Paul's Relationship with the Ephesian Church

Paul's Relationship with the Ephesians Before 1 Timothy
The Acts of the Apostles 9 & 20
Paul's ministry to the Ephesians is rooted ultimately in His conversion experience. In Acts 9:3-6 as he was traveling to persecute Christians in Damascus a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ And he said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.'"

Right from the beginning of Paul’s experience as a Christian Jesus was teaching him about the church. The concept of the church was foundational to how Jesus revealed Himself to Paul. Notice in this passage that Jesus doesn’t say, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting the church?” or even, “Why are you persecuting Christians?” Jesus says, “Why are you persecuting me.” This is the foundation of Paul’s understanding of what a church is, namely part of Jesus Christ.

Later in Acts 20 we see Paul's first encounter with the Ephesian church. One of the main emphases of Paul’s teaching there was in regard to the nature of the church. So in Acts 20:28-31 we see Paul teaching the elders of the Ephesian church about the church. Specifically that they should, “be on guard for themselves and for all the flock…which He [Christ] purchased with His own blood (v. 28).” Further, he wrote that they should, “be on alert [after admonishing them for three years, because he was] now commend[ing] [them] to God and to the word of His grace (v. 31-32).” Later then, in verses 36-38 Paul prays with them all (v. 36) and they all wept over the word which he had spoken, because he was leaving and they might not see his face again (vs. 37-38). There was a deep relationship between Paul and the church in Ephesus. They loved each other to the point of tears (this was not uncommon for Paul and the churches he helped plant 2 Cor 2:4; Phil 3:8). Paul even remembers Timothy's tears in his second letter (2 Tim 1:4). They were truly brothers and sisters in Christ. They were a family.

Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians
It is no surprise after seeing this relationship that Paul clearly outlines some of the themes that he does in Ephesians. However, remember that Ephesians is a general letter, it's even for us, “Most of Paul’s letters are…penned to meet specific pastoral and theological needs. But it is not easy to find any particular occasion that called for this letter…There is no reason, in principle, why a letter could not be general in nature and written for the purpose of instructing and edifying Christians over a wide area or in a range of congregations (Obrien, 51).” So then, as in all of Paul’s letters, despite the specificity of the audience we see that generally this letter is for all Christians. Even us!

We don't know exactly when he wrote this letter, but he probably wrote it from prison in Rome in A.D. 60-61 (Acts 28:16-31). The letter of Ephesians is divided into four main sections: First, the introduction (1:1-2); Second, the doctrinal exposition (1:3-3:21); Third, the practical application (4:1-6:20); and Fourth, the conclusion (6:21-24).

The section of doctrine, 1:3-3:21, has a three-fold trajectory. First, Paul sets out to outline God’s purpose of displaying His glory by knitting people into Christ (1:3-23). Second, he discusses the obstacle, namely sin (2:1-22). Third, and last, Paul is writing to us about how God has planned to fulfill His purpose of displaying His glory, namely, by showing his glory through the church (3:1-21). The application of the doctrine in chapters 1-3 begins directly after it in 4:1 with a pregnant “Therefore” which harkens the church toward unity. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones summarized the doctrinal exposition section of the letter by writing, “[Unity] is something that results from all that has gone before…These people are those who have been ‘bought’ into God’s kingdom and family at the cost of the precious blood of Christ’ [as we saw in Acts 20:28]. No-one can ever belong to this family, and participate in its unity, unless he believes that (Lloyd-Jones, 24).” In order then to have unity we must share the one thing in common that we all agree on, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's clear from all of this that Paul has a history with the church in Ephesus.

Where 1 Timothy Fits in the Chronology
It is generally thought that Paul wrote this letter after being released from a two year Roman confinement mentioned in Acts 28:30 (where he wrote Ephesians from in A.D. 60-61) approximately A.D. 63 (Leschert, 373; Schnabel, 115-121). This was either before or during his travels to Spain and then Crete, which took place before a second and final Roman imprisonment which is thought to be where Paul wrote Titus and 2 Timothy from sometime between A.D. 65-67. So here it is in a more clear list (please remember these are approximates, and we aren't 100% positive that there were 2 imprisonments):

Chronology of Paul's Relationship with the Ephesians
• A.D. 52-55: Arrived in Ephesus and left in A.D. 55 - This is the account in Acts 19-20
• A.D. 60-61: 1st Roman Imprisonment - Wrote Ephesians, etc.
• A.D. 63 (approx.): Released and travelled to Spain & Crete - Wrote 1 Timothy
• A.D. 65-67: 2nd Roman Imprisonment - Wrote 2 Timothy & Titus

Context of 1 Timothy Chapter 3 According to the Epistle Itself
All of this finally brings us to the question, "What is the context of 1 Timothy 3 within 1 Timothy?" Here's a brief outline of the book from Dale Leschert:

Salutation (1:1-2)
I. Responses to the Ephesians' ecclesiastical needs (1:3-3:13)
A. Preliminary warnings about theological errors (1:3-20)
B. Important instructions concerning church order (2:1-3:13)
II. Prescription for Timothy's ministerial conduct (3:14-6:19)
A. Timothy's apostolic mentoring for church leadership (3:14-16)
B. Timothy's professional responsibilities as a good minister (4:1-16)
C. Timothy's social relations with various groups (5:1-6:2)
D. Timothy's personal integrity as a godly man (6:3-19)
Conclusion (6:20-21)

Leschert, Dale The Flow of the New Testament (Geanies House: Mentor, 2002), 372.

Prior to the passage I'm going to start looking at regarding deacons (1 Tim 3:7-13) the apostle Paul is writing to Timothy about how Timothy is to remain in Ephesus in order to charge the leaders of the church not to teach different doctrine than what they received (1:1, 3). He entreats Timothy to wage the good warfare holding faith and a good conscience (1:18-19). Then he exorts Timothy to pray for all and particularly kings and those in high positions so that the believers might live a quiet and dignified life (2:1-2), specifically to pray for the leaders so that their leadership might allow the gospel flourish. He clearly lays out the foundation of the "good warfare" by explaining the gospel:

5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. 7 For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. (2:5-7)

After this Paul shares his desire for the church to pray without quarreling (2:8). Then we get to some of the more controversial passages in 1 Timothy about how women ought to dress, and how they are not to teach or exercise authority over men (2:9-15). This flows out of Paul's discussion of the church praying together in unity (the unity he desired for the church in Ephesus can be seen most clearly in Ephesians 4:1-16). After discussing women's role in the church Paul then moves into the lists of elders and deacons in chapter 3.

The role of the elders and deacons (regarding the church in Ephesus and our churches) are the antithesis of the poor leaders that Paul wrote the Ephesians about, and that Paul tells Timothy about in 1 & 2 Timothy. It's almost as if the qualifications of elders and deacons is set up as a direct contrast (we'll see this more clearly as we walk through the qualifications).

