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

 

X Post:

"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.

The Vision (7.3.26): Follow Me

 

Image: Caravaggio, The Calling of Saint Matthew (close-up), c. 1599.

Note: Devotional article based on last Sunday's sermon on Mark 2:13-17.

“And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him” (Mark 2:14).

The early ministry of Christ on earth involved the calling of his disciples. In Mark 1:16-20 we have the call of two sets of fisherman brothers: Simon and Andrew, James and John. In Mark 2:14 there is the call of Levi (also known as Matthew), the publican (tax collector). The description is minimal. No doubt Christ knew this latter man and had spoken previously with him. The Evangelist Mark describes the moment in which action was demanded, a command given, a response required. A call goes forth. This is the effectual call to faith and the call to apostleship.

To Simon and Andrew Christ said, “Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men” (1:17).

To Levi he said, “Follow me” (2:14). This is the call to discipleship, to enroll in the school of the Lord Jesus Christ, to become his apprentice, to learn from him.

Paul said to the Corinthians, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1 Cor 11:1).

Peter called upon men to follow in Christ’s steps (1 Peter 2:21).

Christ himself said in Luke 9:23, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”

To follow Christ means you can’t follow the crowd. You can’t follow anyone but the Lord Jesus Christ. Our God is a jealous God. And Christ is a jealous Christ. Christ himself said, “No man can serve two masters” (Matt 6:24).

If you follow Christ, you have to deny yourself. You have to leave some things behind.

I spent a summer after college leading young men on weeklong backpacking trips in the mountains of Southwest Virginia. The night before we left for the trip, we had the boys lay out the things they wanted to take, and then we usually had to cut that into at least half. We had to get the weight lower to avoid blisters, fatigue, and dragging behind.

As Christians, we have a race to run, and we cannot get bogged down with needless burdens that will hold us back from following Christ. We must certainly never turn back. Christ said, “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).

The response of Levi is also simply and minimally recorded: “And he arose and followed him.” Christ is honored when our obedience to his call is similarly prompt and sincere.

Let us deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow him.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Beza on Regeneration and Good Works

 

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"In that our regeneration is never completed here below, -- there is always the battling of the flesh against the Spirit (Gal 5:17), there is yet, I say, deep darkness in our understanding (1 Cor 13:9-12), and great rebellions in us against God (Rom 7:15-24), -- it follows that the best work which can come from the best man in the world, if he were examined with rigour, would be found to be nothing other than a polluting of the graces of God. It is thus that we see a clear pure stream is polluted when it passes through a dirty vile place."

-Theodore Beza (1519-1605), The Christian Faith, 30.

How many *sons* of Alpheus were apostles?

X post:

How many *sons* of Alpheus were apostles?

Preaching Sunday on the call of Levi in Mark 2:13-17. Spent some time noting the apostle's naming as "Levi" in Mark 2:14 and in Luke 5:27, but as "Matthew" in Matthew 9:9 (but also in Matt 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13).

Also looked at Mark 2:14's designation of Levi as "the *son* of Alpheus" and noting his possible fraternal connection to "James the *son* of Alpheus" (Matt 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13), known in church tradition as "James the Less." I suggested this would make at least three sets of natural brothers among the Twelve (Andrew and Simon, James and John, Levi/Matthew and James the Less).

In Matthew Poole's commentary on Matthew 9:9, it suggests that four sons of Alpheus were among the Twelve, saying of Matthew:

"His father Alpheus was honoured to have four of his sons apostles, James the less, and Thaddeus, (called Lebbeus), Simon the Canaanite, and Matthew."

JTR

The Vision (6.12.26): The Authority of Christ

 

Image: "Knockout" Rose, North Garden, Virginia, June 2026.

Note: Devotional taken from last Sunday's sermon on Mark 1:21-34.

“for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes” (Mark 1:22).

“for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him” (Mark 1:27).

Even secular unbelieving historians agree that the Lord Jesus Christ was a man who possessed a personal power, warmth, and winsomeness that affected those who encountered him, heard him, and observed his ministry. He drew men to himself in the way that a magnet draws metal. He was a man who demanded followers.

That personal, “magnetic” personality is noted in our passage today at several points. The term that is used to distinguish the uniqueness of Christ is “authority [Greek: exousia].”

In Mark 1, Christ conducts his threefold ministry: preaching, teaching, and healing (cf. Matt 4:23; 9:35). First, he was preaching in Galilee the gospel of the kingdom of God (Mark 1:14-15). Second, he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum (Mark 1:21: “and [he] taught”). Third, he was healing. He healed (exorcised) a man with an unclean spirit in the synagogue (Mark 1:23-26). He healed Simon’s mother-in-law (Mark 1:29-31). He healed many who gathered in the evening at his door (Mark 1:32-34: “And he healed many that were sick of diverse diseases, and cast out many devils,” v. 34). 

