The Vision (10.20.23): Where art thou?

 

Image: Adam and Eve Mosaic, Late 5th-early 6th century. Cleveland Museum of Art.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 3:8-15.

And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? (Genesis 3:9).

As we read the account of the LORD God’s confrontation with the first man and the first woman after they had fallen by sinning against God and by eating the forbidden fruit, we are meant to sympathize with our first parents. We should be moved to acknowledge that we too have fallen, that we are naked, exposed before a holy God, and we have only tried to hide ourselves from him, as did they.

Yet the LORD God comes to us even today, even also had come to them, with the voice of his Word. He seeks us. He confronts us, and he places us under a spiritual investigation or interrogation. He asks us questions, not because he is ignorant of the answers, but because he is probing our conscience. So, he asks:

Where art thou? (v. 9).

Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded that thou shouldest not eat? (v. 11).

What is this that thou hast done? (v. 13).

Will we cast or shift blame, as did the first man and woman, or will we acknowledge and confess our faults (1 John 1:9)?

Will we also come to know the one about whom God himself spoke in Genesis 3:15, in that first prophecy of the Gospel. God himself acting as the Prophet declared that from the seed of woman shall come one who will crush Satan’s head through Satan shall bruise his heel (Isaiah 53:5: “he was bruised for our iniquities”).

In Paul’s letter to the churches of Galatia he will describe the Lord Christ in this way:

Galatians 4:4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,

And in Galatians 3:13 Paul says that the Lord Jesus Christ “was made a curse for us.” He is the only hope for fallen men.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Book Review: Joshua Schooping, Disillusioned: Why I Left the Eastern Orthodox Priesthood and Church

 

 

You can find a pdf of the review here on my academia.edu page.

JTR

The Vision (10.13.23): Satan's Tactics

 

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 3:1-7:

Genesis 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Satan, “the great dragon” and “the old serpent” (Revelation 12:9), tempts the first man and woman to disobey God’s command and to eat the forbidden fruit.

We learn here of his devises and tactics, which include twisting God’s words, telling lies (see John 8:44 where Christ called him, “a liar and the father of it”), making false promises, and appealing to man’s pride.

Satan here pitches sin as a kind of “enlightenment,” the opening of one’s eyes. This lie strikes at an ancient weakness in man to desire to throw off the one true God and make himself to be a god. He wants to rule his own life, to make up his own rules.

Satan even pitches sin as some kind of moral achievement. Man can know good and evil. But man in the state of innocence knew only the good and was not tainted even by the knowledge of evil. It was not an improvement for man to know evil, as Satan falsely suggested, but a degradation.

Satan is like a conman, a snake-oil salesman, a flim-flam artist. He uses the old bait and switch method:

He promises enlightenment and gives spiritual blindness.

He promises freedom and gives bondage.

He promises wisdom and gives foolishness.

He promises warmth and gives icy coldness.

He promises community and gives loneliness (I bet the prodigal had loads of friends in the far country till the money ran out!).

He promises satisfaction and gives starvation.

He promises drink and gives a parched throat.

He promises wealth and gives poverty.

He promises life and gives death.

He promises a party and delivers a funeral.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Word Magazine 293: Article Review: Dirk Jongking on Text and Theology

JTR

Jots & Tittles 23: An Error in Psalm 10:13 (MEV)

 

JTR

The Vision (10.6.23): The Creation of Woman

 

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 2:18-25 in our Genesis series.

Genesis 2:21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her to the man.

The LORD God did not leave man in the state of loneliness or incompletion, determining to make woman as the perfect companion and complement to man.

He does this through an act of what one might call “spiritual surgery.” He causes the man to fall into a deep sleep, and took from his side a rib, closing up the flesh (v. 21). Then from this rib he made the first woman (v. 22a).

There has been much attention given over the years as to the reasons for the creation of the woman in this way, though it must mostly remain speculative, since no clear inspired explanations are given.

The Puritan commentator Matthew Henry famously observed,

… woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side, to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.

He later adds a much more allegorical Christ-centered interpretation, writing:

Adam was a figure of him that was to come; for out of the side of Christ, the second Adam, his spouse the church was formed, when he slept the sleep, the deep sleep, of death upon the cross, in order to which his side was opened, and there came out blood and water, blood to purchase his church and water to purify it to himself.

