ecclesiology – Page 12

Presbyterian Church of America’s Original Reason For Existence Outlined

John Edwards Richards was one of the founders of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). The PCA split off from a more liberal Presbyterian denomination (PCUS) in 1973. Richards wrote a book titled. “The historical birth of the Presbyterian Church in America.” In Chapter 2 of that book titled, “Causes of Separation in 1973″ Richards listed the following realities present in the larger denomination that they were seceding from which the newly founded PCA was seeking to get away from. This is some of that list,

“The Universalist, who proclaims that all men are saved. Therefore, there is a great oneness of all men because redemption is Universal.

The Socialist, who declares all men are equal. Therefore, there must be a great leveling of humanity and a oneness of privilege and possession.

The Racial Amalgamationist, who preaches that the various races should be merged into one race and differences erased into oneness.

The Communist, who would have one one mass of humanity coerced into oneness by a totalitarian state and guided exclusively by Marxist philosophy.

The Internationalist, who insists on co-existence of all peoples and nations that they be as one regardless of ideology or history.

The Romanist, who declares there is one true church under on Pope and all men should become one in it.

The Christian Organizationalist, who believes all branches of the Christian Church should be united under one ecumenical organization.

The Humanist, who believes that man is basically good and that he can work out his own salvation, and that he will achieve this in part through unity and oneness.

The Sentimentalist, who would incubate a warm feeling toward everyone without depth of perception or concern for man’s chief end.”

Clearly the Founders of the PCA were recoiling against the Unitarian sentiment that found the Mother Church they were splitting off from drifting towards the Non-Christian creed and practice of Uniformitarian oneness. I can say that these founders were prophets in seeing the threat that this drive for Uniformitarian oneness was to the Gospel and to their people they were charged to protect as under Shepherds in Jesus Christ. Today, 40 odd years later, the Unitarian impulse with its drive to amalgamate all is ubiquitous in the Modern Church and the broader culture. I would even go so far as to say that this de-facto Unitarianism is the greatest threat to the Church today in the West.An example of what Richards was seeing over 40 years ago in the Church is seen in the broader culture in this 2008 speech by then French leader Sarkozy,

“(…) the objective is to meet the challenge of “métissage” – the challenge of “métissage” that the 21st century is confronting us with. The challenge of “métissage”, France has always been familiar with it, and by meeting the challenge of “métissage” France remains faithful to her history. Moreover, it is consanguinity that has always provoked the end of civilizations and societies. In the course of centuries, France has always known “métissage”, France has always been “métissée”.France has crossbred cultures, ideas and histories. France, who was able to crossbreed these cultures and these histories, constructed a universal language, because France herself is universal in the diversity of her origins.Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the last thing: If republican will power does not function, it will be necessary for the Republic to resort to even more forcible methods.But we don’t have a choice. Diversity at the base of the country must be reflected by diversity at the head of the country.It is not a choice. It is an obligation. It is an imperative. We cannot do otherwise at the risk of finding ourselves faced with considerable problems.

We must change, so we will change.

Clearly the Unitarian impulse remains strong and as Christians we have every bit the need to resist that impulse now as Richards and the PCA in its foundation resisted then.

Richards’ book can be accessed here.

Addendum — Other quotes from John Richards, one of the Founders of the PCA.

“The vast majority of good thinking people prefer to associate with, and intermarry with, people of their respective race; this is part of the God-given inclination to honor and uphold the distinctiveness of separate races. But there are many false prophets of oneness, and many shallow stooges, who seek to force the amalgamation of the races.”

“No human can measure the anguish of personality that goes on within the children of miscegenation… Let those who would erase the racial diversity of God’s creation beware lest the consequence of their evil be visited upon their children.”

These quotes can be accessed here,

https://web.archive.org/web/20120418030847/http://www.waysidechurch.org/pcadoc.htm http://theaquilareport.com/the-fortieth-anniversary-of-journal-day-1972/ http://www.pcahistory.org/findingaids/concerned/bulletin24.pdf http://www.pcahistory.org/findingaids/concerned/bulletin20.pdf http://www.pcahistory.org/findingaids/concerned/bulletins.html http://www.zoominfo.com/p/John-Richards/3079917

Bojidar Writes That Calvin, Warfield, Owen, Dabney, etc. Should Have Received Death Penalty

Recently Bojidar Marinov has spoken

“I only said that pagan religions taught in the name of Christianity got the death penalty in the OT. And cessationism is a pagan religion taught in the name of Christianity.”

Clearly what Mr. Marinov is saying here is that if we had been operating under a Christian framework all those who taught the discontinuation of the signs and wonders gifts of the Scriptures should have been visited with the death penalty.

