Testament: The Story of Moses
The series purports to offer a history of Moses, but it’s a history lacking in scholarly rigor because it grants any source that mentions Moses equal authority regardless of authorship or date of composition.People unfamiliar with the Bible will finish this series confused about who the Moses of Scripture was, but Christians firm in the faith might be interested in watching the show to learn about Jewish and Islamic teachings.
The Unexpected popularity of The Chosen, Dallas Jenkins’ series about the life of Jesus, sparked the entertainment industry’s interest, causing it to pay more attention to faith-based projects over the last few years. Movies and series with religious overtones have improved in quality, and many are finding bigger audiences. But Netflix’s new docudrama Testament: The Story of Moses shows what can happen when religious entertainment is designed for the widest possible audience.
The miniseries comprises three 80-minute episodes. The first episode, “The Prophet,” begins with Moses’ life as a prince in Egypt and takes him into the land of Midian where he fled after killing an Egyptian taskmaster. “The Plagues” recounts Moses’ attempts to convince Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go and the various calamities God unleashed on the stiff-necked ruler. The third episode, “The Promised Land,” feels misnamed, considering Moses never makes it to Canaan. The episode begins with the Israelites’ crossing of the Red Sea and culminates with Moses’ giving of the Ten Commandments.
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William H. Fentress, an Extraordinary Man
When William graduated Princeton in 1876, he had already been licensed by the Presbytery of Baltimore, April 11. It is to be noticed here that he completed studies on schedule in three years. According to his obituary by David J. Beale in The Baltimore Presbyterian, Fentress was “licensed to preach, after a full and complete examination on all the branches required, not withstanding all his disadvantages; this excites our wonder and admiration.” That is, with the challenges overcome studying without vision, William did not seek special concessions from the seminary nor had he appealed to his presbytery as an extraordinary case.
Seminary education in the nineteenth century was challenging especially as developed and standardized by the first seminary of the Presbyterian Church established in Princeton, New Jersey, 1812. The curriculum included the biblical languages of Greek and Hebrew, English Bible, textual analysis of the Bible and its interpretation, Bible history, didactic theology, church government, pastoral care, homiletics (preaching), and church history. Added to the Greek and Hebrew languages was prerequisite Latin which was especially important at Princeton. The theology curriculum used the Latin works of Francis Turretin and Charles Hodge’s Systematic Theology included lengthy Latin quotations. Added to English, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, a motivated student might include German to defend the doctrine of Scripture against German higher-critical academics. It was quite a program of study and may make current seminary students feel deprived or possibly intimidated. When young Fentress entered Princeton Seminary he did so with another challenge because all the reading and writing required of him would be hampered by visual blindness.
William Henry was born the son of Bennett and Agnes Fentress in Baltimore, Maryland, March 25, 1851. Agnes was from Scotland having emigrated in 1818 with her parents George and Margaret Clasey. Agnes’s parents were founding members of Light-Street Presbyterian Church in Baltimore. As a child, William’s mother prayed that he would become a minister, but her hope for his future was dimmed when at the age of six he lost his sight. However, despite his considerable handicap, William pursued formal education beginning at the age of nine in the Maryland Institute for Instruction of the Blind where he continued as a state beneficiary beginning May 7, 1860 until he completed the program June 1, 1868. He then began college studies through tutoring provided by Professor Wagner of Baltimore before continuing formally at Richmond College in Virginia graduating in 1870.
William returned to Baltimore to reside at 219 Montgomery Street which was about a twenty minute walk from his church, Central Presbyterian located at the corner of Saratoga and Liberty streets. The church had been organized under the ministry of Stuart Robinson in 1853 but at the time of William’s membership the pastor was Joseph T. Smith. He professed faith in Christ at the age of twenty one. His mother’s prayers combined with his own sense of calling caused him to continue studying in preparation for the ministry. In a letter to Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe of the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston, where Helen Keller would study, he asked where “Latin Books in raised print” including dictionaries and grammars could be purchased and “the respective prices of the same.” Raised print refers to an early form of text for the blind that used the full form of each letter pressed into the sheet sufficiently for it to project from the outside surface in relief so it could be read by touch. For those who remember the antique device known as a typewriter, the letters on the paper would have looked like the letters projecting from the individual character hammers actuated by typewriter keys. Dr. Gridley’s suggestions must have proved beneficial because William was accepted for study at Princeton Seminary.
He travelled to Princeton to enter the seminary’s three-year divinity program in 1873. He learned his lessons almost wholly through the use of readers. In an alumni information form completed shortly before his death, William told how he learned his lessons.
I pursued … collegiate and theological studies almost altogether by means of readers. My classmates at Princeton Seminary were very thoughtful and kind in the number of their many attentions to me. I have also a very grateful remembrance of all the professors.
Student colleagues may have organized a rotation so that through their many eyes each reader would have a lighter load with all helping their brother in Christ.
