Morning Prayer and the Litany

For Psalm 20, Prof. Calvin comments on some who trust in chariots and princes, but forget God. David doesn’t make that mistake.

ISBE on the dating of Exodus: Prof. R. K. Harrison comments on Dr. Mendenhall’s comments on the similarity of the Hittite Suzerainty treaties with the Mosaic Covenant or God’s Covenant with Israel.

For Genesis 4.9-15: Prof. Keil comments on God’s criminal indictment of the sin-dismissing and arrogant Cain. The seed of reprobates refusing divine instruction. True then, true now.

For Judges 1.27-35, Prof. Keil comments on the Angel of LORD who announces judgment for covenant violations and failure to execute the ban. They will rise and be thorns in the side. Or, we’d say, they will be forced to eat porcupines for dinner.

For Isaiah 8.1-8, Prof. Henry comments on the “secret” insiders in Judah favoring the Syrians and Israelites, failing to realize that Assyrian sinners will be used to punish northern Israelitish tribes as well as the south.

ISBE on Mark: Dr. R. P. Martin offers nothing notable at this point.

For Mathew 5.43-48, Prof. Jamieson draws attention to irreverent and shallow German critics whose foul odors were passing over to Britain and England, as aside to his interpretative comments.

For Romans 3.21-31, Prof. Hodge comments on Abraham’s justification apart from works and by imputed righteousness.

For Revelation 19.1-4, Prof. Henry notes how heaven rejoices at the fall of Babylon. It’s called Cosmic justice and it’s quite lawful to rejoice when anti-Christ takes hits.

EDT on the Theological Liberalism: we hear of the social gospelers who believe society corrupts man, that theology should worry about saving society no individual sinners, and that the fight is for a better life here-and-now, not an after-life. A few ends: world peace and racism. We would add, the fundie-libbo train stops at different stations to add cars to the social agenda.

Westminster Theological Journal (Nov 2021) on “Theological Consequences of Q”: Dr. Dawson comments on the burps, belches and noises coming out of the Q-Clubhouse, that is, those who’ve given their blind allegiance and blind faith to a fictious and academic creation. Such hibernate as exclusivists in their safe spaces and, while endemic to the NT Guild in some clubhouses, are marked by irrelevance and destined to the theological graveyard—like other hypothetical constructs and hat tricks.

Protestant Reformed Theological Journal 55,1 (Fall, 2021): 3-15, Rev. Key comments further on Romans 8, but this is a sermon, not an academic article. Surely, PRTJ can do better than this.

Reformed Theological Journal (Sept 2021, page 4), Dr. Fesko on “What Lurks Behind Geerhardus Vos?” notes that Vos didn’t always identify his sources that informed his work. Meanwhile, Vossian hagiographers think Vos’s insights come ex nihilo. Dr. Fesko promises to put Vos in perspective and to confront the adjectival bodyguards and hagiographers of Vos.

In the Global Anglican (Winter 2021), Samuel Carter comments on Tom Gregg’s “The Breadth of Salvation” (Zondervan, 2020) arguing for a widened view of God’s salvation: Christ, Biblical witness, atonement, individualism, corporatist worship, verticality and horizontally, and repentance. A nice thesis and exhortation.

For Systematic Theology (locus 2), Prof. Hodge talks about Rome’s explicit view of the insufficiency of the Bible.

For Theology Proper (locus 2), Prof. Reymond has gone bonkers on Phil. 2.6-11 with an overly complicated exposition. It’s subtlety and complexity is creative, but is more of a toy than a serious interpretation of this grand text. Prof., clean it up.

For Ecclesiology (locus 6), Prof. Berkhof reflects on the sign and the Signified and the Romanist, Lutheran and Reformed views.

ODCC: Hegesippus (2^nd century), a native Palestinian, a church historian who wrote five books of Memoirs against the Gnostics with fragments that appear in Eusebius’s Church History.

For Apostolic Christianity, Vol. 1 (0-100) Prof. Schaff comments on Paul, Peter, John and James as more visible than the other Apostles.

For Medieval Christianity, Vol. 4 (590-1073), Prof. Schaff comments on Gregory 1’s personal jealousies over the Patriarch of Constantinople’s claim to universal jurisdiction—we’d add, a masquerading humility with the public mask with an inner pride beneath.

For the Swiss Reformation Vol. 8 (1519-1605), Prof. Schaff, 8.304, notes that Calvin in 1528-1533 studied at three top universities in France: Orleans, Bourges, and Paris.

Westminster Larger Catechism 166:

Q. 166. Unto whom is baptism to be administered?
A. Baptism is not to be administered to any that are out of the visible church, and so strangers from the covenant of promise, till they profess their faith in Christ, and obedience to him, but infants descending from parents, either both, or but one of them, professing faith in Christ, and obedience to him, are in that respect within the covenant, and to be baptized.