CCF Episode Three: Introduction to The Creedal Imperative

/ William F. Leonhart III / Leave a comment

In this episode, Billy and JD sit down with Pastor Larry Vincent (pastor; Heritage Baptist Church; Mansfield, TX.), Javier Hernandez (The Confessing Baptist), Rene Del Rio (song leader; Heritage Baptist Church; Mansfield, TX.), and Michael King to discuss Carl Trueman and introduce some of the major themes of his book The Creedal Imperative.

MP3 Download | stream:

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Subscribe to future podcast: RSS | iTunes [official page pending]

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The book we’ll start going through:

Creedal Imperative

The Creedal Imperative Paperback
by Carl R. Trueman

We’d love your participation. Contact us with your comments, questions, and observations about the book’s contents:

CCF Episode Two: Goals for 2014

/ William F. Leonhart III / Leave a comment

In this episode, Billy and JD sit down with Jason Delgado (The Confessing Baptist), Pastor Larry Vincent (Heritage Baptist Church; Mansfield, TX.), and Michael King to discuss our goals for 2014.

MP3 Download | stream:

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Subscribe to future podcast: RSS | iTunes [official page pending]

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The book we’ll start going through:

Creedal Imperative

The Creedal Imperative Paperback
by Carl R. Trueman

We’d love your participation. Contact us with your comments and questions about the book’s contents:

CCF Episode One: Pilot Episode (Podcast)

/ Jason Delgado / Leave a comment

CredoCovMasterInit

In this, the pilot episode, Jason Delgado of The Confessing Baptist interviews Billy Leonhart and JD Warren on the history, purpose, and future of CredoCovenant.com and CredoCovenant Fellowship.

MP3 download | stream:

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Subscribe to future podcast: RSS | iTunes [official page pending]

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Here is Billy’s and JD’s testimonies that Jason was talking about:

The book we’ll start going through:

Creedal Imperative

The Creedal Imperative Paperback
by Carl R. Trueman

We’d love your participation. Contact us with your comments and questions about the book’s contents:

Character Sketch: The Blessed Man

/ William F. Leonhart III / Leave a comment

PSALM ONE

In the third century B.C. lived a man named Theophrastus, a man known as a teacher of philosophy. Many of his works survive to this day, one of the most notable being his Characters. In it, he demonstrates the ancient Greek method of describing people by their actions. As he describes the officious man, the grumbler, and the newsmaker, he gives his readers only the actions that one might expect to observe in such a character. This work is considered of great historical significance, because it tells us some of the details of life in ancient Greece that are nowhere else to be found in ancient literature.

The Hebrews were quite different in the way they did character sketches, but they nonetheless did character sketches themselves. Character sketches are scattered throughout the poetic books in the Old Testament. One such instance is that of Psalm One, in which we see the contrast between the blessed (or righteous) man and the wicked. Now, as we will see, unlike the Greeks the Hebrews describe not only the actions of their characters, but they also describe the heart inclinations of their characters. But without further introduction, let’s get into the text where we might discover something of the character of the blessed man:

“1How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,

Nor stand in the path of sinners,

Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!

“2But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

And in His law he meditates day and night.

“3He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,

Which yields its fruit in its season

And its leaf does not wither;

And in whatever he does, he prospers.

“4The wicked are not so,

But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.

“5Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

“6For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

But the way of the wicked will perish” (Psalm 1; NASB).

Character Sketch: The Blessed Man (audio)

The Blessed Man

This notion of the blessed man is a reoccurring theme throughout the book of Psalms. The blessed man takes refuge in the Messiah (2:12), the blessed man confesses his sins and they are forgiven him and in his spirit there is no deceit (32:1ff), the blessed man will inherit the land (37:22), the blessed man has made the Lord his trust and turns neither to the proud nor to those who lapse in falsehood (40:4), and there are so many other characteristics of the blessed man which could be mined from the book of Psalms. Today, however, let us turn our gaze to the characteristics given us in Psalm One.

These characteristics are broken down into two categories: the negative characteristics and the positive characteristics. By negative, I mean that we are told the things from which the blessed man abstains. By positive, I merely mean that we are told what the blessed man enjoys to do.

The Negative Characteristics

“1How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,

Nor stand in the path of sinners,

Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!”

The blessed man does not partake in certain activities. Rather, he is different. He is wholly other. He is set apart. He is being sanctified in the Lord. When the world looks at the man of God (the blessed man), there is a reason why they are turned off, why they see him as strange. It’s not because he necessarily dresses different, or because he abstains from certain activities that are not addressed in the Bible.. It’s certainly not because he goes around speaking in Elizabethan English, makes his wife wear long skirts, and refuses to read any book that is not written by someone within his own theological tradition.

