While you are reading, I've updated my bibliography here, complete with all the books, chapters, articles, and reviews I've written so far.

One resource I found and purchased is Theodoret of Cyrus' (393–460), Quaestiones in octateuchum (Questions on the Octateuch), a series of questions and answers on difficult portions of the first eight books of the Old Testament (Genesis–Ruth). As I've blogged before, I make it a practice to read at least one patristic exposition of every text I preach on, if available. Thankfully I have two on Exodus, Theodoret as well as Origen, to go along with my perennial favorite Jewish exegete, Nahum Sarna, and Brevard Childs' work.

As a side note, I went back and read some portions of Theodoret on Genesis and was happy to find some features that are in other patristic authors on the situation in the Garden. All the major strands of what our forefathers called "The Covenant of Works" are in the patristics. Here are a few references I have found in my studies over the past couple of years, which I hope to incorporate into an article someday on the incohate doctrine of the covenant of works in Belgic Confession article 14's language of "the commandment of life":

An example from the western church is Augustine of Hippo, who wrote in The City of God (12.21):

Man, on the other hand, whose nature was to be a mean between the angelic and bestial, He created in such sort, that if he remained in subjection to His Creator as his rightful Lord, and piously kept His commandments, he should pass into the company of the angels, and obtain, without the intervention of death, a blessed and endless immortality; but if he offended the Lord his God by a proud and disobedient use of his free will, he should become subject to death, and live as the beasts do the slave of appetite, and doomed to eternal punishment after death.

Augustine teaches, first, that there was life beyond the earthly life (“he should pass into the company of the angels, and obtain . . . a blessed and endless immortality), and second, that this was obtained by obedience to God’s commandments.

From the eastern church, two witnesses stand out. First, Theodoret of Cyrus (393–460) wrote soon before his death a series of Questions of the Octateuch. In question twenty-four on Genesis he asked, “Why did God plant the Garden of Paradise from which he would soon exclude Adam as a result of his sin?” Among the reasons given, Theodoret said, “Also, the Righteous Arbiter had to set the prize of victory before the athletes of virtue.” He went on to ask about the two trees mentioned in the Garden, saying, “Adam was set a trial with regard to the latter [tree of the knowledge of good and evil], whereas the tree of life was proposed as his prize for keeping the commandment.”

We learn from Theodoret first, that there was something more for Adam beyond life in the earthly Paradise of Eden, his “prize,” and second, that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a trial by his Adam’s obedience was the means of gaining the “prize.”

A second eastern witness is John of Damascus (676–749), known as the last of the church fathers. In his An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, he said,

When therefore He had furnished his nature with free-will, He imposed a law on him, not to taste of the tree of knowledge . . . And with this command He gave the promise that, if he should preserve the dignity of the soul by giving the victory to reason, and acknowledging his Creator and observing His command, he should share eternal blessedness and live to all eternity, proving mightier than death: but if forsooth he should subject the soul to the body, and prefer the delights of the body, comparing himself in ignorance of his true dignity to the senseless beasts, and shaking off his Creator’s yoke, and neglecting His divine injunction, he will be liable to death and corruption, and will be compelled to labour throughout a miserable life. For it was no profit to man to obtain incorruption while still untried and unproved, lest he should fall into pride and under the judgment of the devil . . . It was necessary, therefore, that man should first be put to the test (for man untried and unproved would be worth nothing), and being made perfect by the trial through the observance of the command should thus receive incorruption as the prize of his virtue. For being intermediate between God and matter he was destined, if he kept the command, to be delivered from his natural relation to existing things and to be made one with God’s estate, and to be immoveably established in goodness, but, if he transgressed and inclined the rather to what was material, and tore his mind from the Author of his being, I mean God, his fate was to be corruption, and he was to become subject to passion instead of passionless, and mortal instead of immortal, and dependent on connection and unsettled generation.

