MARSCAST

We've been talking a lot about Natural Law in the past two episodes, and we've seen some of the limits of how some might appeal to Natural Law as though it would somehow be a silver bullet that would get everyone on the same page morally. Some of course would then respond and say "Well it's simple, we've got the Bible. Let's use the Bible to enact all of our laws here in North America or some other country." Let's have our professors respond to this. Joining us once again are Dr. Alan Strange, Rev. Andrew Compton, Dr. J. Mark Beach, and Dr. Marcus Mininger.

Part 1 of Natural Law introduced the subject matter, but now we want to understand a little bit more about it, particularly how it functions in society. Once more at the Table in speaking order are Dr. Alan Strange, Dr. J. Mark Beach, and Rev. Andrew Compton.

Well, you've heard the Professors of Mid-America discuss justification, systematic theology, preaching, and the Puritans. Now they're here to talk about this topic of "Natural Law." What is natural law, what are people saying about it, how has the church talked about it, what is its value? A lot of people wonder, they hear this terminology used but apart from specialists and people who are engaged in a lot of theological studies, but people don't necessarily understand what natural law is. So, we hope to explore this topic a bit, understand what the Reformation has said about natural law, and how we've traditionally approached it. Coming together in order of speaking appearance are Dr. J. Mark Beach, Rev. Andrew Compton, Dr. Alan Strange, and Dr. Marcus Mininger.

Addressing the Puritans once again in speaking order are Professor of Church History, Dr. Alan Strange, Professor of Doctrinal Studies, Dr. J. Mark Beach, Old Testament Professor, Rev. Andrew Compton, and President of Mid-America & Professor of Doctrinal Studies, Dr. Cornelis Venema.

There has been a “revival” of Puritans in the half-century. What should we know about Puritans so as to understand better their value for the church in the 21st century? Let's make room for Faculty of Mid-America to help us out here. You'll hear in speaking order Professor of Church History Dr. Alan Strange, Old Testament Professor Rev. Andrew Compton, President of the Seminary and Professor of Doctrinal Studies Dr. Cornelis Venema,and our other Professor of Doctrinal Studies, Dr. J. Mark Beach.

In this particular podcast episode, we wanted our professors to discuss specifically what it means to teach “the whole counsel of God,” to preach sound doctrine, to be diligent in season and out of season. In continental churches, specifically Dutch Reformed churches, you'll notice the practice of “catechetical” preaching. But many engage in some form of doctrinal preaching, or confessional preaching. And so we want to spend some time discussing that, and seeing its value for the churches, hopefully clearing up some confusions as well. But specifically, as it relates to catechetical preaching, or confessional preaching, there's probably a lingering question that those unfamiliar with this practice may have: “Don't we preach Scripture?” “What's this all about?”

We spoke last time about the importance of preaching, covering a range of topics there, but we thought it would be useful to dig down a little deeper into specifically what is entailed in preaching exegetical sermons, or biblical sermons. Of course, preachers want to preach the Bible, they're not interested in preaching the phone book, or preaching a new novel. But how do preachers go about doing that? What do people need to hear from preachers, how do they prepare, and how do our professors prepare men here at the Seminary to be exegetical and biblical preachers? Revs. Andrew Compton, Mark Vander Hart, and Drs. Mark Beach and Alan Strange join together once more to answer these questions.

Rev. Andrew Compton, Rev. Mark Vander Hart, Dr. J. Mark Beach, & Dr. Alan Strange sit down together for this latest installment in the Round Table podcasts to discuss the importance of preaching in the church. Our next episode will tackle the topic of the method of preaching that is taught here at Mid-America Reformed Seminary. May you be blessed by this conversation!

Rev. Andrew Compton, Dr. J. Mark Beach, and Rev. Mark Vander Hart discuss the Ministerial Apprenticeship Program and its implications for a healthy seminary education as students seek to enter into pastoral ministry.

Our professors have been discussing at length the subject of Systematic Theology. Now time to hear them speak more specifically on the role of Systematic Theology in their classrooms. For those of you new to Mid-America and our community of professors, we have here represented Dr. Cornelis Venema, President of the Seminary and also professor of Doctrinal Studies. We have Dr. J. Mark Beach, professor of Ministerial and Doctrinal Studies. Dr. Alan Strange, Professor of Church History and Apologetics, and finally Rev. Andrew Compton, Assistant Professor of Old Testament Studies. This third installment begins with how Systematics comes to bear on the classes the professors themselves teach, with Dr. Venema starting us off because, well, it's what he teaches.