The Vision (8.28.26): Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel?

 

Note: Devotional taken from last Sunday's sermon on Mark 4:21-25.

And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick? (Mark 4:21)

In his explanation of the parable of the sower, Christ told his disciples that the “good ground” was those who heard the word, received it, and brought forth fruit (Mark 4:20).

He followed this up with figurative teaching about a lamp or light that should not be hidden.

The simplest and most sparsely furnished first century home would have had these basic items, an earthen lamp, a basket, and a mat that rolled out into a bed.  The Lord Jesus is saying that when it is night a man does not take the candle or lamp and hide it under a bushel basket or under his bedding, but he puts it on a candlestick or lampstand.  And the higher you put it the more it illumines the room.

The Lord Jesus is here speaking about the responsibility of believers (good ground hearers) to be a source of light and truth in the world.  They have been given insight that others do not have.  They are glowing with the knowledge of the gospel and of Christ. This is not be hidden or obfuscated.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ made a similar point:

Matthew 5: ¹⁴ Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

¹⁵ Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

¹⁶ Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

We sometimes sing the children’s song based on this parable: “This little light of mine, I’m gonna to let it shine….”

In John’s Gospel there is an account of a man named Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a “ruler of the Jews” who came to Christ “by night” (3:1-2). Later there is mention of another man named Joseph of Arimathea whom John describes as “being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews” (John 19:38).

John records that when Christ was crucified and died on the cross, it was indeed Joseph who went to Pilate and asked for the Lord’s body for burial (John 19:40-42). John also notes that Nicodemus was there helping him (v.39).

Witnessing the cross work of Christ made these men finally cast caution to the wind and let their light shine, as they made it publicly known, whatever the consequences, that they were his disciples.

In John Calvin’s day there was a group of Frenchmen who had privately embraced the gospel but publicly and outwardly had remained in the Roman Church. Calvin wrote several tracts calling these men “Nicodemites” and urging them to declare outwardly what they had confessed inwardly.

Are we “good ground” hearers of the Word? Have we heard and received that Word, and are we bearing kingdom fruit?

If so we must not hide the light but set it as high as we can that others might see and be drawn to Christ.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (8.21.26): The Apocrypha is Not Inspired Scripture

 

In our Midweek Meeting on Wednesday we continued our study of the Belgic Confession looking at Article 6 on “The Difference Between the Canonical and Apocryphal Books.” We noted that the Roman Church, as well as the Eastern Orthodox Church, accept several books in their Old Testament that are rejected by Bible-believing Protestants.

We gave a brief survey of these books, which include 1-2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, the so-called Wisdom of Solomon, Jesus (Joshua) ben Sirach (or Ecclesiasticus), Baruch, the additions to Esther, the additions to Daniel (Song of the Three Hebrews, Susannah, Bel and the Dragon), 1-2 Maccabees.

I offered five reasons we reject these books, and classify them as non-canonical:

1.     They were not accepted by ancient Jews (Rom 3:2);

2.     They were not originally written in Hebrew, the language of the OT, but Greek, showing they were written late.

3.     They have errors (e.g., Judith 1:1 which says Nebuchadnezzar ruled in Ninevah and not Babylon).

4.     These books were never explicitly cited as Scripture in the NT by the Lord Jesus and the Apostles and their associates.

5.     They were used by the Roman Church to support unbiblical doctrines and practices, like prayers for the dead (2 Macc 12:44); expiatory sacrifices (as in the mass) (2 Macc 12:39-46); expiatory alms (precursor to indulgences) (Tobit 12:9; 4:10); the invocation and intercession of saints (2 Macc. 15:14); Bar 3:4); the worship of angels (Tobit 12:12); purgatory and salvation after death (2 Macc 12:42).

We were reminded that the Reformation is not over. We have many differences with Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, even the books of the Bible.

I closed Wednesday by reading this statement from a French-Swiss evangelical theologian named René Pache (1904-1979). He wrote:

“Except for certain interesting historical information (especially in 1 Maccabees) and a few beautiful moral thoughts (e.g., Wisdom of Solomon), these books contain absurd legends and platitudes, and historical, geographical, and chronological errors, as well as manifestly heretical doctrines; they even recommend immoral acts (Judith 9:10, 13)” (The Inspiration and Authority of Scripture, Trans. Helen I. Needham [Moody Press, 1969], 172).

