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Church Calendar

Five Misconceptions of Reformation Day

For many people the date October 31 is significant not only for being the Eve of All Saints (All Hallows Eve, Halloween) but as the day in 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenburg. These theses were a list of…

by Timothy LeCroyOctober 31, 2017
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Church Calendar

Concerning Halloween

It has become routine in October for some Christian schools to send out letters warning parents about the evils of Halloween, and it has become equally routine for me to be asked questions about this matter. "Halloween" is simply a contraction for All Hallows’ Eve. The word "hallow" means "saint,"…

by James B. JordanOctober 26, 2017
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Revelation

Preaching, An Art of Division

The following is an excerpt from Peter Leithart's forthcoming two-volume commentary on Revelation (T&T Clark). Y ou must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings,” a voice tells John (Rev. 10:11). Then someone gives him a “reed like a rod” and instructs him to measure (11:1).…

by Peter LeithartOctober 24, 2017
josiah-death

Back To Egypt

Josiah is an ideal Davidic king in many ways. He not only “did right,” but he “walked in the ways of his father David” and “did not turn aside to the right or to the left” (2 Chronicles 34:2). At the age of 16, he began to seek Yahweh, and…

by Peter LeithartOctober 19, 2017
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Augustine

Augustine and the Music of Time

One of the best discussions of Augustine’s views on time comes from Jeremy Begbie’s Theology, Music, and Time (ch. 3). Following Paul Ricoeur, Begbie claims that Augustine’s distentio “is conceived as the three-fold present, and the threefold present as distentio . The distentio consists in the non-coincidence of the mind’s…

by Peter LeithartOctober 17, 2017
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How to Worship

The Psalter Should be Woven into the Fabric of Worship

This has always been the position of the Christian Church, and from an historical perspective the present situation in evangelicalism is appalling. The early liturgies of the Church, which are still used in Episcopal and Lutheran worship, are laced with psalm phrases. The early hymns, such as the Te Deum…

by James B. JordanOctober 12, 2017

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History

Anger

“In most of our scholarly literature about the classical world,” writes Columbia University’s William V. Harris in his Restraining Rage: The Ideology of Anger Control in Classical Antiquity , “political and religious change . . . seems to take place in a remarkably calm fashion.” Harris doubts that this is…

December 28, 2004

Sermon Outline, January 2

So, What Are We Anyway? INTRODUCTION The liturgical changes recently introduced at Trinity might well provoke an identity crisis for members of the church. Have we become Lutherans? Or Anglicans? Or have we abandoned the Reformation altogether? Are we still Protestants? Are we on the road to Rome, Canterbury, Constantinople?…

December 27, 2004

Eucharistic Meditation, December 26

1 Corinthians 11: the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it. Division and reunion, death and resurrection, is the basic pattern of human life. Marriage is, as Pastor Wilson has taught us, woven into the fabric…

December 26, 2004

Exhortation, December 26

As Pastor Wilson will explain more fully in the sermon this morning, division is an essential part of creation. God creates by dividing light and darkness, by separating waters above and waters below, by drawing a boundary between sea and land. This creative division continues throughout Scripture, as God recreates…

December 26, 2004

Baptism Meditation, December 26

Matthew 18:1-6 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, ?Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven??EAnd He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not…

December 26, 2004

Lordly Obedience

The following is a Christmas Eve homily, largely paraphrased/quoted from Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics , 4.1, pp. 185ff. John 5:30: ?I can do nothing on My own initiative As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of…

December 23, 2004

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