Justin Taylor wrote the following post on his blog at The Gospel Coalition. I am sure copying another post in full is against blogging rules, but we will worry about that later. If you are like me, clicking off the site you are currently on is less than attractive for some reason. If you are not like me and want to read the post on Justin’s actual blog you can click here. So, just to be clear, everything below here is from Justin Taylor.

What Is Love?

I came across an article on CNN today commenting on the Beloit College Mindset List. This list is fascinating. The introduction to the list offers a brief explanation.

Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List. It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college this fall. The creation of Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and former Public Affairs Director Ron Nief, it was originally created as a reminder to faculty to be aware of dated references, and quickly became a catalog of the rapidly changing worldview of each new generation. The Mindset List website at www.beloit.edu/mindset, the Mediasite webcast and its Facebook page receive more than 400,000 hits annually.

The 75-point list is pretty fun to read through. I have included a few that I found interesting of funny.

1. Few in the class know how to write in cursive.

6. Buffy has always been meeting her obligations to hunt down Lothos and the other blood-suckers at Hemery High.

7. “Caramel macchiato” and “venti half-caf vanilla latte” have always been street corner lingo.

11. John McEnroe has never played professional tennis.

14. Doctor Kevorkian has never been licensed to practice medicine.

18. Fergie is a pop singer, not a princess.

24. “Cop Killer” by rapper Ice-T has never been available on a recording.

32. Czechoslovakia has never existed.

33. Second-hand smoke has always been an official carcinogen.

39. Pizza jockeys from Domino’s have never killed themselves to get your pizza there in under 30 minutes.

46. Nirvana is on the classic oldies station.

57. A purple dinosaur has always supplanted Barney Google and Barney Fife.

58. Beethoven has always been a dog.

70. The artist formerly known as Snoop Doggy Dogg has always been rapping.

71. The nation has never approved of the job Congress is doing.

Certainly, when dealing with culturally relevant classroom illustrations, each of these issues are perhaps very helpful. I must admit, it is somewhat shocking how much different my “mindset” is from the class of 2014. However, there are many far more substantial issues that have not budged, though we ignore them, which have far more profound impact on the educational process.

1. The trinitarian God of the Bible exists.

2. All men are born dead in sin and continue in sin and therefore are guilty before God.

3. Jesus Christ, the second person of the trinity, was born to Mary, grew up, fulfilled the law, and died for the sins of his people.

4. Man’s only hope, security, and forgiveness are found in Jesus Christ.

5. God pours out his Spirit on believers to be their helper and guide.

6. There is truth.

7. God is sovereign and directs all things–past, present, and future, for his glory.

8. God designed things to function in a certain way, and all things have been grossly affected by the fall.

If we are going to take the stance that such trivial things as Beethoven being first recognized as a dog rather than a great composer affect education, perhaps we would do good to give some thought to the affect our understanding of much more basic things has on education.

Let me begin by thanking Tim Challies over at www.challies.com for his recent string of very helpful videos posted on his blog. This video is a brief (4 min) answer to the question, “How do I know God exists?” The man answering it is D.A. Carson. God has gifted D.A. Carson intellectually and, from all that I know of him, spiritually and used him in tremendous ways for the furtherance of the Kingdom of God. One incredible project that Dr. Carson is involved with is The Gospel Coalition; it is worth checking out. Needless to say, Dr. Carson answers this question in a way that challenges both Christian and non-Christian alike.

The above video was posted on one of the blogs I like to read. Since Joel Osteen is currently one of the most influential preachers in the world, I wanted to post the video and offer a brief response. The point of the response is not so much that Osteen is a complete charlatan but more that we must not accept everything someone teaches but check it with Scripture as the Bereans were commended for in Acts 17.

Before you read the rest of the post, perhaps take some time on your own to think through what Joel Osteen is teaching and ask, “Does this square with Scripture?”

