My First Week - ST 1

Week one is complete! Last week was my first class, which was "Systematic Theology 1", with Jeff Purswell. It was phenomenal - lots of work, but amazing. Jeff has to be the most brilliant guys I have ever met, and I am humbled by the fact that I get him as a professor and dean for the entire year. Amazing. Read more about Jeff here.

The class focused on the doctrine of the word of God - so areas such as scriptures authority, inspiration, trustworthiness - and ultimately, seeing the Bible as the culmination of God's revelation and redemptive acts for his people. I leave you with a stand-out quote from my studies:

“Scripture was written by the Holy Spirit that it might serve him in guiding the church, in the perfecting of the saints, in the building up of the body of Christ. In it God daily comes to his people. In it he speaks to his people, not from afar but from nearby. In it he reveals himself, from day to day, to believers in the fullness of his truth and Grace. Through it he works his miracles of compassion and faithfulness. Scripture is the ongoing rapport between heaven and earth, between Christ and his church, between God and his children. It does not just tie us to the past; it binds us to the living Lord in the heavens. It is the living voice of God, the letter of the omnipotent god to his creature. . . . Divine inspiration, accordingly, is a permanent attribute of Holy Scripture. It was not only “God-breathed” at the time it was written; it is “God-breathing.""

Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics 1.385.

This weeks class is "Old Testatment 1", with Bruce Chick.