Obesity Virus?

This is so strange that I felt the need to mention it in my blog. Apparently, research shows that obesity can be "caught" like a common cold. Yes, like a common cold! Read it here: Click Here!

The Preciousness of Time (Part 6)

SECT. II

Reflections on time past.

"You have now heard of the preciousness of time; and you are the persons concerned, to whom God hath committed that precious talent. You have an eternity before you. When God created you, and gave you reasonable souls, he made you for an endless duration. He gave you time here in order to a preparation for eternity, and your future eternity depends on the improvement of time.—Consider, therefore, what you have done with your past time. You are not now beginning your time, but a great deal is past and gone; and all the wit, and power, and treasure of the universe, cannot recover it. Many of you may well conclude, that more than half of your time is gone; though you should live to ordinary age of men, your glass is more than half run; and it may be there are but a few sands remaining. Your sun is past the meridian, and perhaps just setting, or going into an everlasting eclipse. Consider, therefore, what account you can give of your improvement of past time. How have you let the precious golden sands of your glass run?"

The Preciousness of Time (Part 5)

"If we have lived fifty, or sixty, or seventy years, and have not improved our time, now it cannot be helped; it is eternally gone from us; all that we can do, is to improve the little that remain. Yea, if a man have spent all his life but a few moments unimproved, all that is gone is lost, and only those few remaining moments can possibly be made his own; and if the whole of a man’s time be gone, and it be all lost, it is irrecoverable.—Eternity depends on the improvement of time; but when once the time of life is gone, when once death is come, we have no more to do with time; there is no possibility of obtaining the restoration of it, or another space in which to prepare for eternity. If a man should lose the whole of his worldly substance, and become a bankrupt, it is possible that his loss may be made up. He may have another estate as good. But when the time of life is gone, it is impossible that we should ever obtain another such time. All opportunity of obtaining eternal welfare is utterly and everlastingly gone."

Ladd on Justification and Imputation

During my undergraduate years I was introduced to George Eldon Ladd’s A Theology of the New Testament (revised edition by Donald A. Hagner). It is an excellent resource, if not the best, for introducing students of the Bible and theology to the study of New Testament theology. Harold W. Hoehner deems that “this work will continue to be a model of New Testament theology” (back cover). Joel B. Green praises it as “An important textbook refitted for the next generation of students who are both concerned with critical engagement with the New Testament message and committed to the continuing authority of Scripture for the church.” Here is a quote from the book on justification and imputation that I wish to share with you today:

"In classical Reformed theology, a corollary of justification is the doctrine of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the believer. However, Paul never expressly states that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to believers. His words are, ‘And to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness’ (Rom. 4:3).

These words could be taken to mean that God regarded faith as the most meritorious human achievement, and therefore God accounts faith as the equivalent to full righteousness. This, however, would ignore the context of Pauline thought. In contemporary Jewish thought, faith was considered a meritorious work; and it is Paul’s main concern to refute the idea that salvation is based in any way on human works or merit. Faith is clearly excluded from the category of human achievement. Righteousness is reckoned “to one who does not work” (Rom. 4:5). What is reckoned is not faith but righteousness on the basis of faith. David committed notorious sins (Rom. 4:8). It is clear that what is reckoned (imputed) is righteousness entirely apart from human merit.

Paul answers the question when he says, “In him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). Christ was made sin for our sake. We might say that our sins were reckoned to Christ. He, although sinless, identified himself with our sins, suffered their penalty and doom — death. So we have reckoned to us Christ’s righteousness even though in character and deed we remain sinners. It is an unavoidable logical conclusion that people of faith are justified because Christ’s righteousness is imputed to them."

The Inevitable Consistency between the Special and Natural Revelations

“The believer who acquiesces in special revelation is now in a posture to respond properly to general revelation. In this regard the Christian should be the most diligent student of both special and natural revelation. Our theology should be informed by both the Bible and nature. The two come from the same revelatory source, God himself. The two revelations do not conflict; they reflect the harmony of God’s self-disclosure.”

-R.C. Sproul, What is Reformed Theology?, p.16