Notice then in v. 22b how the LORD God brings the woman to the man. Here is his presentation of this special gift to Adam.

Maybe as a parent you have sometimes gotten a special gift for your child, perhaps at a birthday or Christmas. You made or got for him something you know that he will really love and delight to see and have. You may have become almost more excited to see him get the gift than he was to receive it. We can imagine God as like that here.

One commentator notes, “God is like a father who presents his son with a valuable gift that is bound to please him and be cherished by him. ‘See, he says, what I have prepared for you’” (Currid, Genesis, 112).

Woman was indeed a good gift given to man to complete the creation of God’s special image bearers.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

2023 Keach Conference: Audio and Images

 

Images: Keach steering committee and speakers, l to r: Jeff Riddle, Steve Clevenger, Geoffrey Thomas, Ben Scofield, Ryan Davidson, and Van Loomis

Audio for messages 1-3 and the Q & A:

WM 292: 2023 Kept Pure Conference Preview

 

JTR

WM 291: Mormons, DSS, Theological Presuppositions, and Modern Textual Criticism

 

JTR

WM 290: Sermon Review: Five Dangers of Calvinism: Part 4

 

JTR

Orientation to the 2023 Keach Conference

 

Note: It was my privilege to present an opening "Orientation" to the 2023 Keach Conference, the annual ministry and theology conference hosted by the Reformed Baptist Fellowship of Virginia (RBF-VA) and held last Saturday (9.30.23) in Warrenton:

Dear friends in Christ,

Let me extend a warm welcome to you to the 2023 annual meeting of the Keach Conference. I extend this greeting on behalf of the steering committee of the Reformed Baptist Fellowship of Virginia.

This is now the 22^nd consecutive fall (or autumn for our UK guests) in which we have had a meeting like this one, devoted to Biblical teaching and Christian fellowship among confessional Reformed Baptists in the Commonwealth of Virginia, having first met in 2002 in Virginia Beach. And, yes, we even met in person in 2020 at the height of the Covid pandemic.

Our meeting has changed over the years. It started out as a small gathering of pastors only and used to be called the Evangelical Forum.

In 2010, in our ninth consecutive annual meeting, reflecting our desire to be identified with historic confessional Particular Baptists, we officially changed the name of this gathering to the Keach Conference, in honor of Benjamin Keach (1640-1704), a diligent pastor and an original signer of our confession.

In a recent text group conversation among those on the steering committee, we entertained other possible names (tongue-in-cheek) for the Conference. These included:

“G-Keach”

“Together for Keach”

“The Keach Coalition”

“The Banner of Keach”

And, in homage to the Acts 29 Network, “Baptists 1690.”

For now, however, we determined it was best that we stick with the name Keach Conference. Stay tuned for any future updates and developments.

In 2007, in our sixth consecutive annual meeting, we began a series through the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (1677, 1689), devoting each annual gathering to a consecutive consideration of one of its 32 chapters.

This is the fourth time since we started that journey through the confession that we have been blessed to hold our annual meeting here in Warrenton, hosted by the brethren at Covenant RBC.

In 2011, when we met here our theme was chapter 5 “Of Divine Providence” and our speakers were Dr. Joel Beeke of Puritan Reformed Seminary and Pastor Malcolm Watts from Emmanuel Evangelical Church in Salisbury, England.

In 2014, when we met here again our theme was chapter 8 “Of Christ the Mediator” and our speakers were Pastor Jim Savastio of the Reformed BC of Louisville, Kentucky and Pastor Earl Blackburn of Heritage Baptist Church of Shreveport, Louisiana.

In 2017, when we met here yet again our theme was chapter 26 “Of the Church” and our speaker was Pastor Poh Boon Sing of the Damansara RBC in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia (going out of order that year based on the expertise of our speaker).

And this year, in 2023, meeting again in Warrenton, Lord willing, we will continue this series by examining chapter 16 “Of Good Works.” And we will have the privilege of listening to two faithful ministers of God’s Word, Ben Scofield of the West Suffolk Reformed Baptist Church, Suffolk, Virginia and Geoffrey Thomas, retired pastor after over 50 years of service at the Alfred Place Baptist Church in Aberystwyth, Wales. As Pastor Thomas put it in his recent autobiography, reflecting on his retirement, “I never had a call to another church. Alfred Place was stuck with me!” (In the Shadow of the Rock, 322).

