Luther's First Thesis and Last Words

491 years ago today, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg.
He wanted to debate the sale of indulgences with his fellow university professors. So he wrote in Latin.

But a nameless visionary translated the theses into German, carried them to the printing press, and enabled their dispersion far and wide. Luther ended up with more than he bargained for, but he proved to be no coward in defending the discoveries he was making in Scripture.

Read the rest of the post by David Mathis here.

Biblical Prayer

Two Sermons on Hosea

Last Sunday MPBC had the privalege of listening to my good friend Tom Brand (facebook him -he needs more friends!) preach two sermons on the book of Hosea. I was only able to hear the evening message but I can say God changed my heart through the message. View the sermon series here.

Sermons preached at MPBC feature on the right hand column of this page.

All Things For Good: The Worst Things Work for Good to the Godly- when God hides His face

In this next section Watson deals with how desertion works for the Christian's good. Watson understands this concept from Song of Solomon 5:6 'My beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone'. 'When God withholds sweet manifestations of His favour, He does not look with such a pleasant aspect, but veils His face, and seems to be quite gone from the soul.'

'God is just in all His withdrawing. We desert Him before He deserts us. We desert God when we leave off close communion with Him, when we desert His truths and dare not appear for Him, when we leave the guidance and conduct of His Word and follow the deceitful light of our own corrupt affections and passions.'

How does desertion work for our good?

• Desertion can only happen to the Christian. Therefore if God leaves us it is evidence that we're born again. When we don't see the presence of God in our lives we start to crave for it. The non-Christian can't experience these cravings for the Spirit
• 'Desertion curses the soul of sloth'. In other words we are convicted of spiritual laziness when God takes His presence from us.
• Desertion works for good because it makes the Christian desire the presence of God again. When you don't see God's presence in your life you can't take it for granted. When we understand that we are empty without God we realise that 'the lovingkindess of the Lord is better than life.' (Psalm 63:3)
• Desertion works for our good because it makes sin seem more bitter. 'Sin made God desert His temple (Ezek 8:6). Sin causes Him to appear as an enemy, and dress Himself in armour. This makes the soul want to pursue sin with a holy malice, and seek to be avenged of it.'
• Desertion works for our good because it makes us seek God. 'The deserted soul sends up whole volleys of sighs and groans. It knocks at heaven's gate by prayer; it can have no rest until the golden beams of God's face shine.'
• Desertion works for our good 'as it prepares the saints for future comfort.' The angels visited Jesus after He had been fasting. Desertion makes heaven sweeter for us.

'The Lord brings us into the deep of desertion that He may not bring us into the deep of damnation. He puts us into a seeming hell, that He may keep us from a real hell. God is fitting us for that time when we shall enjoy His smiles for ever. '

Keller on the Gospel

“The Christian gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and sniveling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself nor less of myself. Instead, I think of myself less.”

-Tim Keller, The Reason For God

Interpreting and Applying Scripture

Here are my notes from last nights Bible study at MPBC. Click here to see the additional handout.

Before we start we need to understand Jesus’ Warning to the Pharisees:

You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. John 5:39-40

Implications of this warning
a) It’s possible to know a lot about the Bible and not have the real meaning
b) It’s possible to know a lot about the Bible and have the original meaning and then refuse this meaning
c) Searching the scriptures is not a definite sign that we are glorifying God
d) All scripture points to Jesus
e) Life is found in Jesus through Bible study. Bible study is never an end in itself

How can we interpret to the glory of God?
What’s the difference between sinful interpretation and God-glorifying interpretation?
John 17:3- Eternal life is about knowing God; meaning eternal life is about enjoying God.
If we are not interpreting the scriptures to strengthen our worship of God we are interpreting the scriptures sinfully.

Pray for help to interpret scripture correctly

Interpreting and Applying Genesis chapters 1 and 2
To understand the Bible we first accept that scripture has one coherent meaning
On this basis we can start our interpretation.

The goal of interpretation is application. This is bringing relevant meaning from scripture to the people living in 21st century Brighton. To do this we first need to see what the original meaning of a text was at the time it was written.

