What is a sufficient answer to explain how the Synoptic Gospels (Matt, Mark & Luke), a significant percentage of the time, use the exact same language to describe a given event?

This Synoptic Question does not necessarily need to be answered for the believer, but it has often been used by critics in various ways to destroy the trustworthiness of the Gospel accounts.  The question, if received and searched into with humble dependence upon the Lord, is a legitimate one, and has conservative, Bible-believing answers.

Learn more about those answers and increase your faith in doing so, on this page:

The Synoptic Question

The Inter-Testamental Period comprises the 400 years between the close of the Old Testament when the Temple was rebuilt and the prophets ceased, and the coming of Jesus the Messiah.

God left not his Church without guidance, but prophesied in detail what would happen during this era by the prophet Daniel.  Much of the political history of this time forms the general background to the New Testament and is illuminating to thereto.  

Hence, a knowledge of the Inter-Testamental Period will be of the utmost interest to the one that loves everything relating to God’s Word.

The Inter-Testamental Period

Biblical Theology (which views theology from the layout of going through the history of redemption through the books of the Bible) often brings out insights and treatments of topics not typically found in Systematic and Historical theologies, and sometimes brings with it a different emphasis.  

Different facets of the diamond of the Revelation of God are often brought out more prominently depending on the angle from which one views it, all of which angles that shed light upon the beauty of God’s Word, the true Christian will cherish.  Please enjoy:

Biblical Theology

Old Testament Theology

New Testament Theology

We have collected some of the best and most solid resources on the Inspiration, Authority, Inerrancy and Canonicity of the Bible.  Study, and show thyself approved (2 Tim. 2:15):

The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible

The Inerrancy of the Bible

The Canon

The imprecatory Psalms are Psalms which call down God’s curses (imprecations) upon His enemies, including Ps. 7, 9, 35, 39, 55, 58, 59, 69, 79, 83, 94, 109, 129, 137, 140, etc.  

Should we pray the imprecatory Psalms and sing them?  Here are the best resources to assist you in searching the Scriptures and discerning the will of God:

The Imprecatory Psalms

Pray for God’s Name to be sanctified in this earth; pray for his will to be done on earth as it is done in Heaven.  Not sure who to pray the Imprecatory Psalms against?  Try Isis.

We are only half done, but…

Our New Testament Commentaries page now includes every commentary that Charles Spurgeon gave his top rating to (3 stars: ***) and every reformed, puritan or otherwise good commentary in English that we could find on PRDL and EEBO.  There are at present 600+ commentaries:

New Testament Commentaries

We hope to double this number in several weeks, and add most of the commentaries that Spurgeon gave his ‘good’ rating to (2 stars: **) and many more.  Check back.

Need a commentary on the Old Testament?  We are thankful to God to present the fullest collection of the best, free O.T. commentaries on the net, including (but not limited to):

– Every commentary Charles Spurgeon gave his top rating to, along with many that received his ‘good’ rating;

– Every relevant commentary mentioned by Dr. Richard Muller in his survey of the major Reformation and Puritan era commentaries that is in English and online;

– Every Reformed, Puritan or otherwise good commentary we could find on PRDL and EEBO that is in English; plus many more.

We hope to finish off the New Testament commentaries page in the days ahead.  Please thoroughly feast upon the riches of God’s Word, and tell your friends:

Old Testament Commentaries

Once you see the conclusive, linguistic evidence from God’s Word that Genesis 1 means exactly what it says, you will no longer need to remain unsure about what every child may plainly read in Scripture for themselves and take full confidence in: that God created the world in 6 days, exactly as He said.

See especially the resources by Kenneth Gentry:

Creation

Previously we published the English Table of Contents to Amandus Polanus’ Latin Syntagma (System of Christian Theology, 1609-10), a major reformed systematic theology of yesteryear, but the formatting on the HTML webpage was not ideal, to say the least.

…So we cleaned it up on a PDF, made it much more easier to peruse and visually comprehensible, and added a bunch of resources on Polanus and his works in the Introduction.  Check it out, and please enjoy:

The Table of Contents to Polanus’ Syntagma, in English  1609-10  16 pp. 

The best treasures of Reformed Theology are still buried in Latin; with a little diligent effort you can be reading them in 3 years.  Here they are with all the book titles, and many of their tables of contents translated into English, including all of the English tables of contents to Samuel Rutherford’s Latin works.  

Please enjoy, and start learning Latin.  Soli Deo Gloria!

Reformed Systematic Theologies in Latin

Rutherford tackles some of the hardest topics in theology in his Latin treatise on Providence, which has never been translated before.  For the first time, peer into this intriguing and important work which seeks to keep the straight line, not departing into the errors on either side, of God’s mysterious ways with us.

Samuel Rutherford’s Treatise on Providence: the Table of Contents in English  2016  7 pp.

Ever desire to peer into an old, standard, Latin, Reformed systematic theology?

Amandus Polanus’ (1561-1610) Syntagma, or System of Theology, 2 vols. (1609-10) is just that.  Polanus was an early Reformed theologian in Germany.  He had studied at Tübingen, Basel and Geneva and became the professor of Old Testament at Basel in 1596.

Here is the Table of Contents to his 10 books in 2 volumes translated into English and publicly available for the first time (it is believed).   If you are able to get along in a bit of Latin, try dipping your hand into a section that interests you.