I might note that though this is Pastor Thomas’s first visit with us at the Keach Conference, we have already, in fact, in God’s Providence, benefited from his ministry in that our 2009 speaker, the respected Presbyterian pastor and scholar Derek Thomas (no family relation), was converted while a university student, attending Alfred Place, and sitting under Geoff Thomas’s preaching.

Back to our topic “Of Good Works,” for we Calvinists most of our Bibles fall almost on their own from constant turning to Ephesians 2:

⁸ For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

⁹ Not of works, lest any man should boast.

But today we are reminded that we must also proceed to v. 10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

Calvin himself in his Institutes wrote about the duplex gratia, or “double grace” of salvation including both justification and sanctification (3.11.1).

Alister McGrath in his biography of Calvin suggested that this emphasis manifested itself as a distinctive component of Reformed theology and practical piety, shaping everything from assurance of salvation to the Protestant work ethic and the rise of capitalism. McGrath says of Calvin’s thought,

God’s grace was an unconditional gift, prior to and independent of any human work or merit. Nevertheless, grace possessed a transformational dimension, an ability to work within its recipient. To receive grace was to be renewed by grace… Good works were seen as the outward and visible sign of the presence and activity of grace within the believer (A Life of John Calvin, 239).

There is much indeed in this chapter worthy of thoughtful and prayerful consideration.

By taking on chapter 16, this will mark the halfway point through the series. At this rate, God willing, we will finish just 16 short years from now in 2039.

We trust that by God’s grace we will profit from the teaching and fellowship today. Let me close with another brief quotation from Pastor Thomas’ autobiography as he reflected on his student days at Westminster Seminary while he was sitting under the teaching of perhaps the most esteemed Protestant seminary faculty ever assembled (from John Murray to Cornelius Van Til). Thomas writes:

Seminaries are a lot like conferences. The messages or lectures are the bonus, while the people who teach, to whom you have personal access, and particularly the men with whom you study and eat and pray and talk and argue and correspond with for the rest of your life are the abiding momentum of your consecration and service (147).

Let us find here today just a bit more momentum for our ongoing consecration and service to the Lord Jesus Christ!

Amen.

The Vision (9.29.23): Man in the State of Innocency

 

Image: Map of the four rivers of Eden from a reprint of the Calvin Translation Society Commentary on Genesis.

Genesis 2 ¹⁵ And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

¹⁷ But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

The LORD offers a commandment to the first man in the state of his innocency that included a most generous provision for him, a most clear prohibition, and most ominous warning (vv. 16-17).

This is sometimes called the covenant of creation, or the covenant of life, or the covenant of works.

Calvin called it “a test of obedience” (commentary on Gen 2:16).

First, there is the most generous provision, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.” What an incredible variety of trees God gave to man in his innocence to enjoy! You think the fruit of trees in this fallen world taste good now, imagine what they were like before the fall! And notice they were not barred from eating from the tree of life. A way was opened unto man to live forever (see 3:22)!

Second, however, there was the clear prohibition: “But, of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat it” (v. 17a).

We get a clue here as to how sin operates. We know it from our fallen selves. God provides for us a vast array of things that we might pursue that are wholesome, right, good, and soul-satisfying. And what is the thing we crave? That which he in his wisdom forbids.

The parent says, Don’t touch the stove, and the child thinks, I wonder what it would feel like to touch the stove! And very often the hand reaches out to touch the stove and gets burned.

There is finally also the ominous warning: “for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (v. 17b). Man cannot say he was not warned. Paul will write in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death. God said it first in the garden. Adam and Eve will not immediately drop down dead, but spiritual death and eventual physical death will come the moment this commandment is disobeyed and the covenant is broken.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (9.22.23): “And all the host of them”: The Magnitude of Creation

 

Image: The Milky Way

Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 2:1-3.

Genesis 2:1 declares, “Thus, the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.”

The language here echoes that of Genesis 1:1 where the phrase “heaven and earth” also appears. This is simply a way of saying God made “everything.”

