Reformed Forum

Jim Cassidy speaks about his recent trip to Colombia to lecture on Van Til's apologetic. Jim, Glen, and Camden also speak about books they are currently reading or have read. Links Video of Jim Cassidy teaching at Iglesia Cristiana Biblica Raah Alan Strange, The Doctrine of the Spirituality of the Church in the Ecclesiology of Charles Hodge Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation Jemar Tisby, The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church's Complicity in Racism Haley Goranson Jacob, Conformed to the Image of His Son: Reconsidering Paul's Theology of Glory in Romans https://vimeo.com/316016037

On this week's episode of Theology Simply Profound, Rob and Bob get back into Christian's journey to the Celestial City. We pick up our discussion of John Bunyan's classic The Pilgrim's Progress as Christian is about to enter the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Enjoy!

Dr. Ransom Poythress has written Richard Dawkins in P&R Publishing's Great Thinkers series. Poythress speaks about Richard Dawkins's system of thought. Since the early 2000s, Dawkins has been an outspoken advocate of what has been termed the New Atheism. Poythress discusses Dawkins's beliefs and advocates methods for approaching those who believe likewise. Dr. Poythress is assistant professor of biology at Houghton College in Houghton, New York. https://youtu.be/vtCKrIHCma4

On this week's episode of Theology Simply Profound, we republish the first episode of our series on Dispensationalism. This was originally episode 22. In this series, we discuss questions like What is Dispensationalism? How does Dispensational Theology differ from covenantal theology? Are the differences important? You can find all of the episodes in one place here: Dispensationalism Series

Carl Trueman speaks about the Marburg Colloquy, a meeting called by Philip I of Hesse to unite the Protestant states in a political alliance. To accomplish such a union, he sought theological agreement between Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli. While Luther and Zwingli could agree on fourteen theological points laid out at the meeting, they could not come to terms on the real presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper. Dr. Trueman is professor of biblical and religious studies at Grove City College.

Dr. Cornelis Van Dam, Emeritus Professor of Old Testament at Canadian Reformed Theological Seminary in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, joins us to speak about the biblical office of deacon and the Church's responsibility to provide for those in need. Dr. Van Dam has written The Deacon: Biblical Foundations for Today's Ministry of Mercy (Reformation Heritage Books, 2016). In this excellent book, Van Dam addresses the office of deacon, including the Old Testament background, New Testament times, the history of ancient, medieval, and Reformation practice, and the current functioning of the office. Dr. Van Dam has also written The Elder: Today's Ministry Rooted in All of Scripture (P&R Publishing). His bibliography is available online through the seminary.

Today we provide an introduction to the doctrine of justification with a consideration of several basic categories. We begin with a confessional doctrine of justification from the Westminster Standards. We then consider justification's relationship to faith. Then we turn to the believer's relationship to the person and work of Christ and consider how we are united to him. Finally, we speak about the relationship of that union to faith.

As is our annual custom, we've selected several clips from the episodes we released over the last year. We spoke with many people and had many fascinating conversations. I hope we'll pique your interest, and you'll go back to listen to many of the full conversations represented by these highlights. Thank you to everyone who visited reformedforum.org/donate throughout the year. We are tremendously grateful for your generous support. Be assured that we're setting the stage for another big year as our board continues to think and pray about our next steps. We're looking forward to another full year of Christ the Center. January 25 marked our 10th anniversary. Jeff, Jim, and I recorded that first episode during my first year in seminary—three homes and three children ago. Things have changed over the years, but our goal has stayed the same. Our mission is to present every person mature in Christ (Col. 1:28). Episodes 524 — Marcus Mininger, Uncovering the Theme of Revelation in Romans 1:16–3:26 533 — Michael Kruger, How the Second Century Shaped the Future of the Church 540 — The Nature of Apostasy in Hebrews 6 542 — Bill Dennison, Karl Marx 551 — The Impeccability of Jesus Christ 555 — Darryl Hart, Still Protesting 556 — The Deeper Protestant Conception 566 — Glen Clary, The Liturgies of Bucer, Calvin, and Knox 570 — Danny Olinger, Geerhardus Vos: Reformed Biblical Theologian, Confessional Presbyterian 571 — Cory Brock and Nathaniel Gray Sutanto, Bavinck's Philosophy of Revelation

