Upcoming Trip, Then Story Time with Grampa Jimmy

Alpha & Omega Ministries

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00:34

Greetings and welcome to The Dividing Line, our last in -studio Dividing Line for a while,

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Lord willing, because I'm heading out on a 25 -day trip.

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And that means, hopefully, Lord willing, next Tuesday, that's our plan, on Monday, wherever I am on Monday, which, you know, there's a lot of reasons for me not to mention where I am.

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It used to be the Danites, you know, maybe some

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Muslims, a little on the radical side, stuff like that. Now it's both sides of the

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Christian nationalism debate, because evidently I'm not enough on either side.

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If you try to be in the middle and you try to say, hey, you know, it's absolutely necessary.

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We live in a world created by God and He has revealed how we need to live in this world.

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And when God gives a society over in judgment, we need to be a prophetic voice, even as that society goes into judgment, as to the way of having peace with God, and that there will never be any peace in a society that is not based upon having peace with one another.

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And the only way to have that is to have peace with God, which is the only way to do that is through Jesus Christ. And, you know, last night, the governor of Minnesota posted a horrific tweet talking about how they,

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I mean, Minnesota is trying to go past Washington, California and the eastern states in just being so radically insane, it's not even funny.

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And so I wrote a lengthy tweet to the governor and basically said everything that you've claimed here is a lie.

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Everything you're doing will bring about your condemnation. You will stand before Jesus Christ to be judged for everything you're doing.

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You need to repent and turn from your sin. And there were a lot of responses to that.

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There were a lot of nasty responses, but mainly positive responses. I recognize the vast majority of people on his side are not listening to anything

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I have to say, but that doesn't mean anything. You have to be faithful. So these days,

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I might not want to let people know where I am just simply because there's just so many people that might want to cause problems.

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So anyway, on Monday, we're going to try to hook up and see if I can even figure out how to hook everything together again and get a signal out, you know.

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And there's going to be a lot of, okay, you said do what? What? What? Oh, I don't know.

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Is that going there? Okay. I can see this coming. I really, really can. But we're going to see how that works out.

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And then on Tuesday, we're going to give it a shot. And we're going to try to do the program live on the road from the new studio in the new

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RV. And as you all know, we have been raising funds for that whole project for a number of months now.

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We don't have anybody on phones calling people. We haven't sent out any mailers trying to guilt anybody into doing anything.

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We've just been letting people know what we're seeking to do and why we're seeking to do it. And so today, as I am pulling out of my carport,

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I look over and there's a package, as there are now other packages, on my front porch.

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And these days, you can't leave packages on your porch. There's just, you know, it's the way things are.

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And so I grabbed it and looked at the label and went, oh, this will be great.

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So here it is. Here it is.

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And I hope I know what it is. It'd be really funny if I open it up and it's my...

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I just ordered some water filters for the refrigerator. But no,

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I see the return address. So I know at least one of the two things that it is. So we're going to open it right here on the program today.

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And very carefully, make sure that it does not go too far down there.

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BING! Is there an actual physical way of opening a box filled with this stuff without at least some of it flying out?

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I'm not really sure that there is. But uh -huh.

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Okay, that's what I figured it was. So some of you will remember,

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I mentioned quite some time ago I think it was when

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I was in Tullahoma at Jeffrey Rice's conference there.

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Okay, how do you figure out what the front end of this is? Now you just tear it. That Jeffrey had said that his way of helping us to...

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His way of helping us to... What? Yes, yes.

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Okay. Um, he was going to send us a Post -Tenebrous

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Lux Bible Rebind to auction off. And so here it is.

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And you're getting to see it just as soon as I'm able to see it. There we go.

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Almost there. There we go. Oh, that smell.

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That smell. So now this is really interesting.

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Look at it. It's like a... I don't know. It's like black page edging.

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And it's a LSB. It looks like the one that I have.

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Anyway, here is a beautiful... I don't know how to describe the...

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I guess that's green. Green and black. I guess. Yeah.

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My color stuff isn't all that good. Probably from having seen so many colors of my koojis all these years.

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Burned all the retina out. And yeah, Rich is agreeing with that. So here's the thinking.

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This will complicate things. But since I'll be doing most of the work on my end anyways, it shouldn't complicate stuff too much for Rich.

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But here's our thought right now. We're not exactly sure how to do this. But we will...

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It would be unfair to do it today because we're not able to let people know and stuff like that.

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But we will make this Bible available. I will leave it here with Rich. There's no reason for me to take it on the road.

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And we will make it available to the highest bidder during the program next

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Tuesday. And I don't know if Rich can put up a little bug or something with the current bid or something like that.

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I don't know. Now remember, you're not just getting a beautiful Jeffrey Rice Rebind Bible.

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But you're also... All of it's going to pay for the rig and the studio and everything else that goes along with it.

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So you're making it available for us to be doing the things that we're gonna be doing as we're traveling this year as we now have diesel cheaper than unleaded gas.

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I guess there were times in the past it was that way too. People have said that. I have honestly never even paid attention.

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Never didn't have a diesel. So I don't know. Anyways, so next Tuesday, it'll be five or six o 'clock

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Eastern Daylight Time. What? No, I don't sign

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Bibles. Yeah, I don't sign Bibles. I sign books that I wrote and I didn't write it.

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So I don't sign Bibles. Anyway, so we'll just let everybody know that's when it's going to be.

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And obviously, you're getting a super duper

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Bible. And then that is all going to help us with the unit and with the traveling and all the rest of the stuff that we're doing.

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So I think it sort of fits together. Pretty cool. And so I will leave this with Rich.

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Actually, you probably... Would you be doing the program from home?

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Okay, so the Rich Cam could come up and maybe you could actually put a light in there so people could see it.

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Because normally the Rich Cam is the man hidden in the shadows, in the darkness. But that way you could show people the

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Bible and what it looks like and stuff like that. And there you go. So next

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Tuesday, we'll let folks know when the program is going to be. And we will make that available.

