Almost 500 years ago Jean Calvin produced some of the most useful biblical commentaries still profitable today. He was a lawyer by training and thus had a very logical and learned mind. The Spirit indwelling Calvin through the redemption of Jesus Christ taught him the scriptures. This model of a prodigious and disciplined mind along with Divine enlightenment illustrates the New Covenant promise of everyone being taught and knowing God personally (see Jer. 31.31-34, Jn. 6.45, 1Jn. 2.20, 27).

God’s program today in the New Covenant is, for believers, to recognize the various signs, symbols, and shadows of the Former Covenant, spoken about in the book of Hebrews, and understand them in relation to their fulfillment by Christ. Jesus explicitly referred to this new reality of His followers becoming grammatays (students and propagators of the scriptures): Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old (Mt. 13.52 ESV).

A Reformed Baptist with a little “r” is how I self identify. Most of what I have learned of the bible (or relearned) has come from personal study. Though formally trained in bible and theology (B.A., M.Div), much of the learning I once accepted, naïvely, I now have modified or refined after investigating the bible and considering its meaning. I benefit from reading many scholars today covering a variety of fields and try to integrate their ideas, if warranted, into a theologically informed Weltanschauung (worldview).

My name is Alex Krause and my posts will consist of articles, pictures, and book reviews.

My tagline is from 2Cor. 4:13-But since we have the same spirit of faith as that shown in what has been written, ‘I believed; therefore I spoke,’ we also believe, therefore we also speak.(NET).