So, here’s the deal. There is nothing in Scripture that says God’s motivation for the Old Testament dietary laws are based on the healthy benefits of such laws. Rather, the point was to provide an object lesson for being set apart – for holiness. There is plenty in Scripture that speaks to the fact that laws such as the cleanliness code had a temporary function that was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Jesus takes a radically different approach to the dietary laws than does Mr. Osteen in Mark 7.14-23. Peter, the Apostle, tried to take Joel’s approach to interpreting these same passages and was rebuked by God for it as recorded in Acts 10.9-16. The problem is not that Mr. Osteen is wrong about the health benefits of pork but that he is wrong in how he interprets Scripture. To say we must or should refrain from eating pork is, oddly enough, to deny Scripture; because, such moralistic teaching misses the (perhaps) subtle point of the teaching in Leviticus 11 and the blatantly obvious teaching in Mark and Acts. Further, if I can, as Mr. Osteen seems to teach, please God by not eating pork, then I don’t need a Savior to die in my place (see Galatians 3.15-29). When we draw a strong line of demarcation between the Old and New Testaments so that the Old Testament is not about a gracious redemption through the promised Messiah and the New Testament is not the same story as the Old Testament but something fundamentally different, then we miss the point of the Bible, of the law, of the gospel, and of Jesus’ death on the cross.

“Mrs. Bagby was not a Cumberland Presbyterian but a member of the U.S. or Southern Presbyterian Church. I too am now a member of the Southern Church. I say nothing against the Cumberlands. They broke with the Presbyterian Church because they did not believe a preacher needed a lot of formal education. That is all right but they are not sound on Election. They do not fully accept it. I confess it is a hard doctrine, running contrary to our earthly ideas of fair play, but I can see no way around it. Read I Corinthians 6:13 and II Timothy 1:9, 10. Also I Peter 1:2, 19, 20 and Romans 11:7. There you have it. It was good enough for Paul and Silas and it is good enough for me. It is good enough for you too.”

True Grit, Charles Portis

What are the decrees of God? The decrees of God are, his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.

Often times, among armchair theologians, discussions on the decrees of God quickly turn to the specific order of the decrees. We like to do this because we get to use big words like infralapsarianism, supralapsarianism, and amyraldism. However, the Westminster Divines, those men who had a hand in writing the Westminster Standards, displayed far more wisdom and restraint in dealing with this grand subject. They simply sought to define what they were talking about. Five points can be developed from the Divines answer to WSC #7.

First, the decrees of God are his eternal purpose. Each of the last three words could be emphasized to bring out various issues. The decrees of God are HIS eternal purpose. The decrees of God are not my purpose, or yours, He is the one at work. The decrees of God are his ETERNAL purpose. As much as we understand that God is eternal, so his decrees are eternal. The decrees of God are his eternal PURPOSE. The decrees of God are neither his eternal slip-up nor his eternal reaction.

Second, the decrees of God are according to his will. In other words, God was not strong-armed into decreeing something. When we couple this with the first statement we are able to take comfort in all things knowing that while we may be surprised, God is not surprised or taken aback by our present situation. Rather, it is his purpose and according to his will.

Third, the decrees of God are for his glory. God is single-minded in his pursuit of his own glory, and he should be. After all, if there were something or someone other than God more worthy of being glorified then God would not be ultimate.

Fourth, the decrees of God are prior to the things decreed. God foreordained. Just to be clear, that means that God ordained it (whatever it is) before it actually was. This seems obvious, but alas, there are numerous theological attempts to hijack the plain meaning of foreordination. The argument generally goes like this. God is outside of time, so he looked down and saw what was going to happen then went back and foreordained it. The problem with this idea, beyond it being a man-centered attempt to put a leash on God so we can walk him around like a puppy dog in order to impress our more religiously sensitive friends is as follows. If God saw what was going to happen without his ordaining it to happen first then it doesn’t really matter what he decrees because it is only a reaction to our actions. In other words, if this is the case, God is a patsy unworthy of being glorified.

Fifth, the decrees of God encompass everything that is. God foreordained “whatsoever comes to pass.” Let that soak in. When this last phrase is considered along with the rest of the Divines answer to question #7 we being to understand why the Psalmist wrote Psalm 46 in which we are encouraged to “Be still, and know that I am God.” His God is absolutely in control. Here is the deal. Whatever situation you are currently in, God foreordained that situation for his glory according to his will as part of his eternal purpose. In other words, God has it under control. Go ahead, pick a situation, this applies. We can rejoice in hard circumstances and be humble in wonderful circumstances precisely because “The decrees of God are, his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.”