We don’t have to add to the Bible to make ourselves seem strange to the world. Rather, the psalmist is pointing out that, when we make the Bible and the Bible alone our authority for all matters of life and godliness, we necessarily deny the authority structures the world has put in place. We deny their authorities, and that to them is strange.

The Counsel of the Wicked. Walking in the counsel of the wicked here means that one’s ear is inclined to the subtle influences of the society of the world. They have not yet stopped and stood in the way of sinners or sat in the seat of scoffers, but they have begun to be inclined in that direction. They are accepting the counsel of the wicked as authoritative and sound, and they are starting to heed the traditions of man rather than the precepts of the Bible.

We see this in the way that evangelism is talked about in much of modern Evangelicalism. We are told that we must “earn the right” to share the gospel with our friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers, which means that we have to dress like them, think like them, listen to the same music as them, and watch the same programs on TV as them. Otherwise, how can they possibly relate to us? How can we possibly have “earned the right” to share the gospel with them?

Many of the same pastors who would argue that we must “earn the right” to share the gospel with those around us also would argue for a more world-centered approach to worship: an approach that would say, God may not have explicitly told us that impressionistic paintings, and heavy metal performances, and skits, and puppet shows have no place in worship, but he nowhere forbids it. Thus, we can use these things, because that’s what the culture wants. I would submit to you that, when a church takes their cues from the culture rather than the word of God in their evangelism and in their worship services, they have begun to walk in the counsel of the wicked. They have begun to be swayed by the subtle influences of the world, and we ought to have none of it.

The Path of Sinners. The next phase in the regression away from the blessed life is that of standing in the path of sinners. This is the phase in which we have inclined ourselves so long toward the subtle influences of society that they have become commonplace to us, so much so that now we find ourselves in the very path, or way, of sinners. It’s interesting that early Christians referred to themselves as The Way. In Acts 22:4, Paul says that he persecuted this “Way” to the death.

At the end of our own text, the psalmist makes a contrast between the “way” of the righteous and the “way” of the wicked. The word for path here is the same word, so we can deduce that the path of sinners is not merely a road on which the man is obstructing the sinner’s journey. Rather, this “way” is a lifestyle; it is the direction in which one is headed. If we head the counsel, the subtle influences of the wicked, before we know it our lifestyles will begin to reflect what we are taking in. That counsel upon which we meditate regularly will always, ultimately become the authority in our lives and will determine our lifestyles.

The Seat of Scoffers. Well, now we come to the third stage of our threefold regression into wickedness: sitting in the seat of scoffers. Scoffers are those who not only deny God, but they scoff at him and ridicule His people. When we think of scoffers, we often think of men like Richard Dawkins and Bill Maher, but if we are honest, even us as Christians can have a tendency to mock and scoff. We can even be fairly vicious toward one another if we are not careful. If we passively incline our minds toward the subtle influences of this world long enough and make ourselves comfortable with ungodly, abominable lifestyles, before we know it we can begin to scoff at others within our own faith.

I can’t help but think of evangelical pastors who talk openly about disgusting, ungodly things in their pulpits, they seek to look like the world and talk like the world and, before they know it, they are railing against other Christians. They call them religious people. They deride them for not being as worldly as they are, something these pastors apparently think to be more noble, something they think makes their evangelistic ministries more effective. Let us take heed lest we journey down the same path, by walking in the counsel of the wicked, standing in the path of sinners, and ultimately sitting in the seat of scoffers.

The Positive Characteristics

2But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

And in His law he meditates day and night.

Now, you would expect, in a chiastic structure, that the psalmist would contrast this walking, standing, and sitting with a more direct correlation. Perhaps, he might follow this negative description of the blessed man with the positive: but rather he walks in the counsel of the godly, stands in the path of the holy, and sits in the seat of the humble. He doesn’t do that, though, does he?

Delighting in Torah. That’s because this is not a contrast between one group of associations and another, but one authority and another. In verse one, the blessed man is said to have shunned the worldly authority of the wicked around him. In verse two, we see the authority he accepts.. No! We see the authority in which he delights. For the blessed man, the law of God is not some burdensome set of rules and injunctions he has had imposed on him from outside. Rather, it is his delight.

The law mentioned here is the word torah. Many of you will recognized that as the designation most commonly used by Jews to refer to the first five books of the Bible. At the time that the psalmist wrote this psalm (most likely David), it is likely that few other books had been written. Outside of the first five, by the time of David, the Israelites may have already accepted Job, Joshua, and perhaps even Judges as canonical. Regardless, torah was the term which, at that time, was used to designate all of the books of the Bible. Thus, when we see this term being used in the first psalm, we shouldn’t merely relegate it to speaking of the first five books of the Bible. Notice how David sings in Psalm 40:8, “I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart” (NASB). In much of the Psalms God’s law, His torah, is closely related to His revealed will. So, we should understand this term as speaking of the entire revealed will of God: the Bible.