In my next post I'll explore some of the qualities of the false teachers in Ephesus. Then after the next post, Lord willing, I'll start looking at the qualifications for deacons.

Should 1 Timothy be Normative for Us?

Are Paul's Instructions to Timothy and the Church in Ephesus Normative Us?

Another way to ask the question is "So what, Paul taught Timothy and the church in Ephesus these things, that doesn't mean it applied to all the churches then, and it doesn't mean that it applies to all churches now, right?"

Well, that's good question, but the conclusion and the underlying assumption is dangerous and terribly wrongheaded. The assumption in this question follows this logic that, "because we are separated by time and context these instructions don't apply to us." The conclusion of this assumption says that, "we are not obligated in any way to apply these instructions to our present context." This thinking is dangerous because it wrongly concludes that Scripture's teaching about all of life, especially the church, is dependent on context when it's not. Praise God that the gospel is not limited to first century Jews & Gentiles who were living in the Roman political context of their time! The gospel is relevant to every time and place. It is relevant in every socio-political, socio-economic, and socio-cultural context. Similar to the gospel, Paul's message is prescriptive & descriptive rather than merely descriptive.

1 Timothy Is Normative for Us

I've been having a conversation with a friend about if the great commission is binding on believers. His question about this is coming from the observation that Jesus was speaking to the disciples and not us in Matthew 28:18-20 and John 20:21. The reason that all believers in all times are called to fulfill the great commission is both explicit and implicit in the command. Here's my response to his question:

So here's the text:

Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

You're right that Jesus was saying this to the eleven disciples, but look at verse 19 "make disciples of all nations." They are making disciples of what exactly? They are called to make disciples of Christ, like them. There is nothing inherent in this passage that seems to limit this to their uniquely apostolic calling. So they are to train others the same way that they have been trained. Can we agree on that?

Verse 20 then says that the eleven disciples are to teach the disciples that they are making to "obey all that I have commanded you." So they are first to make disciples (baptizing them in the name of the Trinity). Second, they are to teach them that the commands that Jesus issued to the eleven disciples apply to the disciples they would make. If the great commission is part of the "commands" from Jesus to the eleven disciples then it is not stretching the text at all to say that the great commission then applies to the disciples of the disciples who then make disciples etc. etc. etc. all the way down to those who would become disciples today, hence me or you...Can we agree on that?

While 1 Timothy is not a "command" directly from the lips of Jesus Christ, it is God-inspired, God-breathed, sufficient for life and practice, and completely inerrant or without error (in the original manuscript). Paul writes about this thinking more clearly in 2 Timothy 3:16-17:

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

Since Paul's words here are Scripture (1 Peter 3:16 implies that they are) breathed out from the Holy Spirit, then they are authoritative for the Christian life and for the practice of corporate worship (this phrase can be nuanced to) in the local church.

How Does 1 Timothy Inform Our Worship of God?

Paul's instructions to Timothy are instructions to us how best to build up the church with good materials that last (1 Cor 3:12-15). His instructions to Timothy lay out a structure of offices in the church that enables churches to fit into the description he describes in Ephesians 4:11-16. Paul's instructions lay out the structure that enables the church to effectively carry out Christ's commands; therefore, these instructions should be our aim in regard to how we should structure our local churches.

Subjective/Normative/Regulative Principles

This isn't going to be exhaustive, so please don't read it like it is. That said, I'm writing all of this with the conviction of the regulative principle, not necessarily the normative principle or the me/subjective principle. An exhaustive discussion of this is for another day, but generally speaking the me/subjective principle would be that I worship God on the grounds I define and determine are best. The normative principle is generally defined as, "Whatever is not expressly forbidden in Scripture is an allowable practice in corporate worship." J. Ligon Duncan III defines the regulative principle well by writing the following:

"Worship in its content, motivation, and aim is to be determined by God alone. He teaches us how to think about him and how to approach him. The further we get away, then, from his directions the less we actually worship (Give Praise to God, 27)."

Regarding the grey areas that aren't explicit in Scripture Duncan writes that, "thinking in accordance with the general principles of Scripture and sanctified common sense, in the absence of positive scriptural warrant," should be our approach (Ibid., 21). Also, David Peterson expresses the nature of Christian worship well by writing, "the worship of the living and true God is essentially an engagement with him on the terms that he proposes and in the way that he alone makes possible (Engaging With God, 55)."

All of this considered I believe that Paul's instructions to Timothy are authoritative for us and our church practice.

Deacons and Elders

At the moment my laptop is in the shop, and I'm thankful for the fact that I have AppleCare! When I get that puppy back I'm planning to do a series of posts on what exactly deacons and elders are in the Bible, and I hope to take up some gleanings to think more about what exactly these roles should look like in the local church. In the circles I am a part of a lot of focus has been given on elders lately, so I'm going to start with deacons.

With that said I'm planning to slowly walk through what deacons are using 1 Timothy 3 as a road map. I hope that when this is through I'll have a more deep understanding of how I think of deacons and elders as they relate to the local church. Blessings!

Healthcare Deja Vu

When the current political climate started to rain "healthcare debate" a few months back I had no clue that when I was watching Aladdin and The Lion King in the theater as a kid that the same arguments and fears were being presented.

Between the ages of 10 and 14 I probably wouldn't have listened or given much attention to the political debate if it was actually mentioned. That being said after sorting through hundreds of newspaper articles at work recently (from the 90's Healthcare Debate) I was able to catch up on what I missed, and I was surprised at how much the current conversation sounds almost identical to what was going down about thirteen years ago. Here are a bunch of cartoons from the 90's that literally and figuratively illustrate the similarities:

The first 9 are from 1994

























It's amazing, you could take almost any of these and publish them in a paper today without any revision and it would be just as relevant to the current debate. Well, I guess the proverb still applies plus ça change, or as Ecclesiastes puts it, "There is nothing new under the sun (Eccl 1:9)."

Missionary, Pastor, and Theologian

Hebrews 13:7 "Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith."

In light of this passage a few brothers and I have been getting together to read through Eckhard J. Schnabel's book Paul the Missionary: Realities, Strategies and Methods and it has been excellent. Here is how Schnabel defines mission in the book:

The term "mission" or "missions" refers to the activity of a community of faith that distinguishes itself from its environment in terms of both religious belief (theology) and social behavior (ethics), that is convinced of the truth claims of its faith and that actively works to win other people to the content of faith and the way of life of whose truth and necessity the members of the community are convinced (22).

So far the book has been gospel-centered and faithful to Scripture. Here is how he describes the purpose of the book:

This is my goal in this book: to provide a close reading of the relevant New Testament texts that help us understand Paul's missionary work - proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ and establishing communities of believers - in terms of the goals that he had and in terms of the methods that he used (30).