1) Exegetical Statement – ‘What did Genesis mean then?’
i) How can we find this meaning?
We need to establish the author’s purpose of writing a text.

ii) Why did Moses write Genesis?
The book of Genesis had a relevant message to the audience that was hearing it.

iii) What were the concerns of Moses readers?
The readers were the 2 generations of Israelites travelling from Egypt to Canaan:

The concerns of the 1st generation:
‘Did we do the right thing by leaving Egypt and marching through the miserable wilderness?’

The concerns of the 2nd generation:
Numbers14: ‘Entering Canaan and conquering the giants will be a hard thing’

Moses wrote Genesis to address both of the issues. He didn’t write Genesis just to a record history!

iv) The Meaning of Genesis to the Israelites:
‘Leaving Egypt and possessing Canaan is God’s design for Israel.’
The Israelites were to read the stories of Genesis to see that it’s right to go onto the Promised Land.

v) The meaning of Genesis 1 and 2 to the Israelites

How did Genesis 1 and 2 teach the Israelites to leave Egypt and pursue Canaan?
Consider the parallels:
Perfect created order (Gen 1:26-2:25) with life in Canaan
The pre-created world (Gen 1:1-25) with life in Egypt

Genesis 1:2 claims that ‘The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep.’ The same poetic use of words (formless and hovering) are found in Deuteronomy 32:10-11. The parallel is therefore that the pre-created world is a symbol of Egypt and the created good order is Canaan.

Egyptians say only Pharaoh is the image of God
Babylonians say only the emperors are in the image of God
Genesis says that all people are in the image of God!

Adam and Eve are supposed to subdue and fill the earth, same for Israel in Canaan.

God’s rests after created the world. Israel can rest from their travelling once they enter Canaan. As God created the universe in a finite time so Israel’s travels in the wilderness were going to come to an end one day.

The Israelites are encouraged by the start of Genesis to pursue Canaan as it was a good place for them to be. It is not formless and void. It is a fruitful and prosperous place.

2) The Theological Statements of Genesis 1 and 2
When looking for theological statements we are looking for truths from a particular passage that will apply to all people at all times.
We have to remember that when we find truth statements from the text we are not giving the whole truth. There is one absolute truth. We are only describing part of that truth.

i) The Atlantic Ocean
It’s like the Atlantic Ocean. We can ask: ‘How many Atlantic oceans are there?’ There’s one objective, coherent ocean. But how many ways are there to describe this ocean? Multiple. You can describe the ocean in terms of location, types of water, colour, etc. We can describe the ocean in multiple ways.

ii) Partial Theological statements of Genesis 1 and 2:
God created everything in 6 days
God rested on the 7th day
There’s only one God
Man is given a higher position of authority than animals
God created the world in perfection
God created man from nothing
God and Man had a relationship

There are different ways of summarising the same absolute reality.
Many disagreements happen over emphasis not heresy.

3) Homelitical Statement
i) Contextualisation
We need to bring the Bible to Brighton. In order to do this we need information about the Bible and about Brighton. Studying scripture is not enough. We need to understand the different cultures that exist in Brighton and how they operate. When missionaries move to another country they study the culture in order to be relevant to the people. We live in a multi-cultural society. Brighton is full of people living in and under different cultural values. We need to know these cultures in order to apply the gospel in the most effective way.

Contextualisation is the method of showing the people in this city that the Bible is a necessary and relevant book for their lives.

ii) To contextualise anything we need to know the text and context. The text is scripture and the context is the culture.

ii) Exercise: Application
How would you apply the truths of Genesis 1 and 2 to these groups of people?
Christian
Arminian Christian
Non-Christian
Evolutionist
Avid cinemagoer
Mormon
Indifferent person
Buddhist
Doubting Christian
Homosexual
Lukewarm Christian
Single Mum
High-paid city worker

How would you apply Genesis 1 and 2 to these Christian concepts?
Sunday
Heaven
Work
Human worth and value
Nature
Death

Interpretation and Application of Scripture

Here's a helpful diagram I found today on how to apply and interpret the Bible. I'm leading a Bible study tonight at MPBC on this topic. Notes will be uploaded soon.

Learning Greek?

Here's a fun a song to make learning the greek alphabet easy.

Lyrics:
ALPHA, BETA, GAMMA... rays?
DELTA, EPSILON, hey hey hey!

