Midweek Meeting January 30 2025

We met again last night, eight of us this time (five men, three women). We all prayed. We looked first at Romans 8:1-11. Always good to be in Romans 8.

Day Off Week 5 2025

Proper day off today. Dressed for it in t shirt and trainers, I headed off for a walk on the Heath quite early and had an early cuppa too, reading David Copperfield. Read quite a bit of that through the day (it's brilliant, of course) but also found time to watch the latest University Challenge, do some blogging and write a letter for someone, etc. Got some cheese in Waitrose to write up on my cheese blog. Near the end of the day I had bottle of pear cider that I bought from Marks and Spencer. Very nice.Reading Dickens description of Copperfield and the waiter brought back a memory of school days and acting out the scene in class (Year 8?). I was the waiter and sought to extract as much comedy from it as I could.

Engaging With Thomas Aquinas

On Monday we met at the Pastors Academy in Finchley once again for our reading group. Our subject was Leonardo De Chirco's book on engaging with Aquinas. I was leading so I'll reproduce the questions I prepared below. About ten of us met. We were all quite favourable towards the book which we found helpful though not essential. We decided next time to look at a couple of C S Lewis books.

Questions

How much did you know about Aquinas before reading the book? Have you read any of his work? What did you think of de Chirico's book? Who would benefit best from it?

Introduction 1-11 Are you aware of the evangelical love story with Thomas? (5) How would you answer the five questions on page 6? (“What should we make of this entire discussion? … ie sifting what is good and rejecting what is deviant?”) Also a sixth question as we move on to page 7?

1 The life and work of Thomas Aquinas 12-31 How do you tend to think of the Middle Ages? Is your ultimate goal to see God or to love him? Which is most important - the true or the good? (18) Why is Thomas better remembered than Bonaventure? (19-21) What do you make of Thomas's 1273 mystical experience? (25) How impressive is 8 million words? (26) [Dickens – 4.6m, Shakespeare – 884,000, Bible – 780,000]

2 Sources and synthesis of Thomas Aquinas's thought 32-67 Does a good theologian need a good knowledge of science? (33) Was Thomas's use of Aristotle a theologically compromised use of the Christian faith? (34) Is Aristotle of any use to us? Are some truths of faith accessible to reason? (38) What do you think of Thomas's five attitudes to the Word? (42) Have the inspired apostles and prophets ever said anything contrary to the dictates of natural reason? (44) Did Thomas understand justification by faith? Did he understand total depravity? Is the exitus-reditus motif of any use? (55-57) How do we relate nature and revelation? (59) What do you make of Thomas's five arguments for God? (62) Was Thomas too optimistic? (65-67)

3 Roman Catholic appropriations: from veneration to magisterial affirmation 68-93 Should the accrued venerations of medieval spirituality towards Thomas affect our attitude to him? Is there a Protestant equivalent to Thomas ie someone accepted as the standard representation of Protestantism? How important is the difference between Thomas and Thomism? What is the significance of the legend of the Summa and the Bible? (76) Is Thomas useful to Protestants in proving the incompatibility of Rome and the Reformation? (78) What is wrong with John of St Thomas's approach to Thomas? (80) Why did Thomistic trends from Trent onwards provide the best apologetics for the Roman status quo intellectually and symbolically? (81) What can you learn from Rome's opposition to modernism? (84) What is the significance of Pope Pius XI's 1923 encyclical? (85) “The irony was… neo-Thomism... built a… system that, to fight against the Enlightenment, ended up assimilating the rationalistic outlook of its plausibility structures.” Discuss. (86) What about Thomas's “theological guide” status? (89) Is de Chirico right to note the lack of reference to Protestant theologians in FR? (91) Is the reference to Thomas's Mariolatry significant? (92, 93)

4 Protestant readings of Thomas: circling around evangelical eclecticism 94-124 What are the implications of Schaff's statement? (94) Which approach to Thomas is best – that of Luther (95-100) Calvin (101) Zanchi, Dorsche (102, 103) Bucer, Vermigli (105ff) Melanchthon, etc (109) Turretin and Owen (110ff)?? What about Kuyper's approach? (114) and Bavinck (116ff) and Van Til and Schaeffer (119ff)? How about A Vos and Geisler (121ff)? Can and should evangelicals learn a great deal from Thomas? (123) Was Thomas a Proto-Reformer? (123)

5 Legacy and critical issues… contours... trajectories of Thomas's architectural thought 125-158 Are people naturally open to God? (125ff) Does grace scrap nature or bring it to perfection? (128) How important is it to distinguish common and special grace? (131, 135) How important is what is said about the development of the understanding of nature and grace by Rome? Where does general revelation sit in your theology?Any remarks on what is said about Vatican II? (145-149) Does Christianity need Greek philosophy? Is Bavinck's comment helpful? (150-153) “Updating without changing” – how well does that seem to sum up Romanism? (157)

6 Thomas Aquinas for evangelicals today 159-172 What colour hat for Thomas? (159) Can an evangelical be a Thomist? (160) Thomas on the doctrine of God: Frame or Trueman? (161-164) Can de Chirico's principles be improved, modified, increased? (165-172) Have you been avoiding conversation with Thomas? What is the significance of his having an integrated system? (169) Did you expect more reference to Sproul and apologetics? (171) Are you being mature about this?

Lord's Day January 26 2025

We had fairly good congregations last Lord's Day morning and evening. Lots of people are ill again, however, and so there were plenty missing. Some do arrive incredibly late too. Decent number of cildren. Also, a new Ghanaian mother and daughter came for the first time. I hope we see them again. Great sermon subjects - the classic Ephesians 2:8-10 and a chapter I'd really missed, to be honest, 2 Chronicles 13. 

