1993 Issue 9
"All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant," Psalm 25:10. The words of this verse imply education, education concerning the "covenant," and covenant "keeping" or continuity. The promise is that those who are educated in the covenant and keep the covenant will enjoy and experience the blessings of God.
What is the purpose of "education"? A dictionary definition of education is "the impartation or acquisition of knowledge, skill, or discipline of character." However, that does not adequately define the purpose of education. The word "educate" comes from the latin "educo" which means "to lead out." Dr. J.G. Vos wrote, "Education is intended to lead a person out - to bring out his possibilities and enable him to become a better more effective person - more helpful to society and more satisfying to himself. It is meant to help a person fully realize his potential as a human being. The educated person has a grasp of things, a sense of values, an appreciation of life, an ability to judge and appraise ideas and things, a competence to ask relevant questions and to penetrate popular prejudices and fallacies - in other words, a balanced, all-around effectiveness as a person - which the uneducated person simply does not have...."
The Intimate Relation of the Incarnate Christ with the Old Testament.
In this section of Luke's birth narratives we see that the entire Old Testament revelation was a preparation for the coming of Christ and the revelation of God in Him.
According to John Greenway, historians "write about the Indian because the Indian in the American mind is as imaginary as Sandburg's Lincoln, a creation of fantasy, guilt and ignorance, on which everyone is his own authority: Such is the altogether sad and dangerous situation in which we presently find ourselves. Bear with me, dear reader, as I once more attempt to expose a few more myths about the Indian.
One of the more enduring fantasies of "native American" culture is that it was an egalitarian paradise. Women were respected as equals; male chauvinism was nonexistent; children were adored; all dwelt together with mutual respect and unfailing love. This, of all the dreamy dreams of the left, is perhaps the most mystifying to explain. Whereas, one can understand why the radical environmentalists think they have historical allies in the Indians; how feminists and their fellow egalitarians can interpret native American society as an Egalitarian Nirvana is beyond me. We once again have an illustration either of utter ignorance of the facts or a brazen dishonesty in the use of them.
Reformed theology has always maintained that there are three specific marks of a true church of Jesus Christ: the true preaching of the Word of God, the proper administration of the sacraments, and the faithful exercise of church discipline (a fourth mark, church government, is sometimes listed). Louis Berkhof, Manual of Christian Doctrine, pp. 285-287. The latter mark, church discipline, is one of the ways by which "the church will...be purified." The WCF XXXIV, 4.
The former two marks, along with prayer, which has been studied in chapter three, are also considered to be "means of grace," by which Christians grow in their relationship with the Triune God. Scriptural support for this terminology - "means of grace" - can be found in 2 Peter 3:18, where the apostle enjoins Christians to "grow by means of grace." The Greek en chariti, used here by Peter, is an instrumental dative. As stated in the Shorter Catechism (Q 88), "The outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption, are His ordinances, especially the Word, sacraments, and prayer; all which are made effectual to the elect for salvation."
God's Law in the Modern World: The Continuing Relevance of Old Testament Laws by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr. Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co. P.O. Box 817 Phillipsburg, NJ. 08865 pb. 81 pp. with index 4.95.
Many would say that this book's title brings together two opposites - God's law and the modern world. Yet this book slays that myth by repeatedly using the sword of God's Word.