ZETA, ETA, THETA, IOTA
Then theres KAPPA and LAMBDA

MU and NU and XI (x-i)
OMICRON and then theres PI

RHO and SIGMA and TAU, too
UPSILON, it starts with U

PHI and CHI and PSI are fun
OMEGA and then you're done

Learn all that and then you're set
Thats the whole Greek alphabet

Why I Pray for Signs and Wonders

Imagine you're a disciple of Christ. You seen Him on earth, you ate with Him and spent time with Him. People started to associate you with Jesus as Peter was associated with Him. Jesus dies and is then resurrected. He's then seen by over 500 others (1 Cor 15:6) before ascending to heaven. After Pentecost people start to preach the crucified Christ. The evidence for this story is that the people who preach this message lived their lives along side Jesus. Some of the Christians were eye witnesses to the risen Christ but despite this the Holy Spirit still chooses to accompany their preached word with signs and words to testify to the validity of that word (Acts 14:3). You would have thought that the accounts of 500 spectators would have been sufficient to convince the unbelieving world.

God goes further than us. Why should we stop seeking signs and wonders to accompany the preached word? We shouldn't. Paul was rich in theology and miracles. He understood the purpose of both. God sometimes uses signs and wonders to testify that we are preaching the real gospel. We must expect more.

Taste and See

This is the new tract that MPBC will be using very soon for street evangelism . We give out tracts and booklets to people in Brighton every week. Please pray that lots of people will read it and be changed by the beauty of God's glory!

All Things For Good: The Worst Things Work for Good to the Godly- Temptations

Carrying on with the second chapter of the book 'All Things for Good' written by Thomas Watson.

Watson's claim is that when a Christian is tempted it works for his or hers good.
Satan is the tempter. He is responsible for all temptations but with God's input these temptation produce a positive outcome.

The section is divided into three parts:
1) Satan's method in tempting
2) The extent of Satan's power
3) The proof that these temptations work for our good

1) Satan's method in tempting
'He labours to storm the castle of the heart, he throws in thoughts of blasphemy, he tempts to deny God; these are the fiery darts he shoots, by which he would inflame the passions.'
When Satan tempts, he tempts well. He studies the person in order to make temptations appeal to our weakness. He tempts at the best time. He knows when we're not expecting him to attack us. He's always ready to do what he can to pull us back from seeing more of God's glory.

Satan sometimes uses people close to us. Job's wife told Job to curse God and die. Satan even uses people who are Christians to tempt us. He did this with Christ by getting Peter to tempt Him.

Satan loves to transform himself into an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14) to trick people into sinning in the name of Christianity. He uses scripture to validate himself. When he tempted Christ he said to him 'it is written'.

2) The extent of Satan's power
How much reach does Satan have?
He implanted evil thoughts into Judas to make him betray Christ (John 13:2). He works by exciting our existing corruption. He acts like a catalyst by making sin look more wonderful than God. He talks us into sin by using arguments that include scripture.

3) The proof that these temptations work for our good
'A tree that is shaken by the wind is more settled and rooted; so, the blowing of a temptation does but settle a Christian the more in grace.'

• Temptation makes the Christian pray. 'The deer being shot with the dart, runs faster to the water.' Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:8 prayed to get rid of the thorn in his flesh.
• The more someone is tempted the more someone fights against temptation. Temptation helps us to humble ourselves (2 Cor 12:7).
• Temptation is a trial of our sincerity. The power of a saint 'is never more seen than on a battlefield, when he is fighting'.
• Temptations work for our good because through being tempted we can comfort others who are being tempted.
• Temptations work for our good because they stir up the passion of God for us as we are His children. 'When a saint lies under the bruising of temptations, Christ prays, and God the Father pities.'
• Temptations make the Christian want Heaven more. When we are tempted we look forward to a place where temptation doesn't exist!
• Temptations work for our good because 'they engage the energy of Christ'. He was tempted to comfort us as we are tempted (Heb 2:18).

Luther said: 'there are three things that make a Christian- prayer, meditation, and temptation.'

MacArthur: The Cross

Don't waste your desktop...

Make it look like this...

Biblical Truth for the Financial Crisis

Do not toil to acquire wealth;
be discerning enough to desist.
When your eyes light on it,
it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings,
flying like an eagle toward heaven.
Proverbs 23:4-5

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." So we can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?"
Hebrews 13:5-6

Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
1 Timothy 6:6-10

(HT: Josh Harris)

Remembering Scripture

If you're a person who wants to start memorising scripture, a helpful method is able to download here.