His unique authority shines through. Mark the Evangelist describes the response of those who heard him in the synagogue, “And they were astonished at his doctrine [didache]: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes” (Mark 1:22).

Mark also unveils the amazed questioning pondered by those who saw him exorcise the man with the unclean spirit: “What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him” (Mark 1:27).

Behold the authority of Christ.

He preached Himself.

He taught with authority as God in the flesh. He did not teach about God; he taught as God. In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, he will say: You have heard it said…, but I say unto you….

He healed the souls and bodies of men, showing his authority over both the unseen spiritual and the visible natural worlds.

He will lay down his life on the cross and take it up again the third day as his greatest sign or miracle.

The final question: How will we respond to Christ? Will we recognize his authority? Will we bend the knee of our hearts before his throne?

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

 

Beza's Motto

 

From X Post:

The motto of Protestant father Theodore Beza (1519-1605):

Plus à me frapper on s'amuse, tant plus de marteaux on y use ("The more one amuses oneself striking me, the more hammers one wears out on it").

https://museeprotestant.org/en/notice/theodore-de-beze-1519-1605-2/

JTR

The Vision (6.5.26): Come Ye After Me

 

Note: Devotional taken from last Sunday's sermon on Mark 1:16-20.

“And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men” (Mark 1:17).

Christ’s public ministry began with his preaching (see Mark 1:15). It continued with his calling men to come after him and become his disciples or followers.

In Mark 1:16-20 we have the account of our Lord calling two sets of brothers to be among his first disciples: Simon (Peter) and Andrew (vv. 16-18), then James and John (vv. 19-20). Two sets of brothers by nature became brothers in Christ.

So often our picture of the disciples come from medieval artists that depict the Lord Jesus and the disciples as frail, pale, and sickly.  They hardly seem to have had strength enough to pick up a heavy net! But the picture here in Mark 1 is of strong, sun-darkened, solid, working men.  Simon and Andrew were busy at their trade, casting a net into the sea, “for” Mark says, “for they were fishers” (v. 16).

The occupation of fisherman must have been a common livelihood in this area.  Many have noted that when the Lord Jesus went looking for followers, he did not go to the royal court, or to the religious schools, but to the shipyard.  He chose sturdy, common, ordinary men.  The Puritan commentator Matthew Henry observed:

The instruments Christ chose to employ in setting up his kingdom, were the weak and foolish things of the world; not called from the great Sanhedrin, or the schools of the [rabbis], but picked up from among the [tarps] by the seaside, that the excellency of the power might be wholly of God, and not at all of them.

Do you get it?  Why did Jesus choose men like these?  Because if he had chosen princes and scholars we might have been tempted to give them glory.  In this way, to God alone through Christ alone be all the glory.

Note the language used by Christ. He does not say to these men, “I see within you the inner fishers of men.”  His hopes for them did not rest on any inherent potential that they held within themselves.  When we see an exquisite vase that has been beautifully shaped and crafted and decorated by a master artisan, we do not say, “Wow, that was some great clay!”  The focus is not on the raw material but on the artist.

Nor does the Lord Jesus say, “Come after me and become whatever you want to be.”  He has a very definite end in mind, and he is not leaving this up to these men.  He says he will make them to become fishers of men.

There is great significance in this, is there not?  They had been spending their lives casting out nets to gather in fish and the Lord Jesus says instead, that he will make them cast their nets to gather in the souls of men.  These rough fishermen will later, of course, become apostles.  They will be the foundational heralds of the gospel.  Here the Lord Jesus is giving the church its central apostolic commission.  We are about fishing for the souls of men.  Our fundamental calling as a church is evangelism, endearing the gospel of God to the hardened hearts of men.

In 1773 the Puritan Thomas Boston at the tender age of 22 published a little book titled, “The Art of Man-Fishing” in which he meditated on these words of Christ.  Boston applied these words to the preacher who, through the nets of his public preaching and teaching ministry and his one-on-one private ministry appointments, was constantly striving to see men drawn to a place of settled commitment to Christ.

Note also that the Lord Jesus does not say, Follow Me and I will make you to become social workers, or Red Cross volunteers, or school teachers, or political revolutionaries.  Now there is a place for acts of Christian charity and mercy, for education and Christian citizenship, but our primary calling is evangelism, endearing the gospel of God to the hardened hearts of men.  Let us not drift from this calling.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff

The Vision (5.29.26): The time is fulfilled

 

Image: Modern view of the Sea of Galilee.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Mark 1:9-15.