Biblical Meditation. What then is the sign that a man delights in this law? The sign that he delights in God’s law is that he meditates on it day and night. Now, this idea of meditation is far different than what we usually think when we think of meditation. Usually, when we think of meditation, we get visions in our head of people sitting with their legs folded, their hands turned upward on their knees in the form of gang signs, and strange noises coming from their throats. In this type of meditation, Eastern meditation, the goal is to clear one’s mind and think of nothing. This is not the notion we’re presented with in Psalm One.

Biblical meditation is a filling of the mind, not an emptying of it. We are to fill our minds with the word of God. We are to chew on it. We are to mutter it. That’s what the word for meditate literally means in the Hebrew. It means to mutter. So throughout the day, our delight is to be found in those times when we can mull over the Scriptures we’ve been reading, studying, and memorizing. As you can see, meditation of Scripture assumes prior work in Scripture. If we are going to digest our food and thus nourish our bodies, we must have first taken in that food through our mouths. In like manner, if we are going to digest Scripture and thus nourish our souls, we must have first taken it in through reading it, studying it, and memorizing it.

Now, the psalmist doesn’t say that the blessed man does this to somehow be justified before God. If we are in Christ, we have our justification secured. However, if we have been washed by the blood of Christ, if we have received justification, if we have been called by the Spirit, regenerated and indwelt by the Spirit, if we have been reconciled to God the Father, a characteristic that will pervade our lives will be a delight in His law. Our delight will be in reading, studying, memorizing, and meditating on the word of God, so that we might know His precepts and do them.

The Result

“3He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,

Which yields its fruit in its season

And its leaf does not wither;

And in whatever he does, he prospers.”

The Planted Tree. We’ve looked at the authorities the blessed man denies, and we’ve looked at the authority in which he delights. Now let’s take a look at the type of man he is as a result. The psalmist says that the blessed man is like a tree firmly planted. Notice, he doesn’t say that he is like a wild tree. This tree has been taken from one place and planted in another. This demonstrates that where the tree is, it is not its natural environment. Rather it is an environment which is much more conducive for the tree’s health and vitality.

In the same way, the blessed man has not come to his place of status before God on account of anything within himself. He has been planted. He is what he is by sovereign grace. There is nothing he can claim on the basis of his own merit, but rather he stands on the merits of Christ. He is righteous, but it is not an intrinsic righteousness, but rather it is a righteousness that he has received (2Cor. 5:21).

Roots and Fruit. The streams of water by which this tree is planted point back to the law in which he delights. We as Christians are strengthened and nourished by the law, much like a tree that is planted by streams of water extends its roots toward the waters in order that it might strengthened and nourished by them. As Christians, we too are to be rooted in the Scriptures. We are not only to delight in them, but we are to see them as being as essential to our strength and vitality as water is to a tree.

We are also told that it yields its fruit in its season. Every tree bears different fruit. And every fruit is born in a different season. We are not meant to bear the same fruit in the same season as everyone else. We are not all equal in maturity; we are all different. Some of us need to learn patience. Some of us need to learn gentleness. Some of us need to learn peace and love. These are all fruits of the Spirit, but they don’t all come to us at the same time or in the same way. Rather, we each bear these fruits in our own seasons. As such, we need to bear with one another in our weaknesses, and point one another to the sources of our strength, the word of God, from which flow life-giving water.

Beautiful and Prosperous. The tree is also said to have leaves that do not wither and to prosper in whatever it does. This speaks to the value of the tree to its planter. The tree is beautiful and prosperous. Likewise, we are to be as a fragrant aroma to our God. We are to be an object of beauty and value in His sight. As we grow in our knowledge of and endearment toward his word, we will begin to grow in godliness and Christ-likeness. I find that the analogy of the parent / child relationship is useful here.

I often ask Norah, “What must you do to be my daughter?” She says a wide variety of different things, before I correct her and say, “You don’t need to do anything to be my daughter; you simply are my daughter. Now, what must you do to be God’s daughter?” to which she will often say things like “Obey Him,” or “Be good.” To this, I say, “No. You simply need to be born into His family.”

Brothers and sisters, we have been born into the family of God. We don’t have to do anything more than that. However, just as Norah pleases me when she obeys me, we please God as we grow in Christ-likeness. We don’t grow in the area of justification or union with Christ, but we do grow in sweet communion with our heavenly Father. Yes, brothers and sisters, we can be pleasing to Him, and we should earnestly desire to be pleasing to Him as we grow in the image of Christ. In this sense, we are to be like a beautiful and prosperous tree.

The Wicked

“4The wicked are not so,

But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.

“5Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.”

Dead, Worthless Chaff. Notice, the wicked are not so. Not so the wicked! This introduces a contrast. Now we are looking at a brief sketch of the character of the wicked. They are like chaff which the wind drives away. What is chaff? When farmers in the Old Testament would gather in wheat, it would be accompanied by chaff, a weed that was dead and useless. The wheat farmers would toss the wheat and chaff up into the air with a winnowing fork and the wind would carry away the dead useless chaff, leaving only the wheat which was of value to the farmer.

