Image: View from Antigua, Guatemala, April 2024. Photo credit: Jeff Clark. Here are my notes from the closing application to last Sunday’s sermon on 1 John 4:7-10: Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God (1 John 4:7). How do we locate, define, and understand the principle of love (agapē) in the Christian life? We begin with God Himself. God Himself must be the Stackpole of our religion. “For God is love” (v. 8). He is the definition and standard of love. We only know what love is, because he is love. God is the sour ..read more

  Here are my notes from this episode: In recent months the blog of the Covenant Baptist Seminary of Owensboro, Kentucky has posted three articles by Timothy Decker, a pastor at Trinity RBC in Roanoke, Virginia, offering various criticisms of the Confessional Text position. The first of these articles was titled “Does our confession require a printed text or indicate the need for a text critical methodology?” (posted on July 17, 2023). I offered a rejoinder to this article in my WM 286 podcast, accompanied by an article with notes posted to my blog (jeffriddle.net). In my rejoinder I ..read more

  Image: Dogwood, North Garden, Virginia, April 2024. Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on 1 John 4:1-6. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world (1 John 4:1). The apostle John calls upon his “beloved” fellow believers to exercise the gift of discernment, knowing the difference between false teaching and true. He begins with a negative exhortation, “believe not every spirit.” The word “believe” here means “trust” or “have confidence in.” The “every spirit” here is a reference to ..read more

  Image: North Garden, Virginia Landscape, painting, John Borden Evans, on display at the Petite MarieBette Café & Bakery, Charlottesville, Virginia. Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on 1 John 3:18-24. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things (1 John 3:20). John raises in this verse a teaching that is meant to be applied to the Christian with an especially sensitive conscience. What if I am a believer and I desire to do what is right in God’s sight, but I am still plagued by nagging worries, not thinking I have done enough ..read more

Note: In CRBC's midweek meetings we are currently doing a series on "World Religions" and at present are looking at Christian denominations. Last Wednesday (4.10.24) our topic was Eastern Orthodoxy. Here are my notes: Introduction: The Eastern Orthodox Church (EOC), also called the Orthodox Catholic Church (OCC), was distinguished from the Western Church by the Great Schism of AD 1054. Though we may speak of them as one “church,” they are, in fact, a collection of various national churches (Russian, Ukrainian, Greek, Bulgarian, Romanian, etc.)  united by similar doctrines and practices ..read more

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  Image: Rainbow over the baseball fields, Madison Heights, Virginia, April 2024. Note: Devotional taken from last Sunday's sermon on 1 John 3:7-17. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death (1 John 3:14). Last Sunday I preached from 1 John 3:7-17 and suggested two main themes in this passage. The first theme is that “the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (3:8). By his death, burial, and resurrection Christ saved sinners, changing their status from being son of t ..read more

  Find the Reformation Bible Society here. Register for the August 3, 2024 conference here. JTR ..read more

  One modern scholar, Malka K. Simkovich, has recently suggested that there may be over 900,000 manuscripts at Mount Athos, Greece alone yet to be digitized and examined by scholars. Here are my thoughts on the insurmountable problems for those relying on a reconstruction method to "restore" the Biblical text. JTR ..read more

  Image: North Garden, Virginia, March 2024 Note: Devotion take from last Sunday's sermon on 1 John 3:1-6. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the Sons of God (1 John 3:1a). John begins with an exclamation, “Behold,” that holds Biblical overtones. “Behold” is what men say in the Bible when they meet angels and encounter wonders. John utters this word as he thinks about his own salvation and that of others, with wonder and awe. Notice three things stressed here: (1) The Actor, (2) the Action, and (3) the Recipients of the Action. The Ac ..read more