Discernment is a biblically informed judgment whether certain extra-biblical moral actions are good or evil. Last week, we looked at discernment in Eph 5:7-11 and pushed forward our argument that discernment is a crucial element of New Testament ethics. This argument is sound (and I am not the first to make it), and it is… Continue Reading
We are beginning to see that discernment was a significant category for Paul. As an apostle, Paul was very much accustomed to giving the Lord Jesus Christ’s divine instruction to the church for doctrine, worship, and practice. But he was also very much aware that such instruction could in no way satisfy all the moral… Continue Reading
To this point, the passages studied in our series on discernment have been pretty straight-forward. Whether Philippians 1:9-11, Romans 12:1-2, or Colossians 1:9-10, each passage has clearly taught the importance of discerning the will of God. In each context, knowing the will of God (which I define to be discerning God’s will as to how… Continue Reading
This is a series on Christian discernment. My first post argued that Christian discernment is necessary for living for the glory of God (Phil 1:9-11). Last week I argued that the ability to choose between right and wrong is a crucial part of spiritual worship to God in living holy lives (Rom 12:1-2). In Romans… Continue Reading
Last week I argued from Philippians 1:9-11 that discernment is of great importance to the believer as an important part of living for the glory of God. This week my thesis is that as believers give themselves as a sacrifice to God in an act of sacred worship, discernment is an important act that flows… Continue Reading
Yesterday, Phil Johnson highlighted the “preposterous claims, unhinged behavior, and spiritual quackery” of the charismatic movement, with Mark Driscoll as “Exhibit A.” I agree with the substance of Johnson’s post (though I’m not sure I would go so far as to infer that Driscoll is lying), but I want to highlight something I think Driscoll… Continue Reading
We have been looking at the history of Psalm 130 in music. project management assignment Last time, we looked at Bach’s treatment of the Psalm (Other installments: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4). This week, I want to highlight one other setting, suggest some conclusions, and provide several other settings… Continue Reading
We have been exploring settings of Psalm 130 throughout history. After an brief exposition of the psalm, we began with a look at ancient Jewish and Christian settings. Then we turned to Orlande de Lassus and Martin Luther, examples of Renaissance and early Reformation expressions. Last week’s post looked at the Genevan and Scottish Psalters,… Continue Reading
Our series on the history of Psalm 130 in music led us last week to the pinnacle of Renaissance polyphony (via Lassus) and the dawn of the Reformation (via Martin Luther). The Reformation rightly saw that singing needed to return to the hands of the congregation of saints. While this led to some innovations in… Continue Reading
Last week we heard what Psalm 130 might have sounded like in ancient Jewish settings, as well as the Gregorian chant version of it. As early as the 6th century, medieval Christians began grouping particular psalms together that all confessed sorrow over sin and pleaded for forgiveness from God. Augustine had originally identified four of… Continue Reading
This is a series looking at how Psalm 130 has been set to music by the people of God throughout history. In my first installment, I simply observed different characteristics of the psalm, which is one of lament for sin, holy fear, and hope for redemption. Of course, we are ultimately unsure of how Psalm… Continue Reading
Sometimes we really don’t appreciate the continuity of the Christian tradition, especially in that there is, by and large, an approach to the music of worship that can be traced back to ancient Israel itself and its psalmody. Over the next several weeks, I want to trace how a particular psalm, Psalm 130, has been… Continue Reading
There is a narrow way of worship that walks between two great gulfs of peril. One one side you have terror, on the other you have enthusiasm and untempered frenzy. We struggle to walk that narrow way, and see in the great Christian tradition a wake whereby we can judge our own course. And the… Continue Reading
In his Nature and Causes of Apostasy from the Gospel (contained in vol. 7 of the Banner Works), John Owen (1616-1683) spends a chapter briefly discussing the “apostasy from evangelical worship.” Owen is quite broad in this chapter, seeking, as he says, to discuss “only . . . such things as the generality of Christians,… Continue Reading
Kevin DeYoung (DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed) has a good post today asking pastors and church leaders not to assume that the decline they see in their church is because of (or can be solved by) worship styles. He says, I do wish church leaders would stop assuming that their problems boil down to a certain… Continue Reading
Nathan Hatch, in his Democratization of American Christianity, writes concerning the changes in American religion due to the implicit notion of the “Sovereign Audience”: Popular gospel music became a pervasive reality in Jacksonian culture because people wrested singing from churchly control. The music created a spontaneous, moving medium, capable of capturing the identity of plain… Continue Reading
I appreciate Joel Beeke, the pastor of the Heritage Netherlands Reformed Congregation of Grand Rapids and the President and Professor of Systematic Theology and Homiletics at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, for his ability to combine sound theology with warm devotion, while not undermining the former or distorting the shape of the latter. If you have… Continue Reading
Matthew Henry said, “It is taken for granted that all the disciples of Christ pray. As soon as ever Paul was converted, behold he prayeth. You may as soon find a living man that does not breathe, as a living Christian that does not pray.” Luther said, “Prayer . . . is as strictly and… Continue Reading
Sigismund von Birken (1626-1681) was the son of an evangelical pastor who had to flee Bohemia for Nürnberg. Von Birken studied both law and theology, but left his studies incomplete, joining an order of poets and dabbling in tutoring; he would later become head of this poets’ society (the “Pegnitz Shepherd and Flower Order”), and… Continue Reading
I received this letter from Isaac Watts a couple years ago, and published it on my blog. Watts gave me permission to publish it so I have done so here at RA again, with an additional postscript at the end.* ___________ Abney Park in Stoke Newington, September 30, 2008 To Mr. Ryan Martin Dear Sir,… Continue Reading