So we see the contrast. There are two groups of men. We are either like the beautiful, fruitful, prosperous tree, or we are like dead, useless chaff which the wind drives away. Of these wicked men, God says, they are useless. They are like dead men’s bones. They are fickle. They are frail. They will not stand in the day of judgment. On the day of judgment, there will be a great outpouring of the wrath of God upon the whole of mankind. The only think that will save any of us is if Christ has taken upon Himself the wrath that we deserve, and that is what He did on the cross.

The Necessity of the Cross. When Christ died on the cross, He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf. He took the very wrath of God. It is as though, on the day of judgment, God’s wrath will be poured out upon the vast sea of humanity, and only those who stand in the shadow of the cross where Jesus has taken God’s wrath on our behalf, will be shielded from the wrath of the only just and mighty God. We who stand in the righteousness of Christ will be able to stand on the day of judgment. The wicked will not.

On that day, there will be a great separation. There will be two assemblies. The sheep will be separated from the goats. The blessed, or righteous, man will be separated from the wicked man, and the wicked will not be able to stand in the assembly of the righteous. Jesus told a parable to illustrate this: the parable of the wedding feast. After all the guests had been brought into the feast, there was a man found who did not have on the proper wedding garments. Upon his discovery, this man was cast into the outer darkness (Mt. 22:1-14). Brothers and sisters, we must be clothed Christ if we hope to stand in the assembly of the righteous on judgment day.

The Special, Intimate Knowledge of God

“6For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

But the way of the wicked will perish”

Now we return to this word “way,” and we are told that the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. The emphasis here is on the knowledge of God. If God “knows” your way, apparently you are good. If He doesn’t know it, you will perish. What does this word “know” mean? Doesn’t God know all things? Can anything be hidden from God?

Special Knowledge

Well of course God knows all things and, as the catechism says, nothing can be hidden from God. The psalmist isn’t referring to God’s omnipotence. Rather, he is talking about God’s special, intimate knowledge. When Adam and Eve conceived and bore a child, it was said of them that Adam knew Eve. That means that he knew her intimately. In much the same way, God draws close to those whom He loves. There is a special love that God has for His people.

Non-Calvinists would say that God loves all people the same. They would prefer that God had a promiscuous, general type of love that extends to all mankind alike, but we know that this is not the way that God operates in the Bible. Yes, He loves all mankind generally in that He causes the rain to fall and the sun to shine on both the righteous and the wicked. However, there is a special way in which He loves His elect, His bride.

Just as I am called to love my enemy, but I am not called to love him in the same way that I love my wife and my kids, God loves His enemies, but not in the same way that He loves His bride. From heaven, He came and sought her, His elect bride. In this special, intimate way, God is said to know the way of the righteous.

We Are to Be Known

We ought to also recognize what is not being said here. The psalmist is not saying that the righteous are made righteous on account of their knowledge of God, but rather His knowledge of them. There are many who have a great knowledge about God and His word (e.g. Bart Ehrmann), but will not be able to stand in the judgment. What matters is, have you been known by God in this special, intimate way? Have you been sovereignly born from above? Let us here heed the warning of Jesus when He said:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’” (Mt. 7:21-23; NASB).

We must be known by the Lord. Are you known by Him? Do you abstain from the counsel of the wicked, the path of sinners, and the seat of the scoffers? Do you delight in His law and meditate on it day and night? Are you like a beautiful, fruitful, and prosperous tree planted by streams of living water, or are you like dry, dead, and useless chaff? Will you stand in the day of judgment, Christ having taken upon Himself your sins and the wrath of God which you deserve? Have you been born again? Does God know you in a special, intimate way? These are the questions we ought to ask ourselves in response to our study today. I pray that God blesses each of you as you consider and apply these truths to your own lives.

Reformed?

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Introduction

Several  years ago I began to use the word “reformed” to describe my theology. A few people at my church weren’t very thrilled by the use of that term. “Baptists aren’t Reformed. They have never needed to be. Jesus and Paul weren’t reformed, so why should we be?” they would reply. Our church is historically an Independent Fundamental Baptist Church that has held to a Calvinistic soteriology. It has also been influenced by Landmarkism. The church has never officially held to this “Baptist perpetuitism,” or its associated belief of “Baptist bride-ism,” but has seen that Baptists were never a part of Rome and therefore didn’t need to be reformed of anything.

Since we have adopted the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689, we’ve come to be more open to associating formally as well as rejecting Landmarkism. As I continued to use the word “Reformed” in reference to my doctrinal beliefs I was given a short treatise on the subject of “Reformed Baptist” by Laurence Justice, a pastor of a Baptist church in Missouri. Let me begin by giving the title of his pamphlet: “Are Baptists Reformed? Emphasizing the Truth that Baptists Are Not Reformers and Reformers Are Not Baptists.”