Moses adds, “and all the host of them.” This is meant to emphasize the totality and magnitude of the complete, divine work of creation. One commentator notes that the word “host” “normally only refers to luminaries” like the sun, moon, and stars (see Deut 4:19; 17:3), but here its application is extended to all things within the world, everything between and beyond the heavens and the earth (Currid, Genesis, 90-91).

The immensity of the creation is truly breath-taking. We, as puny human beings, will never be able to grasp with our finite minds its enormous scope. I was reading about this last week in a book titled The New Creationism by a Christian apologist in the UK named Paul Gardner. Gardner wrote about the stars to illustrate the immensity of the world that God made. He notes,

Our Sun is one of about 100 billion stars that make up our galaxy. The Milky Way. Our galaxy is one of about thirty galaxies in a cluster called the Local Group. This cluster is about ten million light years across… (34).

He then adds,

One recent estimate suggests that, in total, there are ten times more stars in the observable universe than all the grains of sand on the world’s deserts and beaches (34).

Get this also, stars are apparently like snowflakes. “No two stars are absolutely identical” (34).

With that in mind, consider again the statement in 2:1, especially its conclusion, “and all the host of them.” The magnitude of creation staggers the mind. It makes David’s statement in Psalm 8 completely reasonable, “3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; 4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?”

Genesis 2:1 compels us to wonder in worship and awe at the vast magnitude of the world which God created in the space of six days and all very good.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Daniel as a Type of Christ in Daniel 6

Britone Riviere (1840-1920), Daniel in the Lion's Den, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

Note: This post taken and expanded from my Twitter/X: @Riddle1689:

Daniel as a type of Christ in Daniel 6:

Enemies plot against a blameless man (vv. 4-5); Arrested after private prayer (v. 10); Cast into a den of death, covered by a stone and sealed (v. 17); An admirer grieves and comes early in the morning (vv. 18-19); Delivered from the den of death by the power of God (v. 23);

Enemies destroyed (v. 24);

Vindicated and exalted (vv. 25-28).

JTR

Gleanings from Calvin's Commentary on Genesis on Anthropology

 

Note: Posts  taken from Twitter/X account: @Riddle1689:

Calvin on the preeminence of man in Genesis 1:26:

"Truly there are many things in this corrupted nature which may induce contempt; but if you rightly weigh all circumstances, man is, among other creatures, a certain pre-eminent specimen of Divine wisdom, justice, and goodness, deservedly called by the ancients mikrikosmos, 'a world in miniature.'"

Calvin on how sin has damaged the imago Dei in his commentary on Genesis 1:26:

"But now, although some obscure lineaments of that image are found remaining in us; yet are they so vitiated and maimed, that they may truly be said to be destroyed.”

Calvin on total depravity:

“For besides the deformity which everywhere appears unsightly, this evil is added, that no part is free from the infection of sin."

Calvin on the imago Christi:

"Since the image of God has been destroyed in us by the fall, we may judge from its restoration what it originally had been. Paul says we are transformed into the image of God by the gospel. And according to [Paul], spiritual regeneration is nothing else than the restoration of the same image. (Col. iii.10, and Eph. iv.23)."

JTR

Vision (9.15.23): The Special Creation of Man

 

Image: Scene from the London Zoo "Human Exhibit" in 2005.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 1:26-31.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them (Genesis 1:27).

Back in 2005 the London Zoo made headlines around the world when for a short time it hired eight persons (three men and five women) to live in an exhibit under the title “Homo Sapiens.” Other signs described their diet and typical activities. Another described them as “the most dangerous animal of all.” Are human beings simply like all the other animals? If not, what exactly is it that makes us different?

The answer to those questions is given to us in Genesis 1:26-28.

Genesis 1:26 begins, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” The Hebrew word for “man” here is adam. It is also the name of the first man. He is a special creature made in a special manner and given a special name. He is not listed alongside the other land creatures in v. 24 (cattle, creeping things, and beast of the earth). He is set apart. He is unique.

The primary evidence of his uniqueness is that the triune God purposed to make man “in our image, after our likeness.” Those two statements are essentially saying the same thing in classic Hebrew parallelism.

The first statement is perhaps best known by the Latin phrase, “Imago Dei.” Man has an imprint upon him that makes him different than the rest of the creation. He is not God, but he is made after the likeness of the thrice Holy God.

