20201230

The Divine Works 1


(Based on an article on the Answers in Genesis Website)
Water

Of course, the best fluid to sip all day is water - and lots of it. We are composed of about 60% water and cannot survive more than a week without drinking it.
Water might not immediately come to mind when we think of God's good gifts to us. But it is so well designed for our use that a simple glass of water should make us aware of the fingerprint of the Creator and give him glory.

Water: The Multi-Purpose Liquid
Water is not only essential to life on earth, but also incredibly useful. We drink it, cook with it, bathe in it, clean with it, play in it (or or on it in colder times), find beauty in it, travel on it and get energy from its movement. Water regulates earth’s temperature, provides a habitat for the seafood we eat and is essential for growing all of our food. And those are only a few of water’s uses!

Water is perfectly designed for all of these functions
Water is colourless and tasteless, making it perfect for cooking. If it had a flavour or even a color, certain foods would be made much less appetising. Research has even shown our bodies may be able to taste tasteless water, alerting us if we are drinking something that looks like water but is not actually water. Water in its pure state has a neutral pH (not an acid or alkali), again making it perfect for cooking and drinking.
Water is ideal for transporting dissolved substances, such as minerals, nutrients and waste, throughout (or out of) our bodies.
Water is one of few liquids that expand when frozen, allowing it to float on liquid water. If water sank when it froze, aquatic life in colder climates would be impossible.
Water molecules stick to each other, creating surface tension. Surface tension allows insects to walk on water, makes rain fall in droplets, allows particles to float in water and keeps water from immediately evaporating.
Water absorbs colours in the red part of the spectrum (red, yellow, orange), while the blue parts of the spectrum are scattered, giving the ocean and other bodies of water a blue colour. As the light direction changes, translucence and reflection from the surface give a pleasing effect.

Where Did Water Come From?
This incredible molecule covers 70% of earth’s surface and is even found in and possibly even under the mantle. But where did it come from? Evolution always wants to go back to the big bang. Evolutionists believe the big bang created hydrogen and helium. Stars soon formed from these gasses and created oxygen and other elements. Eventually the stars exploded as supernovae, expelling oxygen and hydrogen into space where the two elements formed water.
There are apparently two major competing evolutionary stories on how water got to earth. Some say conditions on early earth would have evaporated any water as earth coalesced and so water would need to be delivered from an outside source, by comets or asteroids. Comets and asteroids would also have delivered material to earth, yet research suggests the asteroids that most likely would have delivered our water aren’t of the right composition to match the material they would have left behind. Also, using evolutionary assumptions about the age of the earth, it appears the earth’s oldest materials crystallised in the presence of liquid water over 4 billion years ago, too old to have been brought by comets or asteroids. To make matters worse for this idea, new evidence suggests water would have been vapourised as it arrived by extraterrestrial delivery.
The other hypothesis suggests maybe water has always been present and volcanoes have delivered it to the surface by degassing, as water vapour is released from cooling magma near the surface. This puts water deep inside the earth from its beginning. This hypothesis runs into the earlier mentioned problem: would the proposed conditions on early earth have allowed such vast quantities of water to remain?

The True Origin of Water
Neither of these proposed solutions adequately explains where water came from or how it could be so perfectly suited for life and for our use. But the Bible gives the answer. Water was one of God’s first creations. Genesis 1:1–2 says God created the heavens and earth and initially the earth was covered in water. As 2 Peter emphasises, the earth was formed out of water and through water (2 Peter 3:5). On day two, this water was separated so some remains on earth and some is spread throughout the heavens, including in comets and asteroids.
Water doesn’t have a mysterious naturalistic origin. It was created by God from the very beginning!

The Divine Word 1

 


A good passage to meditate on here is Psalm 19:7-9

The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes.
The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever.
The decrees of the LORD are firm, and all of them are righteous.


There are six threefold statements, giving 18 things to meditate on.
1. The nature of God's Word is such that it is

The law of the LORD It instructs
The statutes of the LORD It bears witness
The precepts of the LORD It gives a mandate
The commands of the LORD It is to be obeyed
The fear of the LORD It instils fear
The decrees of the LORD It gives a verdict, a ruling

2. It can be described as
Perfect - without flaw
Trustworthy - it is true
Right -every time
Radiant - it shines
Pure - without any alloy
Firm - you can rely on it 

3. Further, it is able to
Refresh the soul.
Make the simple wise
give joy to the heart
give light to the eyes
endure forever
always be righteous

The divine word is clearly worth spending time on.