In this installment of #VosGroup, we turn to pages 198–199 of Vos' book Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments to consider critical theories of prophetism. We extend and amplify the material in these pages more than usual by connecting Vos's teaching to the theology of Karl Barth and other modernist approaches. Broadly, the term can be associated with "instrument of revelation" and this is so important to note. For Vos, contra Barth, there is a direct, organic disclosure of God's revealed truth in our calendar-time history. It is not in a distinct, third-time dimension that Barth calls Geschichte that "revelation" occurs. For Barth, revelation is Jesus Christ in a distinct time dimension, God's third time for us, that "revelation" occurs. Revelation is Jesus Christ. The Scriptures, the prophets and calendar time history are not themselves revelation–they only point to revelation. Revelation is a "supra-historical" event in a time dimension altogether different from our calendar time. But Vos would say this is fundamentally wrong–it is a different religious conception of "revelation" altogether. God speaks directly to Adam in the Garden of Eden in terms of positive, special, verbal revelation. God's voice can be heard, speaking with inerrant and inescapable authority, in Eden. It is this initial self-revelation from God, in the Garden of Eden, prior to the fall, that supplies us with our conception of revelation. God both acts and speaks in calendar time history, and that special is initially given to Adam under the covenant of works. God's revelation in nature (image of God) is by divine design subordinate to God's revelation in positive categories. In other words, Genesis 2:7 (image of God) and Genesis 2:15–17 (Covenant) demand the idea that God reveals himself with absolute authority and clarity directly in history. Vos says, "But the Reformed have always insisted upon it that at no point shall a recognition of the historical delivery and apprehension of truth be permitted to degenerate into a relativity of truth. The history remains a history of revelation. Its total product agrees absolutely in every respect with the sum of truth as it lies in the eternal mind and purpose of God."

Jeff Waddington speaks about the characteristics of natural and special revelation and their relationship to one another. Jeff recently delivered a lecture at Westminster Theological Seminary on the subject. https://youtu.be/Rli32nwewxw

This week on Theology Simply Profound, Rob and Bob return to John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. In the section covered this week, we continue with Apollyon's confrontation of Christian in the Valley of Humiliation. With his words failing to persuade Christian to return to the City of Destruction, Apollyon rages and a glorious fight ensues.

William Perkins (1558–1602), often called "the father of Puritanism," was a master preacher and teacher of Reformed, experiential theology. Greg Salazar speaks about Perkins's works on predestination and his influence upon the Puritan and Reformed tradition. In speaking of predestination, we also cover related topics on Perkins's theology such as his Christology, his understanding of the ordo salutis, and even his views on Christian forms of memory recall. Dr. Salazar is Assistant Professor of Historical Theology for the PhD program at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Along with Dr. Joel Beeke, he has edited volume six of Perkins's works with Reformation Heritage Books. https://youtu.be/MRS2Emat6Rs

This week's episode of Theology Simply Profound brings Rob and Bob to Stage 4 of John Bunyan's, The Pilgrim's Progress. Here, moving on from the House Beautiful, Christian enters the Valley of Humiliation and is confronted by Apollyon where a war of words begins between the two.

Cory Brock and Nathaniel Gray Sutanto speak about Herman Bavinck's Philosophy of Revelation (Hendrickson Publishers). Drs. Brock and Sutanto have edited a new annotated edition of Bavinck's Stone Lectures, which were delivered at Princeton in 1908. Other than his Reformed Dogmatics, this is Bavinck's most important work. We are blessed to welcome new editions and translations of these works. Along with James Eglinton, Brock and Sutanto are also editing Bavinck's Christian Worldview, scheduled to be published by Crossway next year. Cory Brock is Minister of Young Adults and College at First Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Jackson, MS. He also serves on the faculty of Belhaven University teaching biblical studies. Nathaniel Gray Sutanto is Assistant Pastor at Covenant City Church in Jakarta, Indonesia. https://youtu.be/Y-yaTopNdzw

This week on Theology Simply Profound, Rob and Bob take another walk through John Bunyan's, The Pilgrim's Progress. In this episode we discuss Christian's strong response to his falling asleep, as well as his conversations with Watchful, Discretion, Prudence, Piety, and Chastity. These are those he meets on the way to and in the house described as beautiful, a place of relief and security for pilgrims.

