Selected Reading, May 8, 2021

 

You might like these pieces—and learn from them, too.

Trinity

How the Doctrine of Inseparable Operations Unlocks the Gospel
It might seem like a hard to understand and trivial point of doctrine, but it’s actually pretty important: “Without inseparable operations, the cross would not be good news. It would truly look like its critics’ worst caricatures: a Father waiting on the sidelines for the Son to bear a punishment or, worse, venting his anger on a docile Son before he can act graciously toward the rest of us. It is hard to overestimate the damage caused by such sub-Trinitarian readings of the cross.”

Bible Application

Falling Away and Forsaking the Meeting
Wyatt Graham explains and applies Hebrews 10:24-25. What situation does the author have in mind when he commands his readers not to neglect meeting together? And how does the command to not neglect meeting together apply to us today?

Canon

How Far Back Can We Trace the Fourfold Gospel?
When did Christians begin to gather the four gospels together and view them as a unit? (Michael Kruger)

Theological Term of the Week: Gregory of Nyssa

Gregory of Nyssa
One of the Cappadocian fathers, brother of Basil of Caesarea, bishop of Nyssa, and one of the Eastern Church’s “outstanding theologians and teachers on the spiritual live.”1 He lived from 335-394. 

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

Among Gregory’s anti-Arian writings were his Against Eunomius, his Sermons on the Holy Spirit against the Spirit-fighting Macedonians, and his Letter to Ablabius that there are not Three Gods. The Eastern Church soon came to recognise him as on of their outstanding theologians and teachers on the spiritual life. His fame as an opponent of Arianism was so great that the assembled father of the Council of Constantinople asked Gregory to deliver the opening address. Gregory’s overflowing admiration for Origen led him to accept Origen’s doctrine of universal salvation; later theologians tried to rescue Gregory’s orthodoxy by arguing that other followers of Origen had inserted into Gregory’s writings the passages which teach universalism, but there is no evidence for this, and the passages are too numerous. The more realistic attitude taken by others was that Gregory of Nyssa was a holy man and a great theologian who had sadly erred on this particular point.

Learn more:

1. Got Questions: Who was Gregory of Nyssa? and Who were the Cappadocian Fathers?
2. Theopedia: Gregory of Nyssa
3. Credo Magazine: Gregory of Nyssa

Related terms:

• Ambrose of Milan
• Athanasius
• Basil of Caesarea
• Gregory of Nanzianzus
• Irenaeus of Lyons
• 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's Hymn: The King of Love My Shepherd Is

The King of Love my Shepherd is,
Whose goodness faileth never;
I nothing lack if I am his
And he is mine for ever.

Where streams of living water flow
My ransomed soul he leadeth,
And, where the verdant pastures grow,
With food celestial feedeth.

Perverse and foolish oft I strayed,
But yet in love he sought me,
And on his shoulder gently laid,
And home, rejoicing, brought me.

In death’s dark vale I fear no ill
With thee, dear Lord, beside me;
Thy rod and staff my comfort still,
Thy cross before to guide me.

Thou spread’st a table in my sight;
Thine unction grace bestoweth;
And O what transport of delight
From thy pure chalice floweth.

And so through all the length of days
Thy goodness faileth never;
Good Shepherd, may I sing thy praise
Within thy house for ever.

 —Hen­ry W. Bak­er

Other hymns of worship songs for this Sunday:

• Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise at The Happy Wonderer