December 2021 Ordained Servant

From the Editor: Having published Richard Gaffin’s charge to a pastor in October, it seemed a nice balance to publish John Mallin’s charge to a congregation in this issue. Each of these authors has finely tuned his sermon by preaching it many times to many pastors and congregations. These also serve as a good model for young pastors asked to give such charges.

I have taken the liberty to add some important news. The Tolle Lege Institute in Warsaw, Poland has produced a new Polish translation of The Westminster Confession of Faith. Please pray for the work of Dr. Dariusz Bryćko and his wife Brooke as they plant a church in connection with the Evangelical Reformed Church of Lithuania.

A reminder of the two resources on the Book of Revelation: Danny Olinger in The Writings of Meredith G. Kline on the Book of Revelation: Chapter 6 – “The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ” (1992); and Meredith G. Kline, A Study in the Structure of the Revelation of John, Part 4 provide an excellent place for preachers to begin preparing to preach this rich and important final book of the Bible. I have added the first three parts of Kline’s A Study in the Structure of the Revelation of John so that readers have the entire thesis.

I continue to be impressed with Alan Strange’s commentary on our Form of Government. It is destined to be of enormous help to ministers, sessions, candidates, and presbytery committees on candidates and credentials.

Robert Letham provides a review article, “Swain and Poythress on the Trinity,” with a brief recommendation of Scott Swain’s The Trinity: An Introduction and an extensive review of the comprehensive work of Vern Poythress, The Mystery of the Trinity: A Trinitarian Approach to the Attributes of God. This article is particularly germane to the present discussion of this long neglected and now often misunderstood doctrine. Letham emphasizes the importance of maintaining and defending the carefully crafted formulations of the ancient church. The Trinity is the foundation of worship and life.

Bryan Estelle, the author of Echoes of Exodus, reviews L. Michael Morales’s Exodus Old and New: A Biblical Theology of Redemption. This book represents an important contribution to biblical theology within the Reformed tradition.

Finally, T. David Gordon reviews an important tour de force by Carl Trueman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution. This book represents a profound exploration of the roots of the sexual revolution that we are in the latter stages of. Trueman demonstrates the importance of biblical anthropology as the lens through which to assess the Enlightenment and Romantic movements that have attempted to reimagine, and in some cases reconstruct, the human.

Appropriately, John Donne’s “Annunciation” celebrates with Mary the one true man’s incarnation as “Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb.” Don’t miss this poetic nugget from a premier Metaphysical poet.

Blessings in the Lamb,
Gregory Edward Reynolds

FROM THE ARCHIVES “TRINITY”

http://opc.org/OS/pdf/Subject_Index.pdf

• “Beza on the Trinity” (David C. Noe) 28 (2019): 65–76.
• “Developing a Trinitarian Mind.” (Robert Letham) 17 (2008): 91–93.

Ordained Servant exists to help encourage, inform, and equip church officers for faithful, effective, and God-glorifying ministry in the visible church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Its primary audience is ministers, elders, and deacons of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, as well as interested officers from other Presbyterian and Reformed churches. Through high-quality editorials, articles, and book reviews, we will endeavor to stimulate clear thinking and the consistent practice of historic, confessional Presbyterianism.