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Sacerdotalism is not a view that the sacraments do something. Rather it is

“the belief that grace is imparted in a mechanical or magical fashion through the instrumentality of the sacraments. In other words, the sacraments dispense grace ex opere operato, the way a hot iron burns.” (Page 85)

We deceive ourselves if we think we can do without the sacraments altogether.

Well, the Sulotco is here. Here they are:

I need to find an Indonesian coffee I like.

Indonesian coffee, to generalise, can handle a much darker roast than many other origins. The result is a caffeine-rich, dark-roasted, full-bodied coffee – nice to have from time to time for variety’s sake.

One of the reasons why I’m enjoying this book is because there are lots of things that I’ve been thinking for some time but struggling to synthesise. What Doug Wilson does is do the drawing together that I had been struggling to do, so that there are lots of moments along the lines of “Ah! That category you’ve just introduced helps make sense of those 6 things…”

On we go.

What is a covenant?

“Covenants among men are solemn bonds, sovereignly administered, with attendant blessings and curses.” (Page 63)

And this seems to me to be a crucial step in the argument…

I’ve been greatly enjoying reading Doug Wilson’s Reformed Is Not Enough, subtitled Recovering the Objectivity of the Covenant. I know – it’s a badly overdue read, but never mind – better late than never.

So far, I’ve read Part 1, which is some necessary ground clearing. What he wants to say could easily sound like a rejection of orthodox Christian faith. So that we realise that it is not this, we have 6 chapters affirming much that Christianity has always taught, and showing how these truths relate to and do not contradict what he will go on to say.

Even though much of it is pre-amble, they are very important chapters, and they contain some great moments. Like the ones below…

As promised, this site now has a blogroll on it.

Truth be told, I read more blogs than this. I’ll add more later. But now I’ve got the structures in place, that’s easy.

I’m doing some work on Jonah 1 at the moment (again!), and it seems that we have another fine example of responsibility being passed between groups of people and representative individuals.

Jonah seeks to flee from the presence of the Lord; as a result, distress comes on the entire crew of the ship. Jonah is very clear in verse 12 that this is “on my account” that this has happened. His individual sin has led to judgement on the whole crew.

Jesus said: “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.”

I little while ago, I posted about different Bible translations. My post on this blog was simply a copy of a comment a posted on a friend’s blog, in response to his request for advice on which English translation to use for serious study.

I had two follow-ups to that post.