Wives, Wells, and Jesus
Isaac, Jacob, and Moses all find their wives through interactions at a well. The parallels are fascinating: So that Isaac does not marry one of “the daughters of the Canaanites, (Gen. 24:3), Abraham sends out his servant to find Isaac a wife, and the servant prays that he would recognize the right woman by her [...]
More light on the Word and Spirit from Berkhof
This post is a continuation of On the Efficacy of the Sacraments and Word, Spirit, and Dry Bones, in which I have been trying to get my head around the differences between Lutheran and Reformed understandings of the relationship between the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, and the sacraments. Louis Berkhof’s explanation sheds more [...]
Word, Spirit, and Dry Bones
In a previous post, I quoted Charles Hodge’s argument that the Spirit of God alone gives efficacy to the Word and to the sacraments: There is, therefore, a strict analogy, according to the Reformed doctrine, between the Word and the sacraments as a means of grace. (1.) Both have in them a certain moral power [...]
The Lamb Alone is Worthy
In Revelation 5, John sees a vision of Almighty God seated on the throne with a book, sealed with seven seals, on his right hand. An angel issues a call to all of creation, challenging, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?”, but “no one in heaven or on earth or [...]
On the Efficacy of the Sacraments
I have been studying up on the sacraments for ordination exams, and, in Charles Hodge’s Systematic Theology, I came across an interesting contrast between how Lutheran and Reformed Christians understand the efficacy of the sacraments that I did not previously understand fully. Lutherans understand the sacraments as being inherently powerful, provided that the one receiving [...]
