Best Christian Blog of The Week (Jun 29, 2015 - Jul 5, 2015)

Listed below are "Best Christian Blog of the Week" winners:
::2015::

Jul 5: Is Bible prophecy relevant for our troubled times?
Jun 28: Open Heavens
Jun 21: The Surest Sign of the "End of the Age"
Jun 14: The Opening of My Safe
Jun 7: ISIS, Chaos, and Lawlessness
May 31: The World Is Changing As The Spirit Of Antichrist Begins To Rise Around The Globe
May 24: JewishVoice Blog
May 17: The Call of the Bride
May 10: Walking in His Words & Warnings
May 3: wingsofprophecy.blogspot.com
Apr 26: Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog
Apr 19: eagerendtimeswatcher.blogspot.com
Apr 12: Signposts of the Times
Apr 5: Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog
Mar 29: Lee Kuan Yew: A pastor’s 7 days of thanksgiving
Mar 22: Now The End Begins
Mar 15: flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com
Mar 8: signpostsofthetimes.blogspot.com
Mar 1: flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com
Feb 22: flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com
Feb 15: faithwithyou.blogspot.com
Feb 8: North Korea Threatens the USA with a “Disastorous Final Doom”
Feb 1: Presbyterian Church And Arab Palestinian Group Rewriting The Bible To Remove References To Israel
Jan 25: His Still Small Voice!
Jan 18: Eschatology Today
Jan 11: 12 dead in Paris massacre
Jan 4: Did Jesus ever celebrate His birthday?

2006 / 2007 / 2008 / 2009 / 2010 / 2011 / 2012 / 2013

 / 2014

Dear Winners, feel free to display this award on your blog ya:)

What others say about "Best Christian Blog of The Week" award:

""We believe this is truly by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is also a testament of the Grace Gospel that is setting many free. We are honoured and am grateful for the Lord. All praise be to Him." ~~ Simon Yap

"Thank you for voting for my blog. I was so pleasantly surprised to know that someone is reading it and has been touched by it. It is very encouraging for me. Praise God for loving us so much and leading us to Him. All Glory and Honor to Jesus Christ the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! " ~~ Kristin Willruth

"Praise the Lord! Indeed it is such a testimony to the fact that God's paths drip with abundance and He never fails to surprise His children with good things! Thank you cybeRanger for the efforts to seek out and encourage bloggers like me! I know that there are more blessings to come! All glory to God!" ~~ Avin Lee

"AWESOME!!! Thank you for viewing and voting The "I AