The Church on Miscellanea

Tough Times for Evangelical Theology

Sun, 14 Jan 2024 21:07:01 +0000

Evangelical theology faces tough times ahead: the church seems variously determined to prioritise management technique, religious experience, or that nebulous bane of contemporary life, ‘relevance’, over any notion of careful reflection upon and articulation of its irreducibly doctrinal message and experience.

Unmarried in the Church

Sun, 14 Jan 2024 21:04:50 +0000

The church is required to be the body of Christ in which the unmarried may find fulfillment as persons in the fellowship and companionship of the congregation of believers. The church should recognize that being unmarried the single members are free to be ‘anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord’ (1 Corinthians 7:32). Therefore they must be given the opportunity within the fellowship of believers to serve the body of Christ and experience the love and acceptance of the body of the Lord.

Most Influential Pastors

Sun, 14 Jan 2024 21:00:51 +0000

When I ask students who are the most influential pastors in their life, it’s concerning that they rarely mention their local pastors.

Amplified "Worship Teams" and Congregational Singing

Tue, 29 Dec 2020 13:46:01 +0000

The granting of the power of amplification to ‘worship teams’ in American Christianity has done more than anything since the Protestant Reformation to undermine congregational song. Once Protestants were known for their lively and joyful corporate singing, but today in many of our largest and most imitated churches the only music worth admiring comes from multithousand-watt sound systems while the vast majority of image bearers in the room sing weakly or not at all.

The Design of the Office of Ruling Elder

Tue, 22 Dec 2020 12:04:35 +0000

The design of appointing persons to the office of Ruling Elder is not to pay them a compliment; not to give them an opportunity of figuring as speakers in judicatories; not to create the pageants of ecclesiastical ceremony; but to secure able, faithful and truly devoted counselors and rulers of the Church—to obtain wise and efficient guides, who shall not only go along with the flock in their journey heavenward, but go before them in everything that pertains to Christian duty.

Deplorable

Wed, 04 Nov 2020 02:06:04 +0000

The state of the nation, the state of the churches—both are deplorable! Those who should be praying—are disputing and fighting among themselves! Alas! how many professors are more concerned for the mistakes of government—than for their own sins!

Feel the Pain

Sat, 18 Aug 2018 11:23:52 +0000

Any member who does not feel the pains of his fellow members is rotten and ready to be cut off, for fear of infecting the body.

Strain of Anabaptism in American Religion

Tue, 06 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

It is no exaggeration to assert that there exists a decided strain of Anabaptism in American evangelicalism.

The prevalent powerful prejudice, against certain things the use of which should be left to the individual conscience, and the too strong insistence sometimes at young people’s Bible conferences that they devote themselves to ‘full-time’ Christian service rather than engage in so-called secular vocations, are just two bits of evidence.

Factions Among You

Fri, 01 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

…for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.

Calvin on Being an Elder

Sat, 29 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

It is no light matter to be a representative of the Son of God, in discharging an office of such magnitude, the object of which is to erect and extend the kingdom of God, to procure the salvation of souls which the Lord himself hath purchased with his own blood, and to govern the Church, which is God’s inheritance.

The Deporable State of the Nation

Mon, 23 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The times look awfully dark indeed; and as the clouds grow thicker—the stupidity of the nation seems proportionally to increase. If the Lord had not a remnant here, I would have very formidable apprehensions. But He loves His children; some are sighing and mourning before Him, and I am sure He hears their sighs, and sees their tears. I trust there is mercy in store for us at the bottom; but I expect a shaking time before things get into a right channel—before we are humbled, and are taught to give Him the glory.

Pulpit Bored with God

Sat, 10 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

The institution that has most failed America in our lifetimes is the evangelical pulpit that is bored with God and dares not have the temerity to speak the truth of a holy, sovereign God who commands obedience and offers grace through the atoning blood of His Son.

The Importance of Church Disciplie

Sun, 20 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

It is no doubt true, that the very suggestion of the necessity and importance of discipline in the church is odious to many who bear the Christian name.

The worldly and careless portion of every church consider the interposition of ecclesiastical inspection and authority, in reference to the lives and conversation of its members, as officious and ofiensive meddling with private concerns.

