Double Adamic Covenant

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:53 pm By Peter Leithart

Many of the Protestant Scholastics argued that a covenant of some sort is “natural” to man, not a “supernatural” addition to a pure, non-covenantal existence. But the “natural” covenant is often distinguished from the specific terms of the covenant of works, the prohibition of the tree of knowledge. Heidegger fulsomely describes the natural covenant in this way: “It may also be recognized naturally, that there is a covenant intervening between God and man. Man’s conscience keeps asserting that to God... Read more

Natural gifts of Adam

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:09 am By Peter Leithart

A few quotations on Adam’s “natural” capacities culled from Heppe: Polanus: “The original wisdom in man’s soul was that excellence and perfection of knowledge, by which unimpaired man rightly knew God and God’s work and himself and wisely understood all things unifold, singular, and universal, and rightly compounded or divided them and reasoned from the composites rightly and without error – in sum: knowledge, judgment, foresight not only sufficed to govern the animal life, but also ascended with them to... Read more

Pactum Salutis

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:05 am By Peter Leithart

Barth (CD, 4.1) offers this challenging evaluation of the Protestant Orthodox notion of a Trinitarian covenant: “For God to be gracious to sinful man, was there any need of a special decree to establish the unity of righteousness and mercy of God in relation to man, of a special intertrinitarian arrangement and contract which can be distinguished from the being of God? If there was need of such a decree, then the question arises at once of a form of... Read more

Turretin and Pure Nature

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:50 pm By Peter Leithart

Thanks to Joel Garver for pointing me to a couple of passages in Turretin’s Institutes where he explicitly discusses and rejects the idea of “pure nature.” A brief summary follows of Turretin’s discussion from the Fifth Topic, Question 9 follows: 1) Turretin offers several definitions of “natural,” and the relevant ones are these: what is natural is “what constituted nature and is its essential or integral part” and what is natural is “what immediately and necessarily follows the constituted nature.”... Read more

Echoes and Christology

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:36 pm By Peter Leithart

Modern-day Arians have answers to the standard NT texts on the deity of Christ. They aren’t good answers, but they have answers. What they don’t have are answers to the many texts that demonstrate the deity of Christ through intertextual echoes. Paul says in Philippians 2 that Christ existed in the “form” of God. Ah ha! say the Arians. He’s not God but only the form of God. But as Paul’s summary of Jesus’ history comes to its climax, he... Read more

Sermon Outline, Seventh Sunday of Easter

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:01 am By Peter Leithart

INTRODUCTION Hezekiah is a new David, Manasseh an idolatrous Solomon. Josiah reverses the sins of Jeroboam by bringing an end to Jeroboam’s liturgical experiments. Great as he is, he cannot save Judah from destruction. Huldah prophesies that Jerusalem, Judah, and the temple are doomed (22:16-20), and the narrator confirms that all his reforming efforts have not turned away Yahweh’s wrath against Manasseh (23:26ff.). From a Pauline perspective, this story shows that there is no redemption for Israel through the law,... Read more

Eucharistic meditation, Sixth Sunday of Easter

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:39 pm By Peter Leithart

Luke 2219: Jesus said, This is My body, which is given for you; do this as My memorial. We saw in the sermon this morning that the name “Manasseh” means “Forgetful” or even “Causing to forget.” Judah went into exile because of her forgetfulness, because King Forgetful made her forget her husband and Lord, forget the covenant and its commandments, forget the fact that the Lord had placed His own Name, and not the name of Asherah or Baal, in... Read more

Baptismal meditation

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:47 pm By Peter Leithart

Jesus said, Go therefore and disciple all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I’ve commanded. One of the great sins of Manasseh was an assault on the “Name” of Yahweh. Back in the days of Moses, Yahweh promised to choose a place within the land and set His “Name” there, and told Israel that once He did that, the place of... Read more

Exhortation, Sixth Sunday of Easter

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:41 pm By Peter Leithart

Easter is about faith and hope. Easter is also about love. The Old Covenant was a covenant of separations. Yahweh separated Himself from His people, enclosed behind a series of veils in inapproachable splendor. Yahweh called Abraham and separated him from the other nations of the earth, and gave Israel the law to keep them separate from the Gentiles. While Israel rose to the heavenly places of the temple, the nations swam in the depths of the sea. (more…) Read more

Innocent blood

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:44 pm By Peter Leithart

Manasseh filled Jerusalem with the blood of the innocent; in context, the blood appears to be the blood of prophets (2 Ki 21:10-16). This is one of the continuing charges against Manasseh after Josiah’s reign is over (24:3-4). The blood of the prophets (or, at least, of the innocent) calls up the blood avenger who comes to destroy the city. The pattern is the same in Revelation: The blood of the saints is poured out on the city, and as... Read more