Biblical Studies

I'm once again appreciating the rich contribution that J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937) has made both in New Testament studies and in apologetics. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, he was educated at Johns Hopkins, Princeton University and Seminary, Marburg, and Gottingen. Ordained in 1914, he taught New Testament at Princeton Seminary from 1906 to 1929. He, along with others, founded Westminster Theological Seminary (in Philadelphia, PA) and served as president and professor of NT until his death in 1937.  Among his most significant publications are Christianity and Liberalism (1923), What is Faith? (1925), The Origin of Paul's Religion (1927); and The Virgin Birth of Christ (1930). His popular radio messages have been published in book form as Things Unseen in 2020 by Westminster Seminary Press. Below are some random highlights from my past reading in Machen's books.  From Christianity and Liberalism (1923) “The truth is that the life-purpose of Jesus discovered by modern li

My heart is empty.  All the fountains that should run  With longing, are in me Dried up. In all my countryside there is not one  That drips to find the sea. I have no care for anything thy love can grant  Except the moment's vain And hardly noticed filling of the moment's want  And to be free from pain. Oh, thou that art unwearying, that dost neither sleep  Nor slumber, who didst take All care for Lazarus in the careless tomb, oh keep Watch for me till I wake. If thou think for me that I cannot think, if thou Desire for me what I  Cannot desire, my soul's interior Form, though now  Deep-buried, will not die, -- No more than the insensible dropp'd seed which grows Through winter ripe for birth  Because, while it forgets, the heaven remembering throws  Sweet influence still on earth, -- Because the heaven, moved moth-like by thy beauty, goes Still turning round the earth.   C. S. Lewis, The Pilgrim's Regress (1932) Image credit: sculpture by Spe

In our adult Sunday school class, we are studying the book of Esther. Here's a timeline for that period... And here is a reading guide for Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.  

When I came to faith in Jesus Christ in 1971, one of the early encouragements that I received was learning about the many prophecies in the Old Testament that testified to the coming Messiah, our Lord Jesus.  Along with teaching regarding the reliable eyewitness accounts of the New Testament apostles, I was realizing that my trust in Christ was not based upon a psychological mood or wish fulfillment. ( Frankly, at first, I did not wish to be changed in the way Jesus would bring changes... ) My faith was resting on historical events and upon prophetic witness.  In his Pensées, Section 11 (The Prophecies), Blaise Pascal (above) writes that it is one thing for a person, one individual, to make predictions before an event takes place, and quite another for many different individuals to make a variety of predictions over centuries of time, all of which are all fulfilled in turn. He writes...  When I see the blindness and the wretchedness of man, when I regard the whole silent universe, and

"First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way." (1 Timothy 2:1-2 ESV) "But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare." (Jeremiah 29:7 ESV) In thinking through these verses (and others) it strikes me that we should not engage in prayer which is politically partisan.  If a person is a leader of our nation, or was a leader in our nation, we should pray that God would heal, protect, and guide them into righteousness.  This we pray, not only for their own sake, but also for the welfare of our nation. If we pray only for our favored leaders, then we reveal our unbelief in the sovereignty of God and his guiding hand in history.  We, as believers in the sovereign Lord are not to be part

One of the errors in discussions regarding racism and social justice, I believe, is that injustice is viewed almost totally in categorical or socio-economic terms (similar to Marxist thought), rather than in the full light of biblical justice, which includes individual, moral considerations.  Recently, I came across some quotes from Dorothy Sayers (1893--1957) who was a friend and contemporary of C. S. Lewis. I've always enjoyed her mystery stories and was deeply impressed with her book, The Mind of the Maker (1941).  In thinking through the legitimate issues raised by the feminists of her day, she sounded warnings on the danger of categorization, that is, in being too prone to deal simply with racial, gender, economic, and class distinctions. She wrote...    “It is the mark of all movements, however well-intentioned, that their pioneers tend, by much lashing of themselves into excitement, to lose sight of the obvious. That 'obvious,' all too often, was the basic humanity