(HT: Between Two Worlds)

Fanny Crosby loved memorising scripture...

All Things For Good: The Worst Things Work for Good to the Godly- Afflictions

After a short break I want to continue blogging on Watson's book 'All Things For Good'. Chapter two is awesome! I can't think of anything else that gives more comfort to me other than knowing that the worst aspects of life work for my good! Watson divides the chapter into 4 parts.

1) Affliction works for our good.
2) Temptation works for our good.
3) It works for our good when God hides His presence from us
4) Even sin works for our good!

1) Affliction works for our good
'In the word preached, we hear what a dreadful thing sin is, that it is both defiling and damning, but we who fear it no more than a painted lion; therefore God lets loose affliction, and then we feel sin bitter in the fruit of it. A sick-bed often teaches more than a sermon.' Watson makes the point that sin is well understood when we feel its effects. If we're going to grow in grace and power of the Spirit we need to be broken so that God can be glorified in our weakness.

'Afflictions make the heart more upright'. When people prosper their hearts tend to be divided (Hos 10:2). This is when the heart tries to have two masters- God and money. Suffering strips the person of outward blessings so that we cling on to God.

Afflictions make us more like Christ. 'God's rod is a pencil to draw Christ's image more lively upon us.' Christ was a man of sorrows He was acquainted with grief (Is 53:3). Suffering enables us to become conformed to Him (Phil 3:10).

Afflictions are destructive to sin. 'Afflictions are the medicine which God uses to carry off our spiritual diseases; they cure the tympany of pride, the fever of lust, the dropsy of covetousness.'

Afflictions loosen our hearts away from the world. 'When you dig away the earth from the root of a tree, it is to loosen the tree from the earth.' God unroots us from the world by afflicting us.

Afflictions work for good, as they make way for comfort. Our sorrow gets turned into joy (John 16:20). Our light affliction is working for our experience of glory (2 Cor 4:17).

Afflictions work for good as they make us understand the reality of who we are. God shows us that we are His Son's when He afflicts us (Heb 12:7). Afflictions magnify us because we are rewarded for our sufferings. A soldier is praised for his victories just like the Christian is rewarded for suffering.

Afflictions work for our good as they make us happy. Job 5:17 'Happy is the man whom God corrects'. Afflictions bring us nearer to God. They make us want to cling on to Him. Therefore they make us happy.

Afflictions work for good as they make way for glory (2 Cor 4:17). Afflictions don't merit glory but they prepare us for it!

'We should not so much look at the evil of affliction, as the good; not so much at the dark side of the cloud, as the light. The worst that God does to His children is to whip them to Heaven.'

The Modern Face of Antinomianism: Looking at Antinomianism

Here are my notes from the second session of the conference 'The Modern Face of Antinomianism' by Richard Barcellos. I have entitled this session 'Looking at Antinomianism'. Notes from the first session are here.

Romans 3:31: ‘Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary we establish the law.’

The aim of the session is to answer two questions:
1) What is antinomianism?
2) What does antinomianism look like today?

1) What is antinomianism?
i) Literal meaning = ‘against law’

ii) Theological meaning:
‘The doctrine that it is not necessary for Christians to preach and obey the moral law of the OT.’
‘…the doctrine that the moral law is not binding upon Christians as a rule of life. In a wider sense it is applied to the views of fanatics who refuse to recognise any law but their own subjective law.’
‘A term used to characterise believers in the early church who thought that faith in Jesus Christ allows sin.’

iii) Degree’s of Antinomianism
2 types:
Practical/radical antinomianism. This is where someone promotes a sinful lifestyle under the banner of grace. It can be a form of Christian mysticism where it is said that the Holy Spirit guides the life as obedience.
Doctrinal/theological antinomianism. These people may claim that the law of Christ is better (has a greater degree of excellency) than the law of Christ. These people deny the third use of the moral law (see below).

The three uses of the law according to Calvin:
To point out our sin
To restrain public evil
To rule the life of the believer

2) What does antinomianism look like today?
New Covenant Theology is doctrinally antinomian. This does not mean that the New Covenant Theologians live a life of sin! Some NCT have a high view of the Lords’ day.

