Thanksgiving and Puritans

I came across this post on Justin Taylor’s blog Between Two Worlds.  Our discussions, as we began Joel Beeke’s Living for God’s Glory, coupled with Thanksgiving have brought the words ‘Puritans’ and ‘Calvinists’ to your hearing repeatedly.  The essay linked in the post helps to give us an even a broader understanding of the nature of the Puritans than Joel Beeke can in the opening chapters of his book.  As we move along in the book, however, and see the thought and practice of the Puritans in greater detail we will have a better understanding of the essay.  The Puritan practice as described in the essay will be seen to flow from the Puritan and Calvinistic doctrine.  This is not ‘deeds, not creeds’ but the biblical order of deeds flowing from and out of our creeds.  We saw this pattern echoed when we studied the Heidelberg Catechism. Our deeds or good works, done in thankfulness and described in the Decalogue, were a response to what we had learned of God’s work for us as expressed in the Apostle’s Creed.

As you can see, Between Two Worlds, is listed in my blogroll.  When I get in off the road it is one of the first sites I check.  The site is never stale and is broad enough in scope that I can almost always find something that relates to what has been brewing in my head while I have been gone.  I highly recommend it.

randy