John Brown - Page 73

That the apostles were not dissatisfied with that part of Paul's doctrine which was peculiarly obnoxious to the Judaising teachers, ' that gentile converts were not bound to be circumcised or submit to the Mosaic law,' was made very evident by their conduct in reference to Titus. "But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised: and that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty with we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage: to whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you." The construction of this paragraph is a little involved. Some, following a different reading from our translation, have in rendering it ;left out "no, not" in the 5th verse. They suppose that Titus was circumcised, and that the apostle is explaining the circumstance. Titus was not compelled to be circumcised, but he (Paul) acted on principles similar to those on which he took and circumcised Timothy. It is a very important remark of Dr Paley, that "whenever Paul's compliance with the Jewish law is mentioned in the history of the Acts of the Apostles, it is mentioned in connection with circumstances which point out the motives from which it proceeded, and this motive seems always exoteric, namely, a love of order and tranquillity, or an unwillingness to give unnecessary offence."

Derek Thomas - Page 38

A New Perspective?

Recent Studies in Paul ( and therefore of the letter to the Galatians ) have gone through what we might call a volte-face. This 'new perspective' insists that we have seriously misunderstood the nature of Paul's confrontation with Jewish factions in the New Testament, because we have misrepresented the nature of Pharisaism and the gospel opposition. This has, of course, serious implications for the way we understand Galatians. ....

According to this 'new perspective' the issue becomes one of Jewish intolerance of Gentiles rather than of the answer to the question of how we may become right with God. The issue becomes one of church membership ( who may be considered as belonging? ) rather than one of salvation itself ( how may we be saved? ).

Norm Better Watch Out!

I took the older 2 to Lowes this past Saturday morning and let them build a pirate ship at thier kid's workshop. The loved it. After building the rough mmodel at Lowes, we came home and they sandedand painted thier ships all by themselves!

Cuties

I had taken these pics on my phone and have not had a chance to download them until now. The one of Riley is old. The Lizzie was taken this morning.

Lazer Tag Buddy!



Piggie Tails!

Galatians

Well,


It's that time of year again. I am beginning to prep for Sunday school. Last major series I helped out with was the book of Numbers. This time I will be working through Galatians, which is really great considering all the NPP stuff going around over the past few years.









I'm going to try something new this time around and see how it works. During my preparation, I will be posting "NUGGETS" from the commentaries that I am reading. So far I have made it mostly thought the first 2 chapters of Galatians in the commentaries. So, I have some backlog to do.

For reference I am using the following Commentaries:

1. Calvin's Commentaries - John Calvin


2. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon - William Hendriksen


3. Galatians - Reformed Expository Commentary - Phillip Ryken


4. Galatians (Paul's Charter of Christian Freedom) - Leon Morris


5. The Message of Galatians - John R.W. Stott


6. Let's Study Galatians - Derek Thomas


7. Geneva Series of Commentaries (Galatians) - John Brown

Of these I highly recommend 7 & 2 if you want to get into the meat of the book. For devotional purposes, 5 & 3 would be better suited.
Please feel free and comment on the nuggets as your input will help me in planning my lessons.

Brice

Cousin Reunion

We recently went to Memphis for my grandfather's funeral and got to do some serious catching up with our cousins! We've missed cousins Nadine and Lucie, and we took the opportunity to pose in (matching, natch) our new shirts from Aunt Katie.

ABC's and 123's

We've had all kinds of new beginnings this month. Mom started teaching preschool at Grace Community School. Riley is going to the four year old class and Lizzie gets to learn sign language and other uber-important baby socialization skills, like don't hit your neighbor with your shoe, and don't eat your paper.
Porter started school today at PCS. Kindergarden is sooooo last year, and he feels very big eating lunch in the lunchroom with the other big kids. So we've got a house full of teachers and students.