They would much rather retain their external standing as professors of religion, and, at the same time pursue their unhallowed pleasures without control. They never wish to see a minister, as such, but in the pulpit; or any church officers in any other than his seat in the sanctuary.

Task of a Church Member

Mon, 31 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Your task as a member of a church is not only to avoid disunity, but to actively pursue unity.

Idle Bellies

Mon, 19 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

We must observe, however, with what titles of distinction he honors pastors.

In the first place, he says that they labor. From this it follows, that all idle bellies are excluded from the number of pastors.

Ecclesiastical Tunnel Vision

Sun, 18 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

According to the Bible, the church is the people of God, the assembly and body of Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Each of these views of the church has been favoured in one of the major ecclesiastical heritages.

The Reformed family of churches has emphasized the church as the people of God; the sacramental churches as the body of Christ; the Anabaptist churches as the disciples of Christ; and the Pentecostal churches as the fellowship of the Spirit.

Biblical Presbyterianism

Mon, 04 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Biblical presbyterianism has no place for loyalties torn between the denomination and the local congregation, or for greater loyalty to either one.

Pray for the Church

Sun, 03 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

He who does not continue to pray for the Lord’s glory to remain on the church is not worthy of its privileges. Prayer, then, for the good, prosperity, flourishing peace, increase, edification, and protection of the church is a duty every day required of all its members.

Church Visible and Invisible

Sun, 26 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Stonehouse believed that the great Protestant temptation was to conceive of church unity in strictly spiritual terms, thus finding adherence to Christ’s teaching through the invisible church. But the [Westminster] Confession of Faith would not let the OPC off the hook. Chapter twenty-five taught that the church was both visible and invisible.

Mon, 15 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000

So long as elders are consumed with temporal matters, the congregation will be temporarily minded. When the diaconate functions as the temporal agents of the church, freeing the elders for their spiritual calling and business, the church will grow in grace and the spiritual attitude and piety of the congregation will rise to new heights.

Church Leaders as a Gift from God

Wed, 10 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000

In fact, Jesus gave church leaders as one of the gifts He purchased by His own blood for the good of the church (Ephesians 4:8, 11)

Satan, Self, and Co

Thu, 15 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

There is a great and old established house, which does much business, and causes no small disturbance in the world and in the church. The firm is Satan, Self, and Co.

The Theological Significance of the Call to Worship

Fri, 29 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000

The call to worship tells us something very theologically significant. God summons us into his presence to worship him. … We are summoned into the presence of God to join into the worship of heaven. Worship is an eschatological event. We are entering into the heavenly sanctuary.

Protestants Appeal to Authority

Thu, 28 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Before all else, Protestantism is, in its very essence, an appeal from all other authority to the divine authority of Holy Scripture.

Archibald Alexander on the Office of Elder

Thu, 16 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000

The truth is, the church should take pains to train men for this very office; and the parents should set a much higher value on it, than they have been accustomed to do; and the office ought to be rendered more respectable, and more desirable than it is at present.

Countercultural Christianity

Sun, 12 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000

By refusing to engage in the quasi-religious customs surrounding the official Roman governmental structures, by resolutely setting themselves against some of the immoral practices prevalent at the time, and by meeting so often on their own to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, Christians were regarded with suspicion and hostility. The readers of 1 Peter were probably being criticized, mocked, discriminated against, and perhaps even brought into court on trumped-up charges.

All Christians are Brethren

Sat, 21 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000

All Christians are brethren. The greatest men in the world, the mountains, if they be Christians, they are brethren to the lowest. And it fills up the valleys. The lowest, if they be Christians, are brethren to the highest; as personal differences, and differences in calling, they all cease in death.

Church Fellowship is Not Optional

Wed, 04 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000

The church is not just a religious association formed by saved individuals to give united expression to their faith. Rather, the church is more a people than Israel was under the old covenant. … Church fellowship is not an optional advantage, to be chosen or ignored, like membership in a social club. It is the calling of every Christian. There is a spiritual ’ethnicity’ to the church of Christ; Christians are blood relatives, joined by the blood of Christ.

A Holy Family

Mon, 16 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

A holy, well-governed family is the preparative to a holy and well-governed church.

