Christmas Quotes

The Pulpit Commentary

“Christianity starts with a miracle. It is a miracle altogether so stupendous and so unique that its reception settles the whole question of the possibility of the miraculous. He who can believe that God shadowed himself to our apprehension in the likeness of a man, he who can recognise in the Babe of Bethlehem, both the Son of God and the Son of Mary, will find that no equal demand is ever afterwards made upon his faculty of faith. Both Testaments begin with a miracle. A world of order and beauty arising out of chaos is a miracle as truly as is the birth of a divinely human Saviour by the Divine overshadowing of Mary.”

(see here)

James Montgomery Boice (1938-2000)

“It is significant that the life of the Lord Jesus is bracketed by two great miracles. At the beginning is the virgin birth; He came into being without benefit of a human father, and so was the Son of God and son of man in a unique way. At the end is the resurrection: He conquers and transcends the greatest of all enemies, death. What clearer way did God have of drawing attention to this one who is unique in human history?”

(see here)

Atonement (Book)

Atonement is another in the series that includes Solid Ground reviewed earlier. This one on a very relevant subject  is assembled in the same way, using past sermons at the Philadelphia Conference organised by ACE and edited by Gabriel Fluhrer. The contributors are Packer, with an excellent message on the Necessity of the atonement, Boice (propitiation), Sproul (satisfaction), Gerstner (Limited atonement), Ferguson, De Witt (reconciliation) and Alistair Begg.

Solid Ground

Someone gave me a copy of Solid Ground edited by Gabriel Fluhrer and consisting of nine addresses given at The Philadelphia Conference for Reformed Theology. This third collection (the others are on the atonement and history) came out about a year ago and looks at matters to do with God's Word, its inerrncy and sufficiency, etc. With contribuitons by Packer, Dever, Sproul, etc it's the usual crowd giving very helpful addresses on important subjects and is very stimulating. I particualry liked the way that the point about the Word producing the people of God as seen all the way through came out more than once. Well worth getting hold of. It would have been worth including a small amount of biographical material as even though these names are familiar in Reformed circles not all will know that James Montgomery Boice died in 200 and Edmund Clowney in 2005. Even I was oblivious to the existence of Richard D Phillips who I discover is senior minister of Second Presbyterian Church, Greenville, S.C. (previously having been a pastor in Florida and minister of preaching at Tenth in Philadelphia). He also serves on the council of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals and as chairman of the Philadelphia Conference for whom these collected addresses are something of an advert. Next time, Mr Fluhrer, eh?