This book has been great, and it has given us a lot to chew on. After giving a solid chronology of Paul's life and work Schnabel summarizes how Paul identified his missionary task in the content of Galatians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Philippians, Corinthians, Romans, Colossians, Ephesians, 1 & 2 Timothy, and Titus. After this he summarizes Paul's self-identification of being a missionary in the following list. I am going to begin praying through this list for myself and all the missionaries and pastors that I know!

(1) God is the Lord over all missionary work.
(2) "Success" is the result of God's activity, not men or their methods.
(3) Christ is the content of preaching and the foundation, criterion, and measure of church planting and church growth.
(4) Missionaries are servants of God and His word.
(5) Missionaries make a public proclamation of the victory of God who also leads them.
(6) Paul sees himself as a church-planter establishing new communities of believers.
(7) A missionary's central work is the proclamation of the gospel.
(8) We must pay consistent attention to our listeners.
(9) Paul is not satisfied with the success of his mission, he wants to reach more and more people.
(10) Paul doesn't work alone.
(11) These are the last days, Gentiles don't need to become Jews to then become Christians. Christ is held out to all.
(12) Missionaries, Teachers & Preachers are responsible to God for their work and their motivations.

Schnabel, Eckhard J. Paul the Missionary: Realities, Strategies and Methods (Grand Rapids: IVP Academic, 2008), 151-4.

As we consider Paul's faith together I hope we will only grow more mature in our faith!

God Gives Us Children to Make Us More Like Jesus

After a great afternoon of watching sword swallowing and jousting at the Maryland Renaissance Festival we went out for dessert and a parenting talk/question and answer with Bob and Julie Kauflin at CHBC. Here are some of my notes:

Introduction: The longer they parent the less confident they feel. He mentioned that when their first child (of 6) was four he was ready to write a book, but now he's less confident that he knows what is always correct. When facing difficult situations they described how they cry out to God, surround themselves with friends who can help, and try to apply the Scriptures to their circumstances. They also encouraged, "don't miss the big picture," in parenting.

Psalm 127:3: They encouraged us to see our children in all seasons as a gift from the Lord. Further, God gives us children to make us more like Jesus. This challenges the notion that parents have many times that God has given them children so that they can make the kids more like Jesus. Children are gifts. This alone heads off so many problems that parents have with their children.

Ephesians 6:4: They encouraged us that our responsibility is to bring up children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. God's goals for our children are primary in our parenting. We try, erroneously, to be the Holy Spirit and God in our children's life too often. As parents we will be tempted to provoke our children or as Colossians says "exasperate" our children. We must let God do the work in our children's lives.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9: Parenting is a constant activity. A large part of parenting is what they observe in our lives. Having a cross-centered culture in our homes is of the utmost importance. Discipline protects the kids, and it shows them what is right, but it doesn't convert them. What we are aiming for primarily is our kids' desires. They mentioned that ages 11-14 is a fundamental shaping period for their desires, and when they are between the ages of 15-18 we will know what their desires are because they will begin acting on them. The way that we live as parents is the greatest means of teaching our kids. He then said that they want their kids to leave the home knowing that, "nothing is more valuable than Jesus Christ," and that Jesus is the main theing they need when they leave the house. Lastly he mentioned that the main goal in parenting is heart change.

Then we had a number of questions and answers:

(1) Do you have any advice for approaching family worship? His response was really encouraging as he said that they've basically had the approach of starting a number of approaches and then they dropped off. He said that they tried a variety of things a number of times with many successes and many failures. He said one thing to do would be to pose the question, "What evidences of God's work have you seen in your life this week?" Making family devotions fun is huge...teach them that this is God's world, and that Christ is the most desirable thing in your life. He said to take this approach: (1) Song (2) Scripture (3) Thought

(2) How do you work on a 7-9 year-old's character and not only discipline? Bob posed the question that we should ask ourselves, "Why can't you look at your kids as a blessing like a stranger's kids?" We often look at other people's kids and think how cute they are and the parents usually respond saying, "Well, you should see them at home." How we think of the gospel as it applies to us will transform how we relate to our kids. God is not a tyrant with us, and this should change how we relate to our kids. We should work to be developing a culture of grace in our homes from ages 6-10. Then when you reach ages 11-14 you'll know if you have their hearts or not.

(3) How should you deal with a 3 1/2 year old's hating of everything? One idea was that you can give your child the illusion of choice when they really don't have one by giving options to do things that you've predetermined are okay. They encouraged to be faithful in instruction, and told how role-playing and making things into games is really important. They then gave the encouragement that when your child hates everything that it's primarily a sin issue. Don't assume it's personal, and don't assume how this will affect the child when they are 18. This will only encourage fear. They encouraged us that we have to first begin by going to God, "God please help me," and ask for wisdom.

(4) How can fathers cultivate a culture of gratitude and joy in the home? Fathers have a responsibility to set the tone at home. You don't want your kids to hear how the dad is one way outside the home and think about how much they aren't like that when they think of what he is like in the home. Ephesians 4:29 constant correction and discouraging thoughts will only corrupt our children. It's important to remind our kids that we are for them. Ask them the question regularly, "Do you know that I'm for you?" and, "Do you know that I am grateful for you?" Demonstrate these things to your children. Demonstrate a consistent confidence that God is good, and that He gave His Son for us. Don't be silently grateful, put it into words. Lectures and monologues are not effective with our kids. They said we should ask ourselves two questions to help us in parenting: (1) Would I want to be with me if I was my child? (2) Would I treat any of my friends the way I'm treating my kids?

(5) Someone asked about how their youngest is quite a bit younger than their second to youngest...they seem like they are going easier on the youngest. Their question was what's going on here, "Are we more confident in God? Are we lazier? Are we just more laid back? or is there something else going on?" They said to ask this question, "Do we have the same relationship with the youngest?" In a lot of ways the Lord sometimes will work in the youngest to mature them faster because they are consistently around more mature people. The Kauflin's changed their parenting philosophy after reading Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp, but largely they did everything the same and the Lord just worked in each of their kids' lives in different ways. They mentioned the phrase from Tripp's book that was helpful, "A well-worn path to the cross." This is what we constantly want to do with our kids. In everything point them toward the well-worn path to the cross. If we don't labor to do this and have a rule-keeping mentality with the kids it will only lead to a struggle with pride in their future.

Lastly, they encouraged us to be confident that God is always at work. This was an encouraging time. Hopefully these notes have a nugget here or there that will be helpful for you.

Boast in Christ

Here's an excerpt from a sermon I preached recently on James 1:9-11. If you aren't a Christian consider how a person could possibly boast if he or she is poor. If you are a Christian meditate on the riches that are found in Christ alone, and try to look into your life and see the ways that you boast about Him.

