Perhaps because of TE Brian Carpenter’s article turning of the tables on the liberation theology-loving PCUSA leaders, The Layman Online offered him a bigger gig. He will be writing a series on the basics of the Christian faith. His first article is on the sovereignty of God.
Archive for June 2011
The Sovereignty of God
Thursday, June 30, 2011The Gay Perspective on Tim Keller
Thursday, June 30, 2011At times, I have described Tim Keller’s statements on homosexuality as waffling. Watch a good example of this here: These ambiguous answers have not gone unnoticed. Gay City News has a very interesting article on Tim Keller and homosexuality that you can read here. The article describes one of Keller’s responses on this homosexuality this [...]
A Helpful Summary of Proper Pastoral Care
Wednesday, June 29, 2011“Warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:14
PCA TE preparing to go to Japan as MTW missionary
Wednesday, June 29, 2011A Japanese Pastor addressed the PCA’s General Assembly on Tuesday night. He said we should send more missionaries to Japan. OK, PCA, here’s your opportunity. Allow me to introduce you to Jeremy Sink: My name is Jeremy Sink, and I’m a PCA teaching elder living in central NC. I was the church planter/organizing pastor of [...]
Did we really blow the Rob Bell situation?
Monday, June 27, 2011Dr. Kenneth Stewart, professor of theology at Covenant College went on Tim Challies’ podcast in order to discuss his new book Ten Myths About Calvinism: Rediscovering the Breadth of the Reformed Tradition. According to Phil Johnson at Pyromaniacs blog in an article today, Stewart brought up the issue of how the Reformed world responded to [...]
We Must Constantly Place the Judgment of God Before Our Eyes
Sunday, June 26, 2011The wicked should fear the judgment of God. Jesus Christ whom they have offended will condemn them. Their conscience will concur in His judgment against them. The devil will await their condemnation so that he can execute it. There will be no more hope of grace and no more place for repentance.
The Ordering of Public Worship
Saturday, June 25, 2011When the congregation is to meet for public worship, the people (having before prepared their hearts thereunto) ought all to come and join therein; not absenting themselves from the public ordinances through negligence, or upon pretence of private meetings. Let the people assemble at the appointed time, that all being present at the beginning they [...]
“Let My People Go!” Says Brian Carpenter
Saturday, June 25, 2011Pastor Brian Carpenter explains how the liberation theology that many in the PCUSA preach should lead them to free their captive churches (evangelical conservatives who want to leave the PCUSA with their property). Read his compelling article here.
What is the Gospel?
Saturday, June 25, 2011While it may seem like an easy question, it might surprise you how many different answers there are. Is the Gospel the “good news” about salvation? Is the Gospel something to be lived out or embodied? Here is R.C. Sproul’s answer to this very important question: There is no greater message to be heard than [...]
Are We Sinful Or Just Broken?
Friday, June 24, 2011Randy Newman has an excellent post over at The Gospel Coalition today: I’ve been hearing the word brokenness a lot lately. In casual conversations and from up-front speakers, the term has become synonymous with sinful. In fact, for many, it has replaced this older, more-bothersome word. To some extent, this makes sense. Our experience of alienation from [...]
Why Adam Matters
Friday, June 24, 2011In reading the various articles on creation and evolution, it can be easy to say: What does it really matter? One of the topics that must be considered in the creation vs. evolution debate is how to handle Adam. Was Adam a real, historical man created by God as Genesis 2 describes and the father [...]
Actions of the 39th General Assembly of the PCA
Thursday, June 23, 2011by L. Roy Taylor, Stated Clerk The Thirty-ninth General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America met in Virginia Beach, Virginia, June 7-10, 2011, at the Virginia Beach Convention Center, hosted by James River Presbytery. A total of 1,183 commissioners attended (901Teaching Elders and 282 Ruling Elders). The Assembly met before some school systems had ended their academic [...]
Metro New York Presbytery Missionary on Adam as “rising beasts”
Thursday, June 23, 2011Last fall, someone pointed me to the teaching of Ron Choong, a missionary of the Metro New York Presbytery and regular teacher at Tim Keller’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, NY. I wrote about him in an article, “Choong, Keller, & Enns: ‘the current evidence from science indicates that the diversity of life is best [...]
Joy in the Day of Prosperity; Learning in the Day of Adversity
Wednesday, June 22, 2011God gives us two different days. He gives us the day of prosperity, and He gives us the day of adversity. We must recognize that “surely God has appointed the one as well as the other” (Eccl. 7:13–14). In 1686, shortly after Jean Claude, the famous Huguenot theologian, had left France because of the Revocation [...]
An Open Letter to PCUSA Evangelicals
Wednesday, June 22, 2011By Rev. Brian Carpenter Note: This letter was originally published on The Aquila Report in February of 2010. Given the new realities of the ordination of open homosexuals in the PCUSA, it seems to be even more relevant. The evangelicals lost the war a long time ago. This latest defeat is just the clearest evidence [...]
URCNA Psalter Hymnal Committee seeks input on proposed hymnal
Wednesday, June 22, 2011Rev. Ed Marcusse of Holland, Michigan has reported in The Outlook that United Reformed Churche’s committee that is working on a new Psalter Hymnal is seeking input and guidance from the churches. He explains the process: Finally, after many years of intense labor, our songbook committee presented the first part of its work to the [...]
What Is the Heart of Reformed Covenant Theology?
Tuesday, June 21, 2011I hope you would answer something like this: Man, by his fall, having made himself incapable of life by that [first] covenant, the Lord was pleased to make a second, commonly called the covenant of grace; wherein he freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ; requiring of them faith in him, that [...]
Current Members of the PCA Permanent Committees
Tuesday, June 21, 2011As promised, here are the current members of the PCA permanent committees (not the agencies): Administrative Committee Class of 2015: TE David W. Hall, Northwest Georgia; RE E. R. McDaniel III, Houston Metro; RE William G. Mitchell, Ascension Class of 2014: TE John S. Batusic, Georgia Foothills; RE William L. Hatcher, Savannah River; TE Marty [...]
Why Not Paedocommunion?
Monday, June 20, 2011Over the past decades, both conservatives and liberals in churches that practice infant baptism have begun to accept the idea of paedocommunion. Even some people in Reformed circles today, having abandoned their Baptist views, believe that they need to be “consistent” with their “covenant theology” and embrace paedocommunion. Those in the Federal Vision movement have [...]