The Primary Article of the Christian Religion

Or The Other Five Points of Calvinism.

From Michael Horton’s chapter in John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine & Doxology, a 5-point survey following the logic of Calvin’s argument on justification found in his Institutes of the Christian Religion:

1. To save us from judgment, the Son became flesh and merited our salvation (2.15-17).
2. Thus, the righteousness by which we are saved is alien to us (3.1.1; 3.1.4; 3.2.24; 4.7.11).
3. Yet Christ must not only be given for us; He must be given to us. (3.1.1).
4. We are recipients not only of Christ’s gifts but of Christ himself. (3.1.1; 3.1.4; 3.2.24; 4.17.11).
5. Faith unites us to Christ (3.1.1), but it is the Holy Spirit who gives faith, and it is Christ who always remains the sole ground of salvation rather than faith itself. In other words, faith is nothing in itself; it receives Christ and with Him all treasures. (3.11.7; 3.18.8).

Look for a review of this book to be posted here sometime before Calvin’s 500th birthday, which is coming up in

You can get your own John Calvin birthday clock at Calvin 500.

My Desktop Photo 62: Wild Strawberry

Photo by Andrew Stark
(click for larger view)

More about the wild strawberry, which is blooming right now: Waving the White Flag.

Round the Sphere Again

Brainflexing

• For the kids: Making the most of the summer holidays. (Al Mohler)

• For you: A summer reading list with a twist. (CT)

  …if you want to shake up your summer selections, consider picking up one or more of these newly released, theologically informed books.

  Two of these books are in the queue to be reviewed here over the summer months.

Borderline
I thought the map of the United States I had in my head was perfect, yet I scored only 6 out of 10 on this U.S. geography quiz.(mental_floss Blog) All I needed to do was determine whether two states share a common border. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? I’m betting you’ll find it trickier than you anticipated unless you cheat and look at a map.

Did you do better than I did?

Bloggish
Top search query of the week at Rebecca Writes: Leftover mashed potatoes. Second prize goes to a longstanding popular search term: Fried halibut.

Top content, if I exclude recent posts, is—you guessed it—the post on using up leftover mashed potatoes.

You’d think this was a cooking blog.