Christian if you are poor you have riches in Christ. Consider the fact that before God created the world He had a purpose. The gospel was the secret wisdom of God which He decreed before the ages for our glory (1 Cor 2:7). This isn’t to say that you will not face any trials in this life, and James lays out that poverty is one of those trials, but one day the Lord will raise us up in the twinkling of an eye, and we will be glorified along with Christ. We have inherited much, even if we do not have the material riches of a monarchy here in this life. Take heart if you are struggling with poverty and delight in the glory of Christ, your rich inheritance. This is how a poor brother or sister is to boast, “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal 6:14).” So if we are in need it is to serve a purpose, to help us see our riches in our dependence on Christ. As the hymn Come Ye Sinners Poor and Needy states, “Let not conscience make you linger, nor of fitness fondly dream, all the fitness he requireth is to feel your need of Him.”

Grand Avenue Baptist Church; Ames, IA

Last week Lindsey and I hosted Terry Martens who is an elder from Grand Avenue Baptist Church in Ames. He came out with their new pastor Michael Felkins. It was a joy to get to know these brothers, and I hope the Weekender here at Capitol Hill Baptist Church was as much of a blessing to them as it was to us before we moved to DC.

It is encouraging to know that there is a solid expositional preaching ministry going strong in Ames, Iowa! If you're in Ames check 'em out! Here's a picture of me with Terry.

Inerrancy & Infallibility of Scripture

Today some people can nuance these terms so that they can affirm one and deny the other. That being said it's interesting how Christians before our time used the term infallibility to describe the concept that many now describe by using the term inerrancy. That the Scriptures are without error seems to be what Richard Sibbes (1577-1635) wrote about as "infallibility" (this was first published in 1862-1864):

"As an apostle he spake divine truths, and was guided infallibly by the Spirit of God; he delivered truths without all conditions and exceptions...And you must know this, that God, as he used the apostles and excellent men to write his book, to write the word of God, to be his penmen, yet he hindered them not be men. As he hinders not godly men to be men, but at once they may be saints and men; so St Paul as a good man, desired to see them, with a reservation; but as an apostle, he spake in the certainty of divine truth...So the prophets and apostles, as men, they might be alterable without sin. For God will allow men to be men, and subject to mistakes...But as an apostle, his doctrine was without ifs and ands, without exception, as we say, 'if God permit,' &c. 'No,' saith he; 'as God is true, our word to you was not yea and nay.' So in the apostles, we must consider a difference of divine truths that they delivered as apostles, from those things that they purposed as men, and as holy men."

Sibbes, Richard Works of Richard Sibbes Volume 3: An Exposition of 2nd Corinthians Chapter One (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2001), 356.

District of Columbia Detention Center

Last night two brothers and I went to do a Bible study on the parable of the four soils from Matthew 13 with about five young men at a detention center just down the road. It was a privilege to be able to share the gospel with these guys. Many could give answers to the questions like they had been in a church before, but they really didn't have an understanding of Christ, and the gospel, and the battle that is going on for their souls. They were tracking really closely and we shared the gospel clearly. In light of the wrath of God to come my heart is heavy for these guys. If you would willing here are a few ways you could pray for them:

(1) That the Holy Spirit might regenerate their hearts and that they would repent and believe in the gospel.
(2) That the Lord would bring their families to salvation and protect them.
(3) That the Lord might put them in a gospel preaching church if they get out.
(4) That they would have a thirst to read the Bible.

Was the Concept of Biblical Inerrancy Invented in the 1970's?

Have you ever heard this statement? "The concept of biblical inerrancy was invented in the 1970's." If you have the person saying it was probably referring to the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy's statement called The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy written in 1978. Folks that say this are mistaken, and it is saddening that they discourage trust in the authority and trustworthiness of Scripture by saying things like this. The term inerrancy simply means "without error" as it applies to the original manuscripts of the Old & New Testaments of the Bible. Here's how B. B. Warfield described inerrancy before 1921:

"The Church, then, has held from the beginning that the Bible is the Word of God in such a sense that its words, though written by men and bearing indelibly impressed upon them the marks of their human origin, were written, nevertheless, under such an influence of the Holy Ghost as to be also the words of God, the adequate expression of His mind and will. It has always recognized that this conception of co-authorship implies that the Spirit's superintendence extends to the choice of the words by the human authors (verbal inspiration), and preserves its product from everything inconsistent with a divine authorship - thus securing, among other things, that entire truthfulness which is everywhere presupposed in and asserted for Scripture by the Biblical writers (inerrancy). Whatever minor variations may now and again have entered into the mode of statement, this has always been the core of the Church doctrine of inspiration."

Warfield, Benjamin Breckinridge The Works of B. B. Warfield: Revelation and Insiration, Volume I (Baker Books: Grand Rapids, 2003), 173. [I didn't make any changes to the original quote. We took the pictures above of Warfield's grave at Princeton, NJ earlier this summer.]

Good Enough for Paul and Silas, Good Enough for Me!

I've been doing some work on genealogy, hopefully in a way that will promote stewardship of the gospel (so I don't conflict with 1 Tim 1:3-4, and Titus 3:9). It has been great! I've been reading through Grandma Braymen's diaries and the quote below was at the back of the one from 1964. This year was filled with journal entries about conflict over the children's Sunday School curriculum. She noted in her journal that Grandpa read through some of the curriculum with her and after pointing out some errors in comparison with what the Bible teaches he encouraged her to write a letter to the pastor. Here is what she wrote:

"Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman who needeth not to be ashamed; rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Tim. 2:15)

It was good for Paul & Silas - it is good enough for me.

July 14, 1964

Greetings to Rev. --

I am a Bible teacher, a Bible student - unfit spiritually to teach otherwise. God wants me to teach - & I believe it (she taught children's Sunday School).

Why I object [to the new curriculum]. [There is] no comparison to Bible lessons.

Omission of risen Christ, conversion, parables, prayer, Holy Spirit, salvation, sin, virigin birth, Easter, resurrection, ascension, miracles, Pentecost, "born again", ...1st church at Jerusalem, Christians 1st at Antioch, many more.

[The] Bible is [the] study of God's relation to man. (She then listed out some of the content of what they were studying and then wrote the following.) [This is] making Jesus in man[s] image.

I'm with Grandma on this one! The Baptist Faith and Message puts it well when it describes the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible by saying the following:

"The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a the perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation."

Exodus 24:4; Deuteronomy 4:1-2; 17:19; Joshua 8:34; Psalms 19:7-10; 119:11,89,105,140; Isaiah 34:16; 40:8; Jeremiah 15:16; 36:1-32; Matthew 5:17-18; 22:29; Luke 21:33; 24:44-46; John 5:39; 16:13-15; 17:17; Acts 2:16ff.; 17:11; Romans 15:4; 16:25-26; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Hebrews 1:1-2; 4:12; 1 Peter 1:25; 2 Peter 1:19-21.

