An Interview with John Piper – Tabletalk

Desiring God: An Interview with John Piper by John Piper | Reformed Theology Articles at Ligonier.org.

The May 2012 Tabletalk again features an interview with a contemporary Reformed/Calvinistic person, and this month the interview is with John Piper, well-known pastor (recently retired) of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN. The entire interview is interesting, but one part of it in particular grabbed my attention. It has to do with Piper’s being a slow reader (a “turtle”), something to which I too can relate. You will learn how he turned that “weakness” into a love for poetry – reading it but also writing it.

Here is the pertinent part of the interview; find the rest at the Ligonier link above.

TT: We have heard you say that you read slowly. Is that a disappointment? A hindrance? How do you think about that?

JP: It used to bother me more than it does now. I have tried to stop kicking against this gift of God. The gift of slowness relates to poetry. The fact that hundreds of the pages of God’s inspired Word are devoted to poetry makes me aware that God thinks the sound of language matters.

God has blessed and humbled me with the inability to speed-read. I read about the same speed that I talk. I hear what I read as I read it. Speedreading consultants say that pronouncing the words—even in your head—turns a rabbit reader into a turtle. No use. I’m a turtle.

So I take heart that so much of the Bible is poetry. It is self-evident to me that poetry is not meant to be speedread, but ordinarily read aloud. So now I see that God has forced me to hear. He has forced a slow savoring of the way things are written to be heard as well as seen.

Slowness means I can’t do lots of things other scholars and pastors can do. But when I consider what slowness offers, I give thanks. Consider this observation about what happens when poetry is read aloud and read well by a person who understands it:

Even after almost three millennia of written literature, poetry retains its appeal to the ear as well as to the eye; to hear a poem read aloud by someone who understands it, and who wishes to share that understanding with someone else, can be a crucial experience, instructing the silently reading eye ever thereafter to hear what it is seeing. (John Hollander, ed., Committed to Memory: 100 Best Poems to Memorize, p. 1)

I would recommend that pastors develop the habit of slowing down in their reading when they are reading things that were written with craft and not just as information transmission.

The Need of the Church: Listen to God – W. Robert Godfrey

The Church and Psalm 81 by W. Robert Godfrey | Reformed Theology Articles at Ligonier.org.

Part of my Sunday reading yesterday included this month’s Tabletalk, which is devoted to the theme of the great “Shema”, the introduction to the law found in Deut.6:4-5. Dr.Robert Godfrey tied in nicely to this theme with his article under the rubric “For the Church”. Showing how Psalm 81 (especially v.8b) points us to the same words as the “Shema”, he relates how Psalm 81 speaks to the church’s greatest need at the present hour, and indeed throughout church history: to listen to God. I appreciated this article much, and believe that Godfrey is correct in his estimation of the church’s need. If we ever stop listening to God through His Word, we are done as His church and people.

Here is a portion of the article. You will find all of it at the Ligonier link above.

What does the church most need today? In answering this important but rather general question, Psalm 81 is uniquely important and helpful. This psalm obviously contains beautiful promises and clear directions to help the people of God. But careful study of this psalm will deepen our appreciation of it, increase its value for us, and show us how distinctive it is for helping the church.

As we study psalms, we soon learn that the central verse of a psalm is often significant as a key to its interpretation. The central line of Psalm 81 is the heart of that psalm, as the plaintive cry of God is heard: “O Israel, if you would but listen to me!” (v. 8b). Perhaps this line will resonate more profoundly with the readers of this issue of Tabletalk if we translate it, “O Israel, if you would but hear me!” The center of Psalm 81—indeed the whole psalm—is a reflection on the Shema.

…As the Shema was crucial to the Torah, so it is central to the Psalter and to the Christian life. God’s people must hear His Word, particularly to reject false gods (v. 9) and to walk in His ways (v. 13). They must not follow their own wisdom (v. 12). How sad to contemplate that God might give us what we think is good for us.

The Lord reminds His people that in history He has been the Deliverer and now promises that when we open our mouths in prayer, He will hear us and meet our needs (v. 10). He is the God who preserves and provides for the needs of His own.

