WM 363: KEACH on the DIVINE AUTHORITY of the Holy Scriptures: Part 13 of 17: TESTIMONY of ENEMIES

 

JTR

The Vision (1.2.26): Encouragements and Exhortations at the Head of a New Year

Image: Moon over the dunes. Topsail Island, North Carolina. December 2025.

The New Year often brings with it resolutions for behaviors we intend to practice or goals we hope to achieve.

As we begin a new year, let me share five brief exhortations (along with a Scripture proof) that might serve as resolutions for members and friends of CRBC:

1.    Let us be committed to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.” (2 Peter 3:18).

2.    Let us be committed to sustaining this local church in its worship and ordinances.

“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).

3.    Let us be committed to receiving and profiting from the “ordinary means” of grace, including prayer, reading the Word of God (privately in our personal lives and corporately in the church), hearing the preaching and teaching of the Holy Scriptures, submitting to baptism (if not baptized), and regularly taking the Lord’s Supper when it is served.

“As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2).

4.    Let us be committed to meaningful fellowship and sincere expressions of love for the brotherhood of believers.

“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (John 13:34).

5.    Let us be committed to personal ministry (beginning within our own household), to evangelism, and to missions (spreading the gospel around the world).

“As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10).

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Personal Reflections: A Dozen Interesting Reads (Listens) in 2025

“Bring… the books” (2 Timothy 4:13). I think this was the first year the number of books I listened to outstripped the number I read. Here are a dozen or so highlights of 2025 (in no particular order):

First: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching & Preachers (Hodder and Stoughton, 1971).

I re-read this classic on evangelical preaching in 2025 and x-posted many of the aphoristic quotations.

Second: David N. Samuel, Pope or Gospel? The Crisis of Faith in the Protestant Churches (Marshalls, 1982).

This year I discovered the writings of the founding presiding bishop of the Church of England (Continuing). Excellent defense of traditional Protestant Christianity and critique of compromise in the contemporary Church of England (and Protestant liberalism in general). I also read his book The Church in Crisis and have started a couple of others.

Third: Paul Kingsnorth, Against the Machine: On the Unmasking of Humanity (Thesis, 2025).

Compelling critique of dehumanizing tendencies in the digital age, written by a formerly disillusioned British humanist who searched for meaning in Wicca and Buddhism, before turning to Christianity (EOC). This book will make you want to throw away your cell phone (or put it in a box and only take it out sparingly).

Fourth: Brent Nongbri, God’s Library: Archaeology of the Earliest Christian Manuscripts (Yale, 2018).

A bona fide expert in evaluating manuscripts of antiquity surveys the earliest extant writings of Christianity and points out the scholarly challenges (and even fraudulent misrepresentations) of these documents in various areas, including the reliable dating of them. Lots of quotes from this will likely appear in my writing/speaking in 2026.

Fifth: Inger N. I. Kuin, Diogenes: The Rebellious Life and Revolutionary Philosophy of the Original Cynic (Basic Books, 2025).

An unexpected find. Stimulating survey, reconstruction, and reflection on the life and teaching of the Cynic philosopher Diogenes, the man who lived in a jar and told Alexander the Great not to block his sun-bathing, by a UVA classics professor.

Sixth: Joel R. Beeke, Revelation (Reformation Heritage Books, 2016).

I did a one sermon per chapter bird’s eye view Lord’s Day afternoon preaching series through Revelation in the last half of 2025 and found Beeke’s commentary, based on his own expositional preaching through the book, a help.

Seventh: Gary Taubes, The Case Against Sugar (Anchor, 2017).

As I’m getting older and wanting to stay healthy and strong as long as I can, I’ve been reading a bit more on health and aging. This book will make you rethink any use of sugar in your diet.

Eighth: Caleb Morell, A Light on the Hill: The Surprising Story of How a Local Church in the Nation’s Capital Influenced Evangelicalism (Crossway, 2025).

This is a “biography” of Capital Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC. I have my own critique of the “Nine Marks” church movement, but I enjoyed learning about the life and history of this congregation.

Ninth: Kingsley Amis, The Alteration (Carroll & Graf, 1976).

What would the British Isles, North America, and the rest of the world be like if the Protestant Reformation had never take place? This sci-fi alternative-history fiction offers one fascinating vision. This led me to another vision of this scenario in Keith Roberts’ collection of intertwined short stories Pavane (1968) and to Philip K. Dick’s alternative-history vision of post WW2 in The Man in the High Castle (1962).

Tenth: Philip H. Eveson, Baptised with Heavenly Power: The Holy Spirit in the Teaching and Experience of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Mentor, 2025).

I got the book having read some excerpts online from the appendix sharing a portion of Lloyd-Jones’ personal journal on his own spiritual struggles. I did not skip to the end, however, when I got the book, and profited from reading it all the way through. Great insights into “the Doctor’s” theology of the Holy Spirit, Spirit baptism, revivals, and preaching.

