Category — Theology

It may seem paradoxical, but confessional faith maintains catholicity. The opposite of a fully engaged and rigorous framework of theology is simply chaos — intellectual, ecclesiastic and social. But, even worse, the unwillingness or suspicion towards any kind of confession ends with a sort of false humility that is in fact perfidious prevarication, as Cyprian so alliterally put it.

Tightening up is good. This is not to say that there will not be development and improvement. In fact, the tightening up process is where reformation happens. Jettisoning what has already been gained is not good. This is just the old radicals in robes again. They are father haters.

The trouble is at the social level, the place in which the conversation happens. The catholicity of the faith starts with the ecclesiastics, not the members of the church. Agreement and unity must begin with the bishops, as Cyprian put it:

“And this unity we ought firmly to hold and assert, especially those of us that are bishops who preside in the Church, that we may also prove the episcopate itself to be one and undivided. Let no one deceive the brotherhood by a falsehood: let no one corrupt the truth of the faith by perfidious prevarication. The episcopate is one, each part of which is held by each one for the whole”. — Treatise on Unity, Chapter 5

Read this fabulous book over the weekend. It was edited by the president of my alma mater, Joseph Pipa, and contains papers by many of my professors, including Dr. Morton Smith. It is a scholarly, warm-hearted, and rounded treatment. The history of the issue within American Presbyterian circles, the Westminster divines’ take on things, the frame-work hypothesis, discourse analysis, and the future of ecclesiastic discussion are each presented and addressed. Men from all sides of the issue are given a chance to speak for themselves. Dr. Smith’s appeal for open discussion is powerful, Hall’s chapter on the Westminster divines is conclusive, and the chapter on the James Woodrow case is fascinating. A great read.

The conclusion? The naive reading of Genesis one is the correct reading. My eight year old daughter knew that, but it is nice to have the confirmation.

But I am a worm and not a man,
A reproach of men and despised by the people.
All who see me sneer at me;
They separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying,
“Commit yourself to the LORD; let Him deliver him;
Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him.”
Yet You are He who brought me forth from the womb;
You made me trust when upon my mother’s breasts.
Upon You I was cast from birth;
You have been my God from my mother’s womb.
Be not far from me, for trouble is near;
For there is none to help.

— Psalm 22:6-11

I am being drawn to the conclusion that the Psalms as a whole are to be read as the testimony of the Son of God, with certain qualifications — the confessional Psalms are High Priestly confessions on behalf of His people, etc. He is the interpretive principle of Scripture. The righteous Man of Psalm 1 is Christ, and it is in union with Him that His people are identified as such. “Let this mind be in you…” — Philippians 2:5

And the second commandment of the Teaching; You shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, Exodus 20:13-14 you shall not commit pederasty, you shall not commit fornication, you shall not steal, Exodus 20:15 you shall not practice magic, you shall not practice witchcraft, you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is begotten. You shall not covet the things of your neighbour, Exodus 20:17 you shall not forswear yourself, Matthew 5:34 you shall not bear false witness, Exodus 20:16 you shall not speak evil, you shall bear no grudge. You shall not be double-minded nor double-tongued; for to be double-tongued is a snare of death. Your speech shall not be false, nor empty, but fulfilled by deed. You shall not be covetous, nor rapacious, nor a hypocrite, nor evil disposed, nor haughty. You shall not take evil counsel against your neighbour. You shall not hate any man; but some you shall reprove, and concerning some you shall pray, and some you shall love more than your own life.
— Didache, Chapter 2

I love how direct and unqualified this is. Lord, make me more naive, as a child. Make me shrewd and innocent, make me tremble and rejoice. I hate this body of death. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Maranatha…

Psalm 20
May He remember all your meal offerings
And find your burnt offering acceptable! — 3

The burnt offering was a substitutionary sacrifice. “…he shall offer it at the doorway of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the LORD. He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, that it may be accepted for him to make atonement on his behalf”.— Leviticus 1:3b-4

Jesus was the acceptable substitution, the unblemished Lamb of God. By standing in the place of those condemned in Adam, Christ has propitiated the necessary wrath of God — “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins”. — 1 John 2:2. There is now, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

We will sing for joy over your victory,
And in the name of our God we will set up our banners.
May the LORD fulfill all your petitions. — 5

The crucifixion, seen by the devil and his seed as the victory of darkness, was instead the end of darkness, of death and slavery to sin. As the Apostle Paul wrote: “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross”. — Colossians 2:15

Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed;
He will answer him from His holy heaven
With the saving strength of His right hand. — 6

The anointed is, first, David, who is a type of the Christ who is to come. It is also, by extension, all those who are included in Christ, having been purchased with His blood.

“Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives”. — Hebrews 2:14-15

They have bowed down and fallen,
But we have risen and stood upright. — 8

The Lord was raised from the dead, and now sits at the right hand of the Father. His enemies have been vanquished. Death has been killed. “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil” — 1 John 3:8

Maranatha! O’ Lord, come!

Psalm 19:2-3 contains what appears at first glance to be a contradiction.
Day to day pours forth speech,
And night to night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech, nor are there words;
Their voice is not heard.

The challenge is to clear up the apparent contradiction, while still maintaining the dialectic that is built into the poem — one which some translations try and flatten out with the non-existent qualifier “where” in verse 2. The language may seem paradoxical, but it is here that something special is found.

If verse 2 is understood as the denial of a kind of speech, that is the logo-centric type, the contradictory tension is lifted. In this regard, there is silence. The kind of speech which is the creational order is understood in a naive sense, as an immediate, intuitive knowledge that transcends the νοῦς. In this regard, it does pour forth speech, but not the kind heard by the ears or understood by our analytical powers.

The content of this kind of talk is found in verse 1:

The heavens are telling of the glory of God;
And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.

The content is the same — albeit the mode of transmission as well the receptor are different — and no less articulate and meaningful than the written Word.

“Now our very eyes and the Law of Nature teach us that God exists and that He is the Efficient and Maintaining Cause of all things: our eyes, because they fall on visible objects, and see them in beautiful stability and progress, immovably moving and revolving if I may so say; natural Law, because through these visible things and their order, it reasons back to their Author. For how could this Universe have come into being or been put together, unless God had called it into existence, and held it together? For every one who sees a beautifully made lute, and considers the skill with which it has been fitted together and arranged, or who hears its melody, would think of none but the lutemaker, or the luteplayer, and would recur to him in mind, though he might not know him by sight. And thus to us also is manifested That which made and moves and preserves all created things, even though He be not comprehended by the mind.”
— Gregory Nazianzen, The Second Theological Oration

“Woe to him that receives; for if one having need receives, he is guiltless; but he that receives not having need, shall pay the penalty, why he received and for what, and, coming into straits (confinement), he shall be examined concerning the things which he has done, and he shall not escape thence until he pay back the last farthing (Matthew 5:26). But also now concerning this, it has been said, Let your alms sweat in your hands, until you know to whom you should give“.
— Didache, Chapter One

“To me, there nothing more important in a preacher than that he should have a systematic theology, that he should know it and be well grounded in it. This systematic theology, this body of truth which is derived from the Scripture, should always be present as a background and as a controlling influence in his preaching”. — Martyn Lloyd-Jones*

“But when proper words make Scripture ambiguous, we must see in the first place that there is nothing wrong in our punctuation or pronunciation. Accordingly, if, when attention is given to the passage, it shall appear to be uncertain in what way it ought to be punctuated or pronounced, let the reader consult the rule of faith which he has gathered from the plainer passages of Scripture, and from the authority of the Church, and of which I treated at sufficient length when I was speaking in the first book about things. But if both readings, or all of them (if there are more than two), give a meaning in harmony with the faith, it remains to consult the context, both what goes before and what comes after, to see which interpretation, out of many that offer themselves, it pronounces for and permits to be dovetailed into itself”. — Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, Book III, 2:2

Lloyd-Jones is silent in regards to conciliar systematics, but Augustine was not. The silence is not a denial necessarily, just an assertion of the individuality that Lloyd-Jones prized so much. I think Lloyd-Jones would admit that he was dependent on church councils, despite himself.

*Thanks to Mr. Wilson for the quote from Lloyd-Jones. All italics mine.

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. vv. 1-2

The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. v. 7

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. v. 14

The daily pattern of the created order, the written Word and the life of the reforming saint speak in harmony of the glory of God. The daily, regular pattern of “morning and evening” is a confirmation of the faithfulness of God. The law is, likewise, a perfect reflection of the character of God and His power. Only the saint must keep watch and reform, and seek to live in harmony with what is already perfect — the divine intention.

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. — Philippians 2:12-13

At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire.

The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.
— Psalm 18:12-13

David gives clue to an understanding of historical judgment and apocalyptic literature generally. The language, if understood as the specific way in which the judgment happened, would be contrary to the historical record. There were not physical hail stones, nor coals of fire that fell on David’s enemies. Rather, the means which God used to judge the enemies of Israel were warfare, famine and political maneuvering. In the place of describing these very normal means (found in the historical books), David uses these thematic terms. This is a type of figurative trope — one in which the species of the genus has been changed. David uses poetic compaction to speak of the judgment of God. John does the same in Revelation.

Besides misconstruing the book of Revelation, perhaps we miss the judgment of God today, because we are waiting for hail stones and coals of fire.