10 Works of Fiction That Sustained Young David Copperfield

Before being sent off to school David used to love to read these in a room next to his bedroom, books left by his father. I confess I have only read two or three of these.

1. Roderick Random (Tobias Smollet|)
2. Peregrine Pickle (Tobias Smollet|)
3. Humphrey Clinker (Tobias Smollett)
4. Tom Jones (Henry Fielding)
5. The Vicar of Wakefield (Oliver Goldsmith)
6. Don Quixote (Miguel Cervantes trans Tobias Smollett)
7. Gil Blas (Alain-René Lesage trans Tobias Smollett)
8. Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe)
9. The Arabian Nights
10. The Tales of the Genii (James Ridley)

10 Differences between the NIVUK (2011) and the NIV (2011)

1. Genesis 10:19 and the borders of Canaan reached from Sidon towards/toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then towards/toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, as far as Lasha. 
2. Genesis 15:17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking brazier/firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.
3. Matthew 12:1 At that time Jesus went through the cornfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some ears of corn/heads of grain and eat them.
4. Matthew 26:34 This very night, before the cock/rooster crows, you will disown me three times
5. Luke 17:35 Two women will be grinding corn/grain together; one will be taken and the other left.
6. John 9:6 After saying this, he spat/spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes.
7. Acts 17:9 Then they put Jason and the others on bail/made Jason and the others post bond and let them go.
8. Acts 27:27 They took soundings and found that the water was forty metres/a hundred and twenty feet deep. A short time later they took soundings again and found it was thirty metres/ninety feet deep.
9. 1 Corinthians 3:16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives among you/dwells in your midst?
10. Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to feel sympathy/empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet he did not sin.

Childs Hill Baptist Church Building Project (A Reminder)

Midweek Meeting January 22 2025

 

I missed reporting on this last week so I've put it in retrosectively. Nine of us gathered to hear Eddie on Lamentations 4 and then we all prayed. We finished a little late, perhaps but not too bad.

Day Off Week 4 2025

As last week, this was a slightly truncated day off. This time I had to be at a zppm meeting wth regard to a trust I serve. I managed to get some walking done later. I also went shopping - for cheese (see my cheese blog), reading glasses and a copy of David Copperfield, bought with some Christmas money. I have now started to read the Dickens and am enjoying. I also did some drawing in a 642 London book (also a Christmas present) and later watched an episode of an ITV drama.

Article in February Banner Mag

I have an article in the February Banner Mag that you might like to check out. It's called "The causes of salvation in Reformed thinking". Plenty of other interesting things there too.

Lord's Day January 19 2025

It was good to be preaching this last Lord's Day once again. We carried on in Ephesians and 2 Chronicles and had vommunion in the evening. I am almost in despair with regard to attendance, however. It is not so much those who are away and we know why but others who are away and we do not really know why. Perhaos thisis not really new. It was good to have a number of people around in the afternoon, including a new person in the congregation who I hope will stick with us.

10 Popular Songs with Monday in the Title

1. Monday Monday, Mamas and the Papas
2. Monday morning, Fleetwood Mac
3. Monday, The Jam
4. Monday, Imagine Dragons
5. Manic Monday, The Bangles
6. Blue Monday, New Order
7. Stormy Monday, Allman Brothers
8. Stormy Monday Blues, B B KIng or Vlatko Stefanovski Trio, etc
9. Rainy days and Mondays, Carpenters
10. I don't like Mondays, Boom Town Rats

Complete Unknown

We went last night to see the new biopic about the legendary Bob Dylan. The film is very interesting and worth watching. At one point we see Dylan in a church leafing through a Bible but this is not about the period when he professed faith and scandalised everyone with his evangelical fervour but about those early days from his arrival in New York as a complete unknown to his famous appearance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 when, horrors, he played an electric set to the bewildered audience. It is in this wonderful closing scene that we get into the area of poetic licence. We have someone in the film calling Dylan a Judas but that I'm sure didn't happen until a year or so later in Manchester. We also have Johnny Cash backstage urging Dylan back on for a final acoustic number. Cash was in Newport in 1964 but not 1965. How can film makers justify playing fast and loose with the truth? The broader truth is that Dylan was considered a Judas and Johnny Cash was a great encourager of the new electric phase. In a brief and passing media like film sometimes such things need to be done. It also provides nerds with something to talk about. Bob Dylan is an enigmatic character and this film does nothing to dispel that enigma but it does give you some material to work with.

10 musical biopics of recent years

1. 2021 Respect, Aretha Franklin (Jennifer Hudson [older] Skye Dakota Turner [young])
2. The United States vs. Billie Holiday, Billie Holiday (Andra Day)
3. Elvis, Elvis Presley (Austin Butler)
4. 2022 Wanna dance with somebody, Whitney Houston (Naomi Ackie)
5. George & Tammy, Tammy Wynette (Jessica Chastain) George Jones (Michael Shannon)
6. 2023 Maestro, Leonard Bernstein (Bradley Cooper) Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan)
7. 2024 Maria, Maria Callas (Angelina Jolie [older] Angelina Papadopoulou [young])
8. One Love, Bob Marley (Kingsley Ben-Adir)
9. Back to Black, Amy Winehouse (Marisa Abela)
10. A Complete Unknown, Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet)

I have only seen four of these but would be happy to watch them all.

Midweek Meeting January 15 2025

We were back to Romans last Wednesday, the final part of Romans 7. About seven of us gathered, five men and two women. We had a good time of prayer.