The Scriptorium Daily

Author: Fred Sanders

  • Who Says We've Got Trinity Problems?

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    Fred Sanders
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    Over at Justin Taylor’s blog, Robert Sagers points out that all the back issues of the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology are now online. That journal has had some good editorial vision in the last 13 years, so having every article just a .pdf away is a great resource. One of my favorite moments in…

  • Giant Chocolate Bunny: Siedell's God in the Gallery

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    Fred Sanders
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    My review of Dan Siedell‘s book God in the Gallery just came out in the latest issue of Cultural Encounters. The same issue also has a short essay by Siedell, extending and updating some of his ideas about art and religion since the 2008 publication of his book. In fact, the whole issue of Cultural…

  • How Mark Begins His Gospel

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    Fred Sanders
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    Where does the story of Jesus begin? Mark opens with “the beginning of the gospel,” as written in Isaiah. Not with a genealogy going back to Abraham (as Matthew), not with an author’s preface, the conception of John the Baptist, or a genealogy going back to Adam (as Luke), and not with high-flown theological dicta…

  • Easily Edified, like Simeon

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    Fred Sanders
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    As a college student, Charles Simeon had to attend chapel services. Like all mandatory chapel requirements, this one ran the risk of being an open invitation for students to go through the motions, with no real mental or spiritual involvement. To make matters worse, the chapel services Simeon had to attend were also events at…

  • Charles Simeon of Cambridge

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    Fred Sanders
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    The history of the church is filled with great pastors and teachers. Even if you skip over the church fathers, the medievals, and the reformers, confining yourself to recent times–say these past two and a half centuries– there are more than enough great theologians and devotional writers to keep you busy, well-fed, informed, and inspired.…

  • Handley Moule was Very Cool

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    Fred Sanders
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    H. C. G. (that’s Handley Carr Glyn) Moule was born in 1841 and died on May 8, 1920. He served as the Bishop of Durham from 1901-1920. He was an acute scholar and a powerful communicator. He wrote great Bible commentaries, an outline of Christian doctrine, and many sermons and poems. When the editors of…

  • Prayer for the Class of 2010

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    Fred Sanders
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    (Here is a prayer I said for the graduates of the Torrey Honors Institute at today’s commencement) Father God, We bring these graduates before you today and we present them to you. We do not present them for your inspection, because we know you have already fully inspected them, because you are the knower of…

  • "For One Look at the Self, Take Ten Looks at Christ"

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    Fred Sanders
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    In Adolph Saphir’s classic book The Hidden Life, he passes along a piece of perfect evangelical advice: “for one look at the self, we ought to taken ten looks at Christ.” Saphir is exactly right: Too much attention to the state of your spiritual life can be poisonous for a Christian. Precisely in examining your own…

  • Z72

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    Fred Sanders
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    Freddy Age Nine is well known for his mastery of highly complex compositions, but his recent work has tended toward a stark simplicity. The image below is striking for its vast quantities of white space, so much that the two major figures in it seem to belong to separate drawings. The open triangle at the…

  • The Modern Doctrine of the Trinity

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    Fred Sanders
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    The Trinity is God, and God does not change. The Trinity doesn’t develop, mature, improve, shift around, wax or wane, or alter with the latest trends and fashions. But the doctrine of the Trinity is something theologians talk about, and theologians do change, and the way they talk changes. So it’s possible to describe the…

  • Whiteboard Mathmachine Mousehouse

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    Fred Sanders
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    Freddy Age Nine isn’t opposed to math. But as an accomplished visual artist, he knows how to use visual design to add interest and motivation to the routine arithmetical functions required of today’s busy fourth grader. Simple operations can be carried out with this mouse-operated math machine: At the center is the mouse, facing the…

  • The Eternal Trinity

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    Fred Sanders
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    Some time ago I got a note from a reader asking if a certain Baptist statement of faith was adequately trinitarian. I think the question came from somebody who didn’t know the Baptist heritage very well, and was just doing his best to understand the words of the words of the statement of faith. The…