Cure for Mondays

The brilliant delivery of Fry & Laurie:

Someone Missed the Memo

Hey! I thought Dispensationalism was invented in the early 1900s by men like Darby and Scofield. What is John Wesley doing talking about it?

Our Lord, secondly, declares that he which is least in the kingdom of God (in that kingdom which he came to set upon earth, and which the violent now began to take by force), is greater than he—not a greater prophet, as some have interpreted the word, for this is palpably false in fact; but greater in the grace of God and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, we cannot measure the privileges of real Christians, by those formerly given to the Jews. Their “ministration” (or dispensation) we allow “was glorious,” but ours “exceeds in glory.” So that whosoever would bring down the Christian dispensation to the Jewish standard, whosoever gleans up the examples of weakness recorded in the Law and the prophets, and thence infers that they who have “put on Christ” are endued with no greater strength, doth greatly err, neither “knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.”
- Heritage of Great Evangelical Teaching : Featuring the Best of Martin Luther, John Wesley, Dwight L. Moody, C.H. Spurgeon and Others. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1996).

Whence our power?

“O, man! learn from the precept what you ought to do; learn from correction, that it is your own fault you have not the power; and learn in prayer, whence it is that you may receive the power.”

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, II, v, 4.

What About "Good People"?

"If every soul is subject to such abominations as the apostle boldly declares, we surely see what would happen if the Lord were to permit human lust to wander according to its own inclination. No mad beast would rage as unrestrainedly; no river, however swift and violent, burst so madly into flood. In his elect the Lord cures these diseases in a way that we shall soon explain. Others he merely restrains by throwing a bridle over them only that they may not break loose, inasmuch as he foresees their control to be expedient to preserve all that is. Hence some are restrained by shame from breaking out into many kinds of foulness, others by the fear of the law-even though they do not, for the most part, hide their impurity. Still others, because they consider an honest manner of life profitable, in some measure aspire to it. Others rise above the common lot, in order by their excellence to keep the rest obedient to them. Thus God by his providence bridles perversity of nature, that it may not break forth into action; but he does not purge it within."

Calvin, Institutes, II,iii,3