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And it'll... Obviously, if everything doesn't...

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It'll be our first shot. So we're taking a risk here. No two ways about it.

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Especially because I have to do most of the technical stuff. So that's how that is.

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So there it goes. So next Tuesday, be ready. And if you want to get hold of this beauty, you know what to do.

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So there you go. Yes. Oh, thank you. Okay.

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So that was the fun part. Now we... I was only semi -joking when

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I said that I'm afraid from people on both sides of the CN debate. Because in the last half hour,

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I've seen all sorts of, again, just clear evidence that the two sides have absolutely no intention of acknowledging that there is a middle or anything like that.

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And I don't know. Like I said last week, it seems to me that for there to be any kind of progress, there needs to be a major work of the

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Spirit of God, which would involve Christians showing much more brotherly kindness and respect for one another than what's going on in the

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Twitterverse right now. And so I'm just sort of like, yeah, I'm just not really sure this is the time for all these things.

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It is the time to be talking about the video on...

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Okay, the video in Nebraska. What did Nebraska just do about abortion?

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But the women are just rejoicing greatly that they can continue to murder their children.

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And then you've got Dylan Mulvaney. Just... If that's not a picture of the explosion of the corruption...

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Then I retweeted a thread from Louisiana of the people testifying against...

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They're passing a law, as if you should have to do this, basically says teachers can't trans your children behind your back.

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And the people testifying against this, for the vast majority of us, and it's still the vast majority of the citizens of the

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United States, we sit there going, you've got to be kidding me. And it's interesting. There are times...

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I've noticed, for example, that there is a camaraderie between those of us who are pulling rigs down the road.

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And so I'll pull into a gas station. And that's the toughest part of RVing for me right now, is getting gas.

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I'm 51 feet long. So the truckers don't want me in the truck lanes, though I can go through there.

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It's a hassle. But there's frequently open spots elsewhere. And anyways, people come over and they'll just start talking.

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Oh, hey, I was in Utah a few weeks ago.

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And these guys came ambling over because they wanted to ask about the turning point.

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A lot of people don't understand how that works. And I noticed that it was quieter on the way back.

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I still heard something. But anyway, yeah, yeah. And so they start asking questions about RVing and stuff like that.

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And you start talking about life because it takes a while to fill that gas tank. And in my experience, the vast majority of people just from all over are like, yeah, can you believe what's going on?

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This world has gone nuts, especially older folks. Now, I know there's white liberal old folks that are out there doing their thing, but I think they're in the minority.

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And if you're creating the image of God, you see this stuff, you see these people testifying in Louisiana and you just go.

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Nobody in 2014, nobody 10 years ago could have believed what's going on right now.

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They would get, nah, nah. And that's what's all around us.

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And I see people driving by me. I've already mentioned this in the past, so it's a security risk.

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But I have that sign that says Christ or chaos. And personally,

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I'm tired of chaos. And I've got people driving by me with their, not their middle finger up, their thumb up like, yep, me too.

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I'm sick of the chaos too. You'd like to think that eventually, in fact,

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I saw an article this morning saying that a survey of younger Americans showed a growing number who are very concerned about the direction of the morality of the nation.

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Well, you think? You think? And there may be somebody's going, well, they're just going to overplay their hand.

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Look, here's the problem. What's the option to their insanity?

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The world says, oh, you want to go back to the cleavers and 1950s and the man in the suit and the life at home and taking care of the babies.

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And I just, we just, we just, it's not going to work and da, da, da, da, da. We have to recognize where we are.

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We are in a massive time of transition. And we are balancing on the edge of a cliff that the transition could turn into a nosedive.

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Well, it's already in a nosedive. Let's be honest with you. I'm not sure if there are any little scrubby trees yet to be grabbed onto to slow the descent.

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But it's just been way, way, way too long where the church has been unwilling to say, you are made in the image of God.

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God says, this is how you have life. This is how you destroy that life.

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Therefore, this is what needs to be done. That wall of separation is very good when we're talking about categories of authority.

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It's not very good when the church cannot speak with clarity to the state and say what

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I said to the governor of Minnesota last night, that you will stand before a righteous judge.

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And you will be judged in perfect holiness and righteousness. And what you're doing will bring about your eternal condemnation.

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You will be held accountable for every one of those little babies destroyed in a womb or destroyed after coming forth from the womb by lying and talking about gender affirming health care.

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It's a lie. There's no such thing. Gender affirming health care is taking your kids to get their teeth checked, you know, their regular checkup.

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That's gender affirming health care. You're talking about mutilation. It's a completely different thing.

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And you know, it's a completely different thing. You've seen the pictures. You've seen the videos.

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I saw a video just yesterday, a day before yesterday. Young girl, she had already cut her hair.

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She was already dressing like a boy, but she had the high squeaky voice of a little girl. And now this guy, who isn't a guy, but is now dressed as a woman because he's de -transitioned.

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But it's too late. The voice is gone. The body's gone. And as she said, because it's really a she.

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So as she said in her de -transition, her body's going through menopause at 25.

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Hot flashes. Joints aching at age 25.

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Someday, every single medical doctor that was involved in this mutilation of young people will stand before a righteous judge, and they will be judged for every dime they took.

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And there is no meaningful difference between them and the doctors at Auschwitz, except they're getting paid.

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They're getting paid. They're using this mental disease spread by TikTok and YouTube.

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This one ain't going up on that one. Anyway, so an article came out.

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Seattle Children's Hospital offers education guides that encourage medical professionals to quickly offer cross -sex medical treatments, such as menstrual suppression and puberty blockers, to youth patients with gender identity issues.

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So you're watching TikTok, and you go, I wonder if I'm actually a guy.

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Okay, so let's bring you in and mutilate your body. You can't get a tattoo at that age, but we can mutilate your body so you will never, ever, ever be able to have children again.

