Final Stretch

I'm in the final stretch. I have four papers to finish, lots of reading to do, and five final exams to take. I am also a bit sick, so please pray for me to feel better and persevere in my work despite miy stuffy head.

The good news is that I just got back my midterm grade for Doctrine of Man: a 96!

Hebrew Exam

Yesterday I passed my Hebrew Examination for licensure in the Philadelphia Presbytery of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Thanks for those who prayed and for the God who has so taught me!

A Busy New Year Begins

There has been a lot going on recently. First, Erin and I expressed interest in volunteering with the youth group this academic year at Calvary. We will be leading along with the O'Learys and Dan (all friends from seminary and church). The youth group meets after evening worship twice a month (it met only once a month last year). We will also be leading the 7th-12th grade Sunday School class with the O'Learys. Erin and I are very excited about these opportunities to serve and minister as we have been served and ministered to by Calvary in the past year!

Furthermore, I am in the process of coming under the care of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church's presbytery of Philadelphia as a candidate for eventual licensure and ordination. (The presbytery is a ruling body consisting of pastors and elders [presbyters] from all the OPC churches in the area which provides accountability and oversight to those churches.) Last night I met with the session (elder board) of Calvary to discuss my calling to ministry, and they have recommended me to the presbyter for care! Then, I met this morning with the presbytery's Committee on Candidates and Credentials which discussed some similar things with me. I was questioned on how I came to faith, why I desire to serve with the OPC, what service I think God is calling me to render, my wife's opinion of my seeking ministry, etc. The committee also decided to recommend me to the presbytery, so I will attend the next meeting of the presbytery on September 15th where I will be questioned in a similar manner for the benefit of the entire presbytery, who will then decide whether to extend such care.

If I do come under care, I will then have opportunities for internships next summer, a sizable scholarship from the presbytery, and further guidance in seeking God's calling and ordination. I will then prepare for and take several exams and submit papers for licensure which will test my preaching ability and knowledge of Greek, Hebrew, theology, and the OPC's doctrinal standards. Finally, I will be examined before the presbytery again so that they may question me on the above topics.I believe that I may submit papers from school for several of the requirements, and my seminary education will obviously be preparing me for much of the above examinations, but please pray for me in this busy time with so much on my plate. Pray that God would work through this process to mold and shape me into the minister and believer he would want me to be.

Classes begin tomorrow, and I will be taking 18 hours this semester. We will be busy indeed!

A letter from Guy de Bres

I came across this letter written by Guy de Bres to his wife shortly before his martyrdom. I found it very encouraging.

One Year Down!

Two weeks ago Thomas and I returned from a one week visit to Beaufort with his family. We hadn’t seen them since last summer—it was SO GREAT to all be together again. There was a lot of activity during that week as Thomas’ youngest brother Frederick was graduating from high school, and his youngest sister, Arianna was preparing to head off on a mission trip to Ukraine. But we had plenty of time to relax with everyone in the midst of it. Thomas’ mom spoiled us with lots of delicious food, and Catan was definitely settled more than once. We also got to spend some time with our dear friends, Mac and Stephanie Fowler. Needless to say, the week passed much too quickly for all of us, but we enjoyed every minute of it! (Above, is our very impromptu family picture. The one and only one we managed to get the entire week!)

It is hard to believe that it has been almost a year since we made our move from Beaufort, SC to Philadelphia, PA. During that long drive on I-95 I remember feeling both excitement and anxiety over what the coming three years would hold for us. Any fears I had at the time, the Lord has completely put to rest by demonstrating, yet again, that He is our Faithful Provider. He has provided us with a comfortable, affordable apartment, a church family, great friends, a job that I love, and a wonderful education for Thomas at WTS. This past year I have witnessed firsthand the challenging, rigorous, and sometimes overwhelming journey that Thomas has gone through in his studies. We have been so encouraged by other seminary couples who have either just completed this journey or who are still making it along with us. A couple of weeks ago, Thomas received all of his final grades for the Spring semester: several A’s, A-‘s, and one B+. We give all the praise to God for this! Thomas and I are so grateful for what the Lord is teaching him about Himself and His Word through this time at WTS. (And even I am getting a seminary education of sorts as Thomas shares with me the things that he is studying in class!) Thank you to those who prayed so faithfully for Thomas this semester, and especially the latter part of it as he was completing assignments and taking finals. We are so blessed to have you making this journey with us!

In addition to seminary, another special aspect of our time here in Philadelphia has been my work with Julia. Over the past 10 months she has become a very loved and precious person in our lives. I am thankful for the relationship the Lord has given Thomas and me with this family. I could not have asked for two more gracious and easy-to-work-for individuals that Julia’s parents. In May, they decided to become home-owners and moved into a beautiful house that happens to be across the street from Westminster, next to our church, and just a 12 minute drive from our home. When the fall semester starts, Julia and I are looking forward to sharing more lunches with Thomas (“Tah-mah”, as Julia says). Erin was a tough name for Julia to tackle in her early talking days, so she came up with something easier to say. My name eventually evolved into “Rah-rah”. Caring for Julia has been a sweet and rewarding experience, along with all of the other adventures of seminary life here in Philadelphia. It has been a great first year, and just as we needed your prayers then, we will continue to need them now. If there are special ways in which Thomas and I can be praying for any of you, please don’t hesitate to let us know if you haven’t already.