The Table of Contents to Polanus’ System of Christian Theology

There is much more similar material coming in the days ahead.  Brace yourself.

Wherever there is a vacuum of sound, Biblical teaching, errors breed and multiply as sincere Christians try to reinvent a doctrinal wheel from Scripture.  

There has for a long time been a nearly complete silence in American Christianity (Reformed included) on what the general equity of the Old Testament Judicial Law entails.  In its place has crept in the polar alternatives of status-quo, civilly protected polytheism (of the Book of Judges and American tradition) and Mosaic Theonomy.  

Fortunately, that vacuum has officially now ended.  Learn why the Biblical and majority view of the Reformation and Puritan eras on General Equity is right:

The General Equity of the Old Testament Civil Laws

As the faithful Church is the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15), it is never safe to take a minority view of something in Scripture until you, at least, know all of the reasons for the majority view.  May we seek to reform according to the Word of God as we learn from godlier and more knowledgeable saints of old than we.

The Psalms are the heart of the Bible and show us what it is to be a man or lady after God’s own heart.  Infuse yourself with the raw motions of the Holy Spirit that reverberate through this inspired book.  

To help you towards feeding endlessly in the inexhaustible depths of the Psalms the rest of your life this side of heaven, here are the best commentaries from godly men of old on these Scriptures, including all of the works receiving Charles Spurgeon’s top recommendation:

Commentaries on the Whole Book of Psalms  (90+)

Commentaries on Individual Psalms

We are currently working on adding all the Old Testament commentaries that received Spurgeon’s top rating to the O.T. Commentaries page (and have made it up through the Psalms) and hope to finish off the rest in the not-too-distant future.  Come back for more.

How do the Judicial Laws of Moses apply today to our civil politics?  There are two extremes:

– Christian evangelicalism which accepts pluralism and finds no use for the divinely given pattern revealed in Moses, and

– Theonomy which says that the Judicial Laws of Moses are as binding, in exhaustive detail, as they ever were.

There is another choice, though: the historic, majority Reformed view that the Judicial Law as a category has expired, except as its General Equity (Moral Principles) continue to bind today.

Samuel Rutherford expounds and illustrates the viewpoint of the Westminster Confession.  Let Rutherford take you to school and teach you what General Equity Biblically, and has historically, entailed:

Samuel Rutherford on the Judicial Laws of Moses: Excerpts Arranged Topically  32 pp.

While we do not keep God’s Law in order to earn our salvation (which is through faith alone by the grace and righteousness of our Savior alone, Gal. 2:16), those who are born again through the Gospel and enlivened by the Holy Spirit seek to love, please and glorify God by doing what He says (Jn. 14:15; Lk. 3:10-14; Rom. 7:22; 1 Jn. 5:3) by faith and dependence upon Christ (Jn. 15:5; Phil. 4:13).  In doing so, we find that God’s Law is a light to our path (Ps. 119:105), for our good (Ps. 34:11-14;Prov. 3) and that the end thereof is blessing (Ex. 20:6,12; Jn. 15:10; Jm. 1:25; Rev. 14:13).

To this end, be like the Psalmist and meditate on God’s Law day and night (Ps. 1:1-3), and you will find that ‘The law of Thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.’ (Ps. 119:72)

Expositions of the Ten Commandments

Previously we had collected all of the commentaries on the Westminster Confession of Faith that we could find (25).  We decided that this was not enough.  So…

We collected all of the commentaries that we could find on all of the Westminster Standards (Catechisms, Directory for Worship, Form of Government) and the Directory for Family Worship and the Sum of Saving Knowledge; a total of 191 in all.  

Have a question about something in the Standards?  Want to study the standards of Presbyterianism yourself?  Teaching a class on the Confession or Catechisms?  Reviewing these documents before you vow to them as an office-bearer?  This page will be of tremendous help to you.

Learn some things, worship God, walk in his fear, and tell your friends:

Commentaries on the Westminster Standards

Have a question about something in the Westminster Confession?  We have collected all the commentaries on the Confession that we could find, so that you can quickly find an answer.  As the Confession treats of most topics in a systematic theology, many of these commentaries are the equivalent of a brief systematic theology.  Please enjoy:

Commentaries on the Westminster Confession

Dr. Hughes Oliphant Old, affectionately known as Scotti, one of the word’s leading historians of Christian, reformed worship, and a friend, went to be with our Savior at about 10:30 this morning, Tuesday, May 24, 2016.

Three weeks ago, I was able to see Scotti in his home. I asked him, ‘What song was it that Jesus was singing when he was going to the grave when it says in the gospels that after the Las Supper he sang a ‘hymn’?’

He replied, ‘Psalm 118‘. We were able to sing to him Ps. 118, the end of the great Hallel:

Here is a tribute to Dr. Old, along with his last public address.

We are to only worship God, and yet Jesus, a man, was worshipped in his earthly ministry.  How is this so?  The answer is that we worship Jesus, the God-man, not insofar as He is a creature, but insofar as his Person is God.  Francis Cheynell, a Westminster divine, argues this precious jewel of theology in a bit of detail in a way that will be clear to the simplest, and make the most knowledgeable cry out: ‘Oh! the depths and the riches! (Rom. 11:33)  Learn also, in light of this, why the Second Commandment forbids all images of Jesus, God in the flesh.

The Grounds of Christ the Mediator Receiving Divine Worship  1650  20 pp.  with an Introduction and Outline