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The whole nine yards. Seattle Children's Hospital. Man, the speed at which this evil has come about is truly, once God lifts his hand of his drink, take off foot, put that accelerator through the floorboard.

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Here we go. Here we go. And even this, even this article, its big thing is saying, well, you know, but they didn't do anything about mental health services.

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If a mental health service is based upon a secular worldview and a secular view of man, it's not going to do anything.

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That's the whole problem. You're dealing with creatures made in the image of God as if they are simply highly evolved slime.

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And the result will be disaster every time, every time. So yeah, here's where we are in this world right now.

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The level of insanity every single day. You know,

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I hesitate when I get out of bed and I pick the phone and I see that notification.

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I was sort of like, do I even want to click on this before I get a chance to get my mind oriented right?

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You know, yeah, yeah.

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Well, I talked about that last time. Let's not, let's not go that direction right now. Okay, I'm going to leave that.

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Actually, you can sort of, yeah, you can see it right there. There you go. We'll keep that right there.

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Next time around, if you want it, Legacy Standard Bible, Jeffrey Rice Rebind. It's a, it's a green and black,

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I think would be. It's, it's a really dark, because like I said, the pages are black as well.

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So there you go. Very soft. I mean, see, it's, it's the kind that will just it'll just raffle.

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What, you have to buy, you buy a ticket to the raffle? Huh? I don't know.

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I suppose, but I'm not sure how that would work either. So I don't know.

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I don't know. All right. I mentioned last time that we needed to do a, any more.

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And by the way, I don't know when, I have not heard about when the

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Swear to Vest dialogue's dropping. I have a feeling that they're going to do that contemporaneously with making

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Mere Christendom available, the book. And I'm seeing word on,

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I just saw a video that Canon put out about buying billboards.

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Since it says Christ is Lord in a number of major cities and stuff. So who knows?

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But as I said before, I think it will be helpful because I was able to raise a lot of questions.

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I raised the sacral issue and, and stuff like that. And Doug and I don't lob nasty bombs at each other.

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Some people hate me because I won't do that. But anybody knows that we are, we're trying to do the iron sharpens iron thing.

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And it's sad to me that there are not more mature

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Christians that want to see a certain level of unity and grace between brothers, that type of thing.

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So, anyway, that should be coming out, I'm hoping by next week.

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I, the sooner the better given what's going on, but we'll see. And like I said,

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I had somebody ask me yesterday, so you've already read Mere Christendom? Yeah, I was sent a pre -publication copy, advanced reader copy, sorry.

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And then what I have to do, given my schedule and stuff like that, is

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I requested the PDF and then I convert to MP3.

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And for those of you, let me, let me save myself and Rich a lot of time here.

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There are many apps for phones, computers, tablets, whatever, that will convert

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PDF, Word document, HTML, pretty much any type of text file, to audio, to MP3.

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I use something called, I use a couple. Sound Studio, Speech -to -Text,

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Speech -to -Text Pro, Speech -to -Text Pro 2. I've been doing it for a long time, so I have a number of different apps.

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But recently, a lot of them will choke on books, because they get really long.

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They'll get a certain weight in. Some of them struggle with certain special characters in publishing format for books.

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I've found that out. And yes, if the, if the book uses notes and things like that, sometimes that ends up, you know, you're halfway through a sentence, it stops and you got a bunch of notes, then it picks up the rest of the sentence.

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And that really bothers a lot of people. For me, I've gotten used to it over the years.

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Speech Central actually has a checkbox to remove the notes.

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And that's, that's pretty nice. Though sometimes I want to hear the notes. So it depends on the book. But yeah, those things are out there.

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That's what you do. You dump it in there. You create an audio file. It's frequently, I'm reading

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Owen Strand's book on the War on Men right now. And that one's only five hours.

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And of course, you can tell it what speed you want. So 1 .0, 1 .2,

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1 .25, 1 .5. Depends on what program you're going to use to be playing it back, for example.

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Because it can go too fast where you can't even follow. So there are things to keep in mind.

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But for those asking, and believe me, when I first started doing this stuff years and years and years ago, that became the most common question

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I was asked. I just, when I was traveling, it was just amazing. We ended up doing,

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I think, posting something on the website. The what?

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GeekFest show. Yeah, the GeekFest show. That's probably really old now. Yeah, probably.

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So anyway, that's how I read Mere Christendom. It was driving out to a certain park, doing a 40 -mile bike ride outside, and then driving back.

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So that gave me enough time to listen to the whole book. And when you're going to be driving 4 ,100 miles over the next 25 days, between that type of stuff and Audible, that's important.

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Very, very important to be able to keep up with stuff. Okay, I said last time that it's going to be time for story time.

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I used to be with Uncle Jimmy. The way I'm feeling these days is now Grandpa Jimmy. It really is.

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I want to read. A lot of the stuff that we've read before has been a bunch of heresy.

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Yeah, like the Gospel of Magdala and a bunch of the

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Gnostic gospel stuff. I've read to you the Gospel of Thomas and things like that.

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This time we get to read something orthodox. And I mentioned before that I was made aware of this relatively brief item by a scholar.

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And so I want to be open that I learned about this on Twitter.

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The only reason I don't mention the scholar's name is because, sadly, there's strange stuff going on in the world today.

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Institutions changing perspectives and foundational issues and things like that.

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And if you don't go along with this stuff, then you're considered to be the enemy and attacking and all the rest of this stuff.

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So I'm just straight up front saying, I didn't discover this on my own. Somebody else is making comment about it.

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It was not easy to find. It's probably why I'd never heard of it before. It's only been published in English a couple of times.

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Twice, I'm aware of. In rather obscure sources. And I'll be honest with you.

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I don't remember. It's possible that it was referred to in the many, many books on Calvin that I've read.

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But I don't remember it. Because it didn't ring any major bells when

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I first started hearing about it. But Calvin, like so many, wanted to do more than he got to do in his life.

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He had health issues. He had a 27 -year -long headache. That explains most of the paintings of John Calvin.

