Feb 2020 Update

Dr. Dewey Roberts will be traveling to Russia on April 21 and returning on May 2, 2020. The first session of the newly formed Reformed Theological Seminary of Moscow will be held. Dewey will be teaching the first two books of John Calvin’s monumental The Institutes of the Christian Religion. Calvin’s Institutes is not technically a systematic theology though it covers most of the subjects of theology. But this book is translated into Russian and is, therefore, a great introduction to systematic theology. Moreover, it has advantages over many other theological books in that it was written to instruct average Christians in the basic truths of the Scripture. Calvin did not write in the scholastic manner which tended to instruct the mind and leave the heart cold. That is one of the weaknesses of all the other systematic theologies written since Calvin’s days. I think that is why reformed churches have been especially prone to produce leaders who are theologically accurate but spiritually immature. Calvin’s Institutes was written to address both the mind and the heart at the same time. For that reason, there are parts of the Institutes that have been lifted and made into smaller books. For instance, The Golden Booklet on the Christian Life is taken from the Institutes, but it reads like a great, but simple devotional book. If you have never read that book, you should find it and devour it. Please pray for the first students to this seminary and this first intensive course.