Christian Scholar’s Review has published a review-essay (Conflicting Views from the Banks of the Little Bighorn: A Modest Proposal for a Christian Approach to Indian Studies) I co-authored with Dr. Todd C. Ream. A table of contents is available at http://www.csreview.org.

Psalm 2
“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.

I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.

Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.”

Calvin says, “Let this, therefore, be held as a settled point, that all who do not submit themselves to the authority of Christ make war against God.” Calvin’s comment is correct and his logic draws heavily from Saint John: “For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.”

Commenting on Modern Man’s obsession with progress, Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy writing in 1938 said, “When we act too early we are not ourselves; our intellect, our will, our efforts, are in advance of our true being, and they may easily forfeit – by their restlessness – our own secret destiny.”

When I was a twenty-one year old collegiate
I learned a prayer for the first time from a classmate,
“Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

The two of us and our friend with the shaved head
Seeking forgiveness of sin and the Kingdom –
Everywhere, at all times, and by any Universal means.

Servant-thinking is humble, acknowledging that God is sufficient. Servant-thinkers will look for His grace in their weaknesses; they do so because they think Theocentrically. Biblical, that.

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

“Both Lutherans and Calvinists answered the question ‘What must I do to be saved?’ by saying that Spirit-worked repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His substitutionary work of atonement are necessary. But Lutherans had a tendency to remain focused on the doctrine of justification, whereas Calvinists, without minimizing justification, pressed more than Lutherans toward sanctification, which asks, ‘Having been justified by God’s grace, how shall I live to the glory of God?’” (Joel R. Beeke, Living for God’s Glory: An Introduction to Calvinism, p. 11).

A servant-thinker is one who “adopts God’s world as his own.”[1] Therefore, “the believer [servant-thinker] . . . is affirming creation as it really is; he is accepting creation as the world that God made, and he is accepting the responsibility to live in that world as it really is.”[2]

[1] John Frame, The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God, p. 28.
[2] Ibid., p. 28.

“To be a creature is to be limited in thought and knowledge, as in all other aspects of life. We are limited by our Creator, our Lord. We have a beginning in time, but He does not. We are controlled by Him and subject to His authority; we are the objects of ultimate covenant blessing or cursing, and so the nature of our thought should reflect our status as servants. Our thinking should be ‘servant-thinking’” (John Frame, The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God, p. 21).

“In His relation to us, God has only rights and powers; He binds Himself to duties sovereignly and graciously only by way of covenant. In covenant, He assumes the duties and responsibilities of being a God unto us, but that does not detract from His being the first cause and the last end of all things. The universe is ruled not by chance or fate, but by the complete, sovereign rule of God. We exist for one purpose: to give Him glory. We have only duties to God, no rights. Any attempt to challenge this truth is doomed. Romans 9:20b asks, “Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast though made me thus?” God enacts His laws for every part of our lives and demands unconditional obedience. We are called to serve Him with body and soul, in worship and daily work, every second of every day.

To be Reformed, then, is to be concerned with the complete character of the Creator-creature relationship. It is to view all of life coram Deo, that is, lived before the face of God (Joel R. Beeke, Living for God’s Glory: An Introduction to Calvinism, p. 41).”