Changing The Blog

I have been blogging very sporadically lately, and I'm hoping to get a little more regular. That said, I'm making a few changes to the old blog, and I'm hoping to even get a more relevant url. So keep your eyes peeled!

To Pass Away Like a Snowball Before the Summer Sun

Letter XXXV. To my Lady Kenmure, on the death of a child.

(GOD MEASURES OUR DAYS – BEREAVEMENTS RIPEN US FOR THE HARVEST.)

MADAM,

All submissive and dutiful obedience in our Lord Jesus remembered. I trust I need not much entreat your Ladyship to look to Him who hath stricken you at this time; but my duty, in the memory of that comfort I found in your Ladyship’s kindness, when I was no less heavy (in a case not unlike that), speaketh to me to say something now. And I wish I could ease your Ladyship, at least with words.

I am persuaded your Physician will not slay you, but purge you, seeing He calleth Himself the Chirurgeon [sic. “Surgeon”], who maketh the wound and bindeth it up again; for to lance a wound is not to kill, but to cure the patient (Deut. xxxii. 39). I believe faith will teach you to kiss a striking Lord; and so acknowledge the sovereignty of God (in the death of a child) to be above the power of us mortal men, who may pluck up a flower in the bud and not be blamed for it. If our dear Lord pluck up one of His roses, and pull down sour and green fruit before harvest, who can challenge Him? For He sendeth us to His world, as men to a market, wherein some stay many hours, and eat and drink, and buy and sell, and pass through the fair, till they be weary; and such are those who live long, and get a heavy fill of this life. And others again come slipping in to the morning market, and do neither sit nor stand, nor buy nor sell, but look about them a little, and pass presently home again; and these are infants and young ones, who end their short market in the morning, and get but a short view of the Fair. Our Lord, who hath numbered man’s months and set him bounds that he cannot pass (Job xiv. 5), hath written the length of our market, and it is easier to complain of the decree than to change it.

I verily believe, when I write this, your Lord hath taught your Ladyship to lay your hand on your mouth. But I shall be far from desiring your Ladyship, or any others, to cast by a cross, like an old useless bill that is only for the fire; but rather would wish each cross were looked in the face seven times, and were read over and over again. It is the messenger of the Lord, and speaks something; and the man of understanding will hear the rod, and Him that hath appointed it. Try what is the taste of the Lord’s cup, and drink with God’s blessing, that ye may grow thereby. I trust in God, whatever speech it utter to your soul, this is one word in it, “Behold, blessed is the man whom God correcteth” (Job v. 17); and that it saith to you, “Ye are from home while here; ye are not of this world, as your Redeemer, Christ, was not of this world.” There is something keeping for you, which is worth the having.

All that is here is condemned to die, to pass away like a snowball before a summer sun; and since death took first possession of something of yours, it hath been and daily is creeping nearer and nearer to yourself, howbeit with no noise of feet. Your Husbandman and Lord hath lopped off some branches already; the tree itself is to be transplanted to the high garden. In a good time be it. Our Lord ripen your Ladyship. All these crosses (and indeed, when I remember them, they are heavy and many, peace, peace be the end of them!) are to make you white and ripe for the Lord’s harvest-hook. I have seen the Lord weaning you from the breasts of this world. It was never His mind it should be your patrimony; and God be thanked for that. Ye look the like one of the heirs. Let the movables go; why no? They are not yours. Fasten your grips upon the heritage; and our Lord Jesus make the charters sure, and give your Ladyship to grow as a palm-tree on God’s mount Zion; howbeit shaken with winds, yet the root is fast. This is all I can do, to recommend your case to your Lord, who hath you written upon the palms of His hand. If I were able to do more, your Ladyship may believe me that gladly I would. I trust shortly to see your Ladyship. Now He who hath called you confirm and stablish your heart in grace, unto the Day of the Liberty of the Sons of God.

Your Ladyship’s at all submissive obedience in his sweet Lord Jesus,

S. R.

Antwoth, April 29, 1634.

Rutherford, Samuel Letters of Samuel Rutherford (Carlisle: Banner of Truth, 2006), 97-99. (I edited the text for ease in reading)

The Thorny Hedge of Daily Grief, Loss of Children

Letter IV. To the Elect and Noble Lady, my Lady Kenmure, on occasion of the death of her infant daughter.

(TRIBULATION THE PORTION OF GOD’S PEOPLE, AND INTENDED TO WEAN THEM FROM THE WORLD.)

MADAM,

Saluting your ladyship with grace and mercy from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,

I was sorry, at my departure, leaving your Ladyship in grief, and would still be grieved at it, if I were not assured that ye have One with you in the furnace, whose visage is like unto the Son of God. I am glad that ye have been acquainted from your youth with the wrestlings of God, and that ye get scarce liberty to swallow down your spittle, being casten from furnace to furnace, knowing if ye were not dear to God, and if your health did not require so much of Him, He would not spend so much physic upon you.

All the brethren and sisters of Christ must be conform to His image and copy in suffering (Rom. viii. 29). And some do more vively resemble the copy than others. Think, Madam, that it is a part of your glory to be enrolled among those whom one of the elders pointed out to John, “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Behold your Forerunner going out of the world all in a lake of blood, and it is not ill to die as He did. Fulfil with joy the remnant of the grounds and “remainders of the afflications of Christ” in your body (Col. i. 24).

Ye have lost a child: nay she is not lost to you who is found to Christ. She is not sent away, but only sent before, like unto a star, which going out of our sight doth not die and vanish, but shineth in another hemisphere. Ye see her not, yet she doth shine in another country. If her glass was but a short hour, what she wanteth of time that she hath gotten of eternity; and ye have to rejoice that ye have now some plenishing up in heaven. Build your nest upon no tree here; for ye see God hath sold and forest to death; and every tree whereupon we would rest is ready to be cut down, to the end we may fly (In the earlier editions it is given “fly” throughout; not “flee.”) and mount up, and build upon the Rock, and dwell in the holes of the Rock. What ye love besides Jesus, your husband, is an adulterous lover.

Now it is God’s special blessing to Judah, that He will not let her find her paths in following her strange lovers. “Therefore, behold I will hedge up her way with thorns, and make a wall that she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them” (Hos. ii. 6, 7). O thrice happy Judah, when God buildeth a double stone wall betwixt her and the fire of hell!