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He's not going, If I had a 27 -year -long headache, I would have been considerably less fruitful than Calvin was, as far as work was concerned.

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But he wanted to write a commentary on the sermons of John Chrysostom.

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So obviously, Chrysostom was one of his favorite early church writers.

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All we have is a partial introduction. He wrote, started writing the introduction.

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Even that just breaks off. Just stops. He never got around to writing the commentary.

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But what he writes in it gives us important insight. The majority of folks, the vast, vast, vast majority of even students of Calvin, have not read this.

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So at the very least, you're picking up some level of stuff. I'm reading.

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Let me see here. So this introduction, this is by W.

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E. N. P. Haslett. It's in a book titled,

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Humanism and Reform, The Church in Europe, England and Scotland, 1400 to 1643. Essays in honor of James K.

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Cameron, edited by James Kirk. You can see why not the most widely known thing in the world.

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And like I said, there was an earlier English translation of the

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Latin. Because what would he write this in? He'd write it in Latin or French, I suppose.

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But anyway. There is uncertainty as to exactly when it was written.

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There's an interesting introduction and so on and so forth. I'm not going to be reading the introduction.

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He does mention, this is the one that I had found, John McIndoe's translation in the

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Hartford Quarterly, which I also have in PDF. And so, yeah, it's just hard to find.

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Estimates from 1535 to 1559. That's, in other words, it was sometime during Calvin's ministry.

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That's pretty, like, duh. Okay. But let's read it.

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It's not too long. And it's stuff that we do on this program.

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And hopefully it'll be useful to us. I may have a few comments along the way. There are a lot of notes if I wanted to read the notes.

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Anyway, here we go. Considering that this kind of work which

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I am now publishing is unconventional, I think it'll be worth my while to explain briefly the point of my project.

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For I am aware that what nearly always happens in the case of innovation, that there will be no lack of people who will not only condemn this work of mine as unnecessary, but also of the opinion that it ought to be rejected of hand of being of no particular benefit to the church.

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I am optimistic that these very people will be sympathetic towards me should they pay heed for a moment to my reasons.

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We know what kind of protests were raised initially by backward people when it was suggested the gospel should be read by the public.

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I remember no matter where it is in Calvin's ministry from 1535 to 1559, no matter where it is in there, the

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Reformation is still quite young. Yes, it is second generation, 1517 to 1535. It's still second generation.

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But most people are still fully aware of the reality of the fact that within the

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Roman Catholic Church, one of the fundamental differences, if at this time, let's make this 1542, put it smack dab in the middle someplace.

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Okay, if you looked at that young Reformation in Europe at this point in time, what really marks it out as different from Roman Catholicism?

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The vast majority, pretty much everybody in those Reformed churches are former

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Roman Catholics. They were once a part of the Roman Catholic communion. They are no longer under the authority of the

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Pope. They are no longer attending the Roman Catholic mass. They're going to St.

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Pierre's. They're going to, the Reformation is not finished.

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It is just begun. There are still many, many questions that many people have.

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But what's the one thing that marks the difference? The marked difference is the centrality of the scriptures as the word of God in the daily life of the people of the

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Protestant churches. That's the major difference.

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There is a massive desire to see the

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Bible printed in everyone's language and made available to everyone.

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That takes time. You didn't have a Kinko's on every corner and a

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Bible is expensive. And you might have 15 people in a family and there's only one

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Bible. But the big thing would be when you go to the

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Roman Catholic church, the scriptures are read in a homily. They're not studied in the home.

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And that's where Calvin was at this point. So that's what he means when it was suggested that the gospel should be read by the public.

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For they reckoned it to be an outrage that the mysteries of God, which have been concealed for so long by priests and monks, be made known to ordinary people.

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Indeed, this just seemed to be sacrilegious profanation of the temple of God. Yet, even among those to whom this idea was so repugnant, we now see that all such objections have been transformed into approval.

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For it was obvious that the people of God had been deprived of the supreme repository of their salvation with scripture lying hidden in the libraries of a select few, inaccessible to the general public.

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Accordingly, anyone nowadays with a modicum of religion recognizes that through the remarkable favor of God, it came about that the sacred word of God was restored to the entire church.

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For in this way has Christ, the son of righteousness, shown upon his people.

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The Christ whom we only then truly take delight in after we have recognized his power and embraced him when offered to us through the gospel by God the

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Father. And yet, those who are in a position to observe the state of the world in the generation of 20 years ago, now that's interesting, that is pre -1520 is the note here, so that sort of gives us some idea.

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It doesn't, again, give us a date, but in other words, from Calvin's perspective, they're about 20 years into the

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Reformation. The 1517 date, that's a later thing, that's a later development. So that's interesting.

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Generation of 20 years ago, remember that among the vast majority of people, there was almost nothing remaining of Christ except his name.

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Any recollection of his power which did exist was both rare and scanty. This shocking situation, which is the worst possible, had undoubtedly occurred only because people, as if it were no business of theirs, had left the reading of scripture to the priests and monks.

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This is the reason why we take pride in our age when that repository in which

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Christ is displayed to us with all the wealth of his benefits has begun once again to be circulated among all the children of God.

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That namely scripture is the specific means by which our heavenly inheritance is authenticated.

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The very temple where God exhibits to us the reality of his deity.

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Fascinating. To refer to scripture as the very temple where God exhibits to us the reality of his deity.

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It is really, really interesting to hear the tone of voice of the primitive early

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Reformation. And he talks about our age. You know, we look back 20 years after the

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Reformation, seems like just a drop. For them, that's 20 years they've survived without having been burned at the stake.

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Since without him, there is not even a glimmer of light in our minds, enabling us to appreciate heavenly wisdom.

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Yet as soon as the spirit has shed his light, our minds are more than adequately prepared and equipped to grasp this very wisdom.

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Since, however, I'm not necessarily exegeting this. I just simply want to point out that clearly for Calvin here, the spirit is sufficient in of himself to give the heavenly wisdom that is to be found in scripture.