The failure of Israel to hear the Word of God was rectified by God’s own Son. Jesus always heard and honored God’s Word. His Father delighted in Him for that reason: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 17:5). Jesus perfectly listened and followed so that His people would have a complete and perfect salvation. The Father continues to call His people to listen, now directing them to the words of His Son: “listen to him” (Matt. 17:5). The salvation and health of the church depend on it continuing to listen to God’s Word.

J.Calvin on Psalm 116: “…The very thought of them (God’s benefits) ought to fill us with admiration.”

For our further meditation on Psalm 116 today, we also post these thoughts of John Calvin on v.12. May they also serve to encourage us to heart-felt thankfulness to the Lord for His great salvation.

12. What shall I render unto Jehovah?

He now exclaims with devout admiration, that the multitude of God’s benefits was greater than he could find language to give expression to the grateful emotions of his heart. The question is emphatic, What shall I render? and imports, that it was not the desire, but the means, of which he was destitute, to enable him to render thanks to God. Acknowledging his inability, he adopts the only means in his power, by extolling the grace of God as highly as he could. “I am exceedingly wishful to discharge my duty, but when I look around me, I find nothing which will prove an adequate recompense.”

…It is much better to make the first clause of the verse a complete sentence, by putting a period after Jehovah. Because, after confessing his incompetency, or rather his having nothing to offer to God as a sufficient compensation for his benefits, he at the same time adds in confirmation of it, that he was laid under such obligations, not by one series of benefits only, but by a variety of innumerable benefits. “There is no benefit on account of which God has not made me a debtor to him, how should I have means of repaying him for them?” All recompense failing him, he has recourse to an expression of thanksgiving as the only return which he knows will be acceptable to God.

David’s example in this instance teaches us not to treat God’s benefits lightly or carelessly, for if we estimate them according to their value, the very thought of them ought to fill us with admiration. There is not one of us who has not God’s benefits heaped upon us. But our pride, which carries us away into extravagant theories, causes us to forget this very doctrine, which ought nevertheless to engage our unremitting attention. And God’s bounty towards us merits the more praise, that he expects no recompense from us, nor can receive any, for he stands in need of nothing, and we are poor and destitute of all things.

 

Sunday Worship Preparation – Psalm 116

For our worship preparation on this new Lord’s Day we consider our next psalm in the OT Psalter, Psalm 116, which also happens to be a personal favorite (See the Psalter versification below too.). The human instrument who penned this “exuberant thanksgiving to the Lord” (New Geneva Study Bible) is unknown, but that only serves to bring out that this psalm is inspired by the Holy Spirit and is word for word the Word of God. Out of the heart and mouth of one of His children the Lord wished to speak to us and for us a glad song of gratitude for deliverance from death. Here, then, is that grateful song:

Psalm 116

I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.

²Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.

³The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.

⁴Then called I upon the name of the Lord; O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.

⁵Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.

⁶The Lord preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me.

⁷Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.

⁸For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.

⁹I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

¹⁰I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted:

¹¹I said in my haste, All men are liars.

¹²What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?

¹³I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.

¹⁴I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people.

¹⁵Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

¹⁶O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds.

¹⁷I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord.

¹⁸I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people,

¹⁹In the courts of the Lord’S house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord.

While the entire psalm is beautiful and significant, there are a couple of things worth highlighting. For one thing, it is evident that the psalmist experienced the Lord’s merciful hand of deliverance from death. Whatever his particular circumstances were, he was clearly in the grip of death and its sorrows, body and soul. In the midst of this experience he believed in the Lord and cried out for help. He loved the Lord before his great affliction and he loved Him more deeply afterward. That love was rooted in God’s own love for him first, of course. But out of that love and with a true faith he ran to the Lord in his trouble and sorrow. And God out of His great love for His child heard his cry and rescued him from death. The psalmist had not earned that response from the Lord, nor did he deserve it, not even for his faith and love. God’s deliverance was an act of pure grace and mercy, as the psalmist himself declares (vss.5-7).

As such this deliverance is a powerful witness to our own deliverance from sin and its just reward, death. And yet, ours is even greater, for God loved us when we hated Him and were His enemies (Romans 5:6-11). He saved us from death when we didn’t want to be saved and didn’t believe in Him and didn’t seek His help (Romans 3:9-19). How much more then should we love the Lord and how much greater should our song of gratitude be! Do we sing this song with hearts that break with love for and gratitude to the Lord? If we know our deliverance from death’s grip, we cannot do otherwise.

