A few excerpts demonstrating my generalizations from the previous post:

“Whoever, then, thinks that he understands the Holy Scriptures, or any part of them, but puts such an interpretation upon them as does not tend to build up this two-fold love of God and our neighbor, does not yet understand them as he ought.”

“‘For we walk by faith, not by sight.’ Now faith will totter if the authority of Scripture begin to shake. And then, if faith toter, love itself will grow cold. For if a man has fallen from faith, he must necessarily also fall from love; for he cannot love what he does not believe to exist.”

“Accordingly the Holy Spirit has, with admirable wisdom and care for our welfare, so arranged the Holy Scriptures as by the plainer passages to satisfy our hunger, and by the more obscure to stimulate our appetite.”

“And by this sign of the cross all Christian action is symbolized, viz., to do good works in Christ, to cling with constancy to Him, to hope for heaven, and not to desecrate the sacraments.”

“Now Scripture enjoins nothing except charity, and condemns nothing except lust, and in that way fashions the lives of men. . . . Now Scripture asserts nothing but the catholic faith, in regard to things past, future, and present.”

“For the Church, without spot or wrinkle, gathered out of all nations, and destined to reign for ever with Christ, is itself the land of the blessed, the land of the living . . .”

Recently I have re-visited a handful of Saint Augustine’s works. For my undergraduate studies I was fortunate enough to take a course on Saint Augustine taught by Dr. Chris Bounds (fantastic course, fantastic teacher), but once again I have found the happy pleasure of marching through Augustine’s Confessions and Christian Teaching, and the experience has been, yet again, quite uplifting.

I find his writings utterly compelling. When I read his writings I feel as though they have been written and addressed to me. This feeling is similar to the way I feel on the Lord’s Day; I am sitting in a pew, I am listening to the sermon, and I feel as though the Pastor has peered into my soul and addressed my very own sin.

So, in addition to that, what is it exactly that I find to be so compelling about Saint Augustine? If I had to pin it down, I would emphasize three points: First, his hermeneutic of love; second, his pastoral concern; and third, his ability to write with the utmost emotion and sincerity. Pastor D.M. Lloyd-Jones once commented that the “lightning and thunder” of a pastor is oftentimes lost in a written text, but, with Saint Augustine, “lightning and thunder” is commonplace. His ability to communicate in love with livelihood is absolutely gripping.

Classical Protestantism consists of four branches: Lutheran, Calvinistic, Anglican, and Radical (Anabaptistic). Do you want to know what is confusing? It is confusing when each of these groups talk about themselves as though they alone are the true branch of Protestantism. I protest such a notion.

Classical Protestantism is no mere branch. It is Aaron’s rod, putting forth buds, producing blossoms, and bearing ripe almonds. Classical Protestantism is the Garden on a Mountain, with four nourishing streams flowing to the ends of the earth. Classical Protestantism is alive, beautiful, and fruitful. Praise be to God.

Classical Protestantism is the priesthood of all believers. Classical Protestantism is the reformation of and return to Biblical preaching. Classical Protestantism is 500 million strong…may their tribe increase! Again, Classical Protestantism is alive, beautiful, and fruitful. Praise be to God.

So, all that to say, Classical Protestantism is multi-faceted and uniquely diverse. Classical Protestantism is Pentecostal and Spirit-Filled, blowing to and fro like the wind. Three times I say, it is alive, beautiful, and fruitful. Classical Protestantism, however, is all of these things not in spite of the 33,000+ denominations (David B. Barrett), but because of it. Again, Praise be to God, and may their tribe increase.

“Language is not an accident of human nature; else might it utterly perish like other arts and inventions of man. it is an essential element of man’s being, and one which distinguishes him from the brute” (Milton Terry, Biblical Hermeneutics, p. 71).

“Thought and speech are God’s gifts to creatures made in His image; these are intimately associated with Him and impossible apart from Him. it is highly significant that the first word was the Word: ‘And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’ We may speak because God spoke. In him word and idea are indivisible” (A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, p. 2).

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Gospel of Saint Matthew, Chapter 28:18-20).

The Lord looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). Good looks and smooth words don’t fool God. “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me” Matthew 15:8. Do not be a hypocrite. If you want to be righteous, then draw near to God with both heart and speech.

God is omniscient (Psalm 139), he knows all and cannot be fooled. The Word made all things (John 1:2), he knows all and cannot be fooled. Wicked men are always trying to fool God, as well as their peers. Christians need to avoid being deceived by the smooth words of wicked men. Be like God, be holy and do not be deceived by false words. Do not be deceived into thinking that righteousness is merely eloquent speech. It require much, much more. Righteousness requires a renewed heart.

The Lord is Holy and is not fooled by wicked, smooth words, nor should the righteous. Therefore, consider the words of men carefully. Words are weighty and ought to be carefully considered. Words are weighty, so the righteous ought to use speech carefully. “The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth” Proverbs 10:20. The wicked do not consider the weight of their words; their hearts are of little worth. They do not understand that words and reality are intimately linked.