Now some will cry foul at this doctrine saying, “That’s not biblical! That goes against the free will of man! That offends every rational, autonomous sensibility in man! You only believe that because you are a Calvinist!” We will work backwards through these objections.

“You only believe that because you are a Calvinist!” Perhaps, but if I answer the first objection then it very well may be the case that I am a Calvinist because I, along with Calvin, believe the Bible.

“That offends every rational, autonomous sensibility in man!” Which is exactly why so many people left Jesus when he taught the same thing as recorded in John 6.

“That goes against the free will of man!” You are partially correct. This goes against your understanding of the free will of man. However, if I answer the first objection this is your problem not mine.

“That’s not biblical!” – Well…

Gen. 1:1In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Deut. 30:1“And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, 2and return to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.

Job 38:1Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
2”Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
3Dress for action like a man;
I will question you, and you make it known to me.
4“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?Tell me, if you have understanding.
5Who determined its measurements—surely you know!Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone,
7when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Psa. 33:10The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
11The counsel of the LORD stands forever,
the plans of his heart to all generations.
12Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!

Is. 14:24The LORD of hosts has sworn:
“As I have planned,
so shall it be,
and as I have purposed,
so shall it stand,
25that I will break the Assyrian in my land,
and on my mountains trample him underfoot;
and his yoke shall depart from them,
and his burden from their shoulder.”
26This is the purpose that is purposed
concerning the whole earth,
and this is the hand that is stretched out
over all the nations.
27For the LORD of hosts has purposed,
and who will annul it?
His hand is stretched out,
and who will turn it back?

Is. 45:5I am the LORD, and there is no other,
besides me there is no God;
I equip you, though you do not know me,
6that people may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is none besides me;
I am the LORD, and there is no other.
7I form light and create darkness,
I make well-being and create calamity,
I am the LORD, who does all these things.

John 6:35Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” 41So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— 46not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48I am the bread of life. 49Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 52The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught  at Capernaum. 60When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

Acts 2:22“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.  24God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

Rom. 9:6But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 8This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—12she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” 14What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. 19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath  prepared for destruction, 23in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
26“And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called  ‘sons of the living God.’”
27And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, 28for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” 29And as Isaiah predicted,
“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
we would have been like Sodom
and become like Gomorrah.”

Rom. 11:33Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
34“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
35“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
36For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Eph. 1:3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Eph. 1:11In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Francis Schaeffer’s book, Escape from Reason, is worth reading. It is worth reading multiple times. Early in my college career, Craig Loibner, the pastor of Fellowship North – the church where I grew up, recommended I start reading Francis Schaeffer. Specifically, he recommended that I read Escape from Reason. I respect Craig, so I read the book.  The first time I read the book, I knew it was important.  The first time I read the book, I knew it was helpful.  The first time I read the book, I had no idea what it was about. For someone given to experience in life over-and-against thoughtfulness about life, this book, which is thoroughly bent on thoughtfulness about life, only shook my foudation.  However, the truths that Schaeffer set forth would, overtime, seep down into the newly formed cracks in my foundation, solidify, and eventually obliterate the fairly pure though profoundly unexamined existentialism on which I built my life. Over the last ten-or-so years, I have revisited this book time-and-time-again. At present I am finishing yet another reading of Schaeffer’s Escape from Reason and was struck again by the closing paragraphs of chapter six.

I have come to the point where, when I hear the word ‘Jesus’ – which means so much to me because of the Person of the historic Jesus and His work – I listen carefully because I have with sorrow become more afraid of the word ‘Jesus’ than almost any other word in the modern world. The word is used as a contentless banner, and our generation is invited to follow it. But there is no rational, scriptural content by which to test it, and thus the word is being used to teach the very opposite things from which Jesus taught. Men are called to follow the word with highly motivated fervency, and nowhere more than in the new morality which follows the New Theology. It is now Jesus-like to sleep with a girl or a man, if she or he needs you. As long as you are trying to be human you are being Jesus-like to sleep with the other person, at the cost, be it noted, of breaking the specific morality which Jesus taught. But to these men this does not matter, because that is downstairs in the area of rational scriptural content.

