Sunday's Hymn: All Praise to Thee, Eternal Lord

All praise to thee, Eternal Lord,
Clothed in a garb of flesh and blood;
Choosing a manger for thy throne,
While worlds on worlds are thine alone.

Once did the skies before thee bow;
A Virgin’s arms contain thee now:
Angels who did in thee rejoice
Now listen for thine infant voice.

A little Child, thou art our Guest,
That weary ones in thee may rest;
Forlorn and lowly is thy birth,
That we may rise to heav’n from earth.

Thou comest in the darksome night
To make us children of the light,
To make us, in the realms divine,
Like thine own angels round thee shine.

All this for us thy love hath done;
By this to thee our love is won:
For this we tune our cheerful lays,
And shout our thanks in ceaseless praise.

—Martin Luther

 Other hymns, worship songs, or quotes for this Sunday:

• Let the Earth Now Praise the Lord at The Happy Wonderer
• Fear not at Tried With Fire
• Life Gets Uncomfortable and Joyless at The Outspoken Tulip 
• Lord’s Day 50 at The Thirsty Theologian

Selected Reading

A bit of recommended reading.

The Trinity

Is the Trinity Biblical?
It depends on what you mean when you say “biblical.”

The Ninth

The Ten Commandments: The Ninth
Persis Lorenti: “At face value, the 9th commandment could be read as merely a prohibition against committing perjury or lying under oath. However, this commandment encompasses so much more.”

The Ninth Commandment
Yes, two excellent but quite different pieces on this one commandment. “When we orient ourselves around the finished work of Christ, we are compelled to bear true witness about God: ‘Look how wonderful and satisfying He is.’ And when we find Christ supremely valuable and fulfilling, the desire to cut our neighbor down disappears” —Jared Wilson.

The North

What are the northern lights?
It seems there’s still a lot we don’t know about the aurora. 

From Anti-Church Planting to Church Planters
The story of a church plant in my town that a few of my friends and family are part of. 

A Comma

How Strunk Lost His Comma
There’s nothing more exciting than a good punctuation story.

Theological Term of the Week: Warning Passages of Hebrews

warning passages of Hebrews
Five passages interspersed throughout the New Testament book of Hebrews which warn professing believers of the consequences of apostacy and exhort them to remain faithful. (See list of passages below under Learn More.)1 

• One of the warning passages: 

  [4] For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, [5] and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, [6] and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. [7] For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. [8] But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. (Hebrews 6:4-8 ESV)

• From Thomas Schreiner in Calvinism and the Warning Passages: A Reply to Scot McNight:

We must remember that the passages are warnings and admonitions. They say nothing about whether believers will actually fall away. They are not declarations but warnings. The common response is that the warnings are beside the point if believers can’t fall away. What a silly waste of time! But that objection fails if the warnings are a means by which God keeps his elect. I would argue that the warning passages are always effective in the lives of the elect, i.e., those who are truly saved always heed the warnings, and it is precisely by heeding the warnings that they are preserved until the end.

Learn more:

1. ESV Study Bible: A list of the warning passages of Hebrews
2. Thomas Schreiner: Can You Lose Your Salvation? What About the Warning Passages? (video)
3. Collin Hansen: Warning Passages Ahead (an interview with Peter O’Brien)
4. Lee Gattiss: The Function of the Warning Passages

Related terms: 

• apostasy
• perseverance of the saints
• saving faith 

Filed under Salvation

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