Selected Reading, July 10, 2021

 

A few good reads for your weekend.

Missions

George Liele — First Baptist Missionary in Jamaica
The story of the former slave who may have been not just the first Baptist missionary in Jamaica, but the first American Baptist missionary. 

God

How Does God Relate to Time?
This is an excellent short essay on the timelessness of God. Yes, it’s difficult for us to wrap our brains around this doctrine, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a vital one. “Tampering with timelessness triggers a ripple effect through many of the other forgotten attributes of God. Evangelicals who deny timelessness must account for the implications that denial has for immutability, simplicity, and God’s eternality. If you change, redefine, or alter these doctrines of God, you have created a different God.”

Why “Abba” Does Not Mean “Daddy”
New Testament scholar Murray Harris explains why you shouldn’t address God the Father as “Daddy.” 

Life

Do Not Fear: Command or Comfort?
“Life is hard and full of painful and frightening circumstances. We may lose our jobs or get sick. Our family and friends may die or abandon us. We may experience war or civil unrest. All of these have happened to Christians since Jesus ascended into heaven. And we can expect them to continue until He returns. But whatever happens, we can take comfort from the many verses reminding us, ‘Do not fear’ and ‘Do not be afraid’. Through them, we are reminded not of our sinfulness and failings but His constant presence with us and His everlasting love for us.”

Church

The One Critical Thing Missing in Most Sermons
I, too, wish pastors took more time to explain why what they are teaching is true.

Theological Term of the Week: Jerome

Jerome
“[T]he most accomplished scholar of the early Church,”1 who translated the Bible—the Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament—into Latin. He was born around 347 and lived until 420.

• From 2000 Years of Christ’s Power by N. H. Needham, page 244: 

[I]n 382 Jerome visited Rome, where pope Damascus … asked him to prepare a new Latin translation of the Bible. Jerome agreed — and it took him 23 years to complete the task. In Jerome’s day, there were many Latin translations of Scripture circulating in the West, but none of them were particularly good. Jerome made an entirely fresh translation, using the Greek of the New Testament and the original Hebrew of the Old Testament as the basis for his new Latin version. He finished it in 405. A work of massive scholarship, it was called the Vulgate, and soon became the accepted translation of the Bible in the Western Latin speaking world, a position it held until the Reformation in the 16th Century.

Learn more:

1. Got Questions: Who was Saint Jerome?
2. 5 Minutes in Church History: Jerome
3. Christian Classics Ethereal Library: St. Jerome
4. Christian History: Jerome 
5. Christian History Institute: 405 Jerome Completes the Vulgate

Related terms:

• Ambrose of Milan
• Athanasius
• Basil of Caesarea
• Cappadocian fathers
• Gregory of Nanzianzus
• Gregory of Nyssa
• Hilary of Poitiers
• Irenaeus of Lyons
• John Chrysostom
• Justin Martyr
• Origen
• Sabellius
• Tertullian

Filed under Christian History

1From 2000 Years of Christ’s Power by N. R. Needham.

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Sunday Hymn: Alas! And Did My Saviour Bleed

Alas! and did my Saviour bleed,
And did my Sovereign die!
Would he devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I!

Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree!
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide,
And shut his glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker, died
For man the creature’s sin.

Thus might I hide my blushing face
While his dear cross appears;
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt mine eyes in tears.

But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe;
Here, Lord, I give myself away,
‘Tis all that I can do.

—Isaac Watts

Other hymns of worship songs for this Sunday:

• Fourth of July 2021 ~ A Prayer at The Happy Wonderer