‘Praise
the Lord’. Psalms 146 and 147 began and ended with these words. Now, we
find the same beginning and ending in each of these three Psalms -
‘Praise the Lord’. Our personal song of praise to God - ‘Praise be to
the Lord my Rock... I will sing a new song to You, O God... I will exalt
You, my God the King; I will praise Your Name for ever and ever; Every
day I will praise You... My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord... I
will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long
as I live’ (Psalm 144:1,9; Psalm 145:1-2,21; Psalm 146:2) - is just a
small part of something so much richer and fuller - ‘Let everything that
has breath praise the Lord’ (Psalm 150:6). May these great Psalms of
praise inspire us to praise the Lord more truly and more fully.
In this post, I will draw comparisons between Arminius and Berkouwer. * Bangs points out that the historical situation in Holland was not a simple one - Calvinism coming in, Arminius nearly ruining it and the Synod of Dort restoring it: “The earliest Dutch Reformed leaders don’t seem to be Calvinists at all. They rise out of the soil, here and there, nurtured by the old Dutch biblical piety, not seized by dogmatic insights, but steadily pressing toward a purified life of faith according to Scripture” (p. 21). This emphasis is similar to Berkouwer’s insistence that election is not a special gnosis for the theological elite. Rather, it is a confession of faith, arising from the hearts of those who have come to know the grace of God ( Divine Election (DE), p. 216). * Bangs observes that Arminius’ theological method is “practical and through faith”: “For the Theology which belongs to this world, is practical and through faith: Theoretical Theology belongs to the o...
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