20201228

The love and fullness of the blessed Saviour 1


The love of Christ
The love of Christ is a central element of Christian belief and theology.  It can refer to Christ's love for all or for his people or of his people to him or even of Christians love for others. These are distinct Christian teachings.
The theme of love is the key element of John's writings. This is evidenced in one of the most widely quoted scriptures in the Bible (John 3:16) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life. In the Gospel of John, the pericope of the Good Shepherd (John 10:1-21) symbolises the sacrifice of Jesus based on his love for his people. In John, love for Christ results in the following of his commands, the Farewell Discourse (14:23) states If a man loves me, he will keep my word. In 1 John 4:19 the reflexive nature of this love is highlighted We love, because he first loved us, expressing the love of Christ as a mirroring of Christ's own love. Towards the end of the Last Supper, Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment Love one another, as I have loved you ... By this shall all men know that you are my disciples.
The love of Christ is also a motif in Paul's letters. The basic theme of Ephesians is that of God the Father initiating the work of salvation through Christ, who willingly sacrifices himself based on his love and obedience to the Father. Ephesians 5:25 states Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it. Ephesians 3:17-19 relates the love of Christ to the knowledge of Christ and considers loving Christ to be a necessity for knowing him.
Many Christians have written on the love of Christ - Augustine wrote that "the common love of truth unites people, the common love of Christ unites all Christians". Benedict instructed his monks to "prefer nothing to the love of Christ". Thomas Aquinas stated that although both Christ and God the Father had the power to restrain those who killed Christ on Calvary, neither did, due to the perfection of the love of Christ. Aquinas also opined that, given that "perfect love" casts out fear, Christ had no fear when he was crucified, for his love was all-perfect.

20201227

The Sinfulness of Sin 1


The Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs is the author of The Evil of evils on this subject. Here is a summary of Part 1

Chap. 1 That it is a very Evil Choice, To Choose Sin, rather than Affliction. 

Chap. 2 The Servants of God, have Chose the most dreadful Afflictions, rather than the least Sin.

Chap. 3 There is some good in affliction, but none in sin: (1)  No good of Entity (2) No good of Causality (3) No good Principle from whence sin can come (4) No good annexed as is to afflictions, viz. 1 Of Promise. 2 Of Evidence. 3 Of Blessing. Also Five different workings of the hearts of the Saints under sin, and under affliction. (5) It is not capable of any Good, 1 Add all the good to sin that all the Creatures in heaven and earth have, yet it cannot make sin good 2 Good ends, though - To help against temptation, To do good to others, To glorify God, cannot make sin good  3 God cannot make sin good. (6) It is not comparatively good

Chap. 4 Ʋses: And Nine Consectories of excellent use, viz. 1 Sin is not the work of God. 2 Sin's promises are all Delusions 3 Sin cannot be the Object of a rational Creature 4 Nothing that’s good should be ventured for sin 5 Nothing that’s good to be made serviceable to sin 6 The mistake of making sin the chiefest good 7 Time spent in sin, lost 8 The wicked, useless members 9 Sin needeth no debate whether to be done, or not.

Chap. 5 There is more Evil in the least sin, than in the greatest affliction; Opened in six Particulars, being the General Scope of the whole Treatise

Chap. 6 Sin most opposite to God the chiefest Good, Opened in 4 Heads: 1 Sin most opposite to God's Nature 2 Sin opposite in its working against God 3 Sin wrongs God more than any thing else 4 Sin strikes at God's Being

Chap. 7 Sin in itself opposite to God, showed in 5 things: 1 Nothing directly contrary to God but sin 2 God would cease to be God, if but one drop of sin in him 3 Sin so opposite to God, that he ceases to be God, if He did but cause sin to be in another 4 He should cease to be God, if he did but approve it in others 5 Sin would cause God to cease to be, if he did not hate sin as much as he doth

Chap. 8 The workings of sin is always against God. The Scripture calls it, 1 Enmity 2 Walking contrary 3 Fighting 4 Resisting 5 Striving 6 Rising against God

Chap. 9 How sin resists God: 1 It’s a hating of God 2 It’s rebellion against God 3 It’s a despising of God

Chap. 10 Sin is a striking against God. 1 The sinner wisheth God were not so Holy, &c. 2 It seeks the destruction of God. Also sin is a wronging of God

Chap. 11 How sin wrongs God: 1 In his Attributes 2 Relation of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost 3 His Counsels 4 In the End for which God hath done all he hath done. And 1. Sin wrongs Gods Attributes: 1 His All-sufficiency, showed in 2 Particulars 2 It wrongs his Omnipresence and Omnisciency 3 his Wisdom 4 his Holiness 5 in setting man's Will above God's wrongs God's Dominion 7 his Justice 8 God in his Truth

Chap. 12. How sin wrongs God in his personal Relations 1 The Father 2 The Son 3 The Spirit

Chap. 13 Sin wrongs the Counsels of God in setting that Order in the world that he hath set

Chap. 14. Sin wrongs God in the End for which he hath made all things

Chap. 15 The First Corollary It appears by this, That but few men know what they do, when they sin against God.

