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This past weekend I finished reading John Calvin’s Institutes of Christian Religion. Five or six years ago I began reading while at the University. It is as if a journey has drawn to a close.
As my reader no doubt knows, the Institutes are Calvin’s systematic theology. Better histories have been written of the work so I won’t bore my reader here. Likewise I will not attempt to write a full review of Calvin’s magnum opus.
When I reflect on the work, I am amazed by the depth of John Calvin and his knowledge of the Word and the Church Fathers. Calvin packs much information into his paragraphs; frequently one has to reread him a few times to grasp what he is saying. It also helps to read him with a dictionary in hand, but where else would one learn the words ‘concupiscence’ and ‘anagogic’ and more than score of other words?
The sovereignty of God features prominently in this book. Calvin’s writing is saturated with this. Not only did God sovereignly work creation, but he sovereignly works redemption. Salvation is all of God, our faith (given to us by God) receives his gift of grace.
Some of the many excellent passages include the beginning where Calvin asserts that true knowledge of self leads to true knowledge of God leads to true knowledge of self. The more we see our own sin, it causes us to look outside ourselves for the remedy, and the more that we look to Christ and his grace, the more it causes us to be aware of our evil.
Calvin also has great sections on how we receive grace from Christ and the great benefits of justification and adoption. Truly God has lavished his riches upon us in Christ.
A wonderful read, Calvin was a student of the Word and marvelled at the depth of the grace of God. May we take this spirit into our own time and enjoy the work of a sovereign God!
Helvetica is the world’s most common font. Designed in 1957, it gained wide adoption in the 1960’s as corporations and governments wanted a modern typeface. The remarkable story of this font (including its predecessors and derivatives) is expertly relayed in the 2007 documentary Helvetica
This film traces not only the rise of Helvetica but also American corporate advertising, European style, and even contrasts modernism and postmodernism (at least in typography).
Much of the movie’s content is relayed through a series of interviews. Among these interviews one gains much information on the subject as several typographers of various generations, advertisers, and design artists. Some of these people are very passionate about their jobs; one stated that Helvetica was the font of the Vietnam and Iraq wars.
My favourite part of the movie was the contrast between the modernists and postmodernists. While the modernists all loved the font because it was transparent ‘like a crystal goblet’ (the font did not get in the way of the message), the postmodernists disliked it for the same reason. True to their suspicion of the metanarrative, the postmodernists decry the existence of a universally suitable typeface.
In conclusion, the movie is well worth watching, even my wife (who wondered why I added the movie to our Netflix queue) thought it was interesting.
Some links:
Where I first heard of the documentary
An Atlantic article about specialized fonts
While I was on paternity leave I read the book A Case for Amillennialism by Kim Riddlebarger. (Yes, you get strange questions from nurses reading that book in the hospital. Oddly, our midwife had heard of the subject.) Having previously rejected the dispensationalist schema, I had not concerned myself with eschatology for a while. Last year, I read Hendrickson’s More than Conquerors, an overview of Revelation, and was intrigued.
Heather bought me a copy of the book for my birthday. I enjoyed the book for its clarity of presentation and thoroughness in comparing other eschatological ideas.
A Case for Amillennialism is 246 pages, not counting end notes and is divided into four sections. The first section defines terms used in eschatological discussions, surveys eschatological view, and explains the hermeneutics of interpreting Biblical prophecy; the second explains amillennialism in context of Biblical and theological concerns; the third section contains expositions of Biblical passages; the last part is an overview of the major millennial positions.
The first section defines terms such eschatology, millennium, rapture, preterism, and futurism. There is also a survey of the four major views on the millennium: dispensational premillennialism, historic premillennialism, amillennialism, and postmillennialism. The first section is rounded out with a chapter that gives guidance on reading all of Scripture, including prophecy, as Christocentric. Dr Riddlebarger contrasts the Reformed hermeneutic ‘the analogy of faith’ with the dispensational hermeneutic (which seeks to interpret prophecy as ‘literally’ as possible and maintains a sharp distinction in the people of God, between Israel and the Church).
