Selected Reading, February 27, 2021

 

My recommendations for your weekend reading. 

Old Testament

Moses’s Life Is a Movie Trailer
If it’s written by Michael Morales, I’m going to read it. You should too:

“God has an artistic way of arranging history and inspiring Scripture that allows us to see patterns in his redemptive work.

This is exactly what we see with Moses in Exodus, particularly its early chapters (typically referred to as his birth narrative). Moses doesn’t just serve as Israel’s redeemer and savior; he serves as a preview of Israel’s experience—almost like a movie trailer.”

Christian Living

Real Churches Commune with Dead Saints
A little encouragement during what can be discouraging times (and also an incentive to gather, if you can, with your church this Sunday): “Despite the distance between heaven and earth, between the dead and living, between now and eternity, we’re already citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, already enrolled in the same assembly.”

Theological Terms

Prophet, Priest, and King
From the Simply Put podcast, three short reflections on the three aspects of the threefold office of Christ. I’ll be adding links to these in my related theological terms. 

Athanasius
I’ve started a new series of theological term posts featuring people from Christian history. This one on Athanasius, “outstanding champion of Nicene theology,” is first.

Theological Term of the Week: Athanasius

Athanasius 
The bishop of Alexandria who became “the outstanding champion of Nicene theology in the East” and who was “one of the greatest and most influential thinkers in the history of the Christian Church.”1 He lived from 296-373.

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

Athanasius’s whole theology was centred on the docrine of salvation. In common with Eastern Christians generally, Athanasius understood salvation to mean deification — Christ the Savior makes human beings divine. This did not mean that Christ actually changed the believer’s human nature into God’s nature, but that human nature was lifted up by grace, through Christ, to share in the glory and immortality of God. 2 Peter 1:4 was a favourite text, where Peter describes Christians as “partakers of the divine nature”. How, Athanasius asked, could Christ make human nature divine if He Himself was less than God? Salvation means union with God’s life — human nature sharing in the glory of God’s nature. Therefore if Christ is humankind’s Saviour,  He must be God and man in one person; in Christ the God-man, humanity has been lifted up into the very life of God. Athanasius also argued from the fact that Christians worship Christ. How can we worship Him, Athanasius asked, unless He is God? If we are worshipping a created being, we are committing idolatry.

Learn more:

1. Got Questions: Who was Athanasius?
2. Christian History: Athanasius
3. Michael A. G. Haykin: 10 Things You Should Know About Athanasius
4. John Piper: Contending for Our All
5. Ryan Reeves: Who Was Athanasius and Why Is He Important?
6. Nick Needham:  Athanasius and the Deity of Christ: Part 1 and Part 2 (videos)
7. Athanasius: On the Incarnation (pdf)

Related terms:

• Ambrose of Milan
• Apollinarius
• Augustine of Hippo
• Basil of Caesarea
• Cappadocian fathers
• Columba
• Cyril of Alexandria
• Gregory of Nanzianzus
• Gregory of Nyssa
• Gregory the Great
• Hilary of Poitiers
• Irenaeus of Lyons
• Jerome
• John Chrysostom
• Justin Martyr
• Maximus the Confessor
• Monica
• Nestorius
• Origen
• Patrick
• Pelagius
• Sabellius
• Tertullian
• Venerable Bede, The

Filed under Christian History

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

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Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured as a Theological Term of the Week? Email your suggestion using the contact button in the navigation bar above. 

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

Sunday's Hymn: Let Us Love, and Sing, and Wonder

Let us love, and sing, and wonder,
Let us praise the Saviour’s name!
He has hushed the law’s loud thunder,
He has quenched Mount Sinai’s flame;
He has washed us with his blood,
He has brought us nigh to God.

Let us love the Lord who bought us,
Pitied us when enemies,
Called us by his grace, and taught us,
Gave us ears and gave us eyes:
He has washed us with his blood,
He presents our souls to God.

Let us sing, though fierce temptation
Threaten hard to bear us down!
For the Lord, our strong salvation,
Holds in view the conqueror’s crown,
He who washed us with his blood,
Soon will bring us home to God.

Let us wonder; grace and justice
Join, and point to mercy’s store;
When through grace in Christ our trust is,
Justice smiles, and asks no more:
He who washed us with his blood,
Has secured our way to God.

Let us praise, and join the chorus
Of the saints enthroned on high;
Here they trusted him before us,
Now their praises fill the sky:
“Thou hast washed us with thy blood;
Thou art worthy, Lamb of God!”

—John Newton

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

• Let Every Lamp Be Burning Bright at The Happy Wonderer