I do not intend to say anything about Dr. Justice himself. What I know about him is that he is a godly man, a faithful pastor, one committed to his church and God’s Word, as well as a man who takes doctrine seriously. I appreciate the work he has done in his church for missions, defending God’s sovereign grace, and his Credobaptist belief.

What I do intend to do is interact with what Dr. Justice has written in this pamphlet. I will state up front that I have no problem with being a Reformed Baptist. I own the title. I also don’t think one MUST call himself a Reformed Baptist. We will see that there are some Baptists who are “Calvinistic” while not being reformed. But we also must see there is no such thing as “just Baptist,” for there are all types of people who call themselves Baptist that have a broad range of doctrines. Let us begin our interaction with “Are Baptists Reformed?”

By way of introduction to his text, I want to summarize his pamphlet and review his sections outlining why he does not believe Baptists should be called “Reformed.” I will then answer each section in subsequent blog posts critiquing his argument.  He gives an introduction and then gives 5 arguments against being reformed as a Baptist. He defines Reformed as those “which had for its object the reform of the Roman Catholic church leading to the establishment of Protestant churches.” In other words, Reformed are Protestant and Protestant are Reformed. He continues in his introduction that, although the greatest Baptist confession of faith was the 1689 London Confession, Baptists aren’t Protestant. Even though Baptists believe the same things regarding salvation as the Reformed Churches and the Westminster Presbyterians, they aren’t Reformed or Protestant. He then continues with 5 statements.

  1. Because of What Baptists Believe About God’s Word
  2. Because of What Baptists Believe About the Church
  3. Because of What Baptists Believe About the Relationship of Church and State
  4. Because of What Baptists Believe About Baptism
  5. Because of the Un-Christian Way the Reformed Have Treated Baptists Through the Centuries

In my reading I saw that Dr. Justice makes 2 mistakes

  1. He generalizes his use of “Baptist.”

– He picks and chooses which Baptists he identifies with in making his various arguments

  1. He does poor history

– He doesn’t recognize the point of statements of faith throughout the last 2,000 years

– The Particular Baptists put out their statement of faith for a reason, and I don’t know that this is ignored or if it is unknown to Dr. Justice

These 2 mistakes permeate all of his arguments. I hope to point them out for correction, hoping this will lead to greater fellowship among Baptists who hold to a particular redemption. Also, confessional Baptism is at stake here. We must understand the context in which statements of faith are written and avoid an anachronistic reading of them. Next week we will pick up our interaction with his text, discussing Baptist Confessional history as well as looking at the doctrine of Sola Scriptura.

To Resolve or Not To Resolve? The Yearly Existential Question

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Once this entry posts it will be nearly a week into the new year. Most of us have already stopped going to the gym after resolving to lose weight. Many resolve to stop doing many things, yet very early on in the year certain habits are resumed. Most have earthly goals they wish to attain. Since I will be writing to a largely Christian audience, your experience may be less of an earthly goal and perhaps more of a heavenly or spiritual goal. But, let us pause here for a moment and consider why we make resolutions for the new year. Why do we even make resolutions at all? What are resolutions and are they a practice Christians should involve themselves with? If so, how should we go about approaching and making resolutions?

First of all, resolutions are actions in which we determine to do something.  Many of us don’t recognize the promissory nature of willing to do an action. We, in essence, vow or promise to undertake an action which we would like to pursue. It may not be an explicit promise to do something, but underlying it is a promise to oneself. Many have even sought to be public in their resolutions in order to fulfill them.  Historically, Babylonians made promises to their gods at the beginning of each year, as did the Romans to their god Janus (the god the month January is named after), medieval Christians, etc. The practice typically has to do with self-improvement and historically been a religious affair. The most well-known person in American Christianity to practice resolving is Jonathan Edwards. He made 70 of them from 1722-1723. They can be found at: http://www.digitalpuritan.net/Digital%20Puritan%20Resources/Edwards,%20Jonathan/Resolutions.pdf

We can see that many people throughout all religions, including Christianity, have taken up the task of resolution making. Is this something we should practice? The short answer is yes and no. As a Reformed Baptist, I hold to the 1689 London Confession of Faith. In chapter 23 the subject of lawful oaths and vows is taken up. In it the writers confess that a lawful oath or vow is a part of religious worship. I would submit to you this is how we should view resolutions: as a part of religious worship, whether pagan or Christian. It is a natural thing that fallen man does for we are creatures and were made for worship. Unfortunately, man is fallen and we must take appropriate measures to resolve appropriately. What measures should we take?

