In his most recent novel (really a short novella), On Chesil Beach , Ian McEwan returns to some of the concerns of his recent work: Arnold’s Dover Beach , the way “the entire course of a life can be changed” in an instant, coitus interruptus . McEwan’s writing is always impressive, and he fills out the mismatched lovers with tidy precision (e.g., he a country boy with a taste for early rock ‘n roll, she a classical violinist from Oxford).... Read more
According to Dominican scholar Pierre Mandonnet, Thomas – that arch-scholastic – did not see theology as something “added to scripture but as something contained in it.” For Thomas, “to study and understand the Bible” was “an end, and theology a means.” Read more
In a review of Drew Faust’s recent Republic of Suffering , Geoffrey Ward writes, “When the war began, the Union Army had no burial details, no graves registration units, no means to notify next of kin, no provision for decent burial, no systematic way to identify or count the dead, no national cemeteries in which to bury them. The corpses of officers often received special treatment, boxed up and sent home in what one entrepreneur advertised as ‘METALLIC COFFINS .... Read more
INTRODUCTION Once again Matthew records a series of three miracles, then a scene of a call to discipleship, and finally a description of the nature of Jesus’ ministry. The Jews begin to criticize Jesus, while the disciples wonder whom they are following. THE TEXT “Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. Then His disciples... Read more
Matthew 8:15: And Jesus touched her hand, and the fever left her; and she arose and waited on Him. Our sermon text contains a clear Eucharistic prophecy. When Jesus sees the faith of the centurion, He marvels, and He observes that this is a sign of a trend. Gentiles like the centurion who turn to Jesus are going to be included in the messianic, eschatological banquet. They will sit with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, while many who are “sons of... Read more
Our sermon text this morning begins a section of Matthew in which Jesus performs a series of miracles. He cleanses a leper, makes paralytics mobile, calms storms, gives sight to the blind and speech to the dumb. He casts out demons and raises the dead. Everywhere Jesus goes, life comes to the dead, acceptance to outcasts, health to the sick. Jesus can do anything. He is willing to heal and cleanse, as He tells the leper, and He is able.... Read more
Jonathan Moore’s book focuses on John Preston, but he also deals with other English theologians who taught some form of universal atonement theology, including Ussher and John Davenant, the latter one of the English delegates to Dort. Preston combined particularist and universalist by distinguishing sharply between the scope of Christ’s death and the scope of His intercession. According to Moore, “Preston . . . drives a significant wedge between the twofold high-priestly work of Christ as atonement-maker and intercessor. The... Read more
From Moore’s book again, Perkins writing: “the raising up of Christ is . . . his actuall absolution from their sins, for whom he died; for even as the Father by delivering Christ to death, did in very deede condemne their sinnes imputed unto Christ, for whome he died; so by raising him up from death, even ipso facto hee did absolte Christ from their sins, and did withall absolve them in Christ.” Read more
William Perkins has been accused of being “addicted to adding the qualifying phrase ‘for the elect’ to universalist Biblical statements.” In his recent book on John Preston and English Hypothetical Universalism (Eerdmans), Jonathan Moore argues that this assessment is exaggerated. Moore lays out Perkins’s views on definite atonement thoroughly, yet he also finds that Perkins “is not only completely uninhibited about employing Scripture’s own universal language, but he seems to relish an opportunity for doing so.” Perkins emphasizes, for instance,... Read more
Matthew quotes Isaiah 53:4 to explain how Jesus removes illness and uncleanness (Matthew 8:17). Jesus radiates life, and that life heals the sick and raises the dead. Jesus also accepts death and uncleanness on Himself, to be borne away on the cross. This latter process shows Jesus as temple. Milgrom says that the tabernacle is Israel’s “picture of Dorian Gray,” the magnet where the uncleanness and sin of Israel registers. Jesus the new temple is the new picture of Dorian... Read more
Leithart
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