I didn’t plan on this post, but it came as a reaction to an article I read two weeks ago. The reaction came most strongly as I analyzed how I read the article. I read it quickly and was very assuming.
The first time I skimmed through the article and set it aside. I understood Piper was likening the NPP folks the Pharisees of Christ’s day. I reread the same points and same thing. BUT THEN, as I read it again, slowly, I saw this was not his point in writing. He was appealing to Romans to refute one of the main claims of the NPP; that the Jews of Christ’s days weren’t trying to work themselves into the people of God, they were already born into it and under grace. The Judaism of Christ’s day, they say, wasn’t about moralism so much as racial distinction and being the true people of God. One lesson I learned- READ SLOWLY and CAREFULLY, especially as the stakes and import of what is being read rises.
In a class I took, one student heckled another, “In the footnotes it says?? WHO READS THE FOOTNOTES??” and a couple weeks later, “Hey, I was making fun of you the other night for reading the footnotes.”
Carfeul, assiduous study leads to engaging the author- understanding what he did say and not purporting what he did not. I am guilty of being sloppy and assuming in my study. As I’ve seen it in others, I commend all the more reading less and understanding more. My resolution is to not pat myself on the back for volume of material conquered, but to aim more for depth and engagement with the author and material.
Here are some excerpts from a sermon preached the Lord’s-Day morning December 24th, 1871
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Jehovah-Jesus
My song shall bless the Lord of all,
My praise shall climb to His abode;
Thee, Saviour, by that name I call,
The great Supreme, the mighty God.
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Over the past several weeks I was intending to write some post over various issues, such as the NPP and egalitarianism. Each post would have been a response to books I’ve been reading or a brief conversation I had with a friend. To post about the two topics isn’t inherently wrong, but for me, my heart’s intentions were driven by sin. As I was diagramming the posts in my head (yeah I’m an internalizer ) I was noticing some common themes in my thoughts. (more…)
This past Lord’s Day we sang a hymn a cappella called Of the Father’s Love Begotten. Besides being a particularly beautiful tune (in spite of my singing a cappella) and having glorious theology wonderfully phrased in english, it has an impressive history.
I’ve been reading ahead for next semester in some of the courses for which I am registered. One required text is Mark Noll’s Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity. Through the first quarter of the text, it is delightful – and I expect the rest to follow suit. Regardless, the third chapter is introduced with a poem written by Aurelius Clemens Prudentius of the same title as our hymn. Clearly the hymn’s forebear is this ancient poem. Compare the two, and consider that we’re singing the same praise that was lifted up 1600 yrs ago.
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5pointers 