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It's scripture and spirit together, never separate from one another. Since, however, the

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Lord with the same consideration by which he illuminates us through his spirit has in addition granted us aids, which he intends to be of assistance in our laboring of the investigation of his truth.

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There is no reason for us either to neglect them as superfluous or even to care less about them as if irrelevant.

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What Paul has said to be born in mind that though everything belongs to us, we how we belong to Christ.

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Therefore, let those things which the Lord has provided for our use be of service to us, means of grace.

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The point is, if it is right that ordinary Christians be not deprived of the word of their

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God, neither should they be denied perspective resources, which may be of use for its true understanding.

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Besides, ordinary Christians do not have the educational attainment as this in itself is a considerable privilege, so it is not granted to everyone.

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It is obvious, therefore, that they should be assisted by the work of interpreters who have advanced in the knowledge of God to a level that they can guide others to as well.

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For what justice would there be in men of higher learning having that good fortune as well, whereas those deprived of all such resources are lacking even that very knowledge, which out of everything was their one entitlement?

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Because if it is a religious duty to help the weak and to assist all the more diligently, the greater their need.

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Let those who will censure this work of mine beware of being charged with an uncaring attitude. All I have had in mind with this is to facilitate the reading of Holy Scripture for those who are humble and uneducated.

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I am certainly well aware of what objection can be made to me in this business. This is what

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Chrysostom, whom I am undertaking to make known to the public, aimed his studies at the intelligentsia only.

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But yet, unless both the title of his work and its style of language deceive, this man specialized in sermons which he delivered to a wide public.

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Accordingly, he plainly adjusts both his approach and language as if he had the instruction of the common people in mind.

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This being the case, anyone maintaining that he ought to have kept in seclusion among the academics has got it wrong, seeing that he did go out of his way to cultivate a popular appeal.

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And of course, we know. My dear friend, Nick Needham, clearly has a real soft spot for John Chrysostom.

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And in his church history, which

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I highly recommend everyone, there was an extended discussion of Christendom.

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And I could tell, maybe because I know Nick, but I could tell that there was...

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Nick wanted to say a lot more, but he got as much in as he could. And he was saying to us in his section on Chrysostom that here is one of the greatest preachers of the early church, and that he didn't just limit himself to the intelligentsia and the

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Christians to know what God's word had to say. That I share a common concern with Christendom is unquestionably more than adequate justification for me, because I am just imparting to ordinary people what he wrote specifically for ordinary people.

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Nor was he the only one to do this. As a matter of fact, others of the ancients as well devote the bulk of their studies to the people in this way when they composed homilies.

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For they rightly kept that guideline of Paul's that all the endowments which God has conferred on his servants ought to be utilized for the edification of everyone.

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They also knew that the more anyone was in need of their services, the greater the obligation on them.

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For in view of the fact that after Paul had been caught up in the third heaven and had seen secrets unutterable to man, but yet still declared himself under an obligation to the simple and uneducated, how could the ancients exempt themselves from that stipulation?

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Therefore, just as they would have very inadequately discharged what was their duty if they had not put to common use the skills they had received from God, so too would we be invidious by failing to impart to the people of God what is theirs.

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Likewise, the people themselves would be lacking in gratitude were they not eager to take up the is a further consideration.

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Among us, it does not always happen that those charged with the ministry of the churches are sufficiently versed in Greek and Latin as to be able to understand the ancient writers in the original.

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Yet I think it is widely recognized, just wait a minute, he is taking it as a given that it is a blessing to be able to access the early church fathers in original language, and that this is something ministers should seek to be doing.

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He has a very high view of the calling of the ministry, there's no question about that. In addition to this point, there is a further consideration.

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Among us, it does not always happen, okay, I just said that, that those charged the ministry of the churches are sufficiently versed in Greek and Latin to be able to understand the ancient writers in the original.

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Yet I think it is widely recognized how important it is that a pastor of the church knows what the nature of the ancient form of the church was, and that he is equipped with at least some knowledge of antiquity.

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And so in this respect, too, this work of mine could be fruitful, as everyone may admit, for no one denies that it is proper for all those responsible for Christian education to be familiar with this kind of writing.

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Very clearly, once again, Calvin does not see himself as separated from the same church that Chrysostom preached in.

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He doesn't pretend that there have not been developments, changes, he's not going to say

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Chrysostom is perfect in all things, but the point is he does not see a, this is, we've started a new church.

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Okay, that's one of the caricatures of the Reformation, we need to start all over again, we're starting from scratch.

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No, they didn't say that. So when people are talking about, you know, the great tradition and stuff like that, we have, again,

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I don't know where it's archived, Razor's Kiss had it. If you go back to the 1990s, not the one that I stopped with Calvin in 2018 at PRBC, but it was also at PRBC, 1990s,

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I did an entire series, it wasn't as long, I went a little bit slower the second time around, but I did an entire series on church history and you will hear me saying the exact same thing when

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I get to the Reformation. This isn't a disputable point. Right now, people are going, hey, look, in reality, they saw themselves as a continuation of the church and they were just getting rid of bad stuff and accretions.

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Yeah, duh, nothing new about that. We read Schaff too. Anyway, yet there will maybe be some people around who will only manage this with the help of a translation, but to avoid giving the impression of dragging on about such a sensitive issue,

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I will not press the point further. My reason for selecting Chrysostom as the most preferable needs, likewise, to be dealt with in passing.

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From the outset, the reader ought to bear in mind the kind of literary genre it is in which I prefer him to others.

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Although homilies are something which consists of a variety of elements, the interpretation of scripture is, however, their priority.

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In this area, no one of sound judgment would deny that our

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Chrysostom excels all the ancient writers currently extant. This is especially true when he deals with the

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New Testament, for the lack of Hebrew prevented him from showing so much expertise in the

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Old Testament. And so to avoid giving the impression of either making an ill -considered judgment on such an important matter or doing an injustice to other writers,

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I will summarize my reasons for bestowing on him the praise he deserves. Among the Greeks whose works are extant today, there was no one of distinction before him or even in his own age except Origen, Athanasius, Basil, and Gregory.

