14 December 2009

Not a Philanthropist

In continuing to try to fit the whole Bible together, I find myself coming back again and again to some texts in seminary I was exposed to, but largely in a theological vacuum, and therefore had difficulty placing them and appreciating what they were saying--in particular, Vos, Ridderbos, Calvin, Dumbrell, and Palmer Robertson. Here's a statement from Vos' Biblical Theology which I read tonight in his opening to the prophets:

God is not a philanthropist who likes to do good in secret without its becoming known; His delight is in seeing Himself and His perfections mirrored in the consciousness of the religious subject. No compromise is possible here. The only other comprehensive principle is that man finds his supreme pleasure in seeing himself and his excellencies recognized and admired by God. He who chooses the latter standpoint will never understand the prophets.

--Geerhardus Vos, Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments (Banner of Truth 1975), 235

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