For another thing, notice that the psalmist testifies to the fact that he will render his deep and devoted thanks to the Lord in public worship (vss.12-19). Asking himself what he could possibly give to the Lord in return for His gracious salvation (a good question for us to ask daily!), he determines to offer the sacrifices of thanksgiving to the Lord in the midst of corporate worship – “in the presence of all his people” (vss.14,18). That is significant. While this song of thanks in Ps.116 is intensely personal, the psalmist intended that it be used not merely for personal thanksgiving but also and especially for the united praise of God’s people. His vow would be paid and his praise would be heard in the company of his fellow saints. He would join them in magnifying the God of his salvation.

And so it is that our hearts are stirred on this day of rest and worship to give God thanks and lift up our exuberant song to Him. Personally and privately? O, yes, by all means. We may start right now. Read, pray, and sing Psalm 116 as your personal testimony of thanks to the Lord for what He has done for your soul in Jesus Christ! But then also go the house of the Lord, meet the Lord’s people there, and join with them in making corporate and public praise to the Lord! Take the cup of salvation and call upon your Savior with your fellow saints! Pay your vow of gratitude to the Lord “now in the presence of all his people.” For having experienced a common salvation, we have a common song to sing.

If you wish to mediate on Psalm 116 through music, may I suggest you visit the PRC Psalter page, where you will find several versifications of this psalm set to music (Scroll down to Ps.116). Below is my personal favorite, found in the Choral section of our Psalter.

426.  I Love the Lord.  Psalm 116.  10 11 11 10. (click on this title to hear piano accompaniment)

I love the Lord, the fount of life and grace;

He hears my voice, my cry and supplication,

Inclines His ear, gives strength and consolation;

In life, in death, my heart will seek His face.

 

The cords of death held me in deep despair;

The pangs of hell, like waves by tempest driven,

Rolled o’er my soul; by grief and sorrow riven,

I turned in my distress to God in prayer.

 

I cried, Deliver Thou my soul, O Lord!

Jehovah heard. I pledge Him my devotion.

The Lord is just, His grace wide as the ocean;

In boundless mercy He fulfills his word.

 

The Lord preserves the meek most tenderly;

Brought nigh to death, in Him I found salvation.

Come, thou my soul, relieved from agitation,

Turn to thy rest; the Lord has favored Thee.

 

Thou, O Jehovah, in Thy sovereign grace,

Hast saved my soul from death and woe appalling,

Dried all my tears, secured my feet from falling.

Lo, I shall live and walk before Thy face.

 

I have believed, and therefore I did speak

When I was made to suffer tribulation;

I said in haste and bitter desperation:

All men are false, ’tis nought but lies they speak.

 

What shall I render to Jehovah now

For all the riches of His consolation?

With joy I’ll take the cup of His salvation,

And call upon His Name with thankful vow.

 

Before His saints I’ll pay my vows to God;

E’en in death’s vale He keepeth me from evil;

How dear to God the dying of His people!

Praise Him, ye saints, and sound His Name abroad.

 

I am, O Lord, Thy servant, bound yet free,

Thy handmaid’s son, whose shackles Thou hast broken;

Redeemed by grace, I’ll render as a token

Of gratitude my constant praise to Thee.

 

Jerusalem! Within thy courts I’ll praise

Jehovah’s Name; and with a spirit lowly

Pay all my vows. O Zion fair and holy,

Come join with me and bless Him all thy days!

 

“Stacking library shelves” (with pro-Islam books) – Marvin Olasky, WORLD

WORLD | Stacking library shelves | Marvin Olasky | June 1, 2013.

This would be incredible if it were not true. Marvin Olasky at World magazine has this revealing and revolting report (dated May 17, 2013) about how one of our federally-sponsored agencies is pushing a pro-Islam agenda at public libraries in this country. Yes, libraries are all about open information and public access – but not propoganda from our government! Imagine the reaction if one of these books were the Bible and Christianity was being “pushed” on people! Or Calvin’s Institutes and Calvinism was being “promoted”! More and more the anti-Christian agenda of our own government is being revealed.

