Selected Reading

I read these recently and recommend them to you.

Theological Questions

Is Middle Knowledge Biblical? An Explanation
This explains what middle knowledge is—or what middle knowledge would be if it actually existed. 

(It’s the next piece in this series that will actually tackle the question of whether middle knowledge is biblical or not.)

What Does ‘Ex Nihilo’ Mean?
This is an excerpt from R. C. Sproul’s Truths We Confess, which has been revised and reissued in a single volume instead of the three-volume set I own. You can read this excerpt to get a taste this commentary on The Westminster Confession of Faith. I use it frequently and recommend it to you. You can order it here.

Biblical Understanding

5 Things to Remember When Helping Someone Read the Bible
This short excerpt from the ESV New Christian’s Bible identifies five ways we should read the Bible to deepen our understanding of it. 

Why Study Ezra
Because it teaches us that a new start is not enough, setting things up for Jesus’s teaching in John 3. “Nicodemus asked how he could start his life over, and Jesus told him, ‘You don’t need a new start! You need a new heart!’” 

Theological Term of the Week: Worldview

worldview
“A network of ultimate beliefs, assumptions, values, and ideas about the universe and our place in it that shapes how a person understands their life and experiences (and the lives and experiences of others) and how that person acts in response.”1

• From scripture, on having a Christian worldview:

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, (2 Corinthians 10:5 ESV)

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. (Colossians 2:8 ESV)

• From What is a Worldview? by James Anderson:

A person’s worldview represents his most fundamental beliefs and assumptions about the universe he inhabits. It reflects how he would answer all the “big questions” of human existence: fundamental questions about who and what we are, where we came from, why we’re here, where (if anywhere) we’re headed, the meaning and purpose of life, the nature of the afterlife, and what counts as a good life here and now. Few people think through these issues in any depth, and fewer still have firm answers to such questions, but a person’s worldview will at least incline him toward certain kinds of answers and away from others.

Worldviews shape and inform our experiences of the world around us. Like spectacles with colored lenses, they affect what we see and how we see it. Depending on the “color” of the lenses, some things may be seen more easily, or conversely, they may be de-emphasized or distorted—indeed, some things may not be seen at all.

Learn more:

1. Got Questions: What is a Christian Worldview?
2. Bethinking: What in the World Is a Worldview?
3. James N. Anderson: What in the World Is a Worldview? Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
4. Josh Blount: 5 Questions to Analyze Any Worldview

Related terms:

• apologetics

1 From What It TAKES to Make a Worldview by Dr. James N. Anderson.

Filed under Apologetics

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Clicking on the Theological Terms button will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.

Sunday's Hymn: Come, We That Love the Lord

Come, we that love the Lord,
And let our joys be known;
Join in a song with sweet accord,
And thus surround the throne.

Let those refuse to sing
That never knew our God;
But children of the heav’nly King
May speak their joys abroad.

The men of grace have found
Glory begun below;
Celestial fruits on earthly ground
From faith and hope may grow.

The hill of Zion yields
A thousand sacred sweets,
Before we reach the heav’nly fields,
Or walk the golden streets.

Then let our songs abound,
And ev’ry tear be dry;
We’re marching through Immanuel’s ground
To fairer worlds on high.

—Is­aac Watts

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

• Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts at The Happy Wonderer
• Christian Life is Open Warfare at The Outspoken Tulip
• Show us Jesus our Lord at Tried With Fire
• Lord’s Day 38, 2019 at The Thirsty Theologian