Eleventh: (The Venerable) Bede, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Latin original c. 731; A. M. Sellar English translation, 1907; listened on Libri Vox).

Classic account of the arrival and spread of Christianity in England from the Romans to the Anglo-Saxon periods.

Twelfth: Howard Markel, The Battling Brothers of Battle Creek (Vintage, 2018).

Listened to this history about the rivalry between John Harvey and W. K. Kellog after visiting Battle Creek, Michigan last August and touring the Seventh Day Baptist Church, the Seventh Day Adventist Tabernacle, the remains of the Battle Creek Sanitorium (now the local federal building), and Oak Hill Cemetery. Spellbinding historical account of everything from Adventist fervor in the nineteenth century, frontier expansion in America, developing views of modern health and medicine, and the genesis of the cutthroat “cereal” industry.

Reads (Listens) from 2024.

-Tolle Lege (et Audi)

Personal Reflections: A Dozen Memorable Events of 2025

Image: Preaching at Westminster Baptist Church, London, November 2025.

“Man is like a thing of nought: his time passeth away like a shadow” (Psalm 144:4, 1662 BCP). As another year passes and a new begins, it’s a good time for reflection. Here are a dozen or so highlights (in general chronological order) from 2025:

First: I became a grandfather, twice over, in 2025. My precious granddaughter was born to my youngest daughter and her husband in January. Then my adorable grandson was born to my oldest daughter and her husband in April. I’ve experienced firsthand now what others told me about: The satisfaction and joy of seeing your children’s children. To top off the year my oldest son was engaged to his fiancé in December. DV, they will be married in 2026.

Second: I had the privilege of teaching a group of believers in Kenya on issues related to the text and translation of Scripture for the Trinitarian Bible Society in a series of sessions over zoom in January and February.

Third: I conducted several funerals. CRBC is generally a young body. We have had very few funerals over the last decade. This year, however, we had four deaths, and I took part in four funeral services: a beloved and faithful charter member at CRBC Carol Bradley; esteemed former missionary and my fellow elder for over a decade at CRBC Jeff Clark; a solid and encouraging layman, Rick Jones; the infant son, Adoniram Cook, of a beloved church family.

Fourth: I organized an Ordination Council in February and oversaw the ordination and installation of Ben Cook on Sunday April 13 as my fellow elder at CRBC.

Fifth: CRBC hosted the Spring Presbyterion (Pastors’ Fraternal) in Louisa on Friday April 11, and I gave one of the talks offering a review of the book The Case for Christian Nationalism.

Sixth: I gave a plenary lecture at the IRBS Faculty Conference on Church Planting on the topic “Setting in order the things that are wanting” (Titus 1:1-5) on Friday May 16 and attended the IRBS graduation ceremony on Saturday May 17 in Mansfield, Texas.

Seventh: I organized and oversaw our CRBC Youth Conference on Ex Nihilo Creation (with guest speaker Andrew McCaskill) at Machen Conference Center in Highland County on June 13-14 and then taught on the OT Wisdom Literature in our CRBC Vacation Bible School to the children of CRBC June 16-19.

Eighth: I enjoyed a week of family vacation at Topsail Island, NC, June 23-28.

Ninth: I served as chairman of the Reformation Bible Society and with the other executive committee members organized our second annual conference on August 2 at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I gave a plenary lecture on “Erasmus and the Ending of Revelation.” I then enjoyed a preaching ministry at South Litchfield Baptist Church with host pastor Jay Chambers in southern Michigan the week following the RBS conference, August 3-6.

Tenth: I served as a messenger to the inaugural General Assembly of the Reformed Baptist Association of Virginia at Grace Baptist Chapel in Hampton on Friday, September 26 and was elected to serve as Moderator of the new association. I also attended the Keach Conference the next day on Saturday, September 27 in Yorktown.

Eleventh: I had a ministry trip to England, November 7-13. I preached alongside Pooyan Mehrshahi and host pastor Jonathan Arnold at a conference on Confessing the Faith & the Nicene Creed at Westminster Baptist Church in London. I also attended some TBS meetings in London, visited friends in the Gloucester area, and the midweek meeting of Providence Baptist Chapel in Cheltenham.

Twelfth: I was able to continue my writing, blogging, and podcasting ministry. I posted Word Magazine podcast episodes 317-362.  I contributed two chapters to the book It is Written and edited the Reformation Bible Society Journal, Vol. 1 on the theme The Reformation Text & the Septuagint, including contributing a chapter on “How Did the Earliest Church Use the Septuagint?” I also contributed articles and book reviews to various journals including “To the Saints which are at Ephesus” to Bible League Quarterly, “The Preservation of Scripture” to the BLQ and the Trinity Review, and “Father, Forgive Them: The Case for the Authenticity of Luke 23:34a” to the Puritan Reformed Journal.

SDG!

Read Personal Reflections from 2024 here.