Here are some of those from Church History that Marinov would have had visited with capital punishment.

“[The] gift of healing, like the rest of the miracles, which the Lord willed to be brought forth for a time, has vanished away in order to make the preaching of the gospel marvelous forever… [Healing] now has nothing to do with us, to whom the administering of such powers has not been committed.”

John Calvin
Institutes of the Christian Religion, Bk IV:19, 18

Bojidar pronounces death upon Calvin.

“Gifts which in their own nature exceed the whole power of all our faculties, that dispensation of the Spirit is long since ceased and where it is now pretended unto by any, it may justly be suspected as an enthusiastic delusion.”

John Owen (1616-1683)
Works IV, 518

Bojidar pronounces death on John Owen

“Sure, there is as much need of ordination now as in Christ’s time and in the time of the apostles, there being then extraordinary gifts in the church which are now ceased.”

Thomas Watson (c 1620-1686):
The Beatitudes, 140

Bojidar pronounces death on Thomas Watson

Speaking of the “gift of tongues,” he said, “These and other gifts of prophecy, being a sign, have long since ceased and been laid aside, and we have no encouragement to expect the revival of them; but, on the contrary, are directed to call the Scriptures the more sure word of prophecy, more sure than voices from Heaven; and to them we are directed to take heed, to search them, and to hold them fast…”

Matthew Henry (1662-1714):
Preface to Vol IV of his Exposition of the OT & NT, vii

Bojidar pronounces death on Matthew Henry

Of the extraordinary gifts, they were given “in order to the founding and establishing of the church in the world. But since the canon of Scriptures has been completed, and the Christian church fully founded and established, these extraordinary gifts have ceased.”

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758):
Charity and its Fruits, 29

Jonathan Edwards

“…the karismata, the miraculous gifts conferred on the primitive church…have long ceased…”

George Whitefield (1714-1770):
Second Letter to the Bishop of London, Works, Vol. IV, 167

Bojidar pronounces death on George Whitfield

“The miraculous gifts of the Spirit have long since been withdrawn. They were used for a temporary purpose.”

James Buchanan (1804-1870):
The Office and Work of the Holy Spirit, 34

James Buchanan

“After the early church had been established, the same necessity for supernatural signs now no longer existed, and God, Who is never wasteful in His expedients, withdrew them…miracles, if they became ordinary, would cease to be miracles, and would be referred by men to customary law.”

Robert L. Dabney (1820-1898):
“Prelacy a Blunder,” Discussions: Evangelical and Theological, Vol. 2, 236-237

Bojidar pronounces death on R. L. Dabney

“These gifts were…distinctively the authentication of the apostles. They were part of the credentials of the apostles as the authoritative agents of God in founding the church. Their function thus confirmed them distinctively to the apostolic church and they necessarily passed away with it.”

Benjamin B. Warfield (1851-1921)
Counterfeit Miracles, 6

Either Mr. Marinov, according to his own words, believed these men should have received the death penalty or else he is just plain ignorant.

You decide.

Hat Tip — Clive Sanguis

Peter The Anabaptist

“Division rules in the childish world of the old covenant (cf. Galatians 4), the world split in two by the cut of circumcision, a world of tribes and tongues and nations and peoples. To be content with division is to revert to that old world. Division is a form of Judaizing.”

Peter Liethart
http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/leithart/2014/09/maturing-into-one

1.) What I’m hearing here is that

a.) The Old Testament God wanted distinctions and proper divisions but the New Testament God has changed and He doesn’t want distinctions and divisions of tribes, tongues, nations and peoples. Marcionism anyone?

b.) The death of Jesus was to the end of creating a Monistic God and egalitarian world where, in the words of the famous Band, U2, “all colors bleed into one.”

2.) Is it too terribly haughty of me to prefer the epistemologically self conscious Jacobin theologians over the ones who are merely ignorantly Jacobin?

3.) Is the comment, “Division is a form of Judaizing,” an egghead academic way of translating Rodney King’s, “Can’t we all just get along”?

4.) Wasn’t it the Radical Reformation that insisted that the division between clergy and laity was a sinful division? “Peter the Anabaptist” has a certain ring to it.

5.) If “Peter the Anabaptist” is correct then we must conclude the following,

a.) the Protestant insistence on translation into all the vulgar tongues of the nations was a Judaizing tendency. The Reformation was compromised from the beginning.

b.) If division is Judaizing then the Protestant Reformation was sin as it divided from Rome.

c.) If division is Judaizing, the distinct historic creeds as they have been embraced by distinct Reformed denominations have been sin.

d.) God involved Himself in a Judaizing tendency on the plains of Shinar.