Let us continue to hold fast to and in defense of God’s holy, inspired, preserved, and true Word.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

René Pache (1904-1979) on the Apocrypha:

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"Except for certain interesting historical information (especially in 1 Maccabees) and a few beautiful moral thoughts (e.g., Wisdom of Solomon), these books contain absurd legends and platitudes, and historical, geographical, and chronological errors, as well as manifestly heretical doctrines; they even recommend immoral acts (Judith 9:10, 13)."

-The Inspiration and Authority of Scripture, Trans. Helen I. Needham (Moody Press, 1969), 172.

JTR

Hardbound Printing of Daniel 3 from World Publishing (Christmas, 1954)

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Picked this up in a used bookshop in Charlottesville recently. Attractive red hardbound copy of Daniel 3 in the KJV with a decorated gold colored slipcase.

Copy No. 1098 of 1250 with Typography by Jos. Trautwein and Decorations by Ismar David, from World Publishing Company in Cleveland, Ohio, Christmas 1954.

JTR

The Vision (8.14.26): Calvin on The Self-Authenticating Nature of Scripture

 

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27).

In our midweek study through the Belgic Confession, we were looking last Wednesday at this confession’s stress on what is called the self-authenticating (autopistic) nature of the Bible. Why do we believe the Bible’s authority? The Belgic Confession says, the Holy Spirit witnesses to our hearts that the Scriptures are from God, “whereof they carry the evidence in themselves.”

Here is what John Calvin (1509-1564), the great Reformer in Geneva, Switzerland, had to say about Scripture’s testimony to itself:

Let this point therefore stand: that those whom the Holy Spirit has inwardly taught truly rest upon Scripture, and that Scripture indeed is self-authenticated [autopiston]; hence it is not right to subject it to proof and reasoning. And the certainty it deserves with us, it attains by the testimony of the Spirit. For even if it wins reverence for itself by its own majesty, it seriously affects us only when it is sealed upon our hearts through the Spirit. Therefore, illumined by his power, we believe neither by our own nor by anyone else’s judgment that Scripture is from God; but above all human judgment we affirm with utter certainty (just as if we were gazing upon the very majesty of God himself) that it has flowed to us from the very mouth of God by the ministry of men. We seek no proofs, no marks of genuineness upon which our judgment may lean; but we subject our judgment and wit to it as to a thing far beyond any guesswork! This we do, not as persons accustomed to seize upon some unknown thing, which, under closer scrutiny, displeases them, but fully conscious that we hold the unassailable truth! Nor do we do this as those miserable men who habitually bind over their minds to the thralldom of superstition; but we feel that the undoubted power of his divine majesty lives and breathes there. By this power we are drawn and inflamed, knowingly and willingly, to obey him, yet also more vitally and more effectively than by mere human willing or knowing! (Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1.7.5).

May the Spirit continue to affirm the self-authenticating nature of the Holy Scriptures to his people.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (8.7.26): Water out of the Rock

 

Devotion based on Sunday afternoon sermon on Exodus 17 on July 26, 2026.

Exodus 17:3 And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?

Exodus 17:6 Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

In Exodus 17, the LORD answers the chiding, the striving, and the murmuring of his people, not with the immediate wrath and judgement it rightly deserved but with water from the rock.

In commenting on this passage, Edmund Clowney noted how God said to Moses in v. 6: “Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb.” Clowney added: “God will stand before a man. God will stand in the prisoner’s dock. He will stand before the upraised rod of Moses, as though he were a guilty prisoner….” He continued: “Still more—incredibly, God says to Moses, ‘Thou shalt smite the rock!’ The rock on which God stands is the symbol of God himself. God’s name is the rock (Deut 32:4, 31). Moses raises his rod and strikes the Rock” (in E. Radmacher, Ed., Can We Trust the Bible?, 48). Clowney, of course, sees in this account a foreshadowing of the cross of Christ!

From the one stricken comes a river of life. Indeed, we cannot read of water being given to a thirsty people without thinking of Christ’s description of himself as “living water” when he spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:10). He also declared on that occasion:

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life (John 4:14).

The apostle Paul makes a similar point to Clowney in 1 Corinthians 10:4 when he says of the Israelites of that time that they “did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.”

In Christ God answered our chiding and striving and murmuring with living water. His banner over us is love (Song of Solomon 2:4).

