It’s Fall — New Musings (09/23/2024)

Riddleblog and Blessed Hope Updates:

  • There’s a new picture of my family on my Instagram account if anyone is interested—taken at my 70th birthday celebration (Geezerfest 2024) thrown for me by my dear wife. I did get to chase all the guests off my lawn as a bonus. But there were no visible clouds to yell at, so I missed out on that.

  • Just passed 50K downloads on Buzzsprout! A huge milestone for the Blessed Hope Podcast! Thanks for listening!

  • I tackle the matter of idolatry in upcoming episodes of the Blessed Hope Podcast (1 Corinthians 8-10). I think you’ll find them both fascinating (given the Greco-Roman cultural context) and relevant to us—how does Paul’s discussion of “idol food” apply in the present?

Thinking Out Loud:

  • Why do presidential candidates keep telling us that “on day one” they’ll do x,y, and z, when what they claim to want done usually can only be done through legislation, something Congress must do. This is but another indication that Congress has ceded far too much power to the executive branch and that presidential candidates glibly make promises they know they cannot keep—“I’m shocked! Shocked to find that politiking is going on in here.”

  • A “now that I’m 70” rant . . . Do E-bikes drive anyone else crazy? The lakes and campgrounds of the Eastern Sierras were full of them. Far too often riders ignore basic rules of the road, placing themselves in danger. Dads take the point, often with the wife and kids in tow, with all on their own E-bikes. Then he leads his family off the bike trail and on to the roadway. Such folks don’t know what they are doing, and become a menace to themselves and others. Now E-bikes are all over Orange County. Keep out of my driveway!

  • I enjoyed the Netflix series Wyatt Earp and the Cowboy War. Not perfect, but better than most “the real story” series. It will make Tombstone interesting to watch next time since much of the movie was not exactly accurate (but hey, it is still a great movie).

  • The 2024 USC Trojan football team has introduced this strange and long-forgotten thing called “a defense.” I recall such a thing back in the Pete Carroll days, but haven’t seen much of one since.

  • The Hitler Rant YouTube shtick is played out. Enough already.

Highly Recommended:

I’ve been intending to recommend this for some time. The two volumes of the Leiden Synopsis (Synopsis of a Purer Theology) in a readable and affordable English translation have been published by The Davenant Institute (in 2023). You can get both volumes from Amazon for about $50.00. Well worth it.

The Synopsis Purioris Theologiae [Synopsis of a Purer Theology] was first published in 1625 as a textbook in systematic theology offering a concise but thorough presentation of Reformed theology for use in ministerial training in the years following the Synod of Dort.

The Synopsis began as a series of fifty-two disputations held at the University pf Leiden (in the Netherlands) between 1620–1624. Four professors, Johannes Polyander (1568-1646), Andreas Rivetus (1572-1651), Antonius Walaeus (1573-1639), and Antonius Thysius (1603-65), prepared fifty-two disputations, which were a series of academic theses presented on a given topic, which were often defended by a junior colleague or a theology student. The Synopsis spans the full-range of theological topics beginning with the inspiration of Scripture, ending with eternal life, death, and the consummation of all things.

Mike Horton says of the Synopsis:

The Leiden theology faculty was the “Sorbonne” of Reformed orthodoxy. And the Leiden Synopsis represented the consensus after the Synod of Dort. Weaving into its exegetical arguments support from patristic and medieval sources, the authors display the catholic and evangelical spirit of Reformed theology. Avoiding internecine disputes, the Synopsis focuses on the doctrines that all Reformed Christians confess. Given its spirit, scope and learned arguments, it deserves to inform the tradition today as it did so persuasively in the past.

This is a wonderful and helpful set. Keep these volumes on hand—they are very useful and you’ll find yourself turning to them quite often. 

Recommended Links:

Having Fun Sort of Links:

Prior Musings: End of Summer Musings (8/26/2024)

Video: Like some pre-historic beast, UP’s Big Boy awakens, backs up on to the mainline, and then departs from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on its Fall 2024 tour.

MusingsKim Riddlebarger1 Comment