The voice of Wisdom points to God as the source of wisdom, so wisdom is to be found in the “fear of the Lord” (Job 28:20-28; Prov 1:7; 9:10). Human understanding alone, though it is God given, is not sufficient for wisdom: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” (Prov 3:5 NIV). The pursuit of knowledge attempted without reference to God is at best precarious and distorted, and if persistently pursued becomes seriously misleading and damaging.

“Teacher, Teaching” in Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, 842.

What is covenant theology? It hardly seems fair to suggest that something is so important without defining clearly what that thing is. Covenant theology, which sometimes is called federal theology, is the study of God’s eternal, unchanging purpose to bring a people to Himself through covenantal relationship. God has approached His people through covenant and He has worked through covenant to make them His own, and thus covenant theology uses that same covenantal structure to understand both God Himself and the redemption He has accomplished.

STEPHEN G. MYERS, GOD TO US – COVENANT THEOLOGY IN SCRIPTURE, 14.

God is the great teacher of the Bible. The whole course of the biblical story can be viewed as God’s instruction.

“Teacher, Teaching” in Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, 842.

The Kingdom is that overarching dome, of which the Church is a reflection. Just as it is never the blue of the lake that determines the blue of the sky, but always the blue of the sky that determines the blue of the lake; so then it is the pattern of the Kingdom that determines the origin and redemptive purpose of every church; and the spiritual nature of the Kingdom that determines the standards of spirituality in all the “services” of the church; and the (unlimited) extent of Christ’s kingdom that determines the mission vision of each church.

Roy Blackwood, The King and His Kingdom, 18-19.

Q. How are we to promote and preserve our spiritual life? — A. By diligently attending on gospel ordinances, and receiving and improving Christ in them, Isa. 55:1-3, 6-7.

Q. What calmness of spirit is necessary to promote our spiritual life? — A. Our conscience quieted with the blood of Jesus; our spirit meekened by the love of God; and comforted with the views of our saving relation to him.

John Brown of Haddington, Questions and Answers on the Shorter Catechism, 245.

To “think” Kingdom as well as to know the facts about it, because He said “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. . .”[Phil. 2:5]. His “Kingdom” is more than just a well-constructed, long-range plan for His world and His Heaven, it is a way of thinking which will affect everything we say and do in personal, family, church and political relationships.

Roy Blackwood, The King and His Kingdom, 3.

For it is not the prerogative of the church to define either its status or activity. It is Christ’s church, not humankind’s. It is Christ, therefore, who declares both that his church shall have a government and what the nature of that government will be. This he has done through the inspired Scriptures. The principle of “Scripture alone” (as opposed to the prelatic Scripture plus tradition) must prevail for determining both the type of government and how it should function. Thus as in the worship service, so also in its structure and government, we have the “regulative principle” of Scripture.

David W. Hall & Joseph H. Hall, Paradigms in Polity: Classic Readings in Reformed and Presbyterian Church Government, 4.

Theodore Beza once pointed out the strategic nature of good church government by considering it as Satan’s chief opposition: Satan “hopes that it is easier to overthrow it [i.e., the government of the church] than to overthrow the foundation which is doctrine.” Why, if Beza is correct, is church government vulnerable, and what makes it so necessary? Moreover, how has the history of church government pointed out that necessity? That is the focus of this introductory essay. Beza is surely correct in his contention that laxity in applying biblical principles of church government leads eventually to erosion of doctrine in the church. Therefore, we ought ever to be assiduously conforming church polity to biblical norms.

David W. Hall & Joseph H. Hall, Paradigms in Polity: Classic Readings in Reformed and Presbyterian Church Government, 3.

Amongst many who sought to deter me, was one dear old Christian gentleman, whose crowning argument always was, “The Cannibals! you will be eaten by Cannibals!” At last I replied, “Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or by worms; and in the Great Day my resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer.” The old gentleman, raising his hands in a deprecating attitude, left the room exclaiming, “After that I have nothing more to say!”

John G. Paton, The Autobiography of the Pioneer Missionary to the New Hebrides (Vanuatu), 56.

Q. How do minsters murder other men’s souls?

A. By entering into the ministry without God’s call, which renders their labor unprofitable; by neglecting due pains for their people’s instruction and conversion; by preaching error, or truth in a wrong manner; by administration of the sacraments to the ignorant and profane; and by their loose and carnal example, Jer. 23.

Q. How do ministers murder men’s souls by a wrong way of preaching truth?

A. By preaching the law as a covenant, as it might and should be obeyed by us to render us welcome to Christ as a Savior; by insisting chiefly on circumstantial points; by preaching to a multitude as if they were all saints, or in such a manner as makes saints discredit their relation to Christ, or forget the duty of the present times, Ezek. 33. Jer. 23.

Q. How do magistrates murder other men’s souls?

A. By not providing their subjects with schools, and a pure gospel ministry; and by not punishing, but encouraging error, superstition, and gross immorality, Mic. 6:16.

John Brown of Haddington, Questions and Answers on the Shorter Catechism, 249-250.