With Much Love and Thanks,
Erin

Scholarship

I received a small scholarship form Westminster for the upcoming year. Praise God!

I just got two assignments back, my final Doctrine of God digest and my big hermeneutics paper. I made an A on the digest (those aren't graded too stringently) and on the Biblical-Theological paper (which the professor admits is graded stringently) I made a B+! I am so thankful for that grade, considering it is a huge part of the course, I didn't get to put as much time as I wanted into it at the end of a busy semester, and it's graded so harshly. I am almost done with finals, I only have my hermeneutics final tomorrow and then I am done with one year of seminary! My other finals have gone pretty well, though I am a bit disappointed in my performance in my Hebrew class and on the Old Testament Introduction final. So much depends on how these exams will be graded, though, so I'll keep you updated. Praise and thanks be to God for bringing me this far!

End of the Semester

It's coming too soon. I have several major projects and papers still to do, and little time in which to do them. I am pretty stressed out about things, so please pray for me.

Luther on Vocation

A significant and often overlooked way that we serve God is in our everyday tasks. Martin Luther understood this when he wrote, "The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays -- not because she may sing a Christian hymn as she sweeps but because God loves clean floors. The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship."
Our Daily Bread, September 5, 1994.

Herman Bavinck on Eternal Generation

 Reformed Dogmatics vol. 2 ch. 6:

For if the Son is not eternal, then of course God is not the eternal Father either...Hence rejection of the eternal generation of the Son involves not only a failure to do justice to the deity of the Son, but also to that of the Father. It makes him changeable, robs him of his divine nature, deprives him of the eternity of his fatherhood, and leaves unexplained how God can truly be called "Father" in time if the basis for calling him "Father" is not eternally present in his nature.

Concepts Are More Important Than Words

A few weeks ago I read this from an old southern Presbyterian: 

We Presbyterians care very little about the name Calvinism. We are not ashamed of it; but we are not bound to it. Some opponents seem to harbor the ridiculous notion that this set of doctrines was the new invention of the Frenchman John Calvin. They would represent us as in this thing followers of him instead of followers of the Bible. This is a stupid historical error. John Calvin no more invented these doctrines than he invented this world which God had created six thousand years before. We believe that he was a very gifted, learned, and, in the main, godly man, who still had his faults. He found substantially this system of doctrines just where we find them, in the faithful study of the Bible, Where we see them taught by all the prophets, apostles, and the Messiah himself, from Genesis to Revelation.

A similar train of thought surfaced in our Doctrine of God discussion of the terminology used in the creeds to describe the Trinity. Dr. Oliphint quoted Calvin himself (oddly enough) who said that the specific terminology is not what's important, but the concepts themselves, which are derived from scripture:

Now, although the heretics rail at the word “person,” or certain squeamish men cry out against admitting a term fashioned by the human mind, they cannot shake our conviction that three are spoken of, each of which is entirely God, yet that there is not more than one God. What wickedness, then, it is to disapprove of words that explain nothing else than what is attested and sealed by Scripture! (I.13.3)

If, therefore, these terms were not rashly invented, we ought to beware lest by repudiating them we be accused of overweening rashness. Indeed, I could wish they were buried, if only among all men this faith were agreed on: that Father and Son and Spirit are one God, yet the Son is not the Father, nor the Spirit the Son, but that they are differentiated by a peculiar quality. (I.13.5) 

All of this has come in the context of the discussion in Hermeneutics of the word-concept distinction and related pitfalls. Dabney was unconcerned with the label, but zealous for the doctrine which he found in scripture. Calvin also was unconcerned with the specific terminology, so long as the terminology used expressed the biblical concepts (though note how well he believed the terminology and formulations we have are good ones!). Note also their preeminent concern with the truth of scripture. How this distinction relates specifically to hermeneutics, word studies, theological dictionaries, etc. will have to wait for another post.

On Praise Bands

Old Life's blog always has interesting posts, but this is one on praise music I really wanted to share.

Direction?

Erin and I have decided to join the church we have been attending for the past months (Calvary Orthodox Presbyterian Church). We have really appreciated the solid sermons, friendly congregation, serious worship, warm fellowship, and sound theology we have found there. We have had dinner with the pastor and his wife twice, and were able to talk openly with them about where we are coming from and where we think we are headed. It has been so nice to experience such a welcoming reception and openness from the man who fills the pulpit.

In a bulletin insert this morning, we noticed an OP missionary that teaches at a theological college in South Africa. Of all the places we have been on mission trips, South Africa was our favorite, and though we are certainly open to the Lord's calling us elsewhere, we have long hoped to return there to do long-term mission work. The work Brian and Dorothy Wingard are doing there sounds like the sort of thing we believe He would have us do, so we were excited to see such a connection with the church we plan to join! Please pray that God would continue to direct us in pursuing His will for our lives.