Consider the power of words. With words a Pastor declares that a man and woman have just been made “husband and wife”. That is powerful. The Pastor didn’t make them “husband and wife”, God did that. But what the Pastor is doing is declaring the truthfulness, that is, the objective fact of what has just occurred; he has declared that now they truly are “husband and wife,” whereas ten seconds ago they were not. This is what happens during Christian Baptism too. God saves you, not water and not the Pastor sprinkling it on your head. Your body was just baptized, that means something. Your wet, baptized body is an image, it is a picture. Pictures function like words in that they say something about reality. Your wet, baptized body is saying, “I’ve died with Christ, therefore, I will be raised with Christ and I will be saved from my sins…my body will not be abandoned to the grave because God grants eternal life to those who trust in him.”

God is not haphazard with words, nor should we be. Therefore, if you want to be righteous, then you should pray to God and ask him to transform your heart and speech. Heart and speech are not the sum of righteousness, however, it is helpful to think about them as grammar or building blocks for holy living.

FYI: If you are traveling to the Holy Land, do not take your iPad.

Here is a solid Vern Poythress quote from an interview: “Inerrancy is spiritually important because of the long-term consequences of denying it. If we come to think that there are errors in the Bible, we then allow ourselves to sort between what we think is good and what we think is bad. It is always we who end up doing the sorting, and our personal judgments lord it over scripture. It ruins the Lordship of Christ over our lives, because then we secretly retain the power to reject anything that does not suit us.”

In his First Homily on the Gospel of Matthew, Chrysostom warns us that judgment will come down upon us if we neglect the Scriptures. Scripture has purpose and was given for a reason (God’s words are not haphazard), therefore, Chrysostom says, “Let us give strict heed unto the things that are written; and let us learn how the Old Law was given on the one hand, how on the other the New Covenant” (added emphasis).

Ecclesiastes 9:18 – “Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.”

It can be demonstrated with ease that one sinner destroys much good (David’s sinful census led to the death of 70,000 people, 1 Chronicles 21:14; Achan’s sin, his disobedience and greed, led not only to the military defeat of Israel at Ai but eventually to the destruction of himself and his family, Joshua 7). It is, however, not as easily demonstrated that wisdom is better than weapons of war. Post-Hiroshima it is easier to think that the way to get things done in this world is to do so with the aid of the latest and greatest weaponry.

Well, for starters, if you fight with weapons of war (the sword), you do not truly have protection, for it is well known that weapons of war can be brought against you too (Matthew 26:52). Pagan history is exactly this–an endless circle of self-glory seekers dropping bombs on one another.

Christian history revolutionized pagan history. Christianity changed the world when it listened to Lady Wisdom, who said “Fear God, not man”. Christians listened to Lady Wisdom, and as a result, they broke the cycle of pagan history with obedience to God; that is, by caring for orphans, widows, and everybody else with zero utility within the death-cycle of paganism (And who were those with no utility–they were infants, women, the elderly, the handicapped, the ill, etc).

God tells us that if you have wisdom, that is, if you love Lady Wisdom, then “she will keep you” and “she will guard you” (Proverbs 4:5-6). Guess what…the latest and greatest weaponry doesn’t stand a chance against Lady Wisdom.

And how do we know that Lady Wisdom will prevail? Because we’re told that the Kingdom of God has come, and that it is transforming the glory of this world into an even greater glory. As the fall-out of wisdom (not bombs) covers the land, peace shall pour forth from Mount Calvary and flow downhill to each of the four corners of the earth, and as a result the sucking child will play on the hole of the asp (Isaiah 11:8).

That is a really good reason for why Wisdom is better than weapons of war.

Do you want to break the pagan cycles of today? Then do so, by listening to Lady Wisdom–for she is better than the weapons of war. Listen to Lady Wisdom and obey God.

“The fact is that all law is “religious.” All law is based on some ultimate standard of morality and ethics. Every law-system is founded on the ultimate value of that system, and that ultimate value is the god of that system. The source of law for a society is the god of that society. This means that a theocracy is inescapable. All societies are theocracies. The difference is that a society that is not explicitly Christian is a theocracy of a false god. Thus, when God instructed the Israelites about going into the land of Canaan, He warned them not to adopt the law system of the pagans:

I am the LORD your God. You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes. You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes, to live in accord with them; I am the LORD your God. So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if He does them; I am the LORD (Lev. 18:2-5).

“That is the only choice: pagan law or Christian law. God specifically forbids “pluralism.” God is not the least bit interested in sharing world dominion with Satan. God wants us to honor Him individually, in our families, in our churches, in our businesses, in our cultural pursuits of every kind, and in our statutes and judgments. “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Prov. 14:34). According to humanists, civilizations just “rise” and “fall,” by some naturalistic, evolutionary mechanism. But the Bible says that the key to the history of civilizations is judgment. God evaluates our response to His commands, and He answers back with curse and blessing. If a nation obeys Him, He blesses and prospers it (Deut. 28:1-14); if a nation disobeys Him, He curses and destroys it (Deut. 28:15-68). The history of Israel stands as a warning to all nations: for if God did it to them, He will surely do the same to the rest of us (Jer. 25:29)” (David Chilton, Paradise Restored).