Reformed Forum

In Episode 42 we continue our new series on the Book of Revelation.

Your hosts, Rob and Bob, continue to discuss the Book of Revelation by beginning to walk through the seven churches of Revelation chapters 2 and 3 (spoiler alert: we only make it through three).

In Revelation chapter 1 Jesus is pictured as the very ruler of everything. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. This should be great hope to all Christians because if we are focused on the kingdoms of this earth and how they act without remembering the reality of the current functioning Kingdom of Christ we will easily be lead into despair. What the Book of Revelation does is to pull back the holy curtain so we can have a vision of the very throne room of God, the sovereign rule of the resurrected, sacrificial Lamb. In the Book of Revelation, we are told that a time of great persecution is coming, the time is near but that the Lamb that is a Lion has already won and some day He will return. But what should we do till then? Should we hold up in a bunker with a stash of MRE’s? Should we sell everything we have and wait for His return on a hill in a white sheet, (as others have done)?

We will discuss these and other questions today on Theology Simply Profound.

Theology Simply Profound is a podcast of Westminster Presbyterian Church, an Orthodox Presbyterian Church, serving the western suburbs of Chicago, where God powerfully speaks through his means of grace.

Participants: Rob McKenzie, Robert Tarullo

Mentioned in this episode:

Christ the Center 1000

Christ the Center 1000

Many churches may be familiar with lectio continua preaching in the form of the weekly practice of preaching consecutive passages through a book of Scripture. Catechetical preaching uses a catechism to organize the weekly sermons rather than the book of Scripture. Does that make catechetical preaching unscriptural? By no means!

While some catechetical sermons may derive their points directly from the catechism and others merely use the catechism to determine the topic and then select a pertinent Scripture passage to exposit. Catechetical preaching merely provides the skeleton for the subject and points of a sermon, but it need not make the sermon unscriptural.

There are many benefits to catechetical preaching. It provides a wide range of Scriptural thought. It encourages familiarity with a system of doctrine. It also keeps before the congregation the basic fact that we have a catechism. We encourage people to work through it, reading it, and catechizing themselves and their children. Catechetical preaching fortifies this practice and helps people to embrace our secondary standards as a tool and help for us to understand what God has taught us about various doctrinal subjects. It aids in showing the unity and harmony of Scripture as a whole.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Jeff Waddington, Jim Cassidy

Many churches may be familiar with lectio continua preaching in the form of the weekly practice of preaching consecutive passages through a book of Scripture. Catechetical preaching uses a catechism to organize the weekly sermons rather than the book of Scripture. Does that make catechetical preaching unscriptural? By no means!

While some catechetical sermons may derive their points directly from the catechism and others merely use the catechism to determine the topic and then select a pertinent Scripture passage to exposit. Catechetical preaching merely provides the skeleton for the subject and points of a sermon, but it need not make the sermon unscriptural.

There are many benefits to catechetical preaching. It provides a wide range of Scriptural thought. It encourages familiarity with a system of doctrine. It also keeps before the congregation the basic fact that we have a catechism. We encourage people to work through it, reading it, and catechizing themselves and their children. Catechetical preaching fortifies this practice and helps people to embrace our secondary standards as a tool and help for us to understand what God has taught us about various doctrinal subjects. It aids in showing the unity and harmony of Scripture as a whole.

• Wayne Brouwer, "Preaching the Heidelberg: A New Look at the Tradition of Catechetical Preaching."
• R. E. Knodel, Jr. "Catechetical Preaching"
• William Boekestein, "The Benefits of Catechetical Preaching: Catechism Preaching Is Another Kind of Bible Preaching"
• Jeffrey C. Waddington catechetical series on the Westminster Shorter Catechism.
• James J. Cassidy sermons

We speak about two biblical theological titles from Intervarsity Press including John Goldingay's Biblical Theology and Unceasing Kindness, a biblical theology of Ruth by Peter Lau and Gregory Goswell.

Your hosts, Rob and Bob, begin a new series on the Book of Revelation with an introduction to the book as a whole using the opening chapter.

As one of us said somewhere at sometime, “The Book of Revelation has often made people either obsess over the details of the book or else close their eyes, hide in a corner and pretend it doesn’t exist. Should we just shrug our shoulders and wait till we can ask Jesus about it in Heaven? Do we need to devise secret codes in order to break the cipher of the book or is it to be seen as a literal future historical journal?”

We will discuss these and other questions today on Theology Simply Profound.

Participants: Rob McKenzie, Robert Tarullo

Dr. Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. speaks about Calvin’s views on the Sabbath. In this conversation, we look to Dr. Gaffin’s book Calvin and the Sabbath: The Controversy of Applying the Fourth Commandment (Mentor/Christian Focus), which is a revised version of his ThM thesis originally written under the supervision of John Murray at Westminster Theological Seminary in 1961–62. We also speak about Dr. Gaffin’s exegesis and theological development of Hebrews 3–4 in Pressing Toward the Mark: Essays Commemorating Fifty Years of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Glen Clary, Richard B. Gaffin Jr.

We introduce two new books from InterVarsity Press: Created and Creating by William Edgar and Contours of the Kuyperian Tradition by Craig Barthlomew.

Dr. Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. speaks about Calvin's views on the Sabbath. In this conversation, we look to Dr. Gaffin's book Calvin and the Sabbath: The Controversy of Applying the Fourth Commandment (Mentor/Christian Focus), which is a revised version of his ThM thesis originally written under the supervision of John Murray at Westminster in 1961–62. We also speak about Dr. Gaffin's exegesis and theological development of Hebrews 3–4 in Pressing Toward the Mark: Essays Commemorating Fifty Years of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

In this episode we discuss the gathering in Genesis 11 to build a city and tower for the name of man. This chapter provides many themes that will be explored throughout the rest of Scripture as the historical enmity develops between the city of man and the city of God.

Participants: Adam York, Mark A. Winder, Mark Jenkins, Robert Arendale

In this episode we discuss the gathering in Genesis 11 to build a city and tower for the name of man. This chapter provides many themes that will be explored throughout the rest of Scripture as the historical enmity develops between the city of man and th