My review of the movie; "The Book of Eli"

http://reformingmatrix.blogspot.com/2010/02/review-of-movie-book-of-eli.html

I opened another blog so I could post things that might not fit onto this one in order not to take up space on this blog

but in case anyone is interested I have reviewed the move "The Book of Eli" and placed it there.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/us/02fight.html?th&emc=th

Now this is hard hittin gospel action baby!

Name That Author

Since there has been a lull in the blog posting, I decided to revive my, "Name That Author" series. The quote is as follows,

"The great political, and other worldly excitements that agitate Christendom, are all unfriendly to religion, and divert the mind from the interests of the soul. now these excitements can only be counteracted by religious excitements. And until there is religious principle in the world to put down irreligious excitements, it is in vain to try to promote religion, except by counteracting excitements. This is true in philosophy and it is a historical fact."

Since I believe this is an easy quote to figure out, please also provide the title of the book you believe it belongs to!

Prayer for Haiti

I'm sure you're already in prayer for the millions around the world with family/friends connected to the tragedy in Haiti. Please pray specifically for my friend Ed, whose family has lost at least 16 members since yesterday. Pray that additional missing family members would be found, and that God would minister to the survivors.

Thanks.

The Baptism of Jesus and the Fulfillment of all Righteousness

As promised, here is my paper. Before you waste your time reading it, this is my thesis.

Matthew intends his readers to understand Jesus’ baptism through the lens of an exodus event wherein Jesus passes through the Red Sea as the representative head of Israel in order to succeed at all points where old Israel has failed, thus fulfilling all righteousness.

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together
against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.
He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision
Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
and terrify them in his fury, saying
As for me I have set my King on Zionn, my holy hill
Psalm 2:1-6

Let us pray for the wounded,
Let us grieve for the dead,
Let us stop those that do evil,
Let us keep our eyes fixed on the Lord.

Please pray for the families and wounded of Fort Hood.

Kingdom of God Outline: In Full

Here ya go.

Mark Jones and Christian Charity

I've been super busy this week, but I did come across this post by Mark Jones. Frankly, I couldn't agree more. Here is a sample:

In the end, while I don’t agree, for example, with a Klinean view of the covenant of works, there’s no way I’m going to lose sleep over someone who espouses a Klinean view of the covenant of works. To me, that debate is an intramural Reformed discussion, which is best talked about over beer or two or …

Thankfully, dealing/chatting with Dr. David Rim at Moody taught me the importance of charity in academic discussions (though practicing charity can be difficult at times!).

NT Intro Paper

I have finally settled on a topic for my NT Introduction Exegesis paper. I will be exploring the theme of Jesus' recapitulation as Israel and the fulfillment of all righteousness as it pertains to the new exodus imagery in Jesus' baptism in Matthew 3:13-17. I will propose that Jesus' baptism was not merely a simple identification with the people who were to repent and be cleansed (because the kingdom of heaven is near) nor was his baptism simply an example of the forthcoming practice of Christian baptism (though these nuances/aspects are not necessarily excluded). Instead, Matthew evokes Exodus imagery in his baptism. The baptism of Jesus symbolizes Israel's passing through the Red Sea and subsequent temptation in the wilderness. Anyways, more to come at a latter date!

Piper isn't the only one to say it!

This is how Vos begins chapter 8!

We have already seen, that not the thought of man's welfare, but that of the glory of God was supreme in our Lord's teaching concerning the kingdom. While emphasizing this, we must not forget, however, that to him this thought was inseparably connected with the idea of the greatest conceivable blessedness for man. That God should reign was in his view so much the only natural, normal state of things, that he could not conceive of any true happiness apart from it, nor of it without a concomitant state of happiness for those who give to God the first and the highest place. This is in general the connection between the kingship of God as a rule over man, and the of as a possession for man, a connection not obscurely indicated in the saying, Matt. vi. 33. With the kingship of God all other things must come, for, as Paul later expressed it: ''If God be for us, who shall be against us ?" (70)