If masters of families did their part, and sent such polished materials to the churches, as they ought to do, the work and life of the pastors of the church would be unspeakably more easy and delightful.

It would do one good to preach to such an auditory, to catechize them, and instruct him, and examine them, and watch over them, who are prepared by wise and holy education, and understand and love the doctrine which they hear.

Vos on the Importance of Biblical Historicity

Sun, 15 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

But, if according to the Bible [the patriarchs] are real actors of the drama of redemption, the actual beginning of the people of God, the first embodiment of objective religion; if Abraham is the father of the faithful, the nucleus of the church; the denial of their historicity makes it useless from our point of view.

Baptism into Death

Wed, 14 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Would sentimentalism and saccharine emotions dominate congregations if they realized that a person is baptized into the death of Christ? Would characterizations of baptism solely as man’s pledge to God dominate if churches realized that baptism is God’s visible covenant promise when accompanied by the Word?

Would as many languish in their struggles with a lack of assurance were their baptisms to echo throughout their lives—the echo of the sign and seal of the covenant promises of God in Christ? Would so many flippantly approach baptism or disregard it if they recognized that it is the objective, double-edged, blessing-and-sanction revelation of God? A biblical doctrine of baptism is crucial for the edification of the church and the glory of the triune Lord.

Eschatology of Victory

Sun, 07 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Most assuredly, the eschatology of the New Testament is an ’eschatology of victory’—victory presently being realized by and for the church, through the eschatological kingship of the exalted Christ.

But any outlook that fails to grasp that, short of Christ’s return, this eschatology of victory is an eschatology of suffering—an eschatology of [Christ’s] ‘power perfected in weakness’—confuses the identity of the church.

Real Victory Already Possessed

Sun, 07 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

The church today will remain impoverished in understanding its true identity and its task in the creation, until it is grasped by the fully eschatological significance of Christ’s death and resurrection and embraces ‘realized’ or ‘inaugurated’ eschatology taught in the New Testament…

What will challenge and activate and sustain the church (and give it ‘optimism’) in its present calling is its perception not of a presumed promise of future dominion before Christ’s return but of the real victory it already possesses in the exalted Christ.

Lamentably Ignorant

Wed, 12 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I am daily forced to admire how lamentably ignorant many of our people are, that have seemed diligent hearers of me these 10 or 12 years, while I spoke as plainly as I was able to speak! Some know not that each person in the Trinity is God; or that Christ is God and man; nor that he took his human nature with him into heaven; nor many the like necessary principles of our faith.

Beale on Baptism

Mon, 20 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

In this light, to think that a major people group—infants—is excluded from entry into the new-covenant community seems to go against the grain of the otherwise wider span of the NT’s inclusiveness of blessing. It is important to recall that even the baptism on condition of profession is a covenantal sign proleptically connoting both blessing and judgment, and that it is a person’s perseverance that becomes decisive for whether the blessing or the curse is applied. Thus, infants are considered not definitively ‘saved’ by baptism, but rather to be entering into the sphere where blessings or curses can come upon them depending on their response to the revelation of the covenant church community in which they grow up.

Christ's Gifted People

Mon, 13 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

First, whereas in the OT the Spirit gifted only prophets, priests, and kings, in the new age all of Christ’s people are gifted by the Spirit because they are ‘in’ Jesus, the ultimate prophet, priest, and king. Second, whereas in the OT the Spirit often gifted prophets, priests, and kings in some connection to the temple, in the new age all of Christ’s people employ their gifts in service in the temple because they are all ‘in’ Jesus, the true temple.

Christ's image-wife

Thu, 28 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Christ takes his church, his image-wife, in covenant of marriage to bear his glory and his name, to be the fulness of him who fills all in all.

Fading is the Worldling’s Pleasure

Sun, 15 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Savior, if of Zion’s city I, through grace, a member am, Let the world deride or pity— I will glory in Thy name. Fading is the worldling’s pleasure, All his boasted pomp and show; Solid joys and lasting treasure None but Zion’s members know.

Music and Theology

Fri, 07 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Show me a church’s songs, and I’ll show you their theology.

