How long to read the Psalms?
The Early Church on Evangelism, Scruton on Eliot, and the reviving word of the Lord.
1/ The Lord’s perfect and sure testimony (Psalm 19:7)
The law of the LORD is
perfect,
reviving
the soul;
the testimony of the LORD is
sure,
making wise
the simple.
2/ Pray for all people
Dr. Kleinig recently recommend Ignatius of Antioch for help addressing our current cultural neo-gnosticism, so I’ve started reading. Here’s a great passage on evangelism, (Ignatius of Antioch to the Ephesians (10:1-3)):
And pray without ceasing on behalf of other men. For there is in them hope of repentance that they may attain to God. See, then, that they be instructed by your works, if in no other way.
Be meek in response to their wrath,
humble in opposition to their boasting:
to their blasphemies return your prayers;
in contrast to their error, be stedfast in the faith;
and for their cruelty, manifest your gentleness.While we take care not to imitate their conduct, let us be found their brethren in all true kindness; and let us seek to be followers of the Lord (who ever more unjustly treated, more destitute, more condemned?), that so no plant of the devil may be found in you, but you may remain in all holiness and sobriety in Jesus Christ, both with respect to the flesh and spirit.
Also, if you can sort out what Ignatius is saying in chapter 19, Three Celebrated Mysteries, let me know. I know it’s important, but I can’t quite sort it out. You can comment below.
3/ T. S. Eliot as Conservative Mentor (by Roger Scruton)
This was a great article to consider: https://voegelinview.com/t-s-eliot-as-conservative-mentor/
Here are a few excerpts:
For Eliot recognized that it is precisely in modern conditions—conditions of fragmentation, heresy, and unbelief—that the conservative project acquires its sense. Conservatism is itself a modernism, and in this fact lies the secret of its success.
…
He realized that the true task of the artist in the modern world is one not of repudiation but of reconciliation. For Eliot, the artist inherits, in heightened and self-conscious form, the very same anxieties that are the stuff of ordinary experience.
…
The humanist, with his myth of man’s goodness, is taking refuge in an easy falsehood. He is living in a world of make-believe, trying to avoid the real emotional cost of seeing things as they are. His vice is the vice of Edwardian and “Georgian” poetry—the vice of sentimentality, which causes us not merely to speak and write in clichés, but to feel in clichés too, lest we should be troubled by the truth of our condition. The task of the artistic modernist, as Eliot later expressed it, borrowing a phrase from Mallarmé, is “to purify the dialect of the tribe”: that is, to find the words, rhythms, and artistic forms that would make contact again with our experience—not my experience, or yours, but our experience, the experience that unites us as living here and now.
…
“When the poet finds himself in an age in which there is no intellectual aristocracy, when power is in the hands of a class so democratised that while still a class it represents itself to be the whole nation; when the only alternatives seem to be to talk to a coterie or soliloquize, the difficulties of the poet and the necessity of criticism become greater.”
…
Those nurtured on empty sentiment have no weapons with which to deal with the reality of a god-forsaken world. They fall at once from sentimentality into cynicism, and so lose the power either to experience life or to live with its imperfection.
…
Barbarism ensues, not because people have lost their skills and scientific knowledge, nor is it averted by retaining those things; rather, barbarism comes through a loss of culture, since it is only through culture that the important realities can be truly perceived.
4/ Martin Luther in the Lutheran Confessions
In the Worldwide Bible Class yesterday someone asked for my top five list of Luther’s works, which reminded me of a list I made at the seminary: A List of Martin Luther’s Writings cited, quoted, and approved in the Lutheran Confessions.
This gives us insight into the Luther writings considered important to the second generation of Lutherans.
5/ Three Tips for Bible Reading
This is a nice article, but it has a really cool graphic about how long it takes to read each book of the Bible. (HT: Pr Mittwede)
Someone total up how long will it take to read the entire Bible.
6/ Pr McCoy exegetes the Rembrandt painting of Judas
7/ Around the Word Devotions
Click here to sign up for the free Around the Word devotions (a weekly pdf to download).
8/ 10% off Logos Bible Software
Logos is the program I use on the Worldwide Bible Class (and Sunday School, sermon writing, etc.). The guys at Faithlife noticed the videos, and set me up with an affiliate link. This link will get you 10% off a Logos package. It’s pricey. Sometime soon I’ll make a video review of the software.
I’m always interested in providing as many resources as possible for free. (Which is why you can download all the books I’ve published for free.) So, here is a list of all the free Bible helps I use.
You can also download a free version of Logos here.
Remember to go to your pastor's Bible Class this week and, read old theology books. (If you don't have a pastor or congregation, click here. If you don't have old theology books, click here.)
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Thank you, again, for your time and attention, and for your prayers. Please keep in touch.
Lord's Blessings, Pastor Wolfmueller
2 Corinthians 1:3-4
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I agree with the one reader and as you highlighted yourself that the three mysteries unknown to Satan were Mary's virginity, the birth of the Christ, and the death of the Lord. Satan seems oblivious at times (or maybe just "headstrong"). Revelation pictured him as waiting to devour the "Child" but unsuccessful. The three mysteries were that God would become man (virgin birth), the birth of Christ was only imprecisely revealed to Satan's operative (Herod) and ultimately Christ's death on the cross would be the victory for God and not for Satan. All this under the cove of silence as to "how" the prophecies of the Messiah would be God-man. Satan had just the OT to attempt to discern. And He obviously did not have the Holy Spirit Who alone opens Scripture. It would seem that Satan would at least know Genesis 3:16 enough to suspect the cross might not be a cause of victory for him but as with most hubris creatures, he chose to deceive himself in his lust for power?
As for the rest of the section - Alex seems to be on to that path though the language smacks of the apocalyptic type to me. It may just be spiritual warfare description that Christ's birth began the process of "turning the world upside down" at least in the spiritual realm - Christ's kingdom had come to the world and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
I calculated 74.25 hours, or 74 hours and 25 minutes. Someone could read the entire Bible in one year, knowing it would take them less than 2 work weeks to read it.