Predestiniarianism and Covenant

HT fellow student Nic Lazzareschi for this Dr. Horton quote -
“Predestinarianism without the covenant becomes what Calvin warned against: the labyrinth from which we can never safely emerge.”

Memorable Moments (1)

I’ve decided I need to start keeping a record of memorable seminary, or seminary-related, moments… They’re just too good to not record. (In no particular order:)

1) The fientive squirrel. Fientive squirrels only run up certain branches on the tree of Hebrew binyanim. Ironically, while I remember the fientive squirrel really well (we’re still making jokes about it), I can’t remember which branches he runs up!

2) One of the ending bits from Dr. Horton’s lectures on covenant theology in Christian Mind last fall: “Theology exists so that believers may faithfully invoke God as He has revealed Himself in Christ and redemptive history, so that He may be invoked in trouble and praised in deliverance.”

3) The outside of Hebrew III was generally full of memorable moments as the class collectively tried to figure out how to wrap our minds around the mysteries of Hebrew syntax. There was also that time four of us studied together for our mid-term (on OT textual criticism), which included a section on the Hebrew names and order of the Old Testament books. This prompted a highly entertaining study session in the library’s atrium. I don’t remember everything that went on in exact detail, but I do remember that never have I laughed so hard in a study group.

4) At the end of last Fall term:

After I handed in my papers, I went to the bookstore hoping to finish copying some notes before I had an appointment with one of my professors, but I found it full of students and our Dean of Women Students, to whom I went over to talk. I was explaining that I find papers more stressful than exams because I’m the one in control of the paper, whereas there’s only so much you can do about an exam. She said that she’s the opposite: she prefers exams over papers for the exact same reason. This prompted the following exchange:

Me: Well, I just have a high view of Providence.
DWS: *laughs* Well, I just always had a high view of prayer, as in, “Please, Lord, help me know how to answer this question!”

5) A few weeks ago, five of us (four students + one wife) went to In’N'Out together. Because few such conversations can go on for long in most settings without touching on various aspects of Two Kingdom theology, we did eventually turn our attention to our indirect founder, J. Gresham Machen, who was declared to be “so totally punk rock.”

6) Christian Mind again:

Dr. Horton: *frowns at the clock* What time do we get out? 12:40?
*Class agrees*
Dr. Horton: I was born without the category of time. It just doesn’t work.
Student: Were you also born without the category of break?

7) Sitting outside while waiting for Hebrew to start only to see Dr. Horton pass by several times because he forgot the exams for his Doctrine of God class and then again because he forgot the course evaluations. One of the students asked him if he was out for his morning run, and he laughingly replied in the affirmative.

8) Three of us were standing in the hallway of Faculty Row needing to talk to Dr. Horton about our papers. Dr. Baugh walked by and made an inquiry. After the exchange, one of the students asked him about his fountain pens. Dr. Baugh replied, “18 years in post-secondary education and I’m known for fountain pens“.

9) Dr. Godfrey’s defence of Psalm-singing in Modern Church.

10) Dr. Estelle: “I’ve got you on belay.”

Morning Musings

Shortly, I will be leaving for my antepenultimate Hebrew class (thank you, Professor Allan for teaching our Latin class to think of antepenultimate events!). As an H.T. student, I only need to go through Hebrew III, so this really is my antepenultimate Hebrew class. It’s really weird to think that just a few months ago I was counting down the months until now just because I just wanted to be done with Hebrew, while now it’s not so much wanting to be done with Hebrew (which has gotten fun) as it is wanting to be done with school and go home.

Weirder still is the realisation that I’m nearly done with my first year here at Westminster. I continue to marvel at the way that I’m here despite always saying I’d never do grad school in SoCal (and I remembered that every time it showed even the slightest hint of getting into the upper-60s this past winter).

At our monthly church lunch this past Sunday, we were discussing with a new student the realisation that learning things here is a lot more subtle than it was as an undergrad. Take Christian Mind as an example. If you come in with no prior philosophical training, a lot of it is completely foreign and weird and takes time to sink in. And, at the time, it doesn’t really feel like you’ve learned all that much. But then second semester rolls around and you realise that you can recognise modernism and why it’s wrong because of those lectures on covenant epistemology. You realise that that whole archetypal/ectypal distinction actually matters and that you do use it outside of class (I mean, it’s not that you don’t know it’s important in CM, but you do so in a more abstract way). You realise that you’ve suddenly got a whole new set of categories with which you’re working and you didn’t even realise that you picked them up.

I was reading E. Y. Mullins’ Baptist Beliefs and realised that his basic underlying assumption was one of autonomy. I had to pause then as I realised that I had actually learned something in Christian Mind. Prior to that, I would have thought that something seemed off about what Mullins was saying, but I wouldn’t've known why it was coming across as a bit on the wonky side.

Finally, too, the missing pieces of the medieval church are in place. My undergrad courses concentrated pretty much solely on the political and cultural developments of the period, and so we learned about the intertwining of church and state, but the hows of religious thought were left out. In other words, this medievalist-in-training loved every one of her history courses because a) I was doing history again, yay!, and b) pre-industrial Europe was my primary emphasis and it just plain feels good to be back in pre-industrial Europe getting the remaining pieces of the picture.

And now here we are. Including today, I have three class days left. My last paper for the term is due a week from tomorrow. Then it’s three reading days and a week and a-half of finals before I’m done, and that will be that for the first year, and after a break our collective attention will turn to the fall and a new class schedule! (And I did, in the end, since it was necessary and all that, figure out how to fill in my missing units:

HT516 Theology of Sacraments (Fesko)
NT401 Greek II (Baugh)
CH701 Modern Age (Godfrey)
OT630 Intro to Aramaic and the Book of Daniel (Estelle)

Plus one directed research, translating Latin, which will be fun, because I miss doing Latin, even if I think it’s just this side of crazy to do three languages next term…

Decisions, Decisions…

I have been negligent in marking the days off on my calendar and was just doing so when I noticed that registration begins on Monday, so I scurried off to see if the Fall schedule had been posted online (especially since I haven’t been by the school to check for my registration packet), and, sure enough, it had been.

I need to take Greek II and Church in the Modern Age, so those two are set. I had wanted to take Baptist Distinctives, but the last two hours conflict with Modern Age, so I can’t. I also can’t take Reformation Seminar since it conflicts with Greek II.

So in the end I’m left with the following:

T: HT516 Theology of Sacraments (Fesko)
W: NT401 Greek II (Baugh); CH701 Modern Age (Godfrey)
R: NT401 Greek II; CH701 Modern Age
F: OT630 Intro to Aramaic and the Book of Daniel (Estelle)

This, however, only comes to 11 units, which means I have holes to fill…

The First Semester

I regret neglecting this thing so much… I should really remedy that. Particularly now that I’ve got all these lovely readings I should be writing about to cement them in my mind.

At this point, I’m almost done with my fifth week of my first semester at Westminster. I have yet to find adequate words to describe how much I’m enjoying being here — Hebrew and all. There are so many different aspects to why I’m so very glad to be here, that it’s hard to describe them as well as I’d like. Particularly when it’s nearly 11 after two hours of Ancient Church.

(I have two night classes this term, and I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with them: I enjoy them, but I do not enjoy their time slot.)

I am, however, back at square one on my thesis. I spoke briefly with Dr. Clark about it after class one day, and after mulling over his comments, and musing on what I did love in my undergraduate work, I tossed my line of thought. I should probably go revisit the subject with him sooner rather than later.

I have two research projects before me this term: a paper for my Puritanism class and a paper for Christian Mind. The former will be more fun than the latter, I can tell already. (Well, the former involves a time period I have a working knowledge of, a subject that I have a working knowledge of, and I’m really curious about it. The latter, however, while I’m really interested in the topic, presents a far greater challenge in that I don’t really have any of the working knowledge that I have for the other. Plus, doing pure history is just really fun, and I don’t have nearly enough practice doing theological papers to say that they’re fun.)

(Hm. That was a really long paranthetical statement.)

At this hour, suffice it to say that it’s a wonderful thing to know that you’re exactly where God wants you at exactly the time He wants you there, and that’s how life is right now. The rest of the musings will keep till another day.