Van Minutes

Hello again everyone,

I hope this update comes to you feeling less frazzled than I am! The semester is almost at an end. In three weeks I will be done permanently with Hebrew! I wasn’t the first DTS student to say that, probably three quarters of them do. My ex-Hebrew classmate Parker told me last fall with a big smile, “Dan, I got done my Hebrew over the summer!” I was somewhat envious that he waved good-bye to Hebrew 8 months before I did. But in the blink of an eye here comes my turn also. I will also be mostly trained for the teaching element of my degree. This gives me some proficiency at constructing lessons, choosing lesson aims, teaching theory and practice and so on. It feels a little ‘fake’ in a classroom workshop but it does help. Preaching class is fun,  but I don’t believe I am that good at delivery yet. I think I understand sermon construction though. We also finished up a 2 hour Gospels class last week. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are such familiar material, I thought. There is plenty to learn about each and plenty of questions that will keep me busy for decades. As tired as we get finishing up, life still generally does go too fast. It seems like yesterday sometimes, that I entered university. It was 15 years ago. I’m already 35 now (birthday pics of mom/my birthday on right). And so much blessing has gone with that…

I wrote about ‘eternal security’ the other day for soteriology (salvation) class which I shared with Karin and that ended up comforting me in real life – fancy that! So I share an excerpt now with you:

“Either Christ is our savior, or we deny that all things are in him and de facto confess, ‘Jesus is not a complete [i.e. to the end] savior.’ (Heidelberg Catechism) As our prophet, Christ revealed God’s will for our redemption, as priest Christ continues to pray for the believers whom the Father has sent him, and as king, Jesus ‘preserves us in that salvation.’(Westminster Confession).”

This is eternal security. It is a truth confessed by St. Augustine, the Reformers all over Europe in their confessional statements, in Calvin, Bavinck, Berkhof, to the nineteenth century Baptists, John Owen defended this in “The Death of Death in the Death of Christ,” J.I. Packer defended it in his famous essays. This is the substance of the tradition passed down from the saints. This hope and it’s function in the church was passed from our prof to us students. Salvation class just kept me hopeful all semester through the ups and downs that Jesus really, as they say in modern times, ‘has your back.’

I like best how he says it himself: “No one will snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:28)

We will share more about the upcoming year in our next newsletter when we have a bit more time! God bless.

Dan Van Minnen

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