The world, and the things of the world, Madam, is the lover ye naturally affect beside your husband Christ. The hedge of thorns and the wall which God buildeth in your way, to hinder you from this lover, is the thorny hedge of daily grief, loss of children, weakness of body, iniquity of the time, uncertainty of estate, lack of worldly comfort, fear of God’s anger for old unrepented-of sins. What lose ye, if God twist and plait the hedge daily thicker? God be blessed, the Lord will not let you find your paths. Return to your first husband. Do not weary, neither think that death walketh towards you with a slow pace. Ye must be riper ere ye be shaken. Your days are no longer than Job’s, that were “swifter than a post, and passed away as the ships of desire, and as the eagle that hasteth for the prey” (ix. 25, 26, margin). There is less sand in your glass now than there was yesternight.

This span-length of ever-posting time will soon be ended. But the greater is the mercy of God, the more years ye get to advise, upon what terms, and upon what conditions, ye cast your soul in the huge gulf of never-ending eternity. The Lord hath told you what ye should be doing till He come. “Wait and hasten,” saith Peter, “for the Coming of our Lord.” All is night and is here, in respect of ignorance and daily ensuing troubles, one always making way to another, as the ninth wave of the sea to the tenth; therefore sigh and long for the dawning of that morning, and the breaking of that day of the Coming of the Son of Man, when the shadows shall flee away. Persuade yourself the King is coming; read His letter sent before Him, “Behold, I come quickly” (Rev. iii. 11). Wait with the wearied night-watch for the breaking of the eastern sky, and think that ye have not a morrow. As the wise father said, who, being invited against to-morrow to dine with his friend, answered, “Those many days I have had no morrow at all.” I am loth to weary you.

Show yourself a Christian, by suffering without murmuring, for which sin fourteen thousand and seven hundred were slain (Numb. xvi. 49). In patience possess your soul. They lose nothing who gain Christ. Thus remembering my brother’s and my wife’s humble service to your Ladyship, I commend you to the mercy and grace of our Lord Jesus, assuring you that your day is coming, and that God’s mercy is abiding you. The Lord Jesus be with your spirit.

Yours in the Lord Jesus at all dutiful obedience.

S. R.

Antworth, Jan. 15, 1629

Rutherford, Samuel Letters of Samuel Rutherford (Carlisle: Banner of Truth, 2006), 40-42. (I edited the text for ease in reading)

Let God Have His Own

Letter II. To a Christian Gentlewoman on the death of her daughter.

(CHRIST’S SYMPATHY WITH, AND PROPERTY IN US – REASONS FOR RESIGNATION.)

MISTRESS,

My love in Christ remembered to you. I was indeed sorrowful at my departure from you, especially since ye were in such heaviness after your daughter’s death. Yet I do persuade myself, ye know that the weightiest end of the cross of Christ that is laid upon you lieth upon your strong Saviour; for Isaiah saith, “In all your afflictions He is afflicted” (Isa. lxiii. 9). O blessed Second who suffereth with you! and glad may your soul be even to walk in the fiery furnace with one like unto the Son of Man, who is also the Son of God. Courage! up your heart! When ye do tire, He will bear both you and your burden (Ps. lv. 22). Yet a little while and ye shall see the salvation of God. Remember of what age your daughter was, and that just so long was your lease of her. If she was eighteen, nineteen, or twenty years old, I know not; but sure I am, seeing her term was come, and your lease run out, ye can no more justly quarrel your great Superior for taking His own at His just term day, than a poor farmer can complain that his master taketh a portion of his own land to himself when his lease is expired.

Good mistress, if ye would not be content that Christ would hold from you the heavenly inheritance which is made yours by His death, shall not that same Christ think hardly of you if ye refuse to give Him your daughter willingly, who is a part of His inheritance and conquest? I pray the Lord to give you all your own, and to grace you with patience to give God His also. He is an ill debtor who payeth that which he hath borrowed with a grudge. Indeed, that long loan of such a good daughter, an heir of grace, a member of Christ (as I believe), deserveth more thanks at your Creditor’s hands, than that ye should gloom and murmur when He craveth but His own. I believe you would judge them to be but thankless neighbours who would pay you a sum of money after this manner. But what? Do you think her lost, when she is but sleeping in the bosom of the Almighty? Think her not absent who is in such a friend’s house. Is he lost to you who is found to Christ? If she were with a dear friend, although you should never see her again, your care for her would be but small. Oh, now, is she not a dear Friend? and gone higher, upon a certain hope that ye shall, in the Resurrection, see her again, when (be ye sure) she shall neither be hectic nor consumed in body? You would be sorry either to be, or to be esteemed, an atheist; and yet, not I, but the Apostle, thinketh those to be hopeless atheists who mourn excessively for the dead (Thess. iv. 13).

But this is not a challenge on my part. I do speak this only fearing your weakness; for your daughter was a part of yourself; and, therefore, nature in you, being as it were cut and halved, will indeed be grieved. But ye have to rejoice, that when a part of you is on earth, a great part of you is glorified in heaven. Follow her, but envy her not; for indeed it is self-love in us that maketh us mourn for them that die in the Lord. Why? Because for them we cannot mourn, since they are never happy till they be dead; therefore we mourn for our own private respect. Take heed, then, that in showing your affection in mourning for your daughter, ye be not, out of self-affection, mourning for yourself.

Consider what the Lord is doing in it. Your daughter is plucked out of the fire, and she resteth from her labours; and your Lord, in that, is trying you and casting you in the fire. Go through all fires to your rest; and now remember that the eye of God is upon the bush burning and not consumed; and He is gladly content that such a weak woman as you should send Satan away, frustrate of his design.

Now honour God, and shame the strong roaring lion, when ye seem weakest. Should such an one as ye faint in the day of adversity? Call to mind the days of old. The Lord yet liveth. Trust in Him, although He should slay you. Faith is exceeding charitable, and believeth no evil of God (So in his “sermon before the House of Lords,” 1645: “Faith thinketh no evil of Christ.” Also Letterrs XX. and XCIL. : “Love believeth no evil.”). Now is the Lord laying, in the one scale of the balance, your making conscience of submission to His gracious will, and in the other, your affection and love to your daughter. Which of the two will ye then choose to satisfy? Be wise, then; and as I trust ye love Christ better than a sinful woman, pass by your daughter, and kiss the Lord’s rod. Men do lop the branches off their trees round about, to the end they may grow up high and tall. The Lord hath this way lopped your branch in taking from you many children, to the end you should grow upward, like one of the Lord’s cedars, setting your heart above, where Christ is, at the right hand of the Father. What is next, but that your Lord cut down the stock after He hath cut the branches? Prepare yourself; you are nearer your daughter this day than you were yesterday. While ye prodigally spend time in mourning for her, ye are speedily posting after her. Run your race with patience. Let God have His own; and ask of Him, instead of your daughter which He hath taken from you, the daughter of faith, which is patience; and in patience possess your soul. Lift up your head: ye do not know how hear your redemption doth draw, Thus recommending you to the Lord, who is able to establish you, I rest, your loving and affectionate friend in the Lord Jesus,

S. R.

Antworth, April 23, 1628.

