Reformed Blogging

These verses can be very confusing until you start to do a deeper study. What does it mean to see a sin unto death and sin not unto death? Opponents of eternal security such as the Roman Catholic institution, anti-Catholic cults claiming to be Christian denominations (such as the Seventh Day Adventists), and preachers like Dan Corner will say, "I/we told you that you can lose your salvation when you sin certain sins!" I thought this would mean the sin of apostasy or the person who died in their sins. Yet, John uses the term "brother". Then again Jewish people referred to each other as such. Here's an excerpt from John F. MacArthur's article " The Sin unto Death " which somehow agrees with what I think: First, the sin in question may be that of a non-Christian leading to eternal death. In that case it would be a final rejection of Jesus Christ, such as that committed by those who attributed His miracles to the power of Satan (Matt. 12:31–32). Such u...

I'm amazed at the heresy called snake-handling or the name it and claim it. I even heard that a pastor who tried to defy the social distancing order died of Coronavirus . There's also that quack preacher named Eliseo Soriano challenges the legitimacy of Mark 16:9-20 . Soriano is hardly a Bible expositor and takes many verses straight out-of-context. Now, Mark 16:17-18 is a very difficult verse. For years, I wonder what did it mean for the apostles and for us. I was thinking about it as a sign and wonder from God for the apostles but not for us today. I can't just pick up a rattlesnake and claim it that God will protect me. On the contrary, I'm testing the Lord my God if I do that! I decided to go with Vernon McGee's explanation on Acts 28. It would be very interesting to read his commentary on Acts 28:3 which drives my speculation that the sign was only meant for the apostles. In his commentary, he stresses the following points that will go against the heresy o...

It's no secret that Matthew Henry's commentary is indeed used that much. Charles H. Spurgeon even said that every minister ought to read it entirely and carefully through once at least." I've tried reading Henry's commentary though I ran into another Presbyterian preacher named Vernon McGee. McGee himself seems to be more relatable than Henry for the modern-day English speaking preacher. It's because Henry uses Old English and the language evolves over time. I may use the King James Version (KJV) as my favorite version but I'd want to have a commentary in modern-day English. So why am I using McGee's commentary more than Henry's commentary? It's because like John F. MacArthur - he's a dispensationalist and uses a mix of historicist and futurist views for studying Revelation. Dispensationalist means having a literal interpretation and believing that the Bible is divided into time periods. Personally, I don't agree with the purely his...

The Bible is one hard book to understand in some areas. While some things are said pretty clearly - others don't use literal transliteration. It's like saying that Ahaziah was 42 years old in 2 Chronicles while saying he was 22 in 2 Kings - one talks about the amount of time from the House of Ahab to his while the other talks about his actual age. So, I decided to get some commentaries and started off with the famous commentary of Matthew Henry which is available in concise and complete. The others would include John Gill's commentary and exposition of the Bible and the "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible" by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Faussett, and David Brown. Charles H. Spurgeon heartily commended Matthew Henry's commentary and Jonathan Edwards read it on his knees.  However, I always have a problem with commentators who use the purely historicist text for this reason - prophecy should always tackle what was fulfilled in the past, the pr...

There have been a number of arguments on who the Ethiopian woman in Numbers 12 was. Some argue that Moses may have had multiple wives. Some suggest that maybe Zipporah died (yet Scripture is silent on how she died) and that he remarried for whatever reasons even if she was over 80 years old. Zipporah was the only wife that Moses was recorded in the genealogy.  There's one thing we need to remember. Moses had married in his 40s and only returned to Egypt when he was 80 years old. What was interesting was that Exodus 18:10-11 shows that Jethro was actually a pagan priest. He only became a believer in Exodus 18. Zipporah may have converted to the faith some time but her father was still an unbeliever. Also, even if Moses was married to Zipporah but you don't expect Miriam and Aaron to know their sister-in-law until they met her later in Exodus 18. Why do I believe that the Ethiopian refers to Zipporah and not to another wife? It's possible that both Aaron and Miriam h...

Yes, I'm done with John Gill's exposition after several months of reading it. It was a rich exposition though there are times I'm forced to only read one chapter instead of two or three. Some chapters are pretty long and they need more understanding than the rest. There are also shorter expositions which makes reading a little more easy. Then I reached the Book of Revelation where I had some disagreements with John Gill. On the other hand, I do still have my problems with his commentary on Revelation. When it comes to my interpretation of Revelation, I'm in between futurism and historicism. I'm definitely not a preterist to believe that Revelation was fulfilled last 70 A.D. I'm definitely not a historicist in the sense that I believe that the Antichrist is a dynasty because 1 John 2:18 says that Antichrist shall come and right now there are many antichrists. There's a distinction between the Antichrist and an antichrist. Later Reformed preachers like Art...

