Gataker-Gouge-Downame on Final Justification

The English counterpart to Diodati’s Annotations is written by a group of Divines, the most well-known of whom are Thomas Gataker, William Gouge, and John Downame. The cite Diodati with high praise in the foreword. They have a different reading of James 2 than Diodati though and are closer to Preston. Commenting [...]

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John Preston on Faith, Works, and Double Justification

Continuing with the series on future justification(s), I would like to now give a slightly different perspective. I don’t think it is wholly at odds with Diodati or Pictet (later writers could combine the perspectives without much trouble), but it certainly reads James differently. Rather than appealing to two different types of justification, [...]

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Benedict Pictet on Final Justification

Pictet represents a nearly identical position as Diodati’s. There were other views, as we will see in a few posts to come, but this concept of “the Justification of the Righteous” and how they are judged by the evangelical standard is one way which the Reformed doctors sought to harmonize Paul and James. [...]

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Robert Rollock on Temporary Faith

Rollock explains that temporary faith is different from historical faith (and other sorts of non-soteric faith) and that it shares many elements with justifying faith. Rollock says:

The reason of the name is this; it is called Temporary, because it endures but for a time, because it hath no root.
It hath the same object [...]

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John Diodati on Final Justification

Commenting on James 2:21, Diodati writes:

We must of necessity distinguish the meaning of this word justifie, which is used by St. Paul, for absolving a man as he is in his natural state, bound to the law, and subject to damnation for his sin, which God doth by a rigid act of justice, that requireth [...]

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The Sanctuary and Tree of Life

Or Adam and Uzziah,
Even more Barker:
In his Hymns on Paradise [Ephrem the Syrian]… compared the sin of Adam and the sin of King Uzziah, who took the incense and went into the temple, despite the protests of the priests (2 Chron. 26:16-21) and was punished with leprosy. Ephrem compared the veil which should not [...]

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Rivers of Life

Again with Barker:
In Christian interpretations of Genesis, the river which divided into four streams to water the earth was a symbol of Christ who, through the four Gospels, brought life to the earth (e.g. in Hippolytus’ Commentary on Daniel I.17).  The streams flowing from the sanctuary passed into the Christian liturgy; at the end of [...]

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Meet Joe Black

I just watched this for the first time.  It is an absolutely perfect movie, that is until the final scene.
There’s no way you resolve something like the realization that you gave your heart to Death, and they should have ended the thing with Pitt and Hopkins walking over the bridge.  It would have been immortal [...]

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Temple, World, and Ark

Explaining the symbolism of the temple, Margaret Barker writes:
Before examining this Eden motif in general detail, it is necessary to look at the overall plan of the temple to see how it was thought to represent the firmament set in the seas from which the creation arose. There was an enormous bronze basin in [...]

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Jewish Roots for the Trinity

Peter Escalante showed me this wonderful page on The Jewish Roots of Eastern Christian Mysticism. There’s so much good stuff there, but I can recommend Michel Barnes’ on the Holy Spirit as a good place to get started (if you’ve got the time).
I’m not sure about all of these writers’ views of Scripture, but [...]

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