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Yet Origen obscures very much the plain meaning of scripture with constant allegories.

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With the other three, there can be no comparison because we do not possess any complete commentaries of theirs which may be compared with those of Chrysostom.

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But from the fragments which do survive, one may suspect that the latter two had more of an aptitude for oratory than for literary exposition.

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Of those in a generation after that, the foremost is Cyril, an outstanding exegete indeed, and someone who among the

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Greeks can be rated second to Chrysostom. He cannot, however, match him. Theophilact cannot be better assessed than with the observation that anything commendable he has, he took from Chrysostom.

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Ouch, slam. There is no need to review more writers about whom there can be notice for you.

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As regard the Latin writers, works by Tertullian and Cyprian of this kind have perished. Nor do we possess many of Hillary's works.

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His commentaries on the Psalter do little towards an understanding of the mind of the prophet. His canons on Matthew certainly contain more of consequence, but there too the most important faculty of an interpreter is missing, lucidity.

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Well, they're dead, so he can just be honest. But did you notice what he said? Nor do we possess many of Hillary's works.

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His commentaries on the Psalter do little towards an understanding of the mind of the prophet.

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Did you catch that? So what Calvin is saying is you need to know what the original author meant to communicate.

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And remember, no, that has not been in the refrigerator for months, don't worry.

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It's fairly fresh, for those of you wondering. And remember, one of the discussions going on right now is the accusation that Calvin was a

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Judaizer because when he interpreted the Psalms, he interpreted them in the

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Hebrew, in their original context, and very often rejected later Christian interpretations of particular, not

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New Testament interpretations, but Christian interpretations of particular passages. More to say about that sometime in the future.

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What Jerome wrote on the Old Testament has deservedly very little reputation among scholars, for he is almost completely bogged down in allegories by which he distorts scripture with too much license.

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His commentaries on the Gospel of Matthew and on two epistles of Paul are tolerable, except that they savor of a man not sufficiently experienced in church affairs.

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I personally find it fascinating to get these personal feelings on Calvin's part, especially given the context in which he's writing.

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I find that interesting. I'm sure there's no one watching right now, but anyway. Better and more profitable than him is

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Ambrose, even if he is very laconic. There is no one after Chrysostom who comes closer to the plain sense of scripture.

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Notice, that's Calvin's standard. And when you read his commentaries, that's why his commentaries are still so blessedly useful.

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For if he had been equipped with a learning commensurate with his preeminence in natural acumen, judgment, and subtlety, he would perhaps be reckoned as the prime expositor of scripture.

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It is beyond dispute that Augustine does surpass everyone in dogmatics. He is also a very scrupulous biblical commentator of the first rank, but he is far too ingenious.

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This results in him being less sound and reliable. The chief merit of our

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Chrysostom is this. He took great pains everywhere not to deviate in the slightest from the genuine, plain meaning of scripture and not to indulge in any license of twisting the straightforward sense of the words.

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I am only saying what will be acknowledged by those who are both in a position to make a correct assessment and who will not hesitate to state the fact.

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I admit there are also things in him in which he is inferior to others and which deserve criticism, even if they are not compared with the writings of others.

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But since we know that while all things are ours, we belong to the one Christ, let us by all means make use of this favor of the

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Lord. I am saying let us make a frank assessment of everything that has been written, but respectfully and impartially, and let us not accept anything unless it has been subjected to scrutiny.

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For all the servants of Christ certainly did not intend what they wrote to be exempt from the rule which

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Paul fixes even for the very angels. And to enable this work of Chrysostom to be read with less disfavor and more benefit,

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I will indicate in passing aspects with which I am not entirely happy, so that alerted readers may be more readily on their guard against them."

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Wow. It sounds like Calvin is saying let's listen to Chrysostom in his own context.

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Let's listen honestly. Let's listen graciously. Let's learn where we can learn.

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And at the same time, when there's stuff to be criticized, we'll criticize it.

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Yay. Good job. By being unrestrained in asserting human free will and in claiming the merits of works, he obscures somewhat the grace of God in our election and calling, and thereby the gratuitous mercy which accompanies us from our calling right up to death.

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Isn't that the very issue?

01:00:03

You know, Twitter recently, someone mentioned the

01:00:11

Manichaeans again. Called Calvinism nothing but Manichaean Gnosticism. I was just like, ugh.

01:00:19

And it just reminded me of what we had gone through in 2020 and going back.

01:00:27

And the ease, I mean, if you want to find early church writers who do exactly this, being unrestrained and asserting human free will, claiming the merits of works, it's easy to find that because that's the natural human bent.

01:00:51

But I was looking once again at Diognetus, the epistle to Diognetus, and looking at Clement and going, see, there's the scriptural

01:01:03

Pauline concept being found in these men, in what they are saying very clearly, which you don't find in others.

01:01:18

Anyway, firstly, he attempts to link election to some consideration of our works. Scripture, though, proclaims everywhere that there is nothing by which

01:01:26

God may be moved to elect us except our pathetic condition, and that it is not base's decision to come to our aid on anything except his own goodness.

01:01:34

Secondly, to some extent, Christism divides the credit for our calling between God and ourselves, though Scripture consistently ascribes the whole of it to God without qualification.

01:01:44

On free will, he speaks in such a way as if it were of great importance for the pursuit of virtue and the keeping of the divine law.

01:01:51

Yet on the evidence of his word, the Lord everywhere deprives us of all capacity for doing good and leaves us with no virtue other than that which he himself supplies through his spirit.

01:02:01

Therefore, he also ascribes more to works than is right, since he appears to base our righteousness in the eyes of God on them to some extent.

