What saith the Scripture Tradition must give way to the clear statements of the Scripture

  God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform; He plants his footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable mines Of never-failing skill, He treasures up his bright designs And works his sovereign will. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust him for his grace; Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face. William Cowper  Now surely, one of the most comforting things about any faith in the absolute sovereignty of the grace of God ought to be the assurance we derive from that faith that God is still on the throne even in our most dismal defeats and that the clouds we so much dread are waiting to pour only showers of blessing on our head. Arthur C. Custance, The Sovereignty of Grace (Curt Daniel, The History and Theology of Calvinism (Darlington, Co Durham: EP Books, 2019), 717.) Surely apart from You the way cannot be perfected, nor can...

    Now when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he began asking his disciples, saying, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 And Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” 17 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it! Mt 16:13–18 LEB Caesarea Philippi was located in the northern part of the Old Testament region of Bashan, the “place of the serpent,” at the foot of Mount Hermon. The linguistic note is intriguing since Bashan/Bathan both also mean “serpent,” so that the region of Bashan was “the place of the serpent As we...