The second section lays the foundation of the case for amillennialism being the Biblical eschatology. The section starts with an explanation of covenant theology in the Old Testament and how it relates to eschatology. In the Old Testament, the prophets looked forward to the coming of the Messiah who would reverse the curse of Adam. The kings, prophets, and priests of Israel pointed to the one future man who would hold all three offices. Furthermore, the prophets prophesied to a better covenant than that of Moses. In the fullness of time, we see in the New Testament, Christ is the one who was foretold. He is true Israel, David’s greater son, the true temple, a better sacrifice, the mediator of better covenant, and a surer Word. When Jesus preached he spoke of two ages, this current age and the age to come, ‘the kingdom of God is nigh’. The current age is corrupt and temporal; the age to come is pure and eternal. Yet, Jesus says something amazing, that is that the age to come has broken into this age; the kingdom of God is here although not consummated. We live in an eschatological tension, ‘now and not yet’. The course of history is now bringing us to the final coming of Jesus when this age shall pass away and the fullness of the kingdom of God shall be revealed.
In the third section contains expositions of passages of Scripture which are often used to cite support for one’s eschatological opinion. The passages discussed are Daniel’s ‘seventy sevens’ (a proof-text of dispensationalists), the Olivet Discourse (used by dispensationalists and preterists alike), Romans 11 (used in discussions of if there is a [and if so, what the] future is for Israel), and Revelation 20.1-10 (concerning the nature of a thousand).
The final section of the book gives some detail concerning the strengths and weakness of each major eschatological position: premillennialism, amillennialism, postmillennialism, and preterism.
Throughout the book Dr Riddlebarger persuasively presents amillennialism as the most Biblical eschatological system. It alone is adequately congruent with the eschatological tension of the New Testament. Now and not yet very well explains Jesus’ word that his kingdom is near, but we have not reached his second coming. A Case for Amillennialism explains that Christ is reigning over his kingdom now; this is hope that our God is sovereign working all things for our good. We look forward now to the full realization of Christ’s coming with his second coming.
Having been previously dispensationalist, Dr Riddlebarger’s exposition of Daniel 9 was very illuminating. Though the dispensationalists claim they are being faithful to the text by interpreting the Bible literally, often they don’t consider the genre of the text and interpret literalistically ignoring the subtler meanings of the text. In some cases, such as Daniel 9, dispensationalists change the meaning of the passage. Nowhere does Daniel speak of a gap between the 69th and 70th ‘seven’, yet it is crucial to dispensationalism and pretribulational rapture. Likewise, the Apostle Paul teaches that on the last day, when Christ returns and the believers are caught up to him, “[T]he Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.” It seems that the plain meaning of this text is that it will be very obvious the Lord has returned; he has not just come for a secret rapture of which only believer’s will be aware.
The only thing I wish for in the book is that the final section would be longer. Dr Riddlebarger could have gone into more depth in contrasting the positions. Fortunately, he has an extensive bibliography, so that the reader can find more information on the subjects of the book.
In conclusion, Dr Riddlebarger aptly makes the case that amillennialism is most consistent with a covenantal Christocentric reading of Scripture.
Let us always find Christ on every page of Scripture.
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My mother-in-law found A Book Lover’s Journal, which is a great idea for keeping track of the books I read. I’m pleased to have this book as the first entry in the journal.
A first draft of this blog post.
A new liquor mega-store recently opened on my side of town: Total Wine. The store is the size of a small grocery store, and has a great selection of wine, as well as beer and spirits.
The store is well laid out and it is easy to find what you are looking for. A map is provided at the front of the store, as well as a buying guide. There are wines from all regions of the world, each taking at least an aisle worth. Additionally, there are several aisles of different varietals. The store has a generous selection of imported and craft beers in divers styles. Total Wine has a good selection of exotic liquor such as arak and absinthe, and I was able to find my preferred amaretto (Lazzaroni). They also have a humidor and wine tasting (which I have not had the opportunity to try).
How does this new liquor store compare to other liquor stores in Tucson? Plaza on Campbell has a distinct ethos created by narrow aisles and tight spaces. Although it may not be the case, Plaza seems like it has a larger selection of craft and imported beer. BevMo is another liquor mega-store chain and it seems on first visit the prices are comparable. BevMo (at least the one in town on Broadway and Wilmot) is somewhat smaller. Total Wine does have a larger selection of wine, but seems to have a somewhat smaller selection of spirits. Interestingly enough a new BevMo is being built a mile north of Total Wine.
Overall, I enjoyed my short visit and am sure I will be back again.