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Belgic Confession, Pauline Authorship of Hebrews, and Confessional Subscription

From X Post:

Was Hebrews written by Paul? Should such a claim be raised to confessional status?

Teaching last evening in our Midweek Doctrine Series through the Belgic Confession, looking at Article 4: Canonical Books of the Holy Scriptures.

Struck by the explicit inclusion of Hebrews as among the "the fourteen epistles of the apostle Paul" in the listing of the NT books. I'm sympathetic to this view and also like this structure for the NT: 4 Gospels and 1 Acts; 14 Pauline epistles; 7 General epistles; 1 Apocalypse (Revelation). I wondered, however, how those who hold to the BC handle issues related to subscription if one does not hold to Pauline authorship of Hebrews (or takes an agnostic view on this matter). I've been reading the study by Jan Van Bruggen (1909-1965), The Church Says Amen: An Exposition of the Belgic Confession (Inheritance, 2003) as a companion to the series. Van Bruggen says here, "Hebrews is attributed to Paul, but that is incorrect (see Hebrews 2:3)" (36).

An editorial footnote adds: "Rev. Van Bruggen indeed states this strongly; however, since it is not certain who wrote the letter of Hebrews, it should not be ruled out that Paul could have written it. The annotations to this verse [Heb 2:3] in the Dutch Staten Bijbel makes a strong argument in favor of Paul's authorship" (36, n. 8).

Interesting that the WCF/2LBCF 1:3 does not make this explicit claim of Pauline authorship of Hebrews, though many of the framers likely would have agreed with it.

JTR

WM 390: A New Scholarly Defense of the Woman Caught in Adultery (John 7:53--8:11)

 

Extra links for this episode:

New Books Podcast (8.2.26).

Book on Mohr Siebeck website.

TBS booklet defending PA.

JTR

2026 Youth Conference Audio: Samuel Frain on "Answering the Problem of Evil."

Image: Young people and speaker at the Mount Zion Hunt Club in Highland County (the normal turnabout point on our Saturday morning hike/walk).

CRBC hosted our annual Youth Conference Friday-Saturday, 23-24, 2026 at the Machen Conference Center in beautiful Highland County, Virginia.

Conference speaker Sam Frain, Pastoral Assistant at Emmanuel RBC, Verona addressed the topic: "Answering the Problem of Evil" in four messages, followed by a Q & A session. Here are audio links:

Session 1: What do we mean by the Problem of Evil?

Session 2: The Problem of Evil & the Fall of Man.

Session 3: The Problem of Evil & the Cross of Christ.

Session 4: The Problem of Evil & the Second Coming of Christ.

Session 5: Q &A

JTR

The Vision (7.31.26): The Ordination of the Twelve

 

Note: Devotional based on Sunday morning sermon on July 26, 2026.

Mark 3:14 And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, 15 And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils:

We see in the early chapters of Mark that many men flocked to Christ as he began his ministry. They would later abandon him when he went to the cross.

Among his many followers he called some to be his disciples. These included Simon and Andrew, James and John, and Levi (Mark 1:16-20; 2:14).

Mark 3:14-19 describes how he set apart or ordained Twelve of these men who would serve as Apostles.

It begins in v. 14 with the simple statement: “And he ordained twelve.”

Mark then notes two reasons for their appointment:

First, that they might be with him (v. 14a). The Lord Jesus is Immanuel, “God with us.”  Notice that Mark does not say that he appointed twelve that they might go to rabbinic school or seminary.  Their education or training for their task would come from spending time with the Master.  The primary task of the apostles will be the accurate preaching and writing about the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.  To do this, they had to be with him, and he would remain with them to the very end of the age (cf. Matthew 28:19-20).

Second, that they might be sent out to minister in his name (vv. 14-15). This involves preaching (v. 14b) and healing (including casting out evil spirits) (v. 15). Notice in the final chapter of Mark how the risen Christ commissions these same men (sans Judas Iscariot) to preach the gospel to every creature (16:15) and to perform the extra-ordinary apostolic signs including healing and casting out devils (16:17-18, 20). Note: This is another proof for the authenticity and originality of Mark’s Ending!

This was a special calling for the apostles, but callings will extend to ordinary ministers after them.

