AMR's theology specialty areas

[AMR]

Thought I would share my personal interests related to theology. I have a large personal collection of Reformed literature and read a lot of Puritan writings.

I am on the oversight board and faculty of The North American Reformed Seminary (TNARS).

My theological interests (and hobbies ) are theology proper, philosophical theology, soteriology, translating Byzantine New Testament Greek manuscripts and also ecclesial Latin manuscripts.

Given my interest in theology proper, I also have a keen interest in the heresy of open theism and spend quite a bit of time interacting with open theists discussing said topics.

What are some of your interests in the realm of theology?

 

[lesliedellow]

What are some of your interests in the realm of theology?

Well, I ain't a theologian, but I am broadly sympathetic to Calvinist ideas. On thing they do have right is that the Bible is all of a piece, and the Old Testament can't be dismissed as "old" - although it does have to be read through the lens of the New Testament.

I have little or no sympathy with creationism; the Bible is there to tell us about God, and not to furnish us with scientific information.

I have even less time for Open Theism, which is quite simply impossible to reconcile with the Bible, or even the Atonement, if we are invited to believe that the crucifixion was a catastrophe completely unforeseen by God.

 

[AMR]

What are some of your favorite theology books, authors?

 

[lesliedellow]

What are some of your favorite theology books, authors?

I hadn't really thought about favourite authors. I am intermittently reading Berkhof, who seems okay, except for when he is banging on about Evolution. Robert Redmond's rants against Evolution make him practically unreadable, so far as I am concerned.

Some time back I read a book which had the title "Predestination," by a Catholic priest. That opinions such as his are to be found in the Catholic Church would probably comes as a surprise to the majority of both Catholics and Calvinists.

The Bible can hardly avoid getting a mention. I can read that for hours at a time.

 

[AMR]

Berkhof is a tidy summary of Bavinck's four volume Reformed Dogmatics, but reading Bavinck is worth the effort.

You have Reymond's A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith? It is available for the Kindle eReader.

I always enjoy serious discussions with Thomists within Catholicism as we have several things in common.

Are you attending a NAPARC church?

 

[lesliedellow]

Berkhof is a tidy summary of Bavinck's four volume Reformed Dogmatics, but reading Bavinck is worth the effort.

I think I will leave a four volume work to the theologians.

You have Reymond's A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith? It is available for the Kindle eReader.

I have it, but, as I said, he made himself pretty well unreadable when he started going on about Evolution. I ask myself, if he can't come to terms with reality in that regard, why should I trust him about anything else?

Are you attending a NAPARC church?

I have never heard of NAPARC, so I assume it must be an American denomination - I live in the UK. At the moment I am Anglican, although I have been toying with the idea of switching to the United Reformed Church (unrelated to the American churches of the same name). The laid back style of Anglicanism is probably what I needed when I first became a Christian, thirty years ago. Back then I would certainly have rejected Calvinism out of hand. But as I have gradually become more conservative, and specifically more Calvinistic, my needs may have changed.

How did I find myself a Calvinist, sort of? I just gave up trying to tell myself that the Bible couldn't mean what it appeared to mean, when it used words like "predestine."

 

[bottomofsandal]

I have even less time for Open Theism, which is quite simply impossible to reconcile with the Bible, or even the Atonement, if we are invited to believe that the crucifixion was a catastrophe completely unforeseen by God.

yeah, I find OT appalling and reprehensible...

their charge that God lacks EDF is troubling...


God doesn't know the future because the future has not yet happened ?

guess they are unfamiliar with prophecy and God's declarations !



wacky, just plain wacky

 

[lesliedellow]

yeah, I find OT appalling and reprehensible....

Well, there is a lot in the New Testament which makes me feel uncomfortable; eternal punishment for one, but that doesn't give me a licence to disregard it. The Bible is not there to sing us a song we will necessarily like to hear, but to reveal God to us.

guess they are unfamiliar with prophecy and God's declarations !

At least they are being consistent, which is more than can be said for Arminians. They realise that foreknowledge implies predestination, so they reject the premise in order to avoid the conclusion.

 

[Sojourner1]

I'm not sure if this is really a topic of theology, but I enjoy studying other religions, cults, and unbiblical practices within the church. I like to put everything to the test and compare it with what Scripture actually says. I have always been very interested in Christian Apologetics.