The measures we should take are laid out in the rest of the chapter on lawful oaths and vows. We should swear by God alone. We should swear with all holy fear and reverence. And we should not swear by any other thing for it is sinful. The writers direct us to Jesus’ and James’ words, “Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’ be ‘No.’” (Matthew 5:34,37; James 5:12) Jesus and James tell us not to swear by any created thing, but to simply let our everyday speech by full of truth and no conceit or deceit. In my review of Edwards’ resolutions, my attention was caught by Resolution 34. Here is what he says, “Resolved, in narrations, never to speak anything but the pure and simple verity.” He echoes the words and sentiment of our Lord and James.

Since we can see that this is a biblical and historic Christian practice we must approach our resolutions with great care. We should not resolve to do anything we’re not able to do or intend to do. Again the writers of the confession give us sound teaching: “An oath is to be taken in the plain and common sense of the words, without equivocation or mental reservation.” If you know you will break your resolution, don’t take it. If you think you might break your resolution, be careful. I can’t say don’t take it because we’re sinful and are prone to breaking our resolutions. Make simple resolutions and follow through.

In conclusion to our question “To resolve or not to resolve,” we see that it is a part of natural law to worship and that resolutions are a part of religious worship. We may and should resolve to carry out certain actions and that we should do so out of holy fear and reverence. We ought to carry out our resolutions if we intend them with great care. We should not resolve to do anything we cannot do or intend to do. You are free to make resolutions out of worship and only what you know to be true with God as your witness and your judge.

Reading Through Scripture in 2014 (ht: sovjoy.com)

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Here are some resources to help those who want to read through the Bible in 2014:

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Both Android & iOS have available apps to keep track of various reading plans:

 

Resources for Bible Reading from Justin Taylor:

Do you want to read the whole Bible?

If the average person reads 200 to 250 words per minute, and if there are about 775,000 words in the Bible, then it would take less than 10 minutes a day to read the whole Bible in a year.

Audio Bibles are usually about 75 hours long, so you can listen to it in just over 12 minutes a day.

But a simple resolution to do this is often an insufficient. Most of us need a more proactive plan.

Stephen Witmer explains the weaknesses of typical plans and offers some advice on reading the Bible together with others—as well as offering his own new two-year plan. (“In my opinion, it is better to read the whole Bible through carefully one time in two years than hastily in one year.”) His plan has you read through one book of the Bible at a time (along with a daily reading from the Psalms or Proverbs). At the end of two years you will have read through the Psalms and Proverbs four times and the rest of the Bible once.

The Gospel Coalition’s For the Love of God Blog (which you can subscribe to via email) takes you through the M’Cheyne reading plan, with a meditation each day by D. A. Carson related to one of the readings. M’Cheyne’s plan has you read shorter selections from four different places in the Bible each day.

George Guthrie’s “Read the Bible for Life Chronological Bible Reading Plan” is a semi-chronological plan, placing the prophets and the NT letters in basic chronological order. You read in four different places each day, along with a daily psalm (so you end up reading the Psalter twice in a year). You can also download a printable booklet.

For those who would benefit from a realistic “discipline + grace” approach, consider “The Bible Reading Plan for Shirkers and Slackers.” As Andy Perry explains, it takes away the pressure (and guilt) of “keeping up” with the entire Bible in one year. You get variety within the week by alternating genres by day, but also continuity by sticking with one genre each day. Here’s the basic idea:

Sundays: Poetry
Mondays: Penteteuch (Genesis through Deuteronomy)
Tuesdays: Old Testament history
Wednesdays: Old Testament history
Thursdays: Old Testament prophets
Fridays: New Testament history
Saturdays: New Testament epistles (letters)

There are a number of Reading Plans for ESV Editions. Crossway has made them accessible in multiple formats:

  • web (a new reading each day appears online at the same link)
  • RSS (subscribe to receive by RSS)
  • podcast (subscribe to get your daily reading in audio)
  • iCal (download an iCalendar file)
  • mobile (view a new reading each day on your mobile device)
  • print (download a PDF of the whole plan)
Reading Plan Format
Chronological
Through the Bible chronologically (from Back to the Bible)		 RSS iCal Mobile Print Email
Daily Light on the Daily Path
Daily Light on the Daily Path – the ESV version of Samuel Bagster’s classic		 RSS iCal Mobile Print Email
Daily Office Lectionary
Daily Psalms, Old Testament, New Testament, and Gospels		 RSS iCal Mobile Print Email
Daily Reading Bible
Daily Old Testament, New Testament, and Psalms		 RSS iCal Mobile Print Email
ESV Study Bible
Daily Psalms or Wisdom Literature; Pentateuch or the History of Israel; Chronicles or Prophets; and Gospels or Epistles		 RSS iCal Mobile Print Email
Every Day in the Word
Daily Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, Proverbs		 RSS iCal Mobile Print Email
Literary Study Bible
Daily Psalms or Wisdom Literature; Pentateuch or the History of Israel; Chronicles or Prophets; and Gospels or Epistles		 RSS iCal Mobile Print Email
M’Cheyne One-Year Reading Plan
Daily Old Testament, New Testament, and Psalms or Gospels		 RSS iCal Mobile Print Email
Outreach
Daily Old Testament, Psalms, and New Testament		 RSS iCal Mobile Print Email
Outreach New Testament
Daily New Testament. Read through the New Testament in 6 months		 RSS iCal Mobile Print Email
Through the Bible in a Year
Daily Old Testament and New Testament		 RSS iCal Mobile Print Email

