Selected Reading, February 19, 2022

 

You might enjoy these links.

History

How should we think about the sins of our heroes from church history?
In this video, Jared Wilson answers this complicated question by urging us to look at history through two lenses: the reality of sin and the substitution for sin. 

Theology

Are Christians Totally Depraved?
Understanding the answer to this question is important to our sanctification: “When we consider the full-orbed teaching of Scripture about the believer’s relationship with his or her sin, we will have a right understanding of what we were, what we are, and what we one day will be.”

Nature

Leave it to beavers to provide untold benefits to scores of creatures
Another northern creature column from my hometown newspaper.

Did you know that “there are two creatures on the planet that actively and significantly alter their environments to suit their own needs”? One of those creatures is the human creature, of course, but the other is the beaver.

Blog

Theological Term of the Week: Person
I’ve been updating and sometimes redoing old theological term posts on the Trinity. This one has a whole new definition.

Also updated recently: Perichoresis (new definition and links) and modalism.

Theologial Term of the Week: Person

person
The three of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; “a subsisting relation, distinguished from another person by his eternal relations of origin alone (paternity, filiation, spiration). A divine person ‘is nothing but the divine essense subsisting in an especial manner’ (John Owen).” 1

• From the Belgic Confession, Article 8, The Trinity: 

  In keeping with this truth and Word of God we believe in one God, who is one single essence, in whom there are three persons, really, truly, and eternally distinct according to their incommunicable properties— namely, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father is the cause, origin, and source of all things, visible as well as invisible. The Son is the Word, the Wisdom, and the image of the Father. The Holy Spirit is the eternal power and might, proceeding from the Father and the Son. Nevertheless, this distinction does not divide God into three, since Scripture teaches us that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit each has his own subsistence distinguished by characteristics—yet in such a way that these three persons are only one God. It is evident then that the Father is not the Son and that the Son is not the Father, and that likewise the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son.

• From Systematic Theology by Robert Letham, page 945:

  There has been much debate about whether person is an appropriate or adequate term for the three, in view of its modern usage, which entails separate individuals. However, no proposed alternatives have succeeded in establishing themselves, for they invariably yield a less-than-personal view of God.  

Learn more:

1. Ligonier Ministries: Three Distinct Persons
2. Sinclair Ferguson: What does it mean that the Trinity is three in person but one in essence? (video)

Related terms:

• essence
• Trinity

 1 Simply Trinity by Matthew Barrett, page 323.

Filed under Trinity

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

Sunday's Hymn: Amazing Grace—How Sweet the Sound

Amazing grace—how sweet the sound—
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found—
Was blind, but now I see.

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!

Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

And when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil
A life of joy and peace.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’ve first begun.

—John Newton

Other hymns of worship songs for this Sunday:

• He Took My Feet From the Miry Clay at The Happy Wonderer