Two Directional Singing

Sat, 01 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

The singing of the congregation takes place, as it were, in two directions: facing the other members of the congregation and facing God.

Woodrow Wilson in Church

Sun, 05 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

On many occasions when the policies of President Wilson were being vigorously attacked he would come to the services on Sunday mornings and sit in his place in the house of God, apparently oblivious to all the storm and tempest on the outside, and with just one great absorbing thought, and that was that he had come to the house of God to worship.

The Church Under the Cross

Mon, 09 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The Revelation of John is nevertheless primarily a book of consolation for ’the church under the cross’ of his time, to urge it to persevere in the struggle and to encourage it by picturing the crown awaiting it.

Prayer for Unity

Wed, 20 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Christ’s prayer for unity was not born of unfamiliarity with the history of God’s people nor from his inability to govern it. His prayer is the guarantee that unity already exists in him and that in due time, accomplished by him, it will also be manifest in all believers.

The Purpose of 1 Corinthians 13

Sun, 07 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Instead of preparing people for marriage, then, the apostle [in 1 Coronthians 13] was trying desperately to show a church full of self-centered Christians that there is a better way to live–not just on your wedding day but every day for the rest of your life.

Sanctified for Unity

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000

…in Philippians, Paul affirms that unity is important and that when it is broken over issues that are not vital, the sanctity of the Christian community itself is threatened. The church in modern times, however, does not typically view unity as an element of sanctification.

Al Mohler on the Church and Marriage

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The U.S. Supreme Court may well decide the future of marriage as a legal institution, but the church must hold to marriage as far more, but not less than, a legal reality. Marriage is one of God’s most gracious gifts to humanity. It will be the Church’s responsibility to honor marriage, no matter what the Court may decide.

Churchly Trendiness

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Today’s churchly trendiness is really yesterday’s unbelief.

Lacking Fellowship?

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

At least as it regard the handful of families that showed immediate excitement and then after a month changed heart, this is what ’lacking fellowship’; means. It means that the family needs a church made up of people who are just like they, who raise their children using the same childrearing methods, who take the same stance on birth control, schooling, voting, breastfeeding, dress codes, white flour, white sugar, gluten, childhood immunizations, the observance of secular and religious holidays.

Semi Foetal Position

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Why do people often go into the semi foetal position when holding the bread, scrunch up their eyes as if they are trying to imagine Jesus on the cross. It’s a Protestant ritual. Open your eyes and look around you! Recognise the body of Christ. Rejoice in forgiveness of sins, rejoice with your brothers and sisters, look and see, not hide and imagine. The sacraments are a visible word!

John Fesko on Christian Liberty

Sat, 12 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

If we are to excel in the next twenty-five years, we must hold fast to the biblical doctrine of Christian liberty as part of the greater whole of the Reformed system of doctrine.

We must not be fearing that different practices and opinions on child rearing, schooling, politics, and dating will somehow bring about the collapse of the OPC. Nor should we believe that such practices will somehow revive and edify the OPC.

Luther in the Church

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

At home, in my own house, there is no warmth or vigor in me, but in the church when the multitude is gathered together, a fire is kindled in my heart and it breaks its way through.

A Sense of Solemnity in Worship

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

For generations, a sense of solemnity was characteristic of Presbyterian worship. Then some wag accused them of being the ‘frozen chosen,’ and they hung their heads in shame and traded in simple, dignified forms of worship for a more giddy form of godliness.

Offenseless Christianity

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I believe it to be a grave mistake to present Christianity as something charming and popular with no offense in it.

Fesko on Baptism and the Red Sea

Tue, 28 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

According to Paul, baptism foreshadowed in Israel’s Red Sea crossing) is not a miscellaneous cleansing rite or a general sign of initiation, but is that which brings God’s people into the historical narrative of the eschatological exodus.

Directories of Worship

Sat, 09 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The current situtation, where even churches which identify themselves as heirs of the Reformation, such as the PCA, and which, in the name of freedom, fail to provide Directories of Worship, could not be more ironic. Few have the stomach for thinking carefully about worship. Fewer still see the need for it.

The Trouble with Eschatology

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The trouble with eschatology in the experience of the church has frequently been that it was either dead or overmuch pathologically alive.