I gave a thought on reading commentaries to help me understand the Scriptures. Matthew Henry was already a challenge. John Gill is an even greater challenge especially with very long expositions. Reading through Psalm 119's exposition is the hardest. I had to really read it for three days before I could fully read it properly. The challenge was momentarily over then getting through later books of the Bible has been hard.  Now I'm in the Book of Acts and I'm almost done reading it but there's still Romans to Revelation. There are many long chapters in the Bible that I end up reading just one chapter per day if one chapter is that long. But there are times I want to push myself to read more because the exposition is just so beautifully written. Gill's commentary is a wealth full of information. But I must chew through my spiritual food rather nice and slow in order to understand the wealth of information that Gill's commentary provides for the Christian reade...

I'm already in reading the New Testament exposition on John Gill. What I admit is that reading the commentary has been no walk in the park. I read through Matthew Henry's commentary a few years ago and it's not much of a challenge. This time, Gill's commentary can be very long and tedious. To read without reflecting is to eat without digesting. That's how I felt when I decided to speed read the long expositions by Gill which contain a lot of meaningful insight. If I shouldn't be speed reading the Scriptures then what makes me think I should speed read any exposition? It's pretty much like eating a delicious meal. If you eat too fast then you can't savor the meal. Eating a meal in a moderate pace helps one appreciate the meal. That's what I feel about Gill's commentary for my spiritual nourishment. I can't enjoy it if I read it too fast. I should take my time to savor the delicious servings of a Scriptural exposition and read it at a modera...

I was done with reading John Gill's exposition of the Old Testament a few days ago. The Old Testament exposition was meaningful. Learning about the purpose of the ceremonial law was meaningful such as why God forbade the eating of certain meats. It was indeed set for health reasons to avoid eating anything labeled as unclean especially if one is in the Middle East. I can't get over the exposition of the prophets and I admit it wasn't easy reading through a long exposition. Based on my experience, reading an entire exposition is much heavier than reading through any of the Reformed theology books I've been reading. It's much longer than reading through the several books by John F. MacArthur and R.C. Sproul. There are times I could read several chapters a day but some of the expositions require reflection of one chapter a day. Some of these chapters are very long. It's no wonder you can't contain Gill's exposition of the whole Bible in just one book. ...

One incredibly difficult task in reading through John Gill's commentary would be Psalm 119. It's the longest chapter in the Bible and it's also located in the longest book of the Bible. Doing an exposition on the longest book of the Bible should slow any good expositor down. I don't know how many sermons any expository preacher would have dedicated to Psalm 119 compared to other chapters of the Bible. My latest challenge right now is trying to read through a very long exposition of John Gill's commentary. This would mean reading one to portions a day in contrast to reading 2-3 chapters of the wonderful commentary. By God's grace I will accomplish this task. See also: I'm Reading John Gill's Commentary on the Book of Psalms

Reading through John Gill's commentary is really no walk in the park and I'm momentarily stuck with his exposition of Psalms. It has been a long difficult process that after reading the Bible cover to cover for the nth time. I wanted to chew on my spiritual food to savor the flavor of the Word of God for the Christian life. My Bible reading has been slow trying to understand verse by verse and chapter by chapter. By God's grace I reached the Book of Psalms and I'm in the 89th chapter. The struggle isn't easy. Sin and the forces of darkness are working their way. If Satan's not there then it's one of his demons but I take note that I'm my own worst enemy. The flesh is always trying to give me an excuse not to continue the spiritual exercise of reading a thorough Bible exposition. With psalms as the longest book of the Bible I need God's grace to really read through it. Sometimes, I'm stuck with one to two chapters a day if it's going to b...

I started reading John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible around November 2016. I started reading from Genesis and now I'm in the sixteenth chapter of Job. Reading through the massive exposition of the late Gill himself gives a lot of real insights. I may not agree with everything a commentator says but reading through the commentary is a lot of hard work. It's much bigger than my first read through Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary.  Reading through an exposition gives me an idea how hard it is to take Scriptures in context, to understand Scriptures in context and to prepare expository sermons. That's why I really get mad at pastors who trash expository preaching to be "lazy" and "cheating", let me tell them that they're the ones who are cheating and lazy. It's easy to take Scriptures out of context but it's difficult to take it in context. Just reading through John Gill's verse by verse exposition gives me pleasure ...

I'm not satisfied reading the Bible cover to cover and not getting to understand more of the Hebrew, the Greek and the context. I've already finished Matthew Henry based on Charles H. Spurgeon's advice that every minister must read it carefully at least once. It's now time for me to proceed to chew on harder meat. The John Gill Commentary is a pretty long verse by verse commentary with an exposition of the Greek and Hebrew. If devotionals were milk and reading the Bible cover the first time was meat, a comprehensive Bible study is tough meat full of tendons. Do you know some of the better tasting meat are chewy and full of tendons? Reading through Gill's commentary means I might be reading through just one to three chapters a day as opposed to me trying to read as much as I can. But slow reading means I'm reflecting on the exposition in such a level. As someone who loves expository preaching, I would say the whole sermon preparation is no easy task. ...