Hudson Taylor (1832-1905), pioneer missionary to China, wrote to his colleagues after the death of his beloved wife after childbirth:

 

I trust we are all satisfied that we are God’s servants, sent by Him, to the various posts we occupy, and that we are doing His work in them.  He set before us open doors we have entered, and in past times of excitement He has preserved us.  We did not come to China because missionary work here was either safe or easy, but because He had called us.  We did not enter upon our present positions under guarantee of human protection, but relying on the promises of his presence.  The accidents of ease or difficulty, of apparent safety or danger, of man’s approval or disapproval, in no wise affect our duty.

Let us follow and serve him where he has called us.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

WM 389: Another Unicorn Sighting!

 

JTR

The Vision (7.24.26): Do Christian today still keep the sabbath?

 

Image: Morning skies, North Garden, Virginia, July 2026.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Mark 2:23--3:6.

Is the moral law of God, as epitomized in the Ten Commandments, still binding on the consciences of believers today?

We would probably not have an argument over 9 of the 10 commandments. The controversial one would be the fourth commandment: Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy (Exodus 20:8).

Many evangelicals today would say this law is now abrogated, like the dietary rules or the keeping of the Passover.

One popular Study Bible (MacArthur’s) has a note at Exodus 20:8 which says of the fourth commandment, “Belonging especially to Israel under the Mosaic economy, the Sabbath could not apply to the believer of the church age for he is living in a new economy” (p. 125).

Reformed (Biblical) theology, however, rejects the rejection of the Sabbath.

We maintain that God’s moral law has not fundamentally changed. The fourth commandment is a creation ordinance. It was established when God made the world in the space of six day and all very good and then rested on the seventh day (Exodus 20:11), and it remains.

The only shift that has occurred in this commandment since the coming of Christ is that the sabbath is no longer a seventh day sabbath, but it is now a first day sabbath, the day when Christ was gloriously raised from the dead (John 20:1, 19; Acts 20:6-7; 1 Corinthians 16:1-2). So, from creation to the resurrection, the sabbath was the seventh day, and from the resurrection of Christ till the second coming, it is the first day of the week.

As Paul wrote in Hebrews 4:9: “There remaineth therefore a rest [sabbatismos] to the people of God.”

We believe that when we look at the Scriptures, and especially at the Gospels, we find that Christ nowhere rejected the sabbath, although he did reject those who were adding unbiblical laws about the sabbath (like forbidding works of necessity, Mark 2:23-28, and mercy, Mark 3:1-6).

Christ affirmed Biblical sabbath keeping and rejected unbiblical sabbath keeping.

On this special day we set aside what is lawful to do on other days and give ourselves to the public and private exercises of God’s worship.

Let us follow Christ’s teaching and example and call the sabbath a delight (Isaiah 58:13). Let us not think that we have to keep the sabbath, but that we get to keep the sabbath.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

WM 388: Responding to an INQUISITOR: Is affirming the MASORETIC TEXT as "kept pure in all ages" INCOHERENT?

 

JTR

WM 387: BLQ Article: THE SEPTUAGINT & MODERN CHALLENGES to the Traditional Text of the OT (Part 1)

 

Read a PDF of the article here on my academia.edu page.

JTR

WM 386: Interview: JOSEPH WEISSMAN on Defending the MASORETIC TEXT of the OT (VERITAS HEBRAICA)

 

JTR

The Vision (7.17.26): Murmuring & Manna

 

Image: July evening sky, North Garden, Virginia.

Note: Devotion taken from Lord's Day afternoon sermon on July 5, 2026.

And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness (Exodus 16:2).

And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat (Exodus 16:15).

Exodus 16:1-21 describes the pilgrimage of Israel after leaving its bondage in Egypt, as they move from Elim to the wilderness of Sin on their way to Sinai where they will receive God’s law.

Here are three spiritual applications one might draw from this passage:

Notice first: The LORD meets their murmuring with manna.

When the people murmur against Moses and Aaron, Moses tells them, “your murmurings are not against us, but against the LORD” (v.8). Nevertheless, the LORD did not pour out his wrath on them or abandon them. Instead, he gave them quail in the evening and manna (literally, “What is it?”) in the morning. The LORD is great in grace, mercy, and compassion toward his elect people. As Paul wrote to Timothy, “If we believe not [i.e., if we are not faithful], yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself” (2 Tim 2:13).

Notice second: This passage challenges us to consider our confidence in the Lord’s provision for us.

He provided for the Israelites of old even though they murmured. Will he not provide for us in our material and spiritual needs?