6.) Dr. Leithart is here ruling exactly opposite the Jerusalem council in Acts 15. The position there advocated by the Judaizers was an absolute and uncompromising unity that demanded that the Gentiles become cultural Jews in order to be Christian. The apostles repudiated that idea. Which is to say that Dr. Leithart is actually siding with the Judaizers but calling the Jerusalem Divines the Judaizers. This is worst then Jacobinism. This is devilry.

7.) One wonders if this is a kind of Hindu Christianity where all divisions and distinctions are Maya (illusion).

8.) Unity without diversity is Uniformity and Unitarianism. In Unitarianism all must become as one as the one god that is served. This Leithartian Unitarianism seems to be trying to immanentize the eschaton so that the idea of “the other” is lost in a sea of oneness. It is Van Till’s illustration of the man of water, seeking to climb out of a ocean of water, on a ladder of water, into a heavens of water come to life.

Christmas Eve Service Liturgy — 2014

Welcome and Greeting

Invocation

Eternal God, your promise of a coming Savior is spoken in your words to Eve after the fall, in the psalms of David, in the words of the prophets. Your Word of deliverance is spoken, eternal God, and takes flesh at last in the womb of the virgin.

We ask that Emmanuel would be honored in the people of your Church and that Nations would find themselves bowing the knee to your Christ who alone can provide redemption and grace. We ask this through him whose coming is certain, whose Day draws near: your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Nicene Creed (Responsive)

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.

Who, for us men for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father [and the Son]; who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.

And I believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

THE FIRST LESSON

Scripture — Genesis 3:15 / Matthew 1:20 / Galatians 4:4

Congregational Response

We speak with gratitude when we see your promise to Eve, of a coming Savior, fulfilled in the Christ child who crushed the head of the Serpent.

Carol — “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” (Brown — 169)

THE SECOND LESSON

Scripture — Genesis 12:3 / Matthew 1:1 — Genesis 22:18 / Romans 9:5

Congregational Response — Father, Thank you for the promise, to the patriarchs, of a coming Christ and then for the promised fulfilled in Christ’s arrival.

Carol: “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” (Brown 184)

THE THIRD LESSON

Scripture — Micah 5:2 / Matthew 2:1, Luke 2:4-6

Congregational Response — Praise be unto God for providing us the Bread of life as born in the House of Bread

Carol — “O Little Town Of Bethlehem” (Brown 402)

Special Music — Aimee Chauvin

THE FOURTH LESSON

Luke 1:46-55 / Luke 2:29-32

Congregational Response — We thank you for the promise fulfilled that elicited a response that speaks of gratitude for a Salvation that is both individual and global.

Carol — “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus” (Brown 168)

Special Music — Bacon Voice Ensemble

THE FIFTH LESSON

Scripture — Isaiah 7:14 / Matthew 1:23

Congregational Response — We look for no other Redeemer but He who was and is “God with Us,” the Lord Christ.

Carol — “Joy To The World” (Brown 170)

Special Music — Strings and Flute

THE SIXTH LESSON

Scripture — Isaiah 9:2-7 / Revelation 1:12-16

Congregational Response — Grant us grace Father, to remember that this child is now your Warrior King and that we walk in the path of His conquering work.

Hymn — Christ Shall Have Dominion (Blue Psalter — 135 Blue)

SEVENTH LESSON

Candlelight Exhortation — Matthew 4:16
Carol — “Silent Night” (Brown 195)

Words To Go

“Advent is concerned with that very connection between memory of the past and hope for the future which is so necessary to man. Advent’s intention is to awaken the most profound and basic memory within us, namely, the memory of God who became man. Rightly remembered and held, this is a restorative memory; it brings hope, it brings peace, it brings confidence. The purpose of the Church’s year is continually to recite her History, so as to awaken her memory so that she can discern God’s accomplishment in the past so as to provide fuel in the confidence of his promises for the future.”

_________

“The birth of a king has lost most of its meaning in our day, because the few kings remaining are mainly figureheads. In earlier days, it was, however, a momentous event. Whenever a son was born to a king, the entire kingdom celebrated with a joy our holidays today do not have.

Why was the birth of a king’s son so great an event to the poorest man of the realm, and so great a cause for rejoicing? It meant, very simply, that a protector and defender was born, someone who in the days ahead would provide the leadership, unifying force, and strength to repel all enemies, suppress criminals within the realm, and enforce justice. A kingdom without an heir to the throne had an uncertain future. Men being sinners, the kingdom would face internal and external troubles if no king reigned to enforce justice. The succession being uncertain, the kingdom would risk civil war.