Some might say that only those commandments that are repeated in the NT are those to be obeyed.
NCT tends to be fuzzy about its position over the moral law. Don Carson has some affinity with NCT but he hasn’t fully described as such a theologian. Gregg Welty when writing on the Sermon on the Mount critiques Carson for some of his views.
NCT’s place a wedge between the moral law and the law of Christ. NCT’s say that the Sabbath is abolished in Christ.

We must make a distinction between particular laws and moral laws. In other words the law commanding Abraham to sacrifice his son was a particular law. It had a limited scope and was only intended for Abraham. The law is not of the moral type (I’m not implying that it was immoral in the context). The moral law (the 10 commandments) is for all people at all times everywhere!

The civil law was a positive law for a particular people at a particular time. It was meant for the Israelites at that time as a benefit for them. Our mediator is Christ not Moses. We don’t go look at the ceremonies for revelation about God. We look to Christ!

Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are not moral laws. They are particular laws for this time.

NCT confuse categories but not being particular with the use of the term ‘moral’.

NCT are not stupid. The historical reformed position is complicated and is partly created by implications of scripture. Meaning it is easy to reject.

The ground of our justification includes procured righteousness. This righteousness Adam never attained. Christ did attain it and gave it to us!

NCT sometimes have unclear views of Jeremiah 31:33 ‘my law’.
They claim that this law is the ceremonial and civil.

NCT’s accuse CT’s of having a narrow view of the Sabbath.
The Sabbath is a creation ordinance. The Sabbath was kept (by God!) before the 10 commandments were given.
The Sabbath is prophesied in Isaiah 56. The Son of Man is Lord even over the Sabbath. Christ kept the Sabbath and did not dismiss it.

NC Sabbath:
We remember He rose again on the Sabbath day
We look forward to the eternal state of rest.

The closest thing to the eternal Sabbath is the current Sabbath! Use it in happiness!

Piper on Blogging

Here is John Piper's response to the question:

What would you say to a pastor who is considering blogging?

1. I would say, "Get on your knees and ask the Lord to clarify your motives." That's the first thing I'd say: "Why are you considering this?" and, "How much of the desire for notoriety is in it?" because we all battle that. There's not a human being on the planet that doesn't love the praise of man, or doesn't like being known, or doesn't like being considered intelligent or wise or helpful.
And I'm not just indicting blogging here. I'm talking about preaching and doing what I'm doing right now. It is all possibly contaminated with a desire for the praise of man. And Jesus said, "How can you believe when you seek the praises of man and don't seek my glory." So pride and the desire for praise is a deadly thing.
So that's the first thing I'd say: search your heart--on your knees, in the word, and in prayer--as to whether or not there is a contamination that will make blogging more hurtful for you and for your people than otherwise. That's the main thing.

2. Probably the next thing I would ask is, "Will it draw you away from something that would be more valuable for you to do? Is your gifting such that you would be better off visiting your people, doing personal evangelism, preparing better sermons, or planning better elder meetings than sitting at your desk and contemplating what to write on a blog?"

3. A third question I'd ask is, "Who is the audience you're trying to touch? And why that audience? Is it your people?"
When I came to Bethlehem I immediately instituted what we call The Star, because there was no internet at all in those days. It's a weekly news mailing, and I write an article for it. You could call it written blogging. And my main reason for writing it is that I have more to say to my people than I can say on Sunday. And I really want to say it! So now with blogging you can say it to your people and anyone else who wants to look in.

(HT:Desiring God)

A prayer for bloggers:

O Lord, we want to do godly things with godly motives. So change our hearts and don't let us blog for the praise of men. We are all sinners seeking to show others our own value and worth. Please forgive us! Make our blogs passionte out pourings of a Spirit-filled heart so that you will be shown as wonderfully valuable to every reader! Amen

Who makes you differ? By C H Spurgeon

It is grace, free, sovereign grace, which has made you to differ!

Should any here, supposing themselves to be the children of God, imagine that there is some reason "in them" why they should have been chosen, let them know, that as yet they are in the dark, concerning the first principles of grace, and have not yet learned the gospel.