You can also access each of these Reading Plans as podcasts:

  • Right-click (Ctrl-click on a Mac) the “RSS” link of the feed you want from the above list.
  • Choose “Copy Link Location” or “Copy Shortcut.”
  • Start iTunes.
  • Under File, choose “Subscribe to Podcast.”
  • Paste the URL into the box.
  • Click OK.

 

Resources for Bible Reading from Ligonier Ministries:

Many Christians take the beginning of a new year to evaluate their Bible reading habits, and then change or begin a Bible reading plan.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. — Psalm 119:105

For your convenience, we’ve compiled a list of Bible reading plans for you to choose from. Maybe this year you will read more of the Bible each day. Perhaps you’ll slow down your reading and instead spend more time considering what you read. Whatever it is you’re looking for in a reading plan, you should find it below.

52 Week Bible Reading Plan

Read through the Bible in a year, with each day of the week dedicated to a different genre: Epistles, The Law, History, Psalms, Poetry, Prophecy, and Gospels.

Duration: One year | Download: PDF

5x5x5 Bible Reading Plan

Read through the New Testament in a year, reading Monday to Friday. Weekends are set aside for reflection and other reading. Especially beneficial if you’re new to a daily discipline of Bible reading.

Duration: One year | Download: PDF

A Bible Reading Chart

Read through the Bible at your own pace. Use this minimalistic, yet beautifully designed, chart to track your reading over 2013.

Duration: Flexible | Download: PDF

Chronological Bible Reading Plan

Read through the Bible in the order the events occurred chronologically.

Duration: One year | Download: PDF

The Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan

Four daily readings beginning in Genesis, Psalms, Matthew and Acts.

Duration: One year | Download: PDF

ESV Daily Bible Reading Plan

Four daily readings taken from four lists: Psalms and Wisdom Literature, Pentateuch and History of Israel, Chronicles and Prophets, and Gospels and Epistles.

Duration: One year | Download: PDF

Every Word in the Bible

Read through the Bible one chapter at a time. Readings alternate between the Old and New Testaments.

Duration: Three years | Download: PDF

Historical Bible Reading Plan

The Old Testament readings are similar to Israel’s Hebrew Bible, and the New Testament readings are an attempt to follow the order in which the books were authored.

Duration: One year | Download: PDF

Professor Grant Horner’s Bible Reading System

Reading ten chapters a day, in the course of a year you’ll read the Gospels four times, the Pentateuch twice, Paul’s letters four to five times, the Old Testament wisdom literature six times, the Psalms at least twice, Proverbs and Acts a dozen times, and the OT History and Prophetic books about one and a half times.

Duration: Ongoing | Download: PDF

Robert Murray M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Read the New Testament and Psalms twice and the Old Testament once.

Duration: One or two years | Download: Website

Straight Through the Bible Reading Plan

Read straight through the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.

Duration: One year | Download: PDF

Tabletalk Bible Reading Plan

Two readings each day; one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament.

Duration: One year | Download: PDF
App: Accessible in the Ligonier App (iPhone / iPad & Android)

The Legacy Reading Plan

This plan does not have set readings for each day. Instead, it has set books for each month, and set number of Proverbs and Psalms to read each week. It aims to give you more flexibility, while grounding you in specific books of the Bible each month.

Duration: One year | Download: PDF

Two-Year Bible Reading Plan

Read the Old and New Testaments once, and Psalms & Proverbs four times.

Duration: Two years | Download: PDF

In addition to your daily Bible reading, if you’re looking for devotional material that will help you understand the Bible and apply it to daily living, consider Tabletalk magazine. Try it out for three months absolutely free.

Repost: Know the Word of God

/ William F. Leonhart III / Leave a comment

In light of the forthcoming first installment of the M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan, I thought I’d repost an old blog post on knowing God’s word. The material for this post was taken from a lesson I taught to the kids at Sovereign Joy Community Church. You can read the original post here.

Q.112: How do we know the Word of God?

A. We are commanded to hear, read, and search the Scriptures.

( 2Timothy 3:14-17; Acts 17:11; 1Timothy 4:13 )

Memorize Scripture

2Timothy 3:14-17

“14You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (NASB).

