Evening Prayer (1662 Book of Common Prayer)

ISAIAH-ALERT. LECTIONS. John Calvin on the Psalms. Keil & Delitzsch: Joshua. Matthew Henry: Isaiah. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown: Gospels. Matthew Henry: Revelation. Dr. Robert Reymond: Systematic Theology. Prof. Berkhof, Systematic Theology: Soteriology. Dr. Philip Schaff, Apostolic Christianity, Medieval Christianity and Swiss Reformation. Dr. Philip Schaff: Creeds. Westminster Shorter Catechism, 21-30. For Psalm 9, Prof. Calvin advises that justice delayed is not justice according to our calendar or justice according to our desires. God never misses a beat as the Judge in His own court room. The illiberal liberals—several kinds—and Mr. Tom Wright of Durham seem to have lost a sense of a fully-orbed view of God. In discussions, Tom asks a preliminary question of the fellow-scholar, “Are you a man with a Confession (e.g., WCF)?” Of course he is and Tom knows it. He did that with Dr. Richard Gaffin, a Reformed Confessor. It was an upfront wall of obfuscation. Tom knew exactly what he was doing. Tom has sucked justice out of justification and the cross as justice for sins. Back to Abelard, perhaps. Definitely, not Anselmian or Reformed. Tom is a Judaizer and his polished academic politeness is not the canon—the canon of Romans, Galatians and more is the Canon above and is adjudicative of Tom of Durham. Regrettably, Dr. Gaffin shriveled up timidly instead putting butt-hot-red-fever-blisters on Tom’s behind, for starters with escalatory options in reserve. More later. We are tracking this. For Joshua 8, Prof. Keil finishes the story of the judicial and punitive conquest of Ai and Bethel and the set-up on Mt. Gerizim and Ebal for the covenant reaffirmation ceremony. For Isaiah 1, Prof. Henry addresses the Israelites who’ve been visited with desolations during Ahaz’s time with northern Israel and Syria’s invasive intrusions. Fields are wasted. Towns and villages pillaged. Isaiah notes that corrective comments to these Judaites and Jerusalemites will only invoke more rebellion. They are incorrigible. Corrective words, in fact, makes them worse. Hence, the need for words, grammar and all, to soften and save the elect and to further afford the reprobates to do what they do willingly—to rebel, revolt and rush to the door of autonomy and independence. For the Introduction to the Gospels, Prof. Jamiesson carries on without adding much else to his previous comments. For Revelation 3, Prof. Henry comments on the towering pride and complacency of the Laodiceans. What they see and say about themselves is not what Jesus thinks. How many will be in hell who thought themselves headed for heaven? Cheap talk is costly. Cheap living is costly. Cheap confessions of faith is costly. Jesus closed His Sermon on the Mount, to wit, “Depart from Me, I never knew you.” Everyone and every church should take these admonitions with profound gravity and Christocentricity of focus. For Bibliology, Prof. Reymond finishes off objections #3-#6 against inerrancy and infallibility. For Soteriology, Prof. Berkhof meanders around on question-begging comments regarding common grace. Helpfully, he steps back from his own outlook, looks around and gives Augustine’s answers which are as solid today as they were in Augustine’s times. We are watching Prof. Berkhof closely on the matter. For Apostolic Christianity, Mr. Schaff offers a few more “branches” of church history, e.g., church government and worship. OK, got it. But, witlessly or not, he puts the “history of theology” as the sixth and last branch of church history. How about the history of exegesis? Ummm…and why is that Mercerman? That is not a minor matter. The “history of theology” should stand next to “systematic theology” with the other departments downrange of those two branches. This is not an oversight. It cannot be allowed to go unchallenged. Church History and Systematic Theology are two brothers with the same DNA. This is an unhappy section out of Mercersburg. For Medieval Christianity, Mr. Schaff offers his irritable remarks on the conflicts between Celtic and Roman Christianity, rather missing the main issue: “authority” and “authoritarianism.” Meanwhile, authoritarianism creeps incrementally into the church after the Roman Empire is destroyed and has moved northwards. For the Swiss Reformation, Mr. Schaff discusses Haller of Berne, Berne being the most prosperous and influential city amongst the Swiss cantons. Zurich has gone Reformed, but other Cantons have held off. A disputation is ordered up for Berne in 1528. To wit, let’s talk about Eck at the Swiss Diet and the Poopish, the sizeable and frequent droppings from the south-end of a north-bound ass. Men of learning, skill and scholarship arose to identify those droppings. For the Creeds, Mr. Schaff discusses the views of Rufinus, Ambrose, and Isidore of Seville on the Apostles’ Creed. For the WCF, Christ’s 3-fold offices are exposited and are brought home to the soul.