If ever they had known the gospel, they would, on the other hand, confess that they were less than the least- the offscouring of all things- unworthy, ill-deserving, undeserving, and hell-deserving, and ascribe it all to distinguishing grace, which has made them to differ; and to discriminating love, which has chosen them out from the rest of the world.

Great Christian, you would have been a great sinner if God had not made you to differ! O! you who are valiant for truth, you would have been as valiant for the devil if grace had not laid hold of you!

A seat in heaven shall one day be yours; but a chain in hell would have been yours if grace had not changed you!

(HT: Reformation Theology)

The Modern Face of Antinomianism: Looking at the Law

Yesterday I had the privalege of gong to Crawley to hear (nearly-doctor) Richard Barcellos speak on the use of the 10 commandments in the Christian Life.

The two lectures given addressed the issue of antinomianism. Literally the word means 'against law'. It's implications are that the moral law is not a binding rule for the Christian today. Barcello argued that the law is applicable today as it was for the Old Testament believers. Not that we attain our righteousness by the law. No, we receive righteousness through faith in Christ. But that the breaking any of the ten commandments is seen as sin in the eyes of God (1 John 3:4).

Here are my notes from the first session: Looking at the Law
1) Through the Baptist Confession of Faith (BCF)
2) Through Calvin
3) Through Scripture

1) Through the BCF

BCF 4:2 after words ‘having law of God written’ there’s a reference to Rom 2:14-15.
This text proves that there is somewhat a law written on the natural mans heart.

God wrote the basic elements of the 10 commandments on the hearts of Adam and Eve. After the fall our constitution changes although the revelation of the law gets through. This is the law that the religious man tries to satisfy (wrongly).
Law written on the hearts = the natural law.
A and E also received a positive law: ‘don’t eat from the fruit of the tree’. Obedience to this law can win Adam into a immutable state.
The obedience of Adam could have attained our righteousness

Adam and Eve transgressed the positive and moral law.
BCF 6:1
BCF 19:1-5 God gave Adam a law of universal obedience.
The moral law transcends covenants and cultures because it is originally written on our hearts at creation.

Jews got the law revealed to them on their heart and in the tablet.
Christians get the law via the scriptural canon, the natural heart, and at regeneration.

Moral law = the inscription of the natural law.
Natural law = the law on the heart.

The moral law is an administration of the natural law.

The fundamental law of the OC = the same law written on the hearts of men.
Besides this law God gives ceremonial and judicial laws to point to Christ.

2) Through Calvin

Calvin is not clear on some of the questions concerning the 4th commandment although it is clear that he believed in the law after creation as creation write the 10 commandments on the heart.

General rev = law on the hearts
Special rev = the 10 commandments

Calvin believes all 10 of the 10 commandments are relevant for Christians. See the institutes.
On Gen 2:3 Calvin comments that the creation Sabbath is incorporated into the NC.

According to Calvin the Sabbath is:
A day of public worship
A day of rest for servants

Calvin wasn’t clear on the absolute necessity of worshipping on the first day.

3) Through Scripture

This passage is evidently a prophecy of NT life.
Whenever ‘My law’ is used in Jeremiah it always refers to a law that had been previously revealed by God to Israel (6:19, 9:13, 16:11, 26:4, 31:33, 44:10).
Everyone in this covenant will have the same redemptive privileges.
God wrote the law explicitly with His finger (Exodus 31:18).
See 2 Corinthians 3:3 for a fulfilment of Exodus 31:18 and Jeremiah 31:31-33.
The 10 commandments don’t need to be repeated as they pre-date the OC and are based on creation.

Romans 13:8 proves that all commands for Christians can be summed up by love.
The commandments can be reduced to there bare essential elements see Romans 7:7.

It is the essence of the commandment that is morally binding not a particular form in which the commandment is expressed.

Notes from the 2nd session to be uploaded soon. Books by Barcellos

Why is Hell hard to take seriously?

My New Blog: The Field's Musings

The Field's Musings is a collection of my study notes from modules that I'm working through from Reformed Theological Seminary.

I've completed four lectures already on Biblical Theology from the Old Testament. It's been great! The lecturer Dr Pratt is easy to listen to and very comprehesive. If you're a church worker who has study hours try and incorportate these into your schedule. You can also listen if you're a normal person who has lots of spare time!

Lectures can be download from itunes by searching Reformed Theological Seminary or visit their website here for more info.