Reformed Forum

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Girolamo Zanchi and Spiritual Marriage Nov 26, 2021

Show notes

Patrick O’Banion joins us to speak about Girolamo Zanchi and his book, The Spiritual Marriage between Christ and His Church and Every One of the Faithful. O’Banion translated and introduced a new edition of the book published by Reformation Heritage Books. Zanchi was an Italian Reformer, with close ties to Peter Martyr Vermigli.

Developing from Girolamo Zanchi’s exegetical labors through Ephesians, Spiritual Marriage draws readers into the rich theological of doctrine of union with Christ. Following the lead of the apostle Paul, Zanchi demonstrates how our earthly marriages fulfill their truest purpose by drawing our attention toward the spiritual marriage between Christ and His Church. By paying attention to the Genesis account of Adam’s marriage to Eve, to pertinent Old Testament laws, and to the teachings of Jesus and His apostles, we begin to understand something of that higher and heavenly union. This new translation helps us better understand the great mystery of Christ and His bride.

Patrick O’Banion is International Trainer at Training Leaders International.

Chapters

00:00:00 Introduction
00:05:05 Biographical Introduction to Zanchi
00:09:14 Zanchi’s Works
00:19:08 Relationship with Peter Martyr Vermigli
00:21:39 Zanchi’s Marriage
00:24:07 Zanchi’s Acquaintance with Grief
00:29:43 Conflict in Chiavenna
00:32:53 Conflict in Strasbourg over the Lord’s Supper
00:40:35 Thoughts on Zanchi and Conflict
00:47:51 Zanchi’s Work, Spiritual Marriage
00:52:39 Zanchi and the Typology of Marriage
00:54:43 Hermeneutics and Theological Method
01:05:53 Conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Patrick O'Banion

“This is a Myth”: Barth’s Rejection of the Covenant of Works Nov 19, 2021

Show notes

Jim Cassidy delivers a plenary address from the annual Reformed Forum Theology Conference, which was hosted October 8–9 at Providence OPC in Pflugerville, Texas.

Cassidy investigates the ontological assumptions which led Karl Barth to reject the doctrine of the covenant of works. He considers how Barth’s doctrine of God, with its actualistic ontology, is the ground for his rejection of the historic doctrine of classical federal theology. In the process of showing how his novel construction of the doctrine of God leads to his critique, Barth sets up—albeit unwittingly—how own kind of covenant of works whereby man today can ascend into “God’s time for us” to gain the knowledge of God.

Chapters

00:00:00 Introduction
00:03:28 “This Is a Myth”: Barth’s Rejection of the Covenant of Works
01:00:41 Conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Jim Cassidy

Mentioned in this episode:

Christ the Center 1000

Christ the Center 1000 Summit

Christ the Center 1000 Live in Austin, TX

Christ the Center 1000 Summit

The Pilgrim’s Progress, Book 2: The Crossing Nov 16, 2021

Show notes

This week on Theology Simply Profound, Rob and Bob continue a discussion of John Bunyan’s, The Pilgrim’s Progress, Book 2. In this episode, we find our band of pilgrims make their way through the Enchanted Grounds, meet another pilgrim, Mr. Standfast, learn of another enemy, Madam Bubble, enter the land of Beulah, and for many of the pilgrims receive letters from the King telling them of their coming crossing of the river into the Celestial City. This ends the journey of Christiana and her children.

Participants: Rob McKenzie, Robert Tarullo

Vos Group #73 — The Corruption of Ritual Worship (continued) Nov 12, 2021

Show notes

Lane Tipton and Camden Bucey turn to pages 267–269 of Geerhardus Vos’ book, Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments, to consider the collective sin of the nation during the time of the prophets. Vos addresses several passages in this section, including Amos 5:25, Isaiah 1:10–17, and Hosea 6:6.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
05:13 Critics, the Prophets, and the Old Covenant
12:28 The Passover and Redemptive-History
19:32 Amos 5:25
28:33 Isaiah 1:10–17
36:17 Hosea 6:4–10
40:47 Israel’s National Sin
49:06 Conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Lane G. Tipton

Mentioned in this episode:

Christ the Center 1000

Christ the Center 1000 Summit

Christ the Center 1000 Live in Austin, TX

Christ the Center 1000 Summit

Genesis 30:25–43 — God Gives the Increase Nov 10, 2021

Show notes

How do you preach a passage as speckled and mottled as this one? We look at a text that at first glance has nothing to say about Christ and see how through the continuity of God’s covenant promises we are presented with a foreshadowing of Christ plundering Satan’s house, and through death destroying the one who had the power of death.

Participants: Glen Clary, Mark A. Winder

John Carrick — Jonathan Edwards and the Immediacy of God Nov 10, 2021

Show notes

Jeff Waddington reviews Jonathan Edwards and the Immediacy of God by John Carrick.

