The most recent episode of Christ the Center has been published over at Castle Church. The episode is a brief introduction to the theology of Karl Barth. Previous episodes have covered several interesting topics.

• Biblical Theology and the Westminster Standards
• The Spirituality of the Church
• Choosing a Commentary
• Building a Theological Library Part 1, Part 2
• The New Testament’s Use of the Old Testament

The following is a brief digest of Dr. Richard B. Gaffin Jr.’s case for cessationism made in Perspectives on Pentecost¹. Dr. Gaffin presents a case for the cessasionist view of prophecy and tongues based on their foundational character. The apostolic witness, prophecy and tongues were bound up with the foundation of the church following the ascension of Christ, and therefore, since the foundation has been laid, have no purpose for today.
(Continue Reading…)

1. Gaffin, Richard B., Jr. Perspectives on Pentecost (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1979), 89-116.↩

In his book The Sufficiency of Scripture, Noel Weeks addresses the idea that exhaustive detail is required in order for something to be considered authoritative. Clearly the Bible is not exhaustive in all matters (one generally does not go to the Bible for physics laws and formulas), therefore, according to this proposed requirement, Scripture must not be authoritative. As a result, people seek to supplement or supplant the Bible with other “authorities.”

In the 9th century, Sa’adya Ga’on argued for the authority of the Rabbinic tradition based on an issue with the Jewish lunar year. God commanded the Jews to offer certain sacrifices at various festivals. Because a lunar year is about ten days shorter than a solar year, a problem quickly surfaced. Since God only specified which month the festival should take place, the use of the lunar month meant the specified sacrifices would not be ripe once the lunar months fell out of sync with the solar months.

Ga’on argued that the lack of Biblical detail demonstrated the need of another authority.¹ The question became: “how can the Bible be authoritative without being exhaustive?”² (Continue Reading…)

1. Weeks, Noel. The Sufficiency of Scripture (Banner of Truth, 1998) 7.↩
2. Ibid.↩

Current discussion on the nature and substance of covenant theology has centered around biblico-theological as well as systematico-theological questions. While these discussions will have some bearing upon the subject of this paper, I want to focus mainly on the philosophical and apologetical ramifications of the concept of covenant. More narrowly, I want to investigate into the relationship between the concept of the covenant and epistemology. I will argue that the theological concept of the covenant can provide some needed solutions to epistemological impasses in philosophy. If man is in everything everywhere and always “coram deo” and epistemology is at bottom covenantally construed, this will have consequences for our apologetics. The results of the best of Reformed covenant theology, both biblico-theologically and systematico-theologically, will then feed into a uniquely biblical epistemology which will, in turn, ground a powerful apologetic for our times and issue a covenantal call to repentance. (Continue Reading…)