Category Archives: Post of the Week

Tim Challies on Bible Translations


bible-languages-600.jpgTim Challies has written a nice article on the ‘Beauty of a Good Bible Translation’. He articulated his reasons for preferring the English Standard Version (ESV) over several other modern translations. I have to say he has hit the nail on the head with his observations. I completely agree with his sentiments. The ESV is a wonderful literal translation of the scriptures that many believe captures the poetic flow of the original languages. Here is an excerpt:

Whenever I take the time to read the Bible slowly and meditatively, and this is particularly true of reading the Old Testament, I am struck by the beauty of the language as it is translated in the English Standard Version, my translation of choice. While I do not know how to read Hebrew, I often hear people speak of the poetic nature of the language which leads even the prose to have poetic qualities. It seems to me that the ESV does an admirable job of capturing that. The same cannot be said of all Bible translations. I have come to love the little literary devices, the metaphors and phrases used by the ancient writers and find that they add so much to the reading of the text. Without a translation that accurately rendered these sayings we would lose so much of the flow and meaning of the text.

There is so much beauty in the prose of the Old Testament and I am thankful to have access to a translation (and to several translations, really) that accurately renders the metaphors and phrases used by the original authors. Let me provide you with a few examples. I am going to use the ESV as my standard essentially-literal translation. I do this not necessary to indicate that it is superior to the others within the category, but simply because it is the translation I use for my devotional and study work.

Read the entire article HERE.

A Commentary on Ephesians Chapter 2


extra-c3po1.jpgThe wise sage C3PO once stated, “Sometimes I just don’t understand human behavior.”

Fortunately for us, the inspired Apostle Paul did, and he passed the knowledge and wisdom he received from God down to us in his various epistles. In the book of Ephesians chapter 2, Paul reveals the depths of human depravity, then lifts the readers to the throne of God’s glory in explaining the gospel of grace. It is one of the finest chapters in all of God’s word.

My good friend and fellow blogger over at The Spice Mines of Kessel has labored hard over the past couple of months to produce a commentary on Ephesians Chapter 2. It is a fine piece of work and I am recommending it to you today for your reading pleasure and edification.

I have been privileged to sit under SMOK’s bible study centered on this commentary over the past several weeks. Every session has just gotten better and better and the class size is growing in accordance.

If you want to be wiser than C3PO and better understand the root of human behavior – and what God’s remedy is for it, please avail yourself to SMOK’s commentary and be blessed by the Christ-centric teachings therein.

A Commentary on Ephesians Chapter 2

The Society of Satan and His Gospel


“The gospel of Satan is not a system of revolutionary principles, nor yet a program of anarchy. It does not promote strife and war, but aims at peace and unity. It seeks not to set the mother against her daughter nor the father against his son, but fosters the fraternal spirit whereby the human race is regarded as one great ‘brotherhood.’ It does not seek to drag down the natural man, but to improve and uplift him. It advocates education and cultivation and appeals to ‘the best that is within us.’ It aims to make this world such a comfortable and congenial habitat that Christ’s absence from it will not be felt and God will not be needed.” –A.W. Pink

As I prepared to post this I was reminded of a similar quote from a recent article by Dr. Michael Horton entitled ‘Christless Christianity: Getting in Christ’s Way’ originally published in the May/June 07 issue of Modern Reformation magazine. Continue reading →

Happy Anniversary to A Peculiar Pilgrim!


A Peculiar Pilgrim has survived heretics, critics, and even free-willies to make it to the big 0-ONE by God’s grace. A Peculiar Pilgrim was birthed into the blogosphere exactly one year ago today- and blogs everywhere trembled. My initial post Road to Reformation -Part 1 kicked off what has become for me a most wonderful and blessed experience (The jury is still out on just how blessed my readers have been). I love blogging, but I love comments from my readers even more (hint – hint!). Always feel welcome to leave your thoughts, even if they don’t agree with mine. It works to sharpen us all as we continue to come to a full knowledge of the truth.

There are several reasons I chose to start a blog. First, I desired to chronicle my story of turning away from my semi-Pelagian beliefs to Calvinistic ones. Secondly, I wanted to help others who were struggling with the whole Church-Growth/Purpose-Driven movement dominating modern Christianity.

In the beginning I actually had two blogs. My other one was titled Post Tenebras Lux (After Darkness, Light). I used it primarily as a discernment watchblog. After a couple of months I realized I barely had enough time to maintain one blog, much less two. I eventually merged the content of Post Tenebras Lux with this one. In April I posted Coming Out from Among Them – Part 1 (the story of leaving my old church) and my blog emerged from oblivion. To this day, that post has more views than any other – by a comfortable margin.