In Philippians 4:19, Paul said, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

As the Psalmist noted, “the cattle on a thousand hills are thine” (Ps 50:10).

Notice Third: The provision of manna in the wilderness points toward a greater fulfillment of the LORD provision in Christ for spiritually hungry and thirsty men and women.

In John 6, after feeding five thousand physically hungry men, Christ declared,, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).

After reminding them that their fathers “ate manna in the wilderness, and are dead,” Christ added, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (v.51).

The Lord did indeed meet our murmuring with manna, even the Lord Jesus Christ.

To Him be all praise and glory!

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Beza on the Mark of the True Church

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"The mark of the true Church is the preaching of Word of God in which the Lord is made manifest to us, as the books of the Prophets and Apostles declare Him. And, consequently, we join to the Word the Sacraments and the administration of ecclesiastical discipline, such as God has ordained."

"To conclude, to what place the Word of God is purely preached, the Sacraments purely administered and ecclesiastical discipline conducted conformably to the holy and pure doctrine, there we recognize the Church of God, no matter how few (Matt 18:20; Luke 12:32) or small of appearance in men's eyes (Luke 10:21; 1 Cor 1:19-28; Matt 11:17)."

-Theodore Beza (1519-1605), The Christian Faith, 66, 67.

Beza rejects superstitious devotion to Bread and Wine

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"Moreover, since apart from the act of Baptism, the water is no Sacrament, but plain water, and apart from the administration of the Supper, the bread and wine are no signs of the body and blood of the Lord, but only bread and wine, it follows that superstitious devotees of these things, do not worship even the Sacraments, but only and simply the creations of God. If these could speak, they would doubtless rebuke those who worshipped them for such horrible blasphemy."

-Theodore Beza (1519-1605), The Christian Faith, 52.

The Vision (7.10.26): Christ: The Bridegroom

 

Image: Detail, Roman wedding scene on a sarcophagus, second century, British Museum, London.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Mark 2:18-22.

“And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? as long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast” (Mark 2:19).

In Christ’s early ministry he attracted both disciples and critics.

In Mark 2:18 the critics ask, “Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not?” They were essentially accusing him of not teaching orthopraxy, right conduct.

We have Christ’s response in v. 19 with his own question: “Can the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them?”

He poses here a parable or an analogy. Christ is like a Bridegroom who has come. In a first century Jewish wedding, the bride and the wedding party would wait for the coming of the Bridegroom (see Christ’s parable of the wise and foolish virgins regarding his second coming in Matt 25:1-13). When the Bridegroom arrived the wedding celebration began.

Here in Mark 2:19 Christ speaks about his first advent or first coming. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into this world to claim his Bride, the people of God, the Church. Those who are his disciples are “the children of the bridechamber.” They are part of the wedding party. The coming of the long-expected Bridegroom (the Messiah) is a time of joy and celebration and gladness. It is not a time of “affliction” of the soul and fasting.

This is Christ’s response to these critics. There are times for feasting and times for fasting. Weddings are not funerals. The Bridegroom has come. Joy and gladness are in order. This was the proper response of his disciples.

Christ then adds in v. 20 what is essentially a prophecy of both the cross and his ascension: “But the days will come, when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they shall fast in those days.” The disciples will be filled with great sorrow over all these things.

An underlying point is being made. Christ is taking to himself the title of being the Bridegroom. If you look at the Old Testament, you will find a rich treasury of references to the one true God of the Bible as being the Husband or Bridegroom of his elect people, his Bride. Consider just one example:

Isaiah 54: ⁵ For thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.

⁶ For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.

⁷ For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.

When Christ declares himself to be the Bridegroom, he is declaring himself to be God. His first disciples thus confessed, “Jesus is Lord.” They were filled with joy at his first advent, and his disciples on earth will be filled with joy again at his second coming when we are called to “the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rev 19:9). Christ is the Bridegroom!

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Beza on the timing of the fruit of Word and Sacrament

 

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"As the seed, however good it may be, does not produce its fruit at the moment which it is sown, but must necessarily remain in the ground, so it is not proper to restrict fruit and efficacy of the Word to the same hour in which it is sown, nor that of the Sacraments to the moment in which they are administered. For the fruit manifests itself in the hearts of the elect at the time determined by God."

-Theodore Beza (1519-1605), The Christian Faith, 48.