Rutherford, Samuel Letters of Samuel Rutherford (Carlisle: Banner of Truth, 2006), 34-36.

Pray for Pastors Today

This morning's "Morning by Morning" is a really good encouragement to us to pray for pastors. Check it out, and pray for your pastors:

July 7
Brothers, pray for us
1 Thessalonians 5:25

This one morning in the year we reserved to remind each reader of the importance of praying for ministers, and we earnestly implore every Christian household to heed this request first uttered by Paul and now repeated by us. Brothers, our work is solemnly momentous, involving good or ill to thousands; we deal with souls for God on eternal business, and our word is either a savor of life unto life or of death unto death. A very heavy responsibility rests upon us, and it will be no small mercy if at the last we be found clear of the blood of all men. As officers in Christ's army, we are the special target of the hostility of men and devils; they watch for our faltering and work to trip us at the heels. Our sacred calling involves us in temptations from which you are exempt; above all it too often draws us away from our personal enjoyment of truth into a ministerial and official consideration of it. We meet with many difficult cases, and our wits are at a quandary; we observe very sad backslidings, and our hearts are wounded; we see millions perishing, and our spirits sink. We wish to encourage you by our preaching; we desire to be a blssing to your children; we long to be useful both to saints and sinners. Therefore, dear friends, intercede for us with our God. We are miserable men if we miss the help of your prayers, but happy are we if we live in your supplications. You do not look to us but to our Master for spiritual blessings, and yet how many times has He given those blessings through His ministers; ask then, again and again, that we may be the earthen vessels into which the Lord may put the treasure of the Gospel. We, the whole company of missionaries, ministers, and students, do in the name of Jesus beseech you: "Brothers, pray for us."

Spurgeon, Charles H. Morning by Morning Revised and updated by Alistair Begg (Wheaton: Crossway, 2007), 201.

On the Death of Children

My last post of Chalmers' letter to Mrs. M'Corquodale reminded me of this excerpt from a new book that the Founders Ministry has put out. Below is the chapter by Basil Manly, Sr.

Reflections on the uncertainty of human prospects, and the brevity of life chasten our worldly attachments.

As pilgrims we are reminded that this is not our rest, and are forbidden to love the world or the things of it...

Whith regard to children, particularly, as so large a portion of their lives is spent in helplessness, and so much of their future well-being depends on the care which is bestowed on their infancy and youth, God has opened two abundant fountains in nature to supply the streams of affection.

They are a part of our selves. They take our names, wear our features, and our blood runs in their veins...

The care and attention bestowed on their helpless years endear and strengthen affection - and for the same reason that benevolence is a stronger affection than gratitude...the love of a parent to a child is greater than that of a child to a parent.

Bereavement of children therefore is on this account more poignant and at the same time, the disparity of grief is further increased by the fact that parents have fewer mitigations than children for the most part have.

As to the death of parents, the course of nature leads us to anticipate their departure and the expectation diminishes the shock of this final fall.

But that of children is unexpected. We did not think to survive them, had hoped to be proffered in declining years to live again [with] them, and thus to mingle...with future generations.

Add to this, that in almost every instance there is some peculiarly touching circumstance which is affecting to a parent's mind, more than to that of any other relation...

We are not surprised therefore at the feelings which some have manifested - David for Absalom; Jacob for Joseph - It is what many feel.

This however was immoderate - Jacob afterwards was brought to a better mind. Under more complicated evils of the same kind he said, "If I be bereaved, etc."

Let it be so - explained by Esther 4:16; Acts 21:14.

How shall we hope to arrive at such a state of mind?

Passing by those considerations which are a common relief to all the afflicted, we shall notice those which seem to have contributed to Jacob's resignation.

1. A perception of the hadn of God as our Father in it. In the supposed of loss of Joseph, the peculiar circumstances turned his mind more to the immediate causes. Now he sees the hand of God. Wise, good, merciful, all-sufficient, etc. "I was dumb, etc."

2. The subduing affect of repeated affliction. At first he was like a bullock unaccustomed. What could have persuaded him when he said, "My son shall not go," that he could be brought to consent? The Lord knows how to make us bow to receive the yoke.

3. The conviction that in dismissing Benjamin he was acting out of a sense of duty, as pointed out by Providence. It would seem Jacob had a view to the welfare of them all and probably might not have been without some expectation that the promise of Abraham was now to be fulfilled. Genesis 15:13-14. It is true to some as Joseph said, God sends our children before to save life... They go before to people the new celestial country, and wait to welcome us to our final home.

Let us cease to weep.

1. Moderate attachment - make not food for grief.
2. As Joseph said to Rachel, God with more propriety may say to us, "Am not I better than 10 sons?"

[Marginal note: Preached on Sabbath after the death of my dear little John, who died November 6, 1830 at 1/4 past 6 of Saturday evening. I was absent at the time. This was preached Sabbath, November 14, 1830]

[Marginal note: To this sermon Mrs. Ker Boyce (mother of Dr. J. P. Boyce) referred her conversion. (Sarah Manly)]

[Basil Manly, Sr., "Bereavement of Children," sermon preached on November 14, 1830, Basil Manly Manuscripts Sermons and Notes, James P. Boyce Centenniel Library Archives, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky. Manly based this sermon for John Waldo Manly (see prior chapter in Soldiers of Christ ed. Haykin, Duke, Fuller), on Genesis 43:14, "If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved."]

Manly Sr., Basil Soldiers of Christ: Selections from the Writings of Basil Manly, Sr., & Basil Manly, Jr. (Cape Coral: Founders Press, 2009), 79-81.

The Evanescence of Our Present World

No. CCCLXL - To Mrs. M'Corquodale
St. Andrews, 17th October 1827

My Dear Madam,

I very sincerely condole with you on the heavy bereavement which you have been called upon to suffer, the first loss I understand in your family, and which, in the absence yet of all personal experience myself upon the subject, I should regard as far more trying to nature than the dissolution of any other relationship. Affection points more strongly downwards - as from a parent to children - than in any other direction; and when I think of the suddenness of your daughter's death, her interesting age, and the many cares and attentions which the delicacy of her health has required from you, and which all go to strengthen affections and add to its tenderness - the shock you have experienced must be of no common severity. And what other comfort has one liable to the same visitations to offer, but those considerations which are familiar to all, though practically felt by few, even the evanescence of our present world, and the bliss and brightness of that invisible Heaven, where sorrow and separation are unknown.