Another reason I blog is to crystallize my thoughts on various biblical topics. My mind is cloudier than a thick London fog. Writing helps to organize my thoughts as well as develop them more fully. Sometimes my posts are fairly lucid. At other times a post may be little more than a stream of thought put to digital text. in the end, blogging has helped to sharpen my convictions and cement my beliefs in the glorious truths of scripture.This may sound strange, but I look forward to reading my posts several years from now and observing how far I’ve come in my knowledge and wisdom of God’s word. Like the saying goes, I am reformed, yet always reforming. Continue reading →

Divine Election or Mortal Selection?


Sam Storms has an excellent article on the controversial subject of divine election over at Monergism. Here is an excerpt:

In the final analysis, Calvin believes we should study divine election primarily for its ability to tell uslottery.jpg why one person who hears the gospel comes to saving faith in Jesus Christ and why another does not. To whom or what, ultimately, do we attribute the distinction? When all is said and done, how do you explain why one person believes unto eternal life and another does not? Who makes one person to differ from another: the person or God? That question can only be answered by looking more closely at the “how” and “why” of God’s sovereign choice. I’ll take that up in the next lesson.

Look with me at John 17:1b-2. Here Jesus prays to the Father and says, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him” (ESV).

There is so much in this passage that I run the risk of getting de-railed from my primary purpose. But I can’t leave it without making a couple of comments. We must take note that not everyone is given eternal life. Only those whom the Father has “given” to Jesus are granted eternal life. The idea of people being “given” by the Father to the Son is standard Johannine language for divine election (see especially John 6:37-65).

Note also that God has not utterly cast off the world of mankind, although it would have been entirely fitting and just had he done so. He has given ultimate authority over all flesh, over every man, woman, and child to Jesus Christ. Jesus has unassailed, unchallenged, comprehensive authority over all human beings: over red and yellow, black and white; over male and female, young and old; over the powerful and the weak; over the rich and poor; over the educated and the ignorant; over those down under in Australia and those up over at the North Pole; over those who live in caves and those who walk in marble corridors.

As Edwards himself pointed out in a sermon on 1 Peter 2:9, whether they are elected or not, they belong to God. He didn’t lose his rights to humanity because of the fall nor did he forfeit his power and authority to dispose of them as he sees fit. They are still in his hands. Neither did he lose his ultimate end or goal in having created them in the first place (see Prov. 16:4).

Out from among those over whom he has sovereign rights as Creator and Lord, the Father has given some to the Son in order that the Son might give to them eternal life.

Click HERE to view the entire article. It is a great read!

 

An Essay on the Gospel of Jesus Christ


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My friend and brother in the Lord over at the Spice Mines of Kessel has recently written a compilation of essays entitled Retrospect, Faith and Grace. They beautifully detail the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and how it has impacted him. The essays are both a teaching and a testimony. He has really poured out his heart into this body of work and I am pleased and honored to recommend it for your edification. The multiple essays have been combined to form one document, which is available in PDF format. Click on the image above to read his introduction. At the bottom of the post you will find the link to download the PDF. Read and be blessed!

The Responsibility-Index


Dan Phillips of Pyromaniacs has posted an excellent article on how every good scripture-driven sermon produces what he has coined as the ‘responsibility-index’. Here is an excerpt:

Perhaps I’ll develop this further another time, but the faithful sermon we hear changes our status before God. Of course, I’m not talking about justification, but about accountability. The pan-Biblical principle is: greater privilege = greater responsibility. In this particular connection, we certainly see it in Jesus’ words: “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin” (John 15:22).

So let’s say you are in a church that teaches the Word of God — which you should be. As you listen to the Word faithfully preached, something is happening to you. This is true whether you feel it or not, whether your behavior changes or not. Something is happening. What is happening?

What is happening is this: your responsibility-index is rising.

Click HERE to read the rest of the article. Continue reading →

Post of the Week: The Church is Full of Hypocrites


Extreme Theology has posted an exceptional article on hypocrisy in the church by Rev. Bryan Wolfmueller.

Here is an insightful excerpt:

There are two things at work behind the accusation of hypocrisy, one true, the other false. The first is the sad reality that the church is often marred with shameful sin. More on this later. But, the second thing behind the accusation of hypocrisy is a wrong assumption about what Christianity is. Those that accuse the church of hypocrisy often assume that the whole point of the Church is to make people good, moral. “You’re a Christian: you’re supposed to be good and holy and all that stuff.” The world sees the church as a place where people go to learn about God’s rules, and to talk about how they are keeping them and the world is not.

Here we must be clear that the main point of Christianity is not our morality and goodness. This is, to be sure, the thing driving every other world religion from Judaism to Hinduism, Islam to Mormonism and even Atheism! All of these “ism’s” are pointing mankind to achieve more and be better, to climb the ladder of moral success and be a good person. But Christianity is different, it begins not with man’s goodness or potential goodness but rather with man’s wickedness. From the first chapters of Genesis until the Revelation given to St John the Bible is a record of mankind’s failure; it is a testimony of his sin.

Click here to read the rest of the article.