Jonathan Edwards is one of the outstanding figures in the history of the Christian church—he was, quite simply, a man of towering intellect and towering spirituality. But it has been noted, even by his friends and admirers, that his thought is also marked at times by certain idiosyncrasies which inevitably introduce certain complexities into his philosophical-theological system.
This study contends that the theme of divine immediacy is the controlling theme and the correlating principle within Edwards’s thought. It analyzes the theme of divine immediacy in the thought of Jonathan Edwards under four major heads: creation, the will, ecclesiology, and spiritual experience. Indeed, Dr. Carrick claims that the theme of the immediacy of God is the Ariadne’s thread, which runs with consistency through the multiple aspects of Edwards’s philosophical, theological, ecclesiological, experiential, and homiletical interests.
But sometimes a man’s strength is also his weakness, and it would appear that Edwards’s profound commitment to the concept and the reality of the immediacy of God entails significant problems for his entire philosophical-theological system. Edwards’s concept of divine immediacy finds its supreme expression, surely, in his doctrine of continuous creation; but is it not the case that this doctrine of continuous creation is in conflict with his determinism, that its tendency is to destroy the moral responsibility of man, and that it makes God both the author and the actor of sin? In short, is it not the case that Edwards’s Ariadne’s thread is, in fact, also his Achilles’ heel?

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
00:45 Jonathan Edwards and the Immediacy of God
04:32 Occasionalism and Continuous Creationism
10:30 The Context of Edwards’ Theology
13:52 The Ariadnes Thread of Edwards’ Thought
17:33 Conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Jeff Waddington

The Pilgrim’s Progress, Book 2: The Delectable Mountains, Part 2 Nov 09, 2021

Show notes

This week on Theology Simply Profound, Rob and Bob continue a discussion of John Bunyan’s, The Pilgrim’s Progress, Book 2. In this episode, as the journey continues for Christiana, her children, and the pilgrims who have tagged along on their way to the Celestial City, we find the pilgrims in the Delectable Mountains very much as Christian did in Book 1. We discuss their time there, who they meet, what they experience and learn.

Participants: Rob McKenzie, Robert Tarullo

Mentioned in this episode:

Christ the Center 1000

Roman Catholicism and American Politics during the Cold War Nov 05, 2021

Show notes

Roman Catholicism entered the mainstream of American national life the morning following the November 8, 1960 election when John F. Kennedy won and became the president. While it may seem strange to people who did not grow up in the era, Protestant voters were wary of a Roman Catholic potentially serving as president of the United States. Yet the Vatican may have been even more wary of “Americanism.” While it did not necessarily inhibit Catholics from being Catholic it also was a form of exceptionalism that potentially risked the expansion of Christendom as understood by Catholics.

In this episode, D. G. Hart revisits the arguments of his book, American Catholic: The Politics of Faith during the Cold War, explaining the historical reasons why the relationship between Roman Catholicism and Americanism changed in the 1960s and how it continued to develop in subsequent decades.

Darryl G. Hart is Distinguished Associate Professor of History at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan. He is a host of the Paleo Protestant Pudcast with Korey Maas and Miles Smith as well as the Religious Nationalism podcast with Crawford Gribben.

Chapters

00:00:00 Introduction
00:04:47 Roman Catholicism and Politics in 2021
00:07:34 Religion in the Public Square
00:11:14 The Literature on American Politics and Catholicism
00:16:07 Writing on Roman Catholicism as a Protestant
00:20:55 Catholicism and the Conservative Movement
00:27:19 Protestant Fears about a Catholic President in 1960
00:33:02 Catholic Antipathy toward Americanism
00:45:49 John Courtney Murray and Catholic Thinking on Church and State
00:56:29 Catholic American Public Intellectuals
01:01:56 The Limits of Americanism
01:08:56 Neo-Americanists and a Modern Faith
01:18:21 Conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Darryl G. Hart

Mentioned in this episode:

Christ the Center 1000

Christ the Center 1000 Summit

Christ the Center 1000 Live in Austin, TX

Christ the Center 1000 Summit

The Pilgrim’s Progress, Book 2: The Fall of Despair Nov 02, 2021

Show notes

This week on Theology Simply Profound, Rob and Bob continue a discussion of John Bunyan’s, The Pilgrim’s Progress, Book 2. In this episode, as the journey continues for Christiana, her children, and the pilgrims on their way to the Celestial City, we discuss everything from the killing Giant Despair to child-rearing.

Participants: Rob McKenzie, Robert Tarullo

Mentioned in this episode:

Christ the Center 1000

Cornelis Pronk — A Goodly Heritage Nov 02, 2021

Show notes

Jeff Waddington reviews A Goodly Heritage: The Secession of 1834 by Cornelis Pronk.

In A Goodly Heritage, Cornelis Pronk surveys the history of the Secession of 1834, beginning with the events leading up to this important spiritual movement and subsequently following its long journey through the Netherlands and North America until 1892. He then focuses on a small minority that decided to continue as the original Christian Reformed Church, considering its growth and how it formulated theological positions in relation to several other Reformed denominations. Throughout, special attention is given to the doctrines of covenant, baptism, and the Holy Spirit’s ministry in applying salvation. This work not only explains the concerns of De Cock and other fathers of the Secession. It presses beyond the early years of the reform movement to present a larger picture of the developments of Secession theology and the contributions made by its main representatives.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
00:29 Cornelis Pronk, A Goodly Heritage
01:41 The Secession of 1834
10:17 Identifying the True Church
12:33 Dutch Pietism
13:39 Dutch Settlement in Pella, Iowa
14:58 Summary and Conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Jeff Waddington

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