We learn from John that 1) there was something greater for Adam than life in the Garden, 2) that God gave a law to Adam, 3) that the promise of eternal life was attached to this commandment, 4) that obedience was the means to receive eternal life, 4) and that this obedience was tested in the Garden.

*WORD & DEED – MYANMAR/BURMA*—With an estimated 32,000 people dead and fears that the number could rise to 100,000 with a further 1.5 million at risk, the world's eyes are fixed on the repressive government of Burma (Myanmar). While UN emergency relief was recently given permission to land, the supplies were seized by authorities there. The United States has been able to bring in one plane load and has permission to bring two more. Only a small fraction of the aid that is needed is getting through.

Word & Deed has been in touch with various Christian organizations to see if we can partner with them in bringing much needed relief and development to the victims of this horrible disaster. One potential partner involves Woord en Daad and Zoa Refugee Care (both in the Netherlands). Zoa has an experienced disaster relief couple in Rangoon, the capital of Burma, who have been given permission by the government to set up a relief office and hire workers. The couple is currently in the rural areas most affected by the cyclone doing a needs assessment.

All aid however is contingent on the cooperation of the Burmese government. There is also serious concern about how funds may be handled in Burma. We will want to ensure that the funds go directly to the team in Rangoon rather than through the government which is notoriously corrupt.

A further complicating issue are the sanctions put in place through the UN on the country of Burma. This may restrict the types of aid that can go to Burma. We expect to get clarification on this in the near future.

The immediate needs are food, clean water and shelter. The threat of water borne disease could result in further dramatic rise in the death toll.

Word & Deed invites you to donate but asks that you designate your donation for disaster relief. While we fully expect that world pressure will force the government of Burma to cooperate with international aid efforts, we cannot support the idea of simply handing funds to the Burmese government. We will only partner with a reliable, Christian organization with people who will actually oversee the project directly in Burma. In the unlikely event that we are unable to meet these criteria in Burma, the funds will be used for other disaster relief projects—both existing and new. One example is the ongoing recovery efforts in Nicaragua (Hurricane Felix).

Pray that the Lord will use the disaster to break open the country of Burma to the Gospel and that the attempts to bring relief into this devastated country will be successful.

Please check our website for updates as well as mailing addresses (see "contact us") or to donate on line (flags on the right of the webpage). This email together with some pictures can also be seen there.

In His Service,
Rick Postma, Word & Deed Ministries
877.375.9673 (Canada)

"He that has pity upon the poor lends unto the LORD; and that which he has given will he pay him again." Proverbs 19:17
"..and what does the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Micah 6:8

The Heidelberg Catechism exposits this clause in the following way:

Question 44: Why is there added, “He descended into hell”?
Answer: That in my greatest temptations, I may be assured, and wholly comfort myself in this, that my Lord Jesus Christ, by His inexpressible anguish, pains, terrors, and hellish agonies, in which He was plunged during all His sufferings, but especially on the cross, hath delivered me from the anguish and torments of hell.

The Mansfeld Confutation (1565) critiqued the Heidelberg Catechism in general, but what is interesting is its refutation of Heidelberg 44.

First, the Mansfeld ministerium affirmed that God sent Martin Luther to Germany as his special prophet to give the true interpretation of the Creed and that Satan stood behind the Heidelberg in order to confuse the Germans.

Second, behind the Heidelberg's interpretation of the descent was its Sacramentarian error that denied the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist . . . and this part of the Creed provided another insidious opportunity to spread this error.

Third, Heidelberg 44 contained three errors:
1. it denies the catholic church's confession that Christ truly descended into hell thereby to conquer hell and give victory to the church;
2. it calls into question whether hell is a specific space;
3. it inclined to the "absurd opinion" that the descent could be interpreted to mean Christ's burial.

Fourth, in its analysis, the Mansfeld addressed the philosophical framework of the Calvinists that basic physics would not permit Christ to be in two places at once