Chap. 16 The Second Corollary The necessity of our Mediator being God and Man

Chap. 17 The Third Corollary That but few are humbled as they should be for sin. 1 It will not be deep enough, except it be for sin as it’s against God 2 It will not Sanctify the Name of God 3 It will not be lasting 4 Else it will never make a divorce between sin and the soul

Chap. 18 The Fourth Corollary Admire the Patience of God, in seeing so much sin in the world, and yet bearing it

Chap. 19 The Fifth Corollary Hence see a way to break your hearts for sin: And also to keep you from Temptation

Chap. 20 A Sixth Corollary If sin be thus sinful, it should teach us not only to be troubled for our own sins, but for the sins of others

Chap. 21 A Seventh Corollary If sin hath done thus much against God, then all that are now converted had need do much for God

Chap. 22 The Eight Corollary. If sin doth so much against God, hence see why God manifest such sore displeasure against sin as he doth: 1 Against the Angels that sinned 2 Against all Adam's Posterity3 See it in God's giving the Law against sin 4 See it in God's punishing sins that are accounted small 5 See it in God's destroying all the world for sin 6 See his displeasure in punishing sin eternally

Chap. 23 A Seventh Discovery of God's displeasure against sin, opened from the sufferings of Christ.
1. See the several expressions of Scripture: 1 He was sorrowful to death 2 began to be amazed 3 began to be in an Agony. 2. See the effects of Christ's being in an Agony: 1 He fell grovelling on the ground 2 He sweat drops of Blood 3 He cries to God, if it be possible to let this cup pass from me 3. There are eight Considerations of Christ's sufferings

20201226

The Vanity of the Creature 1


In a treatise on the subject Edward Reynolds focusses on Ecclesiastes 1:14 with these points

Proportion and propriety, the grounds of sanctification to the soul
The Creatures insufficient to satisfy the Desires of the soul

The ground hereof, The vast disproportion between the soul and the Creature.
The Creature vain
1. In its nature and worth
Therefore we should not trust in it, nor swell with it.
The Creature vain, 
2. In its deadness and inefficacy
Therefore we should not rely on it, nor attribute sufficiency to it

How to use the Creature as a dead Creature:
1. Consider its dependence, and subordination to God's power
2. Sanctify and reduce it to its primitive goodness
How the Creature is sanctified by the Word and Prayer
Love it in its own order

The Creature vain
3. In its duration
The Roots of Corruption in the Creature,
Corrupt minds are apt to conceive an immortality in earthly things

The proceedings of God's Providence in the dispensation of earthly things
Wise and Just

Correctives to be observed in the use of the Creature
1. Keep the intellectuals sound and untainted
2. By Faith look through and above them
3. Convert them to holy uses
Great disproportion between the Soul and the Creature
It is vexation of Spirit
Cares are Thorns, because, first, they wound the Spirit, secondly, they choke and over-grow the heart, thirdly, they deceive, fourthly, they vanish

Degrees of this vexation:
1. In the procuring of them,
2. In the multiplying of them
3. In the use of them. Discovered,
1 In Knowledge, Natural and Civil
2 In Pleasures
3 In Riches
4 In the Review of them
5 In the disposing of them: 
The Grounds of this vexation :
1 God's Curse.
2 The Corruption of Nature
3 The deceitfulness of the Creature:
It is lawful to labour and pray for the Creature, though it vex the Spirit. We should be humbled in the light of sin which hath defaced the Creation.
We should be wise to prevent those cares which the Creatures are apt to breed.
Irregular cares both superfluous, and sinful

How to take away or prevent vexation:
1 Pray for that which is convenient to thy abilities and occasions
2 Take nothing without Christ
3 Throw out every execrable thing.
4 Keep the Spirit untouched, and uncorrupted,

What it is to set the heart on the Creature

The Spirit is the most tender and delicate part of man
A Heart set on the World is without strength Passive or Active.
1. Unable to bear Temptations
1 Because Satan proportioneth Temptations to our Lusts 
2 Because Temptations are edged with Promises and Threatenings: 
3 God often gives wicked men over to believe lies.
2. Unable to bear afflictions
3. Unable to perform any active obedience with strength

How to use the Creature as a vexing Creature
*
Honey though the bee prepares,
An envenomed sting he wears;
Piercing thorns a guard compose
Round the fragrant blooming rose.

Where we think to find a sweet,
Oft a painful sting we meet:
When the rose invites our eye,
We forget the thorn is nigh.

Why are thus our hopes beguiled?
Why are all our pleasures spoiled?
Why do agony and woe
From our choicest comforts grow?

Sin has been the cause of all!
'Twas not thus before the fall:
What but pain, and thorn, and sting,
From the root of sin can spring?

Now with every good we find
Vanity and grief entwined;
What we feel, or what we fear,
All our joys embitter here.