Perhaps the key to what this image means is given in the remainder of v. 26 which begins, “and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea…” (v. 26b). God who is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Master of the whole cosmos gives to man as the crown of his creation a measure of limited sovereignty. He gives mankind to be his stewards and to rule over and provide for all the other creatures of firmament, sea, and land, and even “over all the earth.” This is indeed what David stresses in Psalm 8:4-8, when he declares that God made man “a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour … to have dominion” over the works of his hands.

One more fact about man is provided in v. 27b: “male and female created he them.” God declares here that human beings are made in two basic flavors, or in two distinct styles, or in two kinds. God made man to be male and female, men and women. Human beings are, according to the good design of God binary. This is why we as Christian say there are only two genders. What does it say about the state of confusion in our world today when such a basic claim is somehow controversial?

This was and is God’s original, good design made before man’s fall into sin. This statement affirms the spiritual equality of men and women. We are both made in the image of God. We are both image bearers. We are both made in God’s likeness. We are both made to have dominion over all creatures and all the earth. Men are not spiritually superior to women; women are not spiritually superior to men.

This is not to say, however, that we are the same. We are fundamentally different. Made by an all-good and all-wise God for different tasks, roles, and functions in this world. We are not interchangeably the same, and this is good.

Who is man? A special and unique creation by God.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

WM 289: Sermon Review: Five Dangers of Calvinism: Part 3

 

JTR

The Vision (9.8.23): Four Reasons Why Genesis 1 is History and Not Poetry

 

Image: Butterfly bush, North Garden, Virginia, September 2023.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 1:6-25.

Maybe you’ve heard someone suggest that the creation account in Genesis 1 should be taken as poetry and not history.

Reformed expositor John Currid, in his Genesis commentary offers at least four reasons as to why Genesis 1 should NOT be taken as poetry BUT instead as historical narrative. Here are his four reasons:

First, there is a literary devise in Hebrew historical narrative called the ”vav-consecutive-plus-imperfect.” That is, there is a conjunction “and” plus a verb in the imperfect (past) tense. So, historical narrative reads like this: “And this happened, and this happened, and this happened, etc.” Just look at Genesis 1:6-8 to see this pattern.  Currid adds, “this pattern is almost non-existent in Hebrew poetry” (38).

Second, “Genesis 1 contains little or no indication of figurative language. There are no tropes, symbols, or metaphors” (39). We do not read in Genesis 1 that God is like a potter, or that the earth was like a piece of clay, etc.

Third, “the most basic common feature of Hebrew poetry is line parallelism” (39). Think of Psalm 19:1:

The heavens declare the glory of God;

And the firmament sheweth his handywork.

There is no line parallelism in Genesis 1.

Fourth, some have suggested that the repetitions which appear in Genesis 1 indicate poetry, like the repeated phrase, “and the evening and the morning were the ___day.”

Currid points out, however, that repetition is not necessarily a sign of poetry. In fact, it is actually common in Hebrew historical narrative. He points to the repetition of the phrase, “Now these are the generations…” (see Genesis 10:1; 11:10, 27; 25:12, 19; 36:1; 37:2).

Genesis 1 is not poetry. It is historical narrative, and this is the way we should read it, if we are to “rightly divide the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

We accept this history, because we believe in an all-powerful and sovereign God, and because we have faith in him and his Word. As it says in Hebrews 11:3a, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God.”

This means that the six days of creation are not meant as metaphorical references to long periods of time (the so-called “day-age” theory), but they refer to 24-hour days, just as the term is used in Genesis 1:14b.

Let me just add that it is actually a very liberating thing to trust in the Lord and to accept his word as it is without having to trouble oneself with the invention of clever explanations to get around the obvious meaning of things.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

WM 288: Sermon Review: The Five Dangers of Calvinism: Part 2

 

JTR

WM 287: Sermon Review: The Five Dangers of Calvinism: Part 1

 

JTR

The Vision (9.1.23): In the Beginning

 

Image: Morning Glory flowers, North Garden, Virginia, September 2023

Note: We began a new series last Sunday morning through Genesis chapters 1-11. This devotion is taken from the first sermon in the series on Genesis 1:1-5.

The Scriptures commence with this statement: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

One modern commentator noted that “this verse serves as the theme sentence of the creation account,” adding that it stands as “a formal introduction and caption to the entire creation narrative” (J. Currid, Genesis, Vol. 1, 57). There is so much said with such a brevity of words.

