Doctrine for Life
Today I got to meet our new and first Puerto Rico student, Joel (2nd from right), who arrived with his brother, Jonathan Edward (I’m not lying about the name—and I must confess that I’ve wanted to meet Jonathan Edwards ever since I was a teenager!), and his parents, Roberto and Irma. Robert is an OPC pastor in Puerto Rico. What a joy it was to visit with this dear family! Pray for Joel that he will flourish here in his studies.
As our PRTS librarian, Laura Ladwig, writes: Today we are thrilled to receive our custom-designed Torah scroll cabinet from Michigan craftsman Alan Young. It is designed to be fully functional as a teaching resource and also a beautiful piece for permanent display. The design gives an appropriate nod to the ark of the covenant in the Old Testament.
Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary looks forward to using the Torah scroll for teaching purposes in Hebrew language courses in addition to being on permanent display in the William Perkins Library. The scroll’s provenance is mid-19th century Romania.
This scroll has been deemed pasul or disqualified for use in a synagogue. Factors may include small blemishes, tears, loosening seams, textual errors, letters touching, incorrect shapes of letters and most often fading or flaking ink. These rules carefully protect the reading of the text against any corruption.
Good news! Yesterday morning Crossway sent volume 3 of “Reformed Systematic Theology” (by Paul Smalley and me) on the Holy Spirit and salvation (it came to 1,170 pages—the “slimmest” volume so far) to the printer. It should be available by early November, D.V. For an author, this is almost as important a day as receiving the book, since now we cannot make any changes anymore. Presently, we are about 40% of the way into the last volume (vol. 4 on the church and the last things). Pray for God’s continued blessing on this major task
After this wonderful news, we enjoyed lunch at our home with Preston and Breanna Kelso and their precious daughters. Preston is one of our relatively new ThM students whom I have not had a chance yet to get to know. The visit was delightful—especially hearing about their conversions.
