Welcome to Adfontes! As the name suggests (Latin for ‘to the sources’) the goal of Adfontes is to facilitate conversations about the Scriptures in an effort to stir up renewal and reformation in the church. The theme verse for the site comes from Isaiah 51:1:
“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.” (Isaiah 51:1 ESV)
The name and the blog flow out of the conviction that the more we read the Bible, in community and with a humble and contrite spirit, the more our lives and ministries will come to resemble the person and work of Christ.
In that sense this blog is intended to be positive and comprehensive. There are battles to be fought and they should be fought. There are specific errors to be confronted and they should be confronted, but all of that is essentially defensive and reactionary. For the long-term health of the church what we need more than anything is prayerful, faithful, communal and consecutive Scripture study and discussion.
This blog intends to serve that end.
As a further expression of these same convictions I have brought the Into The Word podcast program under the TGC Canada banner. Most of what I write here will flow out of what I’m reading there. The podcast follows the 2 year version of the Robert Murray M’Cheyne (RMM) Bible Reading Plan which you can find here.
Full disclosure: the picture on the banner of this blog tells you something that you should probably know about me. It is a picture of Abraham’s Well in Beer-Sheva (used with permission). The picture is a bit of Geek-code. It refers to the theme verse from Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones’ famous book on Revival:
And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them. (Genesis 26:18 KJV)
The general theme of Jones’ book is that “back is the way forward”.
I share that basic conviction.
Getting ahead of the text has always made me nervous; probably because of verses like 2 John 1:9: “Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God” (ESV).
That’s not the kind of progress I’m interested in. I’m interested in moving forward, but only along the old ways and paths.
I would love it if you came along.