Danny Olinger speaks about the life and thought of Geerhardus Vos. Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. has identified Vos as the father of Reformed biblical theology and we take the time to speak of his contribution and legacy. Rev. Olinger is General Secretary for the OPC Committee on Christian Education. He has written a tremendous biography of Vos, titled Geerhardus Vos: Reformed Biblical Theologian, Confessional Presbyterian. The book is published by Reformed Forum and available for purchase.

Lane Keister speaks about features of Ezekiel 9–10 that help us understand the identity of the man of linen in the passage. Rev. Keister's article, "The Man in Linen: A New and Old Interpretation of Ezekiel 9–10" is published in issue 14 of the Confessional Presbyterian Journal (2018). Lane Keister is the pastor of Momence OPC in Momence, Illinois and a PhD student at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. https://youtu.be/Bi2eFU1fI6M

In this week's episode of Theology Simply Profound, the journey continues through The Pilgrim's Progress. Rob and Bob begin to discuss Stage 3 of Christian's journey from the Interpreter's House to the foot of the Cross and then along a difficult path eventually making his way to the Hill Difficulty. In this context, we come to matter concerning salvation, fear, doubt, and assurance.

We continue our #VosGroup series in pages 194–197 of Vos' book Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments to consider the biblical conception of prophetism. We discuss the Greek and pagan conceptions and their connection to contemporary modernist conceptions. Vos has in view here a Hellenic, and not New Testament, conception of the prophet. Some would seek to understand prophet as a foreteller, which brings into view predictive prophecy—a telling of a situation in advance of the actual occurrence of the situation. However, it is not proper to take the concept in this direction only. While there is a predictive element present in much of what the prophets communicate, it is better to take them as foretellers in a local sense. This means that prophet is one who speaks an oracle from God. It is a place in time where one speaks on behalf of God. However, the Greek terms, as it appears in a Hellenic, extra-biblical context, has a different connotation, and this is critical to grasp, that we must reject. That connotation is this: the prophet in this Greek conception is an interpreter of a fundamentally opaque, hidden utterance from god. Pythia (the name of the high priestess of the temple Apollo at Delphi), would be the interpreter of this fundamentally hidden oracle—a dark saying that needed a human interpreter in order to be rendered intelligible. The Greek prophet does not stand in a direct relation to the deity, as in the Old Testament prophet, who spoke, by inspiration, directly from God, a word from God. Rather than being a mouth-piece of the deity, as is the case with the Nabi, the prophet in the Old Testament sense of the term, the prophet in the Greek, Hellenic sense, is an interpreter of the deity's oracle. The oracle comes from the Deity but requires interpretation, an interpretive act, from a prophet, to render that message intelligible or clear. The prophet, in this Hellenic conception, is therefore not one who speaks the words of the deity. Rather, he is one who intercepts a supra-rational, intrinsically opaque, communication from a deity. It is precisely this conception of the prophet that Vos sees being appropriated by the liberals of his day. https://youtu.be/t-8lw1OL4HM

This week on Theology Simply Profound, Rob and Bob continue their journey through John Bunyan's, The Pilgrim's Progress. From the Wicket Gate, Christian encounters Good Will and Interpreter whose house has many rooms. Interpreter leads Christian from one room to another explaining what Christian sees along the way in this second stage of our discussion of this classic book.

The Westminster Larger Catechism, Question and Answer 154 describes the ordinary and outwards means of grace as the Word, sacraments, and prayer. We discuss these ordinary means and how they apply to the day-to-day ministry of the local church. https://youtu.be/WOhnDru4630

This week on Theology Simply Profound, with some brief introductory remarks about reading fiction and allegory using J.R.R. Tolkien, Rob and Bob set out on a little journey of their own following Christian as he makes his way out of the City of Destruction toward the Wicket Gate with the help of Evangelist in this first stage our new discussion of John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress.

Glen Clary compares and contrasts the Reformation liturgies of Martin Bucer, John Calvin, and John Knox. Studying each of these helps us to understand the significance of worship reformed according to Scripture and focuses our attention upon worship in our present day. Further Reading Knox Liturgy Genevan Liturgy Catholic Describes Communion Service in Calvin's Church John Knox and Public Prayer https://youtu.be/BO_ir9r7q1Q

The preacher should not preach in such a way that draws listeners to his own wisdom, but draws them to place their faith and trust in Christ alone as they witness his wisdom and power through the Word.