Breaking News: The Bethlehem Institute to Become a College and Seminary

~ fundyreformed ~ 5 Comments

This is a surprising but encouraging development. For 10 years now, Bethlehem Baptist Church (pastored by John Piper) has offered one of the finest church-based Bible institutes around. The Bethlehem Institute teaches a variety of courses designed for everyone from the average Joe (or Jane) in the church pew to the pre-seminary young person preparing for full time ministry. They have had a wonderful apprenticeship program with intensive classes which is accepted as 1 or more years of seminary credits at several leading theological seminaries.

Recently, the institute partnered with Northwestern College to offer a freshman year of college at a discounted price, taught at Bethlehem Baptist by our TBI instructors. Now, however, God has blessed us significantly, to allow the institute to become a College and Seminary. The Desiring God blog recently highlighted the freshman year of college program and also mentioned the news of a 4 year program plus a seminary just yesterday, so this is still breaking news.

Last night the announcement was made that in next week’s Wednesday church service, Pastor John will explain the vision for the new College and Seminary. I’m really excited about this, as I have a few TBI classes under my belt, and am currently taking 1st year Hebrew through the institute. The quality of education is superb, and the commitment to a conservative approach to the Bible, as well as the priority of the local church, is singular.

With this announcement, when the details are fully released, I’m sure that the doors will open for even more poeple to come and study here. I would encourage anyone who is checking out seminary options to pay close attention to this option.

“My Heart’s Desire” by David Jeremiah

~ Bob Hayton

This is a simply written, heartfelt devotional book. In My Heart’s Desire: Living Every Moment in the Wonder of Worship, David Jeremiah draws you in to the pictures he paints in the book. You find yourself in Heaven’s throne room, weeping and then rejoicing with John as the Lamb is found worthy to open the book. The awe and wonder which this book inspires is aimed to incite you to greater heights of worship. Indeed all of life is to be lived as a worshiper of Christ.

For those looking for light yet devotional reading, this book will do nicely. It’s not all that profound, but the message is straightforward. And yes, its convicting. May your heart for Christ be strengthened as you read this book.

This book is available for purchase at the following sites: Amazon.com or direct from Thomas Nelson.

About Book Briefs: Book Briefs are book notes, or short-form book reviews. They are my informed evaluation of a book, but stop short of being a full-length book review.

Bob's Blog Finds: Obama & the Freedom of Choice Act

~ fundyreformed ~ 3 Comments

In my blog finds I highlight some of the best articles I’ve found online recently. You can see all my blog finds (courtesy of Google Reader) in the sidebar.

Obama tries to appeal as a uniter. Politics will be changed if we vote him in. He will work across party lines, etc. etc. The problem with this is that he has a strongly liberal voting record, more liberal than the average Democratic senator.

Justin Taylor of Between Two Worlds recently exposed what exactly the Freedom of Choice Act (which Obama pledges to sign into law if elected) means for the abortion/pro-life issue. I’d encourage everyone to read this post and see just exactly what Obama stands for when it comes to abortion.

Here’s the link: What Is the Freedom of Choice Act?

One more thing, Obama has pledged this will be the first thing he does as president. It is that important to him. This in no way will unite America, and it exposes Obama as the die hard liberal he is.

Quotes to Note 4: The Bible is Truth

~ fundyreformed ~ 12 Comments

I subscribe to Table Talk, a monthly devotional published by R.C. Sproul’s Ligonier Ministries. Each month the magazine focuses on a theme, and this month that theme is “The Canonicity of Scripture”.

In the openeing column, Burk Parsons, the editor, captures the gist of the issue. The Bible is the Word of God, and canonization was simply the church receiving God’s Word as His Word. Canonization was not a process whereby the Church invented Holy Scriptures. Here’s how Buck said it:

The Bible is not a cleverly contrived collection of fanciful tales of mythical gods and prophets, sorcerers and goblins, hobbits and elves. It is not a Judeo-Christian anthology of sixty-six ancient books that were deemed politically and ecclesiastically correct by influential Christians of the early church who coveted worldly acceptance and prestige. On the contrary, the Bible is the book of the Lord God Almighty. It is the authoritative, inerrant, and infallible Word of God, and, as Jesus taught us in His prayer to the Father: His “Word is truth.” It doesn’t merely contain truth or speak about truth; it is truth “” it defines truth (John 17:17). We must, therefore, regard it as such.

Go on and read Buck’s entire article. Some of the other columns are also available online here.

Calvinism by Fives

~ Bob Hayton ~ 10 Comments

Calvinism seems to spread by fives: five points, five solas, and I bet we could think of other groups of five. Five Reformation countries (Germany, France, Switzerland, The Netherlands, England). Five key Reformers (Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Huss, Wycliffe). Okay, I know Huss and Wycliffe came earlier….

As most good Calvinists, I know my fives. My TULIP and my Solas. Or do I? I’m starting to read a new book by Joel Beeke entitled Living for God’s Glory: An Introduction to Calvinism. I should mention that my copy is a review copy provided by Reformation Trust Publishing. (Click here for details on how to blog your way to a free Reformation Trust book).

As Beeke works through the history of Calvinism, I’ve learned quite a bit: even though I’m a Calvinist blogger! I learned that the five solas are best understood in light of their Roman Catholic counterparts, and that the five points of Calvinism were actually four. The points were the Synod of Dort’s response to 5 Arminian points, and were actually given in 4 groupings, with 2 of the points treated under one heading (since they were inseparably joined in the minds of the Calvinists).

To help all of you learn your fives, let me provide some excerpts from Beeke’s book that will explain more about these two groups of Calvinist High Fives.

The Protestant response to Roman Catholic abuses gradually settled into
five Reformation watchwords or battle cries, centered on the Latin word solus,
meaning “alone.” These battle cries, expounded in chapter 10, served to contrast
Protestant teaching with Roman Catholic tenets as follows:

Protestant Roman Catholic
Scripture alone (sola Scriptura) Scripture and tradition
Faith alone (sola fide) Faith and works
Grace alone (sola gratia) Grace and merit
Christ alone (solus Christus) Christ, Mary, and intercession of saints
Glory to God alone (soli Deo gloria) God, saints, and church hierarchy

[from Chapter 1: Calvinism in History: The Origins of Calvinism, pg. 5.]

Though these points do not represent all of Calvinism and are better regarded as Calvinism’s five answers to the five errors of Arminianism, they certainly lie at the heart of the Reformed faith, for they flow out of the principle of absolute divine sovereignty in the salvation of sinners. They may be summarized as follows:
1. Unconditional election and saving faith are sovereign gifts of God.
2. While the death of Christ is sufficient to expiate the sins of the whole world, its saving efficacy is limited to the elect.
3–4. All people are so totally depraved and corrupted by sin that they cannot exercise free will toward, or effect any part of, salvation. In sovereign grace, God irresistibly calls and regenerates the elect to newness of life.
5. God graciously preserves the redeemed so that they persevere until the end, even though they may be troubled by many infirmities as they seek to make their calling and election sure.
Although the canons have only four sections, we speak of five points or heads of doctrine because the canons were structured to correspond with the five articles of the 1610 Remonstrance. The third and fourth sections were combined into one because the Dortian divines considered them to be inseparable and hence designed them as “Head of Doctrine III/IV”.

[from Chapter 2: Calvinism in History: Confessing the Faith, pg. 25-26]