That opening phrase, “In the beginning God created…,” is an absolute statement. It does not say that God gathered up the things that were to see what he could do with them, but, “In the beginning God created….”

One commentator pointed out that the Hebrew verb as used here for “to create [bārā]” has as its subject “always and only God; the word is never used of an action of mankind” (Currid, 59). He explains that when men make things, they must use material that already exists. A contractor who wants to build a house, or a craftsman who wants to build a piece of furniture, must get together the materials, the wood, and stone, and glass to make the structure or object. When God creates, however, he does so “out of nothing.” The theological term for this is the Latin phrase ex nihilo.

And what did he make? “the heaven and the earth.” The scholars tell us this is “merism—two opposites that are inclusive” (Currid, 59). From the heaven above to the earth below. This was the Hebrew way of referring to what the Greeks would call the kosmos, and what we call the “universe.” God made from nothing everything that is.

This doctrine of ex nihilo creation is unique to Biblical faith. The ancient philosophers believed that the matter which makes up this world had always existed. They believed that that the stuff of this world is eternal. Many still believe this today. The Bible, however, teaches something altogether different.

The only one who is eternal is God Himself. He is the Alpha and the Omega. Before he made the world there was no world. Psalm 90:2 declares, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”

Genesis 1:1 is where Christian theology begins.

This Bible declares from its very first verse that the God who made this world is distinct from his creation. He is the one true God. He is transcendent. He is wholly other than the world which he has made. This is necessarily a rejection of pantheism, the belief that “God is everything,” that God is the natural world, and that the natural world is to be worshipped. As Christians we do not worship the creation, but we admire the creation as a testimony to the Creator, to the one true God who made it.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Jeff Clark: The Alchemy of Marriage

 

Image: Flowers, North Garden, Virginia, September 2023

On what would be our 62nd Anniversary if…

I do reminisce about our life together, and it is more sweet than painful.  There was a marvelous providence and grace of God that matched us and managed us through all life’s adventures.  Looking back, I can see it plainly and have come to understand marriage is like the Alchemist trying to use chemistry to turn base metals into Gold.

The Alchemy of Marriage can be described as a combination of God’s providence which brings two people together. It involves the mixing in of love, grace, time, joy, trial, and commitment, thereby turning the two into one new thing which is more valuable than either of the other alone. 

Spiritually we took turns being Mary and Martha to each other. When one was cambered by much caring, the other would be Mary, encouraging a proper focus by taking the better part.  And then there were times when we were both there at the feet of Jesus.  There were also times when we were both Martha working on temporal needs of care.

How good God has been and is to me....

-Elder Jeff Clark, Christ RBC, Louisa, Virginia

Note: This week marked the 62^nd anniversary of Elder Jeff’s marriage to Barbara, who went to be with the Lord awaiting the resurrection on November 18, 2020.

Calvin on Genesis

 

Note: Article taken from posts to my Twitter (X): @Riddle1689:

I read the opening “Argument” to Calvin’s Commentary on Genesis (1563) in preparing to begin my sermon series on Genesis. Here are a few quotes. Citations taken from the Calvin Translation Society edition (1847):

“…it is absolutely impossible to unfold the History of the Creation of the World in terms equal to its dignity” (57).

“The intention of Moses, in beginning his Book with the creation of the world, is to render God, as it were, visible to us in his works” (58).

“The Creation of the world, as here described, was already known through the ancient and perpetual tradition of the Fathers. Yet, since nothing is more easy than that the truth of God should be so corrupted by men… it pleased the Lord to commit the history to writing, for the purpose of preserving its purity” (59).

“…let the world become our school if we desire rightly to know God” (60).

Note Calvin’s geocentric cosmology:

“We indeed are not ignorant, that the circuit of the heavens is finite, and that the earth, like a little globe, is placed in the centre” (61).

“For by the Scripture as our guide and teacher, he not only makes those things plain which would otherwise escape our notice, but also compels us to behold them; as if he had assisted our dull sight with spectacles” (62).

“For this is the argument of the Book: After the world had been created, man was placed in it as a theatre, that he, beholding above him and beneath the wonderful works of God, might reverently adore their Author” (64).

“Let us now hearken to Moses” (66).

JTR