Paul’s disciple Timothy had a godly mother and grandmother who cared for him enough to teach him what the Bible said (2Timothy 1:5; 3:15). At that time, the only Scripture they had available to them was the Old Testament, but Timothy was taught from the Old Testament nonetheless. His mother and grandmother read to him and probably had him memorize large portions of Scripture, much like how we have our children memorize things like the Lord’s Prayer and Psalm 23.

Why do we have our children memorize Scripture? We have them memorize Scripture so that they can have it in their minds and in their hearts for when they need it most. “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11; NASB). When we are confronted with temptation, it is good for us to have memorized the word of God so that we can remember it and not sin.

When Jesus was in the wilderness being tempted by Satan, Satan tried to convince Jesus to do what he wanted Him to do by quoting improperly interpreted Scripture to Him. Jesus, having memorized Scripture Himself, was able to respond with correctly interpreted Scripture (Matthew 4:1-11). If we want to be like Jesus and not sin, we need to treasure God’s word in our hearts. We need to memorize Scripture.

Search Scripture

Timothy’s mother and grandmother likely used other methods to train him in the word. It is likely that he was shown how to search the Scriptures to see if the things he was being taught were true. After all, Paul wrote to him: “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2Timothy 3:16-17; NASB). Timothy needed to know how to search “all Scripture.” We also have other examples of godly men and women searching the Scriptures to see if they were being taught truth.

Acts 17:11

“Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” (NASB).

The church at Berea were considered “noble-minded” by Luke, the author of Acts, because “they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether [the things the apostles were teaching them] were so.” No one is expected to just take the teachings of a man at face-value. We must believe only those religious teachings that line up with the word of God. If it does not line up with God’s word, it is not true.

Why do we need to test truth claims with the Bible? God’s word is the final authority on all matters to do with faith and obedience (LBCF 1677/1689, Chapter 1, Paragraph 1). If we want to know what we should believe about God, the Christian life, and the church, we must read the Bible. If we want to know how to obey God and glorify Him, we must read the Bible. This does not mean we cannot trust what men say about God to be true, but God expects us to take what we learn about Him from men and compare it to the Bible to make sure it is the truth.

Read Scripture

Of course, Timothy could not have learned to search the Scriptures if he had not first read Scripture. Many of our children are learning to read. But do we know why we have historically placed such an emphasis on literacy in Western societies? In the 16thcentury, a man named Martin Luther translated the New Testament into the language of his people. It was the first time since the Latin Vulgate, at the beginning of the Middle Ages, that the entire New Testament had been translated into the common language.

Luther was so eager to see how the people of his country were learning from this New Testament that he went on a tour of his native Saxony. To his surprise, most of them had not even begun to read his translation of the New Testament. The reason: most of the people of Saxony could not read! Appalled, Luther wrote to the princes of Saxony and told them that they had a duty to God to educate the people so that they could read God’s word. This was the beginning of the modern education movement. We need to learn to read so that we can read God’s word.

It’s not just important that we learn how to read God’s word. It’s important that we start to read it regularly. Our church has started a Bible reading campaign this year and many of our members are taking part in it. We are encouraging parents to read the Bible with their families every night. Each of our members is encouraged, regardless of the reading plan they use, to “cherish the word of God,” “teach [their] children the word of God,” and “engage in regular Bible reading.” It is very important that we read the Bible regularly.

Hear Scripture

1Timothy 4:13

“Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching” (NASB).

Even if our children can’t read, yet, or if they can’t read well, they can still hear the word of God. They can hear the word of God in their homes, they can recite to themselves the passages we have them memorize, and they can sit under the preached word at church. At SJCC, when our pastor gets up to preach, we read a passage of the Bible, first. Then, he explains what we’ve just read. This is a perfect time for our children to hear the word of God.

Also, as their parents, we all know how to read and yet we come every week to hear the word of God. Why do we come to hear the word of God preached if we can just read it? God speaks to us in a special way when we come to hear His word proclaimed on the Lord’s Day. It is very important that we be attentive in these times. We can listen, take notes, and discuss our families’ questions about the sermon when we get home. These things are very important for our relationships with God. As we grow in our knowledge of God, we will grow in our relationship with Him, too.

Meditate on Scripture

Psalm 1:2

“But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

And in His law he meditates day and night.” (NASB).

According to Psalm 1, the righteous man meditates on God’s law day and night. If we want to be like the righteous man, we ought to meditate on God’s law ourselves. The Scripture we memorize, the Scripture we search, the Scripture we read, and the Scripture we hear… upon these things we are called to meditate day and night.

In meditating on God’s word, we will have effectively stored it up as treasure in our hearts. We will find ourselves thinking about, talking about, and even singing about God’s word throughout the day. As we learn to think, speak, and do the things written in God’s word, we will draw closer to Him and be less and less inclined toward sin. These are the things Paul wanted Timothy to dwell on as he ministered to the church of God at Ephesus.