 

[AMR]

yeah, I find OT appalling and reprehensible...

their charge that God lacks EDF is troubling...


God doesn't know the future because the future has not yet happened ?

guess they are unfamiliar with prophecy and God's declarations !

wacky, just plain wacky

OT would have us believe God is a Survivor God, Outwitting, Outlasting, Outplaying, his autonomous creatures, trying to stay one step ahead of them. If God does not know the future then God today is smarter than the God of Moses or Paul and will be smarter that God is today. Yikes!

 

[AMR]

I'm not sure if this is really a topic of theology, but I enjoy studying other religions, cults, and unbiblical practices within the church. I like to put everything to the test and compare it with what Scripture actually says. I have always been very interested in Christian Apologetics.

You and Dr. Steve will get along famously, as cults are one of his hobby horses.

 

[lesliedellow]

OT would have us believe God is a Survivor God, Outwitting, Outlasting, Outplaying, his autonomous creatures, trying to stay one step ahead of them.

It is no doubt a gross over simplification, but it once struck me that the New Testament was about salvation, and the Old Testament was about why it was needed.

 

[drstevej]

I'm not sure if this is really a topic of theology, but I enjoy studying other religions, cults, and unbiblical practices within the church. I like to put everything to the test and compare it with what Scripture actually says. I have always been very interested in Christian Apologetics.

drstevej

Have fun!

 

[Sojourner1]

drstevej

Have fun!

Thanks! I'll check out all the information

 

[AMR]

It is no doubt a gross over simplification, but it once struck me that the New Testament was about salvation, and the Old Testament was about why it was needed.

The major themes of the OT point to the coming suffering and glory of Christ.

 

[lesliedellow]

The major themes of the OT point to the coming suffering and glory of Christ.

Well I don't know. When I was reading Numbers this morning, there were the Israelites saying, "Go up and conquer Canaan? No thank you very much," and there was God's response to that refusal. Similarly, the prophets are full, from beginning to end, with warnings about the consequences of disobeying God.

It seems to be our own rebellious nature, and the consequences of sin, which we need saving from.

It is true that the glory of God is also much spoken of, both implicitly and explicitly, but that is in part revealed through his refusal to tolerate sin.

 

[AMR]

What commentaries do you rely upon for OT theology?

A good one:
An Introduction to the Old Testament
Tremper Longman III and Raymond B. Dillard

It is always helpful to check in with the other saints to see how our personal interpretations line up with others. The church interprets Scripture in community.

 

[AMR]

What commentaries do you rely upon for OT theology?

A good one:
An Introduction to the Old Testament
Tremper Longman III and Raymond B. Dillard

It is always helpful to check in with the other saints to see how our personal interpretations line up with others. The church interprets Scripture in community.

 

[lesliedellow]

What commentaries do you rely upon for OT theology?

A good one:
An Introduction to the Old Testament
Tremper Longman III and Raymond B. Dillard

It is always helpful to check in with the other saints to see how our personal interpretations line up with others. The church interprets Scripture in community.

I have got a whole shelf full of Old Testament Commentaries published by SCM, and I have got Calvin's commentaries on my tablet computer, but just to name those two is to set a question mark against the idea that there is something called THE interpretation of the Old Testament.

Besides, anything I come out with can hardly be anything other than tame, compared with some of the stuff you see on here.

 

[lesliedellow]

If the OP doesn't mind me asking, how did he manage the journey from Catholicism to Calvinism?

Although I have never been a Catholic, wonder whether, like me, he felt himself being prompted to travel in a direction he felt disinclined to tread.

That has happened more than once to me. The first time was when, as a soft atheist, I felt myself being prompted to take a closer look at religion. Just to walk into a bookshop and buy a Bible was an embarrassing experience for somebody who thought Christians were at best a bit eccentric.

Later on the experience was repeated when this liberal felt himself being prompted to walk a more conservative path, and then, as if that wasn't bad enough, to walk a semi Calvinistic one.

Semi-Calvinistic, because I am not sure I want to sign on the dotted line, and announce myself to be a strict observer of every aspect of Reformed Theology.