Some Thoughts From Class

I figured that whoever is following this blog might be interested in seeing some of the things I am learning in class, so I may occasionally share some thought from class that have had particular impact.

From some of Dr. Poythress' reading in chapter 3 of his book:

God has made all truth to be what it is. Every fact exists because he has made it to exist. Scholars find the tight logical connections between the facts when they do exegesis, but even the simple believer may intuitively come to right conclusions from a passage of scripture without going through these steps. He may have more loose associations, but because all truth is connected by the God who made it, these conclusions may be valid. It is still important to recognize that not every association made by a sinful person is a valid one, but the point is that scholars do not have a corner on the truth of God, and their methods are still subject to the limitations of sinful humanity.

He quotes Augustine:

Since, therefore, each person endeavors to understand in the Holy Scriptures that which the writer understood, what hurt is it if a man understand what Thou, the light of all true-speaking minds, dost show him to be true although he whom he reads understood not this, seeing that he also understood a Truth, not, however, this Truth?

Basically, God may, by His Spirit, use these looser connections between different bits of truth to teach something to a believer, even to the extent of using a passage which does not primarily or explicitly teach this truth. The Spirit can do this because all truth is His truth, and all the connections between truths are put there by him. Dr. Poythress gives the example of a new believer who, after reading Acts 18:2, decides that God is in this verse commanding him to move out of his girlfriend's apartment. Though this is certainly not what Luke meant in this particular passage, the believer has grasped a truth of God which is taught elsewhere. To avoid error in these loose associations, though, we must always compare our conclusions, scholarly or not, with scripture, because it is the only authoritative rule of faith and life.

Dr. Oliphant also made some convicting remarks in his introduction to Doctrine of God to the effect that we should not hold the degrees we earn over anyone's head or play them as trump cards, since all knowledge of God is knowledge which was not built by the scholar, but revealed to him by God, who changes man's heart to accept the knowledge of Himself that he has made clear to everyone in creation.

Though God does use academic endeavor to enlighten his people, it should not be undertaken for the sake of personal acclaim or advancement, but with the ultimate goal of the edification of the church and proper worship of God.

New Semester

Today is the second day of my second semester at Westminster Theological Seminary. I made it through Hebrew II over the winter term relatively successfully, but another semester is already upon me, and daunting reading lists have already piled up. This semester I'll be taking Greek III, Hebrew III, Hermeneutics, Doctrine of God, Old Testament Introduction, and Gospel Communication. Because there is not a lot of flexibility in scheduling at Westminster, I have seven hours of class on Thursdays, which is nearly half my total course-load crammed into one day. Thursdays will not be happy days in the coming months. On the other hand, there will be a lot of great stuff to learn in all these classes, so I am excited for that. Pray for my endurance this semester!

Christmas and J-term

It's been a while since we have posted something, so we apologize for keeping you all waiting. We know you've been dieing of suspense because your lives are incomplete without knowledge of ours (I kid).

I had a great end of my first semester. I got everything turned in by the paper deadline at the end of the term and was able to catch up on enough reading and review my class material enough to make it through finals. The task was not accomplished without the aid of much chemical assistance (legal of course, I am a seminarian! God has blessed us with coffee for a reason!).

After that I enjoyed a bit of time off before we went to North Dakota to visit Erin's family. We had a wonderful time visiting and catching up with relatives and enjoying a slower pace of life. It was especially nice to share the holiday with Erin’s Grandma Weatherford, whose health has been gradually declining. We were able to play lots of Settlers of Catan, eat lots of good food, and watch a few good movies. Erin and Cathy enjoyed hours of reminiscing over old family photos and talking over morning cups of coffee together. As Gary ended up having to work much of the week we were there, we took in every opportunity that we could to spend more time with him, whether that meant getting up early to see him off to work, or dropping by the funeral home, or even going with him and Erin’s uncle to set up for a service. We always enjoy our time with Gary and Cathy, and this trip was no exception!

I was able to get a little bit of extra credit work for Greek III done, as well as some reading before the intense Hebrew II winter term began. For the past few weeks I have been doing lots of work on my Hebrew. In two weeks we covered all of the irregular verb patterns in Hebrew, which occur quite frequently in the text (much more often than regular verbs). Although it has been tough, it has not been too hard. Since I have had Hebrew before, the vocabulary load (25 words to learn each day) has been quite manageable, though in my previous studies I was not required to learn the grammar in nearly as great a depth as I have now learned it. I have really enjoyed devoting all my time to one subject--it is much easier for me to stay on top of my work when I have only one subject upon which to concentrate. Also, since I am taking an extra class each semester in order to graduate early, the workload has actually been relatively easy compared to that of the regular semester. Hopefully when the spring semester does start (one day after the Hebrew final) I will be ready to get back to work and keep up with everything after such an enjoyable break.

Thanks to all those who have stayed in touch and supported us--it means a lot! If you have the time, please leave a comment, shoot one of us an email, or even call us (if you don't have our number, ask)!