We have come then to this fearsome place where the word ‘Jesus’ has become the enemy of the Person Jesus, and the enemy of what Jesus taught. We must fear this contentless banner of the word ‘Jesus’ not because we do not love Jesus, but because we do love Him. We must fight this contentless banner, with its deep motivations, rooted into the memories of the race, which is being used for the purpose of sociological form and control. We must teach our spiritual children to do the same.

This accelerating trend makes me wonder whether, when Jesus said that towards the end-time there will be other Jesuses, He meant something like this. We must never forget that the great enemy who is coming is the anti-Christ. He is not the anti-non-Christ. He is anti-Christ. Increasingly over the last few years the word ‘Jesus’, separated from the content of the Scriptures, has become the enemy of the Jesus of history, the Jesus who died and rose and who is coming again and who is the eternal Son of God. So let us take care. If evangelical Christians begin to slip into a dichotomy, to separate an encounter with Jesus from the content of Scriptures (including the discussable and the verifiable), we shall, without intending to, be throwing ourselves and the next generation into the millstream of the modern system. This system surrounds us as an almost monolithic consensus.

This week on the White Horse Inn, Mike Horton and the rest of the WHI crew discuss the reality and the relevance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The 30-minute podcast version is worth listening too.  You can find it here.  In the “Listen Now” box click on “The Cross and Resurrection.”

In the fifth chapter, “Rest Assured,” Dr. Horton delves into the fourth commandment which states, “⁸Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  ⁹Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, ¹⁰but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God.  On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.  ¹¹For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.  Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20.8-11, ESV).

Early in the chapter, Horton admits that his view is at odds with many, perhaps the majority, protestant Bible scholars.  The historic position on the Sabbath is summed up in Westminster Shorter Catechism #58-62.

“Q. 58. What is required in the fourth commandment? A. The fourth commandment requireth the keeping holy to God such set times as he hath appointed in his Word; expressly one whole day in seven, to be a holy sabbath to himself.

“Q. 59. Which day of the seven hath God appointed to be the weekly Sabbath? A. From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly sabbath; and the first day of the week ever since, to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian sabbath.

“Q. 60. How is the sabbath to be sanctified? A. The sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days; and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God’s worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy.

“Q. 61. What is forbidden in the fourth commandment? A. The fourth commandment forbiddeth the omission, or careless performance, of the duties required, and the profaning the day by idleness, or doing that which is in itself sinful, or by unnecessary thoughts, words, or works, about our worldly employments or recreations.

“Q. 62. What are the reasons annexed to the fourth commandment? A. The reasons annexed to the fourth commandment are, God’s allowing us six days of the week for our own employments, his challenging a special propriety in the seventh, his own example, and his blessing the sabbath day.”

Horton sums up his position when he writes, “Nevetheless, I wish to make the case for my conviction that the fourth commandment belongs in what we call the ‘ceremonial’ rather than the ‘moral’ part of the law.  Remember, the ‘moral’ part of God’s law is what is eternally binding on believers in both testaments, whereas the shadows of Christ in the civil and ceremonial laws disappear when the reality (Christ) appears.  To suggest that the fourth commandment, then, is part of the ceremonial, rather than the moral, law is to say that it is no longer binding on Christians” (Horton, 124-25).

To support his view, Dr. Horton makes two key points that we must test.  First, he puts forth the idea that the origin of the Sabbath is in the Ten Commandments rather than at Creation.  Second, Dr. Horton argues that the Sabbath is not part of the moral law.

In response to Dr. Horton’s first point, we can simply read the reason given in the Ten Commandments for celebrating a Sabbath.  “¹¹For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.  Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20.11, ESV).  Granted, the reason given in Deuteronomy 5, a later repeating of the Ten Commandments, is the remembrance of the Exodus, but the Exodus 20 reason still gives cause to see the Sabbath as rooted, at least partially, in God’s rest from Creation in Genesis 2.