Read the full story at the World link above; here is the beginning of it:

Libraries in America, like schools, have a long tradition of local control. In 2009 Minnesota librarian Barbara Fisher told Library Journalreaders how she chose books: “I know my community, and I know what their interests are.” Wisconsin librarian Abigail Goben wrote about choosing books based on reviews, patron requests, and librarian blogs: “We’re a chatty bunch and love recommending things to each other.”

The National Endowment for the Humanities has a different process. Earlier this year NEH, as part of a “Muslim Journeys” project, shipped to 953 local libraries and humanities groups 25 books chosen by five “national project scholars” known for their positive appraisals of Islam. We’ll go book-by-book through some of the choices, but four critics of Islam who reviewed for WORLD the 25-book collection all said it was one-sided.

Alvin Schmidt, author of The Great Divide, said the selection “conveys the message that Islam is a peaceful religion,” which is “the biggest, unmitigated lie in circulation today.” Andrew Bostom, author of Sharia versus Freedom, said the books “whitewash” Islam and “amount to ‘dawa’—Islamic proselytization.” Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer said, “This is an egregiously propagandistic selection of books, designed not to give readers a balanced view of jihad, but solely a positive one.”

Disabled newborns are being killed LEGALLY in The Netherlands – LifeSiteNews.com

Disabled newborns are being killed LEGALLY in The Netherlands: here’s the proof | LifeSiteNews.com.

This chilling but not surprising news item was sent to me this week (dated May 14, 2013). In it Peter Saunders reports on the rise of the murder of babies with disabilities in both Belgium and the Netherlands since the Netherlands passed its euthanasia laws. This is indeed another example of the “slippery slope”, since any departure from God’s clear commandments sends one rushing downward into greater darkness and depravity. May God yet turn our “motherland” back to His Word and ways. Otherwise she will receive the just reward for her deeds.

Here is the fiurst part of the report; read the rest at the LifeSiteNews link above.

In an interview this morning on BBC Five Live on the Paul Lamb case I was asked by the presenter Nicky Campbell about evidence for a slippery slope following the legalisation of euthanasia in other jurisdictions.

In my answer I mentioned the steady escalation in numbers of cases in Belgium and the Netherlands (see here and here) and said that one third of nurses had carried out euthanasia illegally in Belgium and that one third of cases in some parts of Belgium had been involuntary, although the law did not allow this.

I also mentioned the ‘Groningen Protocol’ under which disabled babies had been given lethal injections in the Netherlands.

Campbell appeared not to know about this and asked me on air to email him information about it to which I agreed. Another BBC journalist phoned me after the interview to check my sources.

I sent her a link to the original paper on the ‘Groningen Protocol’ from the New England Medical Journal in 2005.

The full reference is ‘Verhagen E, Sauer P. “The Groningen Protocol—Euthenasia in Severely Ill Newborns.” New England Journal of Medicine 2005; 352(10):959-62’

It says that ‘Twenty-two cases of euthanasia in newborns have been reported to district attorneys’ offices in the Netherlands during the past seven years’ but also highlights underreporting:

‘Given that the national survey indicated that such procedures are performed in 15 to 20 newborns per year, the fact that an average of three cases were reported annually suggests that most cases are simply not being reported.’

Peter Saunders is the CEO of Christian Medical Fellowship, a UK-based organisation with 4,500 UK doctors and 1,000 medical students as members.

Calvinistic Cartoons: Flights of Fancy

Calvinistic Cartoons: Flights of Fancy.

And for the second part of our “Friday Fun” today, how about a couple of Eddie Eddings “Calvinist Cartoons” once again? These are always witty as he takes jabs at the latest evangelical trends, while maintaining good Calvinist humor. Today I have selected a couple of pokes at the Emergent Church movement. Enjoy!

10 Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores

10 Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores.

Time for some “Friday Fun” on this third Friday of May! Here is our first – some crazy comments and questions people have made in a bookstore in London – overheard by an employee and compiled for a book. This post (May 2, 2013) gives us ten of them; below are the first four – check out the rest at the link above.