01:02:09

Yet there is nothing which Scripture so strongly emphasizes as that one should ascribe to God the entire credit for justification, and since our achievements and everything which is ours have been condemned as incapable of acceptance.

01:02:23

Consequently, not only is he himself just, but by his gratuitous goodness, he justifies his followers, not on account of any merit or worth—any worth or merit, sorry—belonging to works, rather by faith in Jesus Christ.

01:02:37

Yet it is hard to believe that Christensen was so naive about Christian teaching as not to be aware either of the afflicted condition of humanity or of the grace of God that is the sole remedy for its distress.

01:02:49

But the reasons which forced him into this position are clear. We are aware how the teaching handed down by the

01:02:55

Scriptures about the blindness of human nature, the perversity of the heart, the impotence of the mind, and the incorruption of the entire character accords little with common sense—ready?

01:03:07

Wake up now—with common sense and the opinions of philosophers. Ba -doom -boom.

01:03:15

Oh, I'm almost done with this. Wow. Little with common sense and the opinions of philosophers.

01:03:22

And there were philosophers at that time who used to censure that very much about our religion with the aim of alienating some people from it.

01:03:35

Our Christ system considered it his duty to rebut their scoffing and crafty stratagems. But since no better method of answering them was available, he modified his own opinion in such a way as to avoid being too great at variance with public opinion.

01:03:50

This, therefore, seems to be the main reason why he both talked very vaguely about predestination and conceded so much to our free will.

01:03:59

The intention of this was undoubtedly to deny all opportunity for the softest slanderers.

01:04:06

Their explicit aim was to pour scorn on what were straightforward assertions on these matters in accordance with God's Word.

01:04:14

That was not at all, I grant, a sufficiently good reason for him to depart from the plain meaning of Scripture.

01:04:19

For it is certainly not right for God's truth to make way for human opinion. To the former, all human thinking ought to be subjected as if captive, and all minds ought to be made consciously obedient to it.

01:04:33

But since it is true that Christ system's objective was simply to free himself from the enemies of the cross of Christ, an undoubtedly good intention such as this, for all its lack of success, is still deserving of some sympathy.

01:04:47

Now, we could really have a discussion, because here is

01:04:53

Calvin dealing with something we have to deal with all the time, reading almost anything in church history.

01:05:04

And that is, how do you deal with when they do follow philosophers and human traditions, and yet they're so good over here in this subject and so good over there in that subject?

01:05:15

You have to read the early fathers with a biblical lens in front of your eye.

01:05:26

So when people turn that around and make the fathers the lens, what suffers?

01:05:33

Well, that's the question. Almost done. I know it's past the hour, but in another respect, he was under even more pressure.

01:05:42

For there were many people in the church whose lives were shameful and licentious.

01:05:48

When confronted by their pastors, they had a ready pretext for their slackness. This was that it could on no account be imputed to them that they lived in accordance with their carnal desires, since in fact they were compelled to sin necessarily by the defectiveness of their nature.

01:06:04

As long as they were not assisted by the grace of God, it was not in their power, they argued, to surmount that relentless compulsion.

01:06:10

In addition, with typical evasiveness, they had the irreligious and dishonorable habit of putting the blame for their sins, which lay within themselves, on to God, the author of all things good and certainly not the cause of anything evil.

01:06:24

There were also some individuals who used to prattle about fate. This holy man,

01:06:30

Chrysostom, had every reason to challenge shirkers of this kind, but since he was not very sure about the means of subduing them, whereby he might shake them of their complacency and deprive them of every excuse, he had the habit of saying the following, that no person was prepared for spiritual benefit by the grace of God in such a way as to preclude some contribution of his own as well.

01:06:55

Such a formulation is not particularly consistent with the Holy Spirit's manner of speaking, but this is just what

01:07:01

I indicated initially, that this trusty minister of Christ did deviate somewhat from the right way, although he had the best of intentions.

01:07:11

Yet just as lapses of this kind in such a great manner are easily excused, so it is important that a devout reader is reminded not to be diverted from the plain truth by Chrysostom's authority.

01:07:23

Did you catch that? You probably fell asleep. Let me try it again.

01:07:29

Yet just as lapses of this kind in such a great manner are easily excused, so it is important that a devout reader is reminded not to be diverted from the plain truth by Chrysostom's authority.

01:07:45

So he recognized that Chrysostom has an authority by virtue of his life and his writings and things like that, but that there is a higher authority by which

01:07:57

Chrysostom has to be judged. That higher authority has always been available to every generation.

01:08:07

Scripture itself. Scripture itself. One and a quarter paragraphs left, okay?

01:08:15

Furthermore, apart from that careful concern for straightforward and authentic interpretation, which

01:08:21

I have mentioned, you will find in those homilies much historical material.

01:08:27

So notice, he wants straightforward and authentic interpretation of the text.

01:08:33

No twisting, no playing around, no allegories. What is the text saying?

01:08:40

From this, you will gain insight into the kind of office and authority of bishops had at that time, as well as the precepts by which the populace was kept duty bound.

01:08:51

What sort of discipline there was among the clergy and what kind among the people themselves.

01:08:57

How responsible the former was precluding an irresponsible abuse of power entrusted to them. How much respectfulness there was in the latter, avoiding the semblance of any degree of contempt for a regime so greatly commended by the

01:09:09

Lord. What sanctity characterized their meetings and how greatly they were frequented with the spread of religion.

01:09:16

What kind of ceremonies there were and to what end they were instituted. Unquestionably, these are things really worth knowing about.

01:09:24

So the historical background, he's saying, you'll learn so much about the history of the period. And he says, these are things really worth knowing about.

01:09:32

Well, I'll have to be honest with you, the vast majority of evangelicals say, why? Why? And I'm not sure how many people can give a meaningful answer.

01:09:46

I mean, it seems so obvious to me. Don't we want to know something about what the spirit of God has done in the past?

01:09:54

Are we so important? Anyway, last few sentences and it just breaks off, just stops.