Mark 1:14  Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

The beginning of our Lord’s public ministry followed his baptism (Mark 1:9-11) and his wilderness temptation (1:12-13).

 It was initiated or triggered by the arrest of John the forerunner: “Now after that John was put in prison….” (v. 14a; cf. 6:14-29). It was an act of manly courage for our Lord to begin his public ministry at this time.

Mark continued, “Jesus came into Galilee, preaching [proclaiming] the gospel of the kingdom of God” (v. 14b).

Christ’s public ministry did not begin with miracles, feeding the masses, opening blinded eyes, raising the dead, or telling parables, but Christ came first as a Preacher.

The apostle Paul would later write, in 1 Corinthians 1:21, “it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”

The premier practitioner of this means of grace was Christ himself. Christ is the Prototypical Preacher. We merely human and very fallible preachers stumble and stammer and preach imperfectly. Christ is the Perfect Preacher.

What did he proclaim? The gospel [good news] of victory. Mark began by noting this book records, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (1:1).  It will end in Mark 16:15 with the risen Lord telling his disciples, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”

In v. 14 Mark the Evangelist describes Christ as preaching “the gospel of the kingdom of God.” This means the rule or reign of God on earth. Christ did not, in his first advent, come to establish a political kingdom. He told Pilate at his trial, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). Here is the gaping difference between the Lord Jesus Christ and Muhammad. One conquers by the cross, and the other attempts to conquer by the sword.

In v. 15 we have Christ’s own words recorded by the evangelist. Christ said, “The time is fulfilled.” The word for time here is kairos. It refers to special time, the right moment, and not mere chronological time, chronos.

Christ recognized that in his coming and in his initiation of his public ministry he was fulfilling the plan of God that would lead to the bloody cross and the glorious resurrection, a shameful defeat and a stunning victory.

Christ declared, “the kingdom of God is at hand.” The rule and reign of God is present in Christ Himself. This happens even before the end of history. Christ comes into history and into time, and his kingdom is established, though it is not yet fully realized till he comes again with power and great glory.

He ends with two commands: “repent ye [experience a change of mind and a change of heart] and believe the gospel [the good news which is centered in the person of Christ himself].

There is a debate about the order of these two things in what is called “the order of salvation.” Do I first repent and then believe, or do I believe and then repent? Here, repent comes first in order, but it may well be that they come as contemporaneous events.

Christ has come. The time is fulfilled. Let us turn from sin in disgust and turn to Christ in faith.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Robert Preus on Seventeenth Century Lutheran Dogmaticians & Textual Variants:

 

From X post:

Here is Robert Preus’s description of how the seventeenth century Lutheran dogmaticians handled textual variants:

"In their defense of the authority of Scripture the dogmaticians were obligated to enter upon an involved discussion on the authenticity of the Hebrew and Greek texts of Scripture. It was their conviction, as opposed to the Catholics and Socinians, that there had been no general corruption of the Scriptures. Not only the canonical books themselves but also the sentences and words and letters of these books are authentic. They have not been corrupted by Jews or Christians by the errors or negligence or ignorance of copyists, but by divine providence have been preserved intact and incorrupt. There are of course innumerable individual errors in the thousands of codices, just as there are in copies of other books, and these errors may even have been inserted by Jews or heretics, but there has been no general corruption of Scripture. Most of the individual errors in Scripture are variant readings of a technical nature and of little importance, such as omissions, spellings, transpositions and the like, and can be quite easily corrected. Such variations, along with diversities in pointing and accent, cannot be called corruptions. It goes without saying that the dogmaticians argue for the authenticity of only the original Greek and Hebrew texts, not for translations."

-The Inspiration of Scripture: A Study of the Theology of the 17th Century Lutheran Dogmaticians, 134-135.

At least Five Lessons:

1. The Lutheran orthodox were aware of minor textual variants in the transmission of the text of the Bible.

2. They did not see such variants (whether intentional or unintentional) as defeaters for embracing the divine preservation of Scripture without corruption, just as the English orthodox divines would say in WCF 1:8 that the Bible had been by God's singular care and providence "kept pure in all ages."

3. Canon involves not only the books but also the texts (i.e., sentences, words, and letters) of those books. 4. They held to the original Hebrew and Greek texts as authoritative and not ancient versions (Latin, LXX, etc.).

5. The Protestant view was distinct from the RCC and Socinians.

WM 385: REJOINDER to Zachary J. Cole: "Modern" Textual Criticism & the Westminster Divines: PART TWO

 

JTR

WM 384: Bishop J. C. Ryle on the Woman Taken in Adultery (John 7:53-8:11)

 

JTR