Patrick O'Banion

Reading CCR: All We Need and Altogether Necessary (§I.ix-x)

For Scripture is so holy and perfect, abundantly containing whatsoever is necessary for salvation, that nothing can be added to it, and it is also so perfectly and prudently composed that nothing can be taken away from it. Girolamo Zanchi, Confession of the Christian Religion, §I.ix Now Zanchi continues with his description of the characterContinue reading “Reading CCR: All We Need and Altogether Necessary (§I.ix-x)”

Systematic Theology I: Providence & Miracles

We’re coming into the home stretch on this Systematic Theology I course. This video digs into the works of God, focusing on God’s providence and its relationship to things like miracles, concursus, convergence, preservation, and so forth. It turns out that the easy distinctions that we want to make between creation and providence don’t divideContinue reading “Systematic Theology I: Providence & Miracles”

This Splendid Banner: The Missional Vermigli

Just as nothing can equal your name, so we desire that it be both acknowledged and worshiped by all mortals. This will be done if, just as you often rescued your people from grave dangers, so in the present you look upon them, give them strength, and grant them true salvation when the enemies ofContinue reading “This Splendid Banner: The Missional Vermigli”

Systematic Theology I: Creation Ex Nihilo

In this video from the Systematic Theology I course that I taught a few months for a school in South Asia, we delve into the works of God. For the sake of clarity in discussion, the works of God (“ad extra”) are often distinguished into three categories: the divine decree, creation, providence. This video givesContinue reading “Systematic Theology I: Creation Ex Nihilo”

Reading CCR: Come and See (§I.vi-viii)

Zanchi has already confessed that the canon of Scripture is the normative authority which alone can be used to prove the “tenets of the faith” (§I.v). But now he’s going to circle back around because he wants make sure that we state the proper relationship between the authority of Scripture and the authority of theContinue reading “Reading CCR: Come and See (§I.vi-viii)”

Systematic Theology I: Interpretation of Scripture (Video 10)

This continues the series of videos from a recent ST1 course that I taught remotely for a seminary in S. Asia. We’re continuing to work on the doctrine of Scripture. Here we consider, in particular, how it is that we interpret Scripture. My approach is from 50,000′ and doesn’t get into the weeds of genreContinue reading “Systematic Theology I: Interpretation of Scripture (Video 10)”

Reading CCR: Learning to Love the Apocrypha? (§I.iii-v)

There’s a second half to CCR §I.iii that takes up the distinction between canonical and apocryphal books. The former are those that have been accepted everywhere, always, and by all the church as theopneustos (God-breathed) because, as Barclay put it, “no one could stop them.” But what about those that were “less evident[ly]… from theContinue reading “Reading CCR: Learning to Love the Apocrypha? (§I.iii-v)”

Systematic Theology I: Scripture and Tradition (Video 9)

This ninth video in my recent systematic theology course for an amazing school in S. Asia gets into a question that I’ve been thinking about a fair amount lately, the relationship between Scripture and tradition. We Protestants sometimes get confused about how authority works and, unfortunately, can be inclined to through out the baby withContinue reading “Systematic Theology I: Scripture and Tradition (Video 9)”

Reading CCR: Can’t Stop This (§I.iii)

The canonical books alone are the prophetic and apostolic writings. But we do not doubt that the prophetic and apostolic writings are those which the church of God is accustomed, for that reason, to call by the name of the canonical books, because, knowing with certainty that these books are θεόπνευστος [God-breathed] (2 Tim. 3:16),Continue reading “Reading CCR: Can’t Stop This (§I.iii)”

Systematic Theology I: Inspiration (Video 8)

This eighth video (of 14 total) created for a recent Systematic Theology I course moves us from theology proper to the doctrine of Scripture or, more broadly, of revelation. I think it’s probably more typical to address the revelation before God (often as part of a “prolegomena“), but the textbook that we worked with forContinue reading “Systematic Theology I: Inspiration (Video 8)”