Yet, through the Redeemer's love,
These afflictions blessings prove;
He the wounding stings and thorns,
Into healing med'cines turns.

From the earth our hearts they wean,
Teach us on his arm to lean;
Urge us to a throne of grace,
Make us seek a resting place.

In the mansions of our King
Sweets abound without a sting;
Thornless there the roses blow,
And the joys unmingled flow.

John Newton

20201224

The Four Last Things 1


In Christian eschatology, the Four Last Things (of man) are Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell, the four last stages of the soul in life and the afterlife. They are often commended as a collective topic for pious meditation. St Philip Neri "Beginners in religion ought to exercise themselves principally in meditation on the Four Last Things." Traditionally, the sermons preached on the four Sundays of Advent were on the Four Last Things.
Puritan tomes on the subject include

The Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Hell, and Heaven (1631) by Robert Bolton; published posthumously in 1639
Four Last Things–Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell (1691) by William Bates
John Bunyan published a poem in 1683  One thing is needful or serious meditations upon the Four Last Things

The Four Last Things are a common theme of artistic and literary works as well as theological works.

20201223

The Fourfold state of man 1


The three or four-fold state of man is made up of

1. Man's primitive integrity
2. His entire depravation
3. His begun recovery through conversion and new birth
4. His consummate happiness in the world to come (if converted)

Monergism provide a chart

Pre-Fall Man        Post-Fall Man        Reborn Man        Glorified Man
able to sin                able to sin                able to sin            able to not sin
able to not sin       unable to not sin        able to not sin         unable to sin

Thomas Boston writes of

I. The State of INNOCENCE
II. The State of NATURE
1. The SINFULNESS of man's natural state
2. The MISERY of man's natural state
3. The INABILITY of man's natural state
III. The State of GRACE
IV. The State of GLORY

20201222

The Offices of Christ 1


The offices of Christ are his being prophet, priest and king. Technically we should speak of his threefold office.
It was described by Eusebius and more fully developed by Calvin.
The doctrine states that Jesus Christ performed three functions ("offices") in his earthly ministry – those of prophet (Deuteronomy 18:14-22), priest (Psalm 110:1-4), and king (Psalm 2)
In the Old Testament, people were set apart to these offices by means of anointing with oil. The term messiah means "anointed one" and so is readily associated with the threefold office. While the office of king is that most frequently connected with the Messiah, the role of Jesus as priest, which involves intercession before God, is also prominent in the New Testament, being most fully explained in Hebrews 7-10.

In the Westminster Shorter Catechism we have these questions and answers (see 23-26)

Q: What offices doth Christ execute as our Redeemer?
A: Christ, as our Redeemer, executeth the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in his estate of humiliation and exaltation

Q: How doth Christ execute the office of a prophet?
A: Christ executeth the office of a prophet, in revealing to us, by his word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation

Q: How doth Christ execute the office of a priest?
A: Christ executeth the office of a priest, in his once offering up of himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice and reconcile us to God; and in making continual intercession for us.

Q: How doth Christ execute the office of a king?
A: Christ executeth the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.

20201221

The States of Christ 1

The usual way to speak of the states of Christ is to speak of Christ's humiliation and exaltation and not to include his pre-incarnate glory.

His humiliation includes his incarnation, suffering, death and burial.
His exaltation includes his resurrection, ascension and session at God's right hand

20201220

The Nature or Attributes of God 1




The Shorter Catechism asks the question What is God? and answers with an 11-fold (potentially 21-fold) answer.

God is a Spirit,
infinite,
eternal,
and unchangeable
in his being,
wisdom,
power,
holiness,
justice,
goodness,
and truth.

The Larger Catechism expands the answer (Question 7) so that it includes 20 terms.

God is a Spirit, in and of himself
infinite in being,
glory,
blessedness,
and perfection;
all-sufficient,
eternal,
unchangeable,
incomprehensible,
everywhere present,
almighty,
knowing all things,
most wise,
most holy,
most just,
most merciful
and gracious,
long-suffering,
and abundant in goodness
and truth.

An introduction


The Puritan George Swinnock says

"There is abundant matter for our meditation; as 

  1. the Nature or Attributes of God,
  2. the States of Christ (original glory, humiliation, exaltation)
  3. and Offices of Christ, (prophet, priest and king)
  4. the three-fold state of man, (more often thought of as the fourfold state - primitive integrity, entire depravation, begun recovery and consummate happiness or misery)
  5. the four last things, (death, judgement, heaven, hell)
  6. the vanity of the creature,
  7. the sinfulness of sin,
  8. and the love and fullness of the blessed Saviour,
  9. the Divine Word
  10. and Works;
out of these we may choose sometimes one thing, sometimes another to be the particular subject of our thoughts,"

I thought I might meditate on the things he suggests, using this blog as a platform.