was really sorry, because he didn’t know what man would do in the exercise of his “free will”):

What, therefore, does the word “repentance” mean? Surely its meaning is like that of all other modes of speaking that describe God for us in human terms. For because our weakness does not attain to his exalted state, the description of him that is given to us must be accommodated to our capacity so that we may understand it. Now the mode of accommodation is for him to represent himself to us not as he is in himself, but as he seems to us. Although he is beyond all disturbance of mind, yet he testifies that he is angry toward sinners. Therefore whenever we hear that God is angered, we ought not to imagine any emotion in him, but rather to consider that this expression has been taken from our own human experience; because God, whenever he is exercising judgment, exhibits the appearance of one kindled and angered. So we ought not to understand anything else under the word “repentance” than change of action, because men are wont by changing their action to testify that they are displeased with themselves (Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin, 1.17.13)

Sometimes we also call this Calvin idea of accommodation as anthropomorphism—language that ascribes unique human attributes to God, metaphorically, such as physical parts or emotions. I’ll add some others from Calvin later, after the Lord’s Day.

Calvin also applies his doctrine of accommodation to the creation story:

Indeed, as I pointed out a little before, God himself has shown by the order of Creation that he created all things for man’s sake. For it is not without significance that he divided the making of the universe into six days (Gen 1:31), even though it would have been no more difficult for him to have completed in one moment the whole work together in all its details than to arrive at its completion gradually by a progression of this sort. But he willed to commend his providence and fatherly solicitude toward us in that, before he fashioned man, he prepared everything he foresaw would be useful and salutary for him (Institutes,1.14.22).

Again, in his commentary on Genesis 1:5, he says:

… it is too violent a cavil to contend that Moses distributes the work which God perfected at once into six days, for the mere purpose of conveying instruction. Let us rather conclude that God himself took the space of six days, for the purpose of accommodating his works to the capacity of men. We slightingly pass over the infinite glory of God, which here shines forth; whence arises this but from our excessive dullness in considering his greatness? In the meantime, the vanity of our minds carries us away elsewhere. For the correction of this fault, God applied the most suitable remedy when he distributed the creation of the world into successive portions, that he might fix our attention, and compel us, as if had laid his hand upon us, to pause and to reflect.

Because of ongoing interest in theological classes, we will start a Saturday School of Theology this Saturday, May 12, 2012.

We will go through Louis Berkhof’s Systematic Theology, with additional resources from the Three Forms of Unity (Heidelberg Catechism, Belgic Confession, and Canons of Dort), Westminster Standards (Confession and Catechisms), and other readings.

We start with the first three chapters of “The Being of God” in Part One: The Doctrine of God:

I. The Existence of God
II. The Knowability of God
III. Relation of the Being and Attributes of God

The planned format will be:

8:30-9:30 a.m.: Lecture
9:45-11:00 a.m.: Group Discussion (over coffee and donuts, of course).

You can download the following handouts for printing, or you can purchase copies before class time:

Outline of Berkhof’s Systematic Theology Part 1
Belgic Confession of Faith Articles 1-7
Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter 1

So we may know how many will attend, you may say Yes, No or Maybe in our Facebook Event Page here. If you don’t use Facebook, please email me at dvopilgrim@gmail.com. No fee, except for cost of handouts.

Here are some recommended readings for this session:

“Why Study Theology” by Shane Rosenthal
Deeds Over Creeds by Gary Johnson
Why We Have Creeds & Confessions by Daniel R. Hyde
“Theology: Why Bother?” (PDF) by A.T.B. McGowan
“Why This Blog (Doctrine Unites)?” by Nollie Malabuyo

“The Splendor of the Three-In-One God” by R. Scott Clark
“Herman Bavinck’s Doctrine of God” by Charles R. Biggs
“Differences in the Doctrine of God Among Christians” by Vern S. Poythress

“The Doctrine of Scripture Today” by Hywel Jones
“Scripture—Mere Text?” by Gerald Bray

Online books:
Christianity & Liberalism (PDF), by J. Gresham Machen
History and Faith (PDF), by J. Gresham Machen