The term “enforce justice” tells us much. Man is a sinner, and he is by nature lawless unless he is regenerated by Jesus Christ. Justice thus must be “enforced,” that is, put into operation by force, because otherwise lawlessness and injustice will prevail. If there is no forceful enactment of justice, there is no justice. This is the grim fact people once knew and are now forgetting.

This tells us too what the Scripture means when it speaks of Christ as King, hailed King from His very birth. The Gospel of Matthew gives us His royal genealogy in its first chapter. Revelation 17:14 tells us that He is the universal King, “for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings.”

When we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, we thus celebrate the birth of one who is ordained to right every wrong, overthrow every enemy, and enforce justice. He will put down all enemies before time is ended, and He will reign eternally over His people. The news of His birth, and its celebration, is indeed “joy to the world,” because the Lord is come who shall in the fullness of time enforce justice truly and absolutely.

His promise is peace, not the peace of death and the graveyard, but the peace of justice and prosperity. The Virgin Mary rejoiced, declaring of the justice God and her son would finally establish: “He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away” (Luke 1:51-53).

If we believe in Christ, we shall rejoice, and we shall be confident, come
what may. We have a King!”

~ RJR

Celibate “Gay” Christians

Link,

Gay Christians choosing celibacy emerge from the shadows

The LGBT community has arrived at a trick that they’ve used to advance their agenda. It is a old trick by now but still one that is used with great effectiveness. This trick is to create a distinction between sodomite practice and sodomite inclination. The LGBT crowd will argue, for example, that that homosexual activity is sinful but the orientation is not. Typically celibate sodomites will then insist that they remain “gay Christians,” but are celibate gay Christians. For an example of this kind of reasoning, a recent Denominational annual meeting found one such person standing up and speaking to his denominational ruling structure saying, “I stand before you as a 40-year-old, single, celibate and chaste yet openly gay man … no longer willing to be silent.”

Now where the trick comes in is that it will be advanced by someone in a discussion that sodomites should be allowed to be members of the Church. Typically someone will protest the idea pointing out the appropriate scriptures. Much heat will arise and then suddenly the original agitator will trot out that when they said that “gays should be allowed to be members” they really meant that celibate sodomites who still self identify as “gay” should allowed to be members.

My conviction on this is that this taking in of celibate sodomites, as members in a Christian church, who still self identify as being “gay,” is just one more way in which the sodomite agenda is advanced. The fact that people, though celibate, still refer to themselves as “gay” is, in my estimation, an attempt to maintain the myth that people are born gay just like they are born left handed or are born black or white. There is not one whit of empirical evidence of this that is not produced by people with an agenda. If the LGBT crowd can linguistically manipulate Christians into accepting the idea that other Christians should be thought of as “gay but celibate” it will be easier to move to the next stage of having those same Christians accept the idea of “gay and not celibate.”

Secondly, ideally, the Biblical Christian abhors his sins, cares not to identify with his sins, and wants nothing to do with his sins any longer. He would never label himself a pervert (“gay Christian”) unless he was trying to preserve this sin in his heart. Yet, the Christian faith is supposed to be the new birth where old things are passed away, and where all things have become new. When the celibate “gay Christian” self identifies as “gay” they are retaining an identity that is counted dead. Ask yourself how much sense it would make if someone saved out of bestiality still self identified as a “cow loving Christian.” Would it make sense for a someone saved out of Necrophilia to still self identify as a “dead person loving Christian.” Even if someone is saved out of kleptomania you never hear them self identifying as a “Thief Christian.” And yet, the Church is told today, by many, that it is perfectly acceptable for people to continue to identify with either a former sin or a current temptation.

Please don’t misunderstand. I celebrate and applaud the grace of God that has saved His people out of perversion and cheer that they are celibate. I only discountenance the idea that they should keep self identifying with their sin. St. Paul could write with sodomites and other repentant sinners in mind,

11 And such some of you were [once]. But you were washed clean (purified by a complete atonement for sin and made free from the guilt of sin), and you were consecrated (set apart, hallowed), and you were justified [pronounced righteous, by trusting] in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the [Holy] Spirit of our God.

I understand that progressive sanctification is incremental and so issues of who we are in Christ Jesus take time to comprehend but at the very least we ought to tell those who have been Redeemed out of sodomy that their identification is no longer in their “gayness.” They are most certainly not “gay Christians.” They are Christians, who, like all Christians, struggle with temptations and even besetting sins. Once this is understood we can pray that from that point their sanctification might well bring them to the point of putting off the old man of perverted desires for the same gender and putting on the new man with its normal desire of heterosexuality.