Here is a timely word

Here is a timely word, to pastors, from Pastor Albert Martin, a faithful servant of God.

Be determined more than ever to be a godly Christ like man in the totality of your redeemed humanity. What your people most need, and what an on-looking world most needs in your ministry, is a man who in his person in the totality of his redeemed humanity is both an exemplarity validation and an illustration of the power of the gospel. We all know the text, “I am not ashamed of the gospel it is the power of God unto salvation.”

When and where that power is operative, what does it produce?  Anyone who knows you, anyone who knows me; anyone who has opportunity to look upon the rhythms, the patterns, the contours of our lives should be able to say, “Do you want to know what the power of the gospel does? Look at that man; he is an imperfect but real and undeniable manifestation of that power!”

This was the great burden of the Apostle Paul in the influence that he had with his younger colleagues, when he writes to Timothy giving him what we would call as a back breaking litany of ministerial responsibilities, among the churches.  A tremendously broad scope of responsibilities, yet in the midst of it he says to Timothy, “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity” In all your labors Timothy, you are to be the embodiment of your message.

If people listen to you and people appropriate to themselves an intelligent faith, what you are instructing them to be and do, Timothy, be that in yourself!

David Charles

Providence Reformed Baptist Church

Toledo, Ohio

Paul: War-Monger for the Truth

The widening influence of a sub-biblical world-view within Christian circles manifests itself in many ways: the diminishing emphasis upon the reality of God’s Word as the certain touchstone of truth; the lack of passion for its study and application; the odd and strange appearance of those who lay claim to the name “Christian” and even “Reformed” and yet who do not mind redefining almost every single aspect of what it has always meant to be Christian or Reformed.

I was recently referred to these words:

I did my time as an “apologist”. The more I move away from it, the more I feel I’m finding a balance and a peace I never knew, and never would have known, had I continued being a War-Monger for The Truth.

Now, it is always best to acknowledge any possible truth in a statement, and surely I know of some who call themselves apologists and who are disagreeable just for the sake of being disagreeable. But since this same writer has applied the phrase “War-Monger” to me, particularly, in the past, I have to wonder: was Jude being a “war-monger” when he exhorted us to agonize for the faith once for all delivered to the saints? Was John being a “war-monger” when he wrote 1 John and took specific aim at the proto-gnostic docetists who were troubling the Christian congregation? And surely the Apostle Paul lacked all balance and peace when writing Galatians, let alone Colossians!

You see, there are two motivations for doing apologetics, one wrong, one good. You can do apologetics because you are afraid of challenges, and feel that your defense of your faith somehow insulates you from those challenges and bolsters your faith. That leads to bad, unbalanced apologetics. Or, you can do apologetics because you honor and value the Word of God and the truth of God and hence seek to honor Him through the offering of a defense of His truth, knowing this brings God glory, and is the necessary action of one who believes what you believe. That’s why I do apologetics. What kind of peace, I wonder, does one find when the battle continues to wage around us? It is the peace of surrender, the peace of compromise. It is the peace of defining the enemy as my friend, the peace that no longer stands firm but instead “goes with the flow.” It is a peace I pray God will never let me seek.

James White
Alpha and Omega Ministries

Abstract

We were able to get our hands on an abstract of the new book due out by Dr. Richard Barcellos.  The book should be available soon from Reformed Baptist Academic press.

The thesis of this study is that Geerhardus Vos’ biblical-theological method should be viewed as a post-Enlightenment continuation of the pre-critical federal theology of seventeenth-century Reformed orthodoxy. Vos wrote in the context of the liberalism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His biblical-theological methodology was largely a resuscitation of the federal theology of seventeenth-century Reformed orthodoxy adapted to the times in which it was written. It will be argued, therefore, that Vos should not be viewed as a novelty and/or radical paradigm shift within the Reformed theological tradition. John Owen will be used as a case test in comparing Vos’ methodology with that of the seventeenth-century federal theology of Reformed orthodoxy. Two books will be the primary focus of the comparison and analysis of Vos and Owen – Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments by Geerhardus Vos[1] and Theologoumena pantodapa, sive, De natura, ortu, progressu et studio, verae theologiae (Theological Affirmations of All Sorts, Or, Of the Nature, Rise, Progress, and Study, of True Theology[2]) by John Owen. The recently published English translation of Owen’s work is entitled Biblical Theology or The Nature, Origin, Development, and Study of Theological Truth in Six Books.

The dissertation contains four major sections. The first section (PART I: PROLEGOMENA) provides an overall introduction to the dissertation and a brief and broad survey of the history of the discipline of biblical theology. The introduction poses several questions that will be answered in the course of the dissertation. In the survey of the history of biblical theology special focus will be placed upon Reformed theologians, especially when those of the pre-critical, post-Reformation seventeenth century (Owen’s era) and the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Vos’ era) are discussed. This survey will be conducted to put federal theology and biblical theology in their respective historical contexts.

The second section (PART II: BIOGRAPHICAL, HISTORICAL, AND THEOLOGICAL) will discuss Geerhardus Vos and John Owen separately. It is comprised of a brief biography of Vos, and then a discussion of the historical-theological context in which Vos thought, taught, and to which he contributed. The section on Owen does basically the same thing – a brief biography and then a historical-theological discussion placing Owen in his seventeenth-century Reformed orthodox context. This will set the context for PART III, where the analysis of the two books mentioned above will be conducted.

The third section (PART III: ANALYSIS) forms the heart of the dissertation. It follows a linear, redemptive-historical approach, which can be found in both Vos and Owen. Both books mentioned above were studied section by section simultaneously. The outline is, roughly speaking, that of Vos. Each section considers Vos’ then Owen’s thoughts on the issue(s) at hand. An attempt was made to avoid anachronisms while studying Owen. Since Vos is a well-known commodity as a Reformed biblical theologian, his work forms the basis upon which Owen is compared. Attempt was made to identify elements of biblical theology first in Vos and then seek for similar elements and patterns in Owen. What will be amply observed is that Vos resurrected federal theology and adapted it to his post-Enlightenment context under the rubric of biblical theology.

The fourth section (PART IV: CONCLUSION) will be a discussion in light of our findings. It will compare and contrast, if and when necessary, Vos and Owen. It will offer some suggestions in terms of where and how Vos fits within the history of biblical theology and, especially, how he relates to Owen and the federal theology of the seventeenth-century Reformed orthodox.

The dissertation also contains two appendices: (1) an analytical outline of the dissertation and (2) a discussion on the Decalogue in the thought of key Reformed theologians with special reference to John Owen.

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[1] Geerhardus Vos, Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1948, reprinted, June 1988), referenced as BTV here on out.

[2] This is J. I. Packer’s translation of the Latin title. Cf. John Owen, Biblical Theology or The Nature, Origin, Development, and Study of Theological Truth in Six Books (Pittsburgh, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1994), xii, referenced as BTO here on out.