We hear on these occasions of melancholy of the healing influence of time, and refuge is often taken in such expedients, as business, variety, and entertainments. These may soothe, but they do not sanctify. They drown the painful recollection; whereas the recollection should be kept alive and made the instrument of weaning our desires and expectations from a scene so transitory. The worldly would stifle the thought - the Christian softens it by pointing his eye upwards to God and forwards to eternity.

I am, yours, &c.,
Thomas Chalmers

Chalmers, Thomas Letters of Thomas Chalmers (Carlisle: Banner of Truth, 2007), 468.

To Lean Upon the World is to Lean Upon a Foundation of Dust

No. CCCLIX.

On Visiting a Family in which a Sudden Death had Occurred.

My Dear Sir,

I am so particularly taken up by previous arrangements to-day, and, I fear, also to-morrow, that I shall not be able to see you again so soon personally as I could wish. But the scene of last night makes me very desirous of communicating with you some way or other. I was very thankful you invited me to witness it, for it was a truly impressive one, and eminently fitted to stir up in the heart of every behold a salutary feeling of the vain and transient character of our present pilgrimage; and I trust I felt that it is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting, for that is indeed the end of all men, and that the living may lay it to heart. In a disaster so big, and at the same time so sudden and unlooked for as that which has come upon yourself and family, it is impossible to minister any effectual consolation without you go to the root of the matter - everything short of that argument which embraces the great elements of religion, and eternity, and the soul, and its meetness for th eenjoyment of God in Heaven, is but superficial and vain.

The healing influence of time will bring round the mind an afflicted man even without Christianity to its wonted tone; but how desirable that our comfort should be secured on a better foundation, that it should come to a place int he heart not by the mere wearing away of sorrow, but by the firm suggestions of an understanding exercising itself on the realities of faith, and fetching from the Divine Word such considerations as will bring peace and the peaceable fruits of righteousness along with them.

You feel now what you never felt so nearly and so experimentally before, that the world ought never to be counted a place of rest. It is indeed a great delusion ever to feel otherwise; but still it is a delusion which is always hanging about us, and that attaches to the fallen and estranged state of our natures from God. At this moment the delusion is in your case for a time broken up. I prophesy that it will again return if there be no visitation of grace from on high - no anointing which remaineth - no favourable and abiding demonstration of the Spirit of God to advance your present feeling into a practical habit and principle of the soul. You are at this moment made most intimately and effectually to understand, that to lean upon the world is to lean up on a foundation of dust; that to build your tabernacle here, is to build your house upon the sand; and that nothing will fill and satisfy the soul and enable it to stand all the changes and vicissitudes of this eventful pilgrimage, but a renouncing of the world as our home, and taking the inheritance that endureth for ever as our portion.

I know nothing that more effectually hinders a man from venturing his all on Christ than that divided state of affections in either of which he would like to reserve a portion to himself. "You will not come unto me that you may have life." You never, my dear Sir, were in more favourable circumstances for an unqualified resignation of all into His hands than at this moment; to whom else, alas, can you go?

You never got so buried to the world as now when the dearest of all its objects has been torn away from you - when the desire of your heart has been cut down by a stroke - when your family are all in sad grief, desponding under the pressure of a great unlooked for and overwhelming visitation. Do improve the favourable season with all your might to be a new creature in Christ Jesus; let all old things be done away, andd all things become new; the very retirement will animate and bear you up under the heaviness of your present circumstances, and present calamity will indeed be a blessing in disguise if it lead you to a close alliance with Him who, though a God, is also a Saviour.

I am, &c.,
Thomas Chalmers

Chalmers, Thomas Letters of Thomas Chalmers (Carlisle: Banner of Truth, 2007), 464-466 [I edited this for clarity in reading.]

Nothing More Disorderly than Applause

P. H. Mell was the president of the Southern Baptist Convention for fifteen years. I was at the SBC annual convention this year and it was a wonderful time, but taking into account how the assembly gave applause for everything and gave standing ovations to most things I think, based upon the following quote from his biography, P. H. Mell would roll over in his grave if he witnessed the business meeting of the SBC today:

"In the chair sat the venerable Dr. Mell, whose piercing eye, gray hair, tall, straight person, indicated penetration, thought and firmness. The prince of parliamentarians, he rules the body with measured ease. 'I appeal from the decision of the chair,' is becoming beautifully less, and Dr. Mell, in the Southern Baptist Convention, is almost instinctively recognized as President without the vote of acclamation. Upon motion of Rev. G. A. Nunnally, of Georgia, Dr. P. H. Mell was elected President by acclamation. The result was heard with applause, whereupon the President suggested that nothing is more disorderly than applause in a religious assembly."

Mell, Jr., P. H. The Life of Patrick Hues Mell (Harrisonburg: Gano Books, 1991), 165.

Bruised Reed

In Richard Sibbes' little book The Bruised Reed he meditates on what it means to be a bruised reed in a list of eight qualities. Check it out and pray that God would help us to see how we are bruised reeds with a Savior who will not break us.

But how shall we know whether we are such as may expect mercy?

(1) By the bruised here is not meant those that are brought low only by crosses, but by such as, by them, are brought to see their sin, which bruises most of all. When conscience is under the guilt of sin, then every judgment brings a report of God's anger to the soul, and all lesser troubles run into this great trouble of conscience for sin. As all corrupt humours run to the diseased and bruised part of the body, and as every creditor falls upon the debtor when he is once arrested, so when conscience is once awaked, all former sins and present crosses join together to make the bruise more painful. Now, he that is thus bruised will be content with nothing but with mercy from him who has bruised him. He has wounded, and he must heal (Hos. 6:1). The Lord who has bruised me deservedly for my sins must bind up my heart again.

(2) Again, a man truly bruised judges sin the great evil, and the favour of God the greatest good.

(3) He would rather hear of mercy than of a kingdom.

(4) He has poor opnions of himself, and thinks that he is not worth the earth he treads on.

(5) Towards others he is not censorious, as being taken up at home, but is full of sympathy and compassion to those who are under God's hand.

(6) He thinks that those who walk in the comforts of God's Spirit are the happiest men in the world.

(7) He trembles at the Word of God (Isa. 66:2), and honours the very feet of those blessed instruments that bring peace unto him (Rom. 10:15).

(8) He is more taken up with the inward exercises of a broken heart than with formality, and is yet careful to use all sanctified means to convey comfort.

Sibbes, Richard The Bruised Reed (Carlisle: Banner of Truth, 2008), 10-11. And/or Sibbes, Richard Works of Richard Sibbes Volume One The Bruised Reed and Smoking Flax (Carlisle: Banner of Truth, 2001), 46-47.

The Camel Method Part 2

This is a follow-up to a post I did back in 2007, The Camel Method.

Here is a good 9Marks book review of it. Check it out if you are interested and have the time.

Book Review by Doug Coleman of The Camel