Jen Campbell, who works at a bookstore in London, heard so many crazy things in her line of business that she decided to compile the funniest and most outrageous ones into a book: Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores. Below, a sampling of some of the most outlandish things heard at Campbell’s bookstore and shops across the U.S. and Canada.

1.
Customer: Excuse me, do you have any signed copies of Shakespeare plays?
Bookseller: Er…do you mean signed by the people who performed the play?
Customer: No, I mean signed by William Shakespeare.

2.
Customer: Did Charles Dickens ever write anything fun?

3.
Customer: I read a book in the sixties. I don’t remember the author, or the title. But it was green, and it made me laugh. Do you know which one I mean?

4.
Customer: I’ve forgotten my glasses, could you read the beginning of this book to me to see if I like it?

The Heidelberg Catechism in Translation – A World-wide Reformed Catechism (1)!

One of the things that reveals not merely the popularity of the Heidelberg Catechism but also its world-wide distribution is a consideration of its varied translations. This struck me as I was recently browsing the fascinating book The Heidelberg Catechism In Its Newest Light by Rev.Prof. James I. Good (Philadelphia: Publication and Sunday School Board of the Reformed Church in the United States, 1914). Good was a German Reformed pastor and professor (Central Theological Seminary) who wrote a number of books on Reformation history and on the history of the German Reformed Church (the main stream of which was swallowed up by several liberal denominations into one, but the true continuation of which remains in the Reformed Church in the U.S. – RCUS).

The first section of this Good book (In more ways than one!) treats  ”The World-wide Circulation of the Catechism”, and the first chapter under this deals with the many different translations of the “HC”. Today, in connection with our year-long commemoration of the 450th anniversary of the “HC” (see all my Thursday posts this year.), I would like to start a brief series looking at these translations of the “HC”. And we begin with the obvious – the German translation – since this was the language in which the “HC” was first produced. Good also has a number of pictures of the title-pages of the “HC” in various languages, which I am scanning and will post here as well (Click on the image to expand its size.).

This is how good opens his chapter on the translations of the Heidelberg Catechism:

‘The Heidelberg Catechism, next to the Bible and the Pilgrim’s Progress, is the most widely circulated of books,’ is the remark of one of the old writers. Whether this estimate, made long ago, is exactly true now may be questioned , as some other books have since become widely popular. But the fact, nevertheless, remains true: the Heidelberg catechism is one of the most widely circulated books in the world. In order to have such popularity the catechism had to be translated into many languages. …The story of of these translations, together with their history, is of wonderful interest and reveals the great popularity of the book.

The original language of the Heidelberg catechism was, of course, the German, because it was composed for use in a German state, the Palatinate, in southwestern Germany, where it was published early in 1563. A number of German editions appeared in that year. Their number has been generally given as four, but Rev.Professor Goeters of Bonn university, who has been making researches, has found other editions of that year (pp.3-4)

New Junius Institute Expands Reformation Research – Calvin College

New Institute Expands Reformation Research | Article | Christian Reformed Church.

Back in October of 2011 I first mentioned on my blog that Calvin College and Seminary had a significant digital library of post-Reformation works. A few weeks ago they made another significant announcement regarding a new Institute of digital materials for research (posted April 23, 2013). Below is the notice which was given. Follow the links to the wealth of important materials on the Reformation and post-Reformation periods.

Students at Calvin Theological Seminary and Calvin College now have access to a new research center devoted to developing digital tools, resources, and scholarship focused on the religious reformation, particularly arising out of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.

The Junius Institute for Digital Reformation Research  of Calvin Theological Seminary is a natural fit for the seminary community, seminary president Julius Medenblik said.

“We’re pleased to see the ongoing efforts of faculty, students, and alumni of the seminary develop into a formal home for projects with exciting possibilities for coming to a better understanding the multifaceted legacy of the Reformation,” he said.

The institute is conceived as a forum to promote research into the Reformation and post-Reformation periods, covering the 16th to the 18th centuries, through the use of digital tools, skills, and resources.

The Junius Institute will house the Post-Reformation Digital Library (PRDL), an electronic database covering thousands of authors and primary source documents on the development of theology and philosophy in these centuries.