Not just fried frog-legs

Somebody said: “If you eat a live frog in the morning, nothing worse will happen to either of you for the rest of the day.”

Well, it was this guy: W. G. T. Shedd (1820-1894).

I gotta thank Reid Ferguson at Responsive Reiding. Reid has posted a review of William Young's The Shack HERE.

How nice, the Nicene

The Nicene Creed

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by Whom all things were made.

Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; Whose kingdom shall have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life; Who proceeds from the Father and the Son; Who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; Who spoke by the prophets.

And I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Pactum Salutis, indeed! O to Grace, how great a debtor......!

I do not have a particularly active imagination, but, upon reading the following paragraph, I immediately conjured a picture of a giant steam-roller. It represented the 'job' that the contemporary evangelical church, in cahoots with post-moderns, is performing* on the glories of God's electing and redeeming purposes - clearly revealed in scripture. I copied and pasted from Martin Downes' Against Heresies. It's a quote from:

David Van Drunen & Scott Clark on the covenant of redemption:

In Reformed theology, the pactum salutis has been defined as a pretemporal, intratrinitarian agreement between the Father and Son in which the Father promises to redeem an elect people. In turn the Son volunteers to earn the salvation of his people by becoming incarnate...by acting as surety of the covenant of grace for and as mediator of the covenant of grace to the elect. In his active and passive obedience, Christ fulfills the conditions of the pactum salutis...ratifying the Father's promise, because of which the Father rewards the Son's obedience with the salvation of the elect. And because of this the Holy Spirit applies the Son's work to his people through the means of grace.

Covenant, Justification and Pastoral Ministry, p. 168

*Trying to perform

Here is an article that Martin Downes wrote for the UK version of Table Talk: 'The Emerging Church and the Cultural Captivity of the Gospel'.