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How These Parents Helped Their Son Reject Transgender Lies and Affirm His Real Identity
Transgender ideology sets up an opposition between the body and an inner sense of being male or female, between physiological facts and subjective feelings. The best counter is a positive Christian worldview that affirms the value of the body and the unity of the human being.
From the time “Brandon” was quite young, people would remark that he was not a typical boy. Before he was even walking, his babysitter told his mother, “He’s too good to be a boy,” by which she meant he was gentle, sensitive, and compliant—traits we stereotypically associate with girls.
Every day when his mother picked him up from preschool, he was playing with the little girls instead of the boys. He was not interested in toy guns or trucks. He preferred imaginary games using stuffed animals to act out complex social relationships. From an early age, he sensed he was different from most other boys.
Today we would call him gender nonconforming. This is the story of how his parents helped him stop from pursuing a path of despair and genital mutilation.
In elementary school, Brandon came to his parents weeping—repeatedly—because he did not fit in anywhere. Most of his friends were still girls, but they did not fully accept him as one of their own because, of course, he is a boy. He told his parents, “I feel the way girls do, I am interested in things girls are. God should have made me a girl.”
By his early teens, Brandon was scouring the internet for information on transgender ideology. So what did his parents do?
First, they made sure he knew they loved him just the way he was. They did not try to change him. When I was in seminary, one of my fellow students was a former homosexual, and he told me, “When I was young, I liked art and poetry, and my father kept trying to ‘toughen me up’ by pushing me into sports and other more traditionally male activities.”
But Brandon’s parents did not pressure him to be different. They told him it is perfectly acceptable to be a gentle, emotional, relational boy. It did not mean he was really a girl.
They told him it might mean God had gifted him for one of the caring professions, such as psychologist, counselor, or health-care worker. In the same way, of course, it is perfectly acceptable for a woman to be gender nonconforming—to be more take-charge, rational, and assertive.
His parents’ favorite line, which they said over and over again, was, “It’s not you that’s wrong, it’s the stereotypes that are wrong.”
My Body, My Self
Brandon’s parents encouraged him to base his identity on his biological sex. Our feelings can change and often do. But our body is a stable, empirically knowable fact that does not change. So it makes sense to treat the body as a reliable indicator of our identity.
By contrast, transgender ideology devalues the body. A BBC video features a young woman who identifies as nonbinary, saying, “It doesn’t matter what living, meat skeleton you’ve been born in. It’s what you feel that defines you.” The body has been demoted to a meaningless lump of flesh and bones.
Gayle Salamon, a Princeton University professor, wrote a book defending transgender ideology. Salamon says, “What the ‘real’ [physical] body tells us…is nothing…It has no meaning at all.” This is the core of what’s being taught to young people in public schools today: that their bodies are worthless.
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Overture 29 Points to the Need for Overture 15
Note: the second half of this article is a line-by-line look at how Overture 29 lines up with the PCA Constitution
I have many friends who are in support of Overture 29. In addition, I am on the GRN General Council and the GRN has officially advocated for its passage. Sadly, I am less encouraged than my friends on what Overture 29 will accomplish as it relates to the Side B Problem in the PCA. Of course, I agree wholeheartedly with the Overture’s language. As I show below, it is simply a restatement of what is already in the PCA Constitution. In fact, there is nothing in it that is not already in our BCO or the Westminster Standards. Therefore, something is still missing. That is of course not a reason to vote against it. I’m just asking:
How can Overture 29 deal with the Side B problem in the PCA, if our Confession and BCO have not?
Further to the issue, Overture 29 is being hailed as “addressing the substance of the problem” and the “final word on the matter” by men who believe that Former PCA Pastor Greg Johnson’s only violation was that “he could have spoken more clearly” and who believe it is ok to partner with, speak at, and host Revoice. (See examples at the bottom of this article) That leads to the question:
How can Overture 29 deal with the substance of the problem if these same men are supporting it and they have not changed their view?
What is missing from our Confession therefore isn’t something in Overture 29, but something that neither the Westminster Divines nor the founders of the PCA could have conceived of, namely the adoption of a homosexual self-conception. We would be good to remember that Former PCA Pastor Greg Johnson objected to Article 7 of the Nashville Statement on this point, yet he said he agreed with the language of Overture 29 at the 2022 General Assembly.
Therefore, what is needed to deal with the issue of the Side B anthropological and ontological conception of man is not Overture 29 on its own. Something more is needed. That is where Overture 15 completes Overture 29. Here are some articles in support of Overture 15:What follows is a line-by-line look at Overture 29 and how it corresponds to the PCA Constitution.