01:10:06

In fact, if we want helpful discussion on the welfare of the church, no more appropriate ways to be found, at least in my opinion, than to resort to the model from the early church.

01:10:15

On the other hand, whenever both an ecclesiastical, that's it.

01:10:26

That's where it breaks off. Never finished it. Middle of the sentence. You know,

01:10:32

I've read stories of how Calvin would wake up, especially during the really difficult times in his ministry, wake up in the morning and find a musket ball embedded in the wall above his bed.

01:10:54

And you just, you can't help but wonder what interrupted him, what made him put the pen down, put the papers away.

01:11:05

And obviously after he died, Theodore Beza or somebody going through his papers, because that's about all he had.

01:11:15

You cannot accuse Calvin of ever having used his position to enrich himself because he didn't.

01:11:27

He was a pastor's pastor. He really was. He has been given a very false persona by his enemies down through the centuries, but he truly did want to benefit the church.

01:11:49

And the whole reason that he wanted to undertake this project was that he felt it would be of benefit to believers in the pews in his day to hear the ancient words of John Chrysostom once again.

01:12:10

With some correction, with some interaction, I would love to have seen the notes, wouldn't have you?

01:12:17

It would have been great. That never happened. I mean, when you look at the volume of literature he did produce, given the pressures and the context, my little...

01:12:38

Nothing, nothing in comparison to what he produced. And there aren't too many people that can produce the kind of literature he did that still speaks today.

01:12:53

That's the thing. I am not some worshiper of Calvin. Calvin would have run me out of Geneva, but the fact is when

01:13:05

I pull that edition of the

01:13:10

Institutes there, you know, I'm going to have to bring it in. I did have a leather -bound edition of the

01:13:19

Institutes made. This was... See, I've been doing the leather -bound thing long before Jeffrey Rice came along. And I think

01:13:27

I've told the story. We had a... We knew of a Jehovah's Witness who did leather binding of books.

01:13:37

And so I had a bunch of stuff made because it was a way of maybe introducing him to stuff, you know, trying to get literature in his hands, you know, that kind of thing.

01:13:48

And he did a good job, too. I have the two -volume bound into one volume.

01:13:55

Brown leather in the other room. I'll have to grab it sometime. Maybe it would do well in the background back here.

01:14:04

Replace some of this other stuff back here. Now I'm just looking to make sure I don't have it back there because I'm trying to remember where in the world it went and why it isn't in here.

01:14:14

I'll try to grab it. Anyway, don't worship the man. Don't praise the man.

01:14:21

Recognize his faults. But oh my goodness, there aren't a lot of men like him around these days.

01:14:32

There really, really aren't. And I'm just so thankful that we still have what he gave to us.

01:14:40

Because as I've said, you read the Institutes and the description I've given, and we have lots of new...

01:14:46

We don't have any new people listening right now. They've all fallen asleep. But the description

01:14:53

I've used over and over again is the ink still smudges in the Institutes.

01:14:58

Not everywhere. But there's so much that is just so relevant.

01:15:06

And when you read historical stuff, you know, as he was rather honest in the preface, yeah, you know,

01:15:16

Jerome, yeah, you know, you read some folks and it's like, well, okay, it's really interesting because it tells a lot about what was going on back then.

01:15:26

But it just doesn't communicate today. And somehow Calvin could write in a way still communicates today.

01:15:35

And that's certainly beyond me. But there you go.

01:15:43

So next week, be ready. You know, maybe we'll come up with some idea.

01:15:50

I don't know. But the idea is beautiful Jeffrey Rice Rebind, Legacy of the

01:15:56

Standard Bible. Everything that we get for it goes to the project, finish paying it off.

01:16:06

I'm not sure exactly where we are on that, but you all have been so generous and so kind in going to ailment .org,

01:16:16

going to the donate page, pull down menu. It's bottom one down there. And so when

01:16:22

I pull out this weekend and head for Georgetown, Texas, I'm going to be in prior

01:16:29

Oklahoma. I'm going to be just, I think, south of Nashville. And I'm going to be meeting with the same brothers in Louisiana that I got together with when we talked about Oneness Pentecostalism, just salt of the earth folks.

01:16:50

It's so great to get in touch with those folks. As I'm doing that, and as we will be able to be doing the dividing line someplace other than a kitchen table, it's because you all have made that possible for us.

01:17:06

I'm thinking it was probably October of last year that I all of a sudden was sitting there.

01:17:17

I think I remember what RV park I was at and going, you know, there might be a way to do this better.

01:17:29

And I do remember which one it was. I've stayed there a number of times.

01:17:36

And what? I'm sorry?

01:17:47

Oh, at the conference, the Postmillennialism and Theonomy Conference.

01:17:53

That's all over the place. That's why I just mentioned it in passing. It's been sold out for six months.

01:18:00

So that's why I wasn't talking about that. I remember sitting there going, is there a

01:18:13

RV close to this size that would have bunks in the back that would allow us to convert the bedroom into a webcast studio?

01:18:24

And I'll tell you, this was one of the first ones I found. I went looking for other stuff. I really, really did.

01:18:31

But I could not find anything that did this, gave us this opportunity, and was still less than 35 feet in length.

01:18:41

Um, so no, no washer dryer necessary.

01:18:47

No. I'll let Josh Bice have the washer and dryer. Hey, if I had my family and a bunch of kids in there, yeah, okay.

01:18:57

I'm not interested in going down to the KOA laundromat for that, obviously.

01:19:06

But for me, just me, myself, and I, it's perfect.

01:19:12

It's great. It's awesome. I know we're going to have some hiccups. I know it's going to, and it's probably all going to be all my fault.

01:19:19

I mean, I'm sure Rich has put it together just perfectly. At least that's what he tells me.

01:19:25

But I'm looking forward to it. Don't forget, we'll be making the Bible available. Thanks for listening to Storytime with Grandpa Jimmy.

01:19:33

Hopefully that was useful to you. We'll see Lord Willa next Tuesday from the road.