Horton’s second point, that the Sabbath is not part of the Moral law runs into problems with the very reasons he gives to support his thesis.  He writes, “First, the apostle Paul argues in the first two chapters of Romans that the law written on the conscience and the law written on tablets of stone are one and the same.  In other words, the moral law (Ten Commandments) is the written expression of the natural law engraved on the human conscience” (Horton, 125).  The obvious conclusion then is either that the Sabbath is part of the Moral law, or that the fourth commandment was not part of the Ten Commandments.  However, Horton comes up with a third option.  He views the Sabbath as part of the Ten Commandments, but as unique among the other nine in that while it is part of the Ten, unlike the other nine, it is not part of the Moral law.  In the end, Dr. Horton’s argument, that unlike the other nine commandments we do not find a Sabbath principle stamped on the human conscience, seems tenuous.

The second reason Dr. Horton gives for not seeing the Sabbath as part of the Moral law is that we find each of the other nine commandments dealt with in the New Testament but not the Sabbath.  He writes, “We search in vain to find one single New Testament commandment concerning the Sabbath” (Horton, 126).  However, Matthew 12.1-13, Mark 2.27-28, and other passages do deal with the Sabbath in light of Jesus Christ.  Admittedly, one difficulty is the shift from the Sabbath on Saturday, the last day of week to the Lord’s Day on Sunday, the first day of the week.  Again, multiple verses deal with this shift as well, such as Acts 20.5-12 and 1 Corinthians 16.1-2.  Finally, Hebrews 3.7-4.13, which some scholars have called “an inspired commentary…on Genesis 2.2 and Psalm 95.7-11,” lays out a robust understanding of the Sabbath in light of Jesus Christ.

In the end, Dr. Horton makes some very helpful points on two fronts.  First, his work is helpful to work through for our understanding of the implications of the work of Jesus Christ on the ceremonial aspects of the Sabbath; however, I think he goes too far by saying that the Sabbath is only ceremonial.  Second, his work at the end of the chapter dealing with the practical benefits not only of a weekly Sabbath, but also of corporate worship is a much-needed reminder.

As someone who holds a higher view of the Lord’s Day the questions that I come back to again and again are these – Am I so satisfied in and trusting of God and his will that I am willing, and even desirous, to set aside my agenda to celebrate the Lord’s Day?  Am I living under the illusion that I am such an island that a day of purposeful worship and rest is not of profound benefit to me?

What are your thoughts on this thorny issue?

If you want to dig deeper there are multiple resources here, including a position paper (with minority reports of course) from the Orthodox Presbyterian Church that can also be accessed here.  Or, you could check out Edmund Clowney’s book, How Jesus Transforms the Ten Commandments.

“How many persons are there in the Godhead?  There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.”

While “Trinity” is not a biblical word, it is the word that theologians have agreed upon to voice the understanding of God put forth in Scripture and summarized in WSC #6.  The idea is that there is one God who exists in three persons.  The three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are all equally God and are one God.

Throughout history, there have been multiple attempts to illustrate or design an analogy to help explain the Trinity.  Some have, and still do, explain the Trinity using the analogy of water and its three states or modes, solid (ice), liquid, and gas (steam).  However, this analogy fails because God does not exist as one substance that is in different modes at different times. God exists at all times as one God in three persons.  The water analogy illustrates the heresy known as modalism.

Others have tried to use the analogy of Neapolitan ice cream.  The problem here is that the three flavors do not actually share the same substance and the only “oneness” they have is based on proximity.  Ultimately, Neapolitan ice cream beautifully illustrates tri-theism, three gods, but fails to properly explain Trinitarian monotheism.

In the end, there has never been an analogy for the Trinity that does not break down in some major way, so if you here the words, “The Trinity is like…” it is probably a good idea to listen with guarded ears.

Based on the biblical teaching the most that can really be said (without getting into longer more technical formulations) is that which has been handed down for generations in the Westminster Shorter Catechism.  “There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.”

The Larger Catechism does take one more step saying the three persons can be distinguished by their personal properties, which it then explains in the next question.  “What are the personal properties of the three persons in the Godhead?  It is proper to the Father to beget the Son, and to the Son to be begotten of the Father, and to the Holy Ghost to proceed from the Father and the Son from all eternity.”

The doctrine of the Trinity is precious to the church; we would do good to master the simple formulation found in Westminster Shorter Catechism #6.