Overture 29 to Amend BCO 16 says:
Officers in the Presbyterian Church in America must be above reproach in their walk and Christlike in their character. While office bearers will see spiritual perfection only in glory, they will continue in this life to confess and to mortify remaining sins in light of God’s work of progressive sanctification. Therefore, to be qualified for office, they must affirm the sinfulness of fallen desires, the reality and hope of progressive sanctification, and be committed to the pursuit of Spirit empowered victory over their sinful temptations, inclinations, and actions.
Officers in the Presbyterian Church in America
must be above reproach in their walk and Christlike in their character.1 Timothy 3:2 – Therefore an overseer must be above reproach… (cf. Titus 1:6)
BCO 21-4c – Trials for ordination shall consist of: (1) A careful examination as to: (a) his acquaintance with experiential religion, especially his personal character and family management (based on the qualifications set out in 1 Timothy 3:1-7, and Titus 1:6-9)
BCO 24-1 & 24 -1 a. apply the same language to Ruling Elders and DeaconsWhile office bearers will see spiritual perfection only in glory
WCF 13.2 – This sanctification is throughout, in the whole man; (1 Thess. 5:23) yet imperfect in this life, there abiding still some remnants of corruption in every part; (1 John 1:10, 7:18, 23, Phil. 3:12) whence ariseth a continual and (irreconcilable war), the flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. (Gal. 5:17, 1 Pet. 2:11)
they will continue in this life to confess and to mortify remaining sins in light of God’s work of progressive sanctification.
WCF 15.5 Men ought not to content themselves with a general repentance, but it is every man’s duty to endeavour to repent of his particular sins, particularly. (also WCF 11.5)
WCF 13.1- ….by His Word and Spirit dwelling in them, (John 17:17, 5:26, 2 Thess. 2:13) (the dominion of the whole body of sin) is destroyed, (Rom. 6:6,14) and the several lusts thereof are more and more weakened and mortified; (Gal. 5:24, Rom. 8:13) and they more and more quickened and strengthened in all saving graces, (Col. 1:11, Eph. 3:16–19) to the practice of true holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. (2 Cor. 7:1, Heb. 12:14)
WLC 75 & 76 further elaborateTherefore, to be qualified for office, they must affirm
BCO 21-5 VOW 2 already does this: Do you sincerely receive and adopt the Confession of Faith and the Catechisms of this Church, as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures; and do you further promise that if at any time you find yourself out of accord with any of the fundamentals of this system of doctrine, you will on your own initiative, make known to your Presbytery the change which has taken place in your views since the assumption of this ordination vow?
the sinfulness of fallen desires
WCF 6.5 This corruption of nature, during this life, doth remain in those that are regenerated; (1 John 1:8, 10, 7:14, 17–18, 23, James 3:2, Prov. 20:9, Eccl. 7:20) and although it be, through Christ, pardoned, and mortified; yet both itself, and all the motions thereof, are truly and properly sin. (Rom. 7:5–8, 25, Gal. 5:17)
WCF 6.6 Every sin, both original and actual, being a transgression of the righteous law of God, and contrary thereunto, (1 John 3:4) doth in its own nature, bring guilt upon the sinner, ( 2:15, Rom. 3:9, 19) …
Also WLC 25 & WSC 18the reality and hope of progressive sanctification,
WCF 13.3 …through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, the regenerate part doth (overcome); and so, the saints grow in grace..
Also WCF 13 & WLC 75 & 76and be committed to the pursuit of Spirit empowered victory over their sinful temptations, inclinations, and actions.
WLC 76 …upon the apprehension of God’ s mercy in Christ to such as are penitent, (Joel 2:12–13) he so grieves for ( 31:18–19) and hates his sins, (2 Cor. 7:11) as that he turns from them all to God, (Acts 26:18, Ezek. 14:6, 1 Kings 8:47–48) purposing and endeavouring constantly to walk with him in all the ways of new obedience. (Ps. 119:6,59,128, Luke 1:6, 2 Kings 23:25)
WLC 75 …having the seeds of repentance unto life, and all other saving graces, put into their hearts, (Acts 11:18, 1 John 3:9) and those graces so stirred up, increased, and strengthened, (Jude 20, 6:11–12, Eph. 3:16–19, Col. 1:10–11) as that they more and more die unto sin, and rise unto newness of life. (Rom. 6:4,6,14, Gal. 5:24)
See answers above regarding WCF 16.1,2,3_ _ _
What follows are some examples of men who are in favor of Overture 29 yet believe that there is no issue running afoul of it in the PCA.Yet, below he indicates that the issue is not with the theology of Memorial (and therefore Former PCA Pastor Greg Johnson) but “the wisdom they’re exercising.”
Here is an Article that contains the same sentiment as the image above, namely that Memorial was bullied out of the PCA and the real issue with Memorial PCA and Greg Johnson was a lack of wisdom.
Below the Founder of the National Partnership and supporter of Former PCA Pastor Greg Johnson’s ministry also shows his support for Overture 29.