The Biblical Doctrine of Regeneration (eBook)
 Edited by John Hendryx
Since faith is infinitely beyond all the power of our unregenerated human nature, it is only God who can give the spiritual ears to hear and eyes to see the beauty of Christ in the gospel. God alone disarms the hostility of the sinner turning his heart of stone to a heart of flesh (2 Cor 4:4-6). It is God, the Holy Spirit, alone who gives illumination and understanding of His word that we might believe; It is God who raises us from the death of sin, who circumcises the heart; unplugs our ears; It is God alone who can give us a new sense, a spiritual capacity to behold the beauty and unsurpassed excellency of Jesus Christ. The apostle John recorded Jesus saying to Nicodemus that we naturally love darkness, hate the light and WILL NOT come into the light (John 3:19, 20). And since our hardened resistance to God is thus seated in our affections, only God, by His grace, can lovingly change, overcome and pacify our rebellious disposition. The natural man, apart from the quickening work of the Holy Spirit, will not come to Christ on his own since he is at enmity with God and cannot understand spiritual things (1 Cor 2:14). Shining a light into a blind man's eyes will not enable him to see, because eyesight first requires a set of healthy eyes.
On Keeping the Heart (eBook)
 by John Flavel
Modernized
In ePub, .mobi and .pdf formatsProverbs 4:23 says to keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Our hearts are like fortresses under attack, and we must guard them accordingly. Most people will diligently guard their fortunes and homes, which are of temporal value, but they are very careless about guarding that which is of eternal value their very souls! In this work, originally titled A Saint Indeed, John Flavel (1627 1691) looks at what it means to keep the heart, how to keep the heart, and why keeping the heart is the greatest business of every person. The heart of man is his worst part before it is regenerated—and the best afterward. It is the seat of principles, and the fountain of actions. The eye of God is fixed upon it—and the eye of the Christian ought to be principally fixed upon it.
Systematic Theology
 by Louis Berkhof
You may also download the separate Introductory Volume to Systematic Theology here. Professor Berkhof, who was the President of Calvin Seminary and professor of Systematic Theology at the same in the first half of the twentieth century, has given us an excellent compendium of Reformed theological thought in this hefty volume. The subject is treated in the classical style, moving through the Doctrines of God, Man in Relation to God, the Person and Work of Christ, the Application of the Work of Redemption, the Church and the Means of Grace, and the Last Things. For decades, Louis Berkhof’s Systematic Theology has remained one of the most important and widely-used systematic theologies. It provides the clearest and most succinct articulation of Reformed theology. From its first publication in 1932, Berkhof’s work was revised, reprinted, and translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese, and it had become a standard theological text by 1950. It has gained near-universal use in seminaries and Bible colleges across the world, and is widely cited and used by pastors, theologians, and students of nearly all denominational affiliations.
A Practical Exposition of the Lord's Prayer
 by Thomas Manton
SUCH is the divine matter and admirable order of the Lord’s Prayer, as became the eternal wisdom of God, that composed and dictated it to his disciples. In it are opened the fountains of all our regular petitions, and the arguments contained to encourage our hopes for obtaining them. In our addresses to men, our study is to conciliate their favourable audience; but God is most graciously inclined and ready to grant our requests, therefore we are directed to call upon him by the title of ‘Our Father in heaven,’ to assure us of his love and power, and thereby to excite our reverent attention, to raise our affections, to confirm our confidence in prayer. The supreme end of our desires is the glory of God, in conjunction with our own happiness: this is expressed in the two first petitions, that ‘his name may be hallowed,’ and ‘his kingdom come,’ that we may partake of its felicity. In order to this, our desires are directed for the means that are proper and effectual to accomplish it. And those are of two kinds — the good things that conduct us, and the removal of those evils that obstruct our happiness.
Introductory Volume to Systematic Theology (eBook)
 by Louis Berkhof
This volume is a prolegomena for Berkhof's SystematicTheology. In it he defines the concept of dogmatic theology, theology, apologetics, ethics, and science. He also explains the Reformed doctrine of revelation and inspiration. It exxplains what is a theology and how should it be defined? Is theology necessary? What is the task of theology and what are the methods which it should use? What is religion? Is it possible for God to reveal himself to human beings, and how? How can we know if the Bible is the Word of God? For those who are considering going to Seminary, to be pastors or simply Christians with ample knowledge of their faith, this is a good book to begin with. This is a very helpful volume in understanding the foundational matters of theology, ranging from the nature of Dogmatics, to the grounds of our knowledge of God, to the doctrines concerning scripture. Berkhof spends a fair amount of time discussing the differing theologies of Rome, Schleiermacher, Barth, etc. but he does it to show how they contrast with the true and full Christian Theology, namely the Reformed tradition. ----- TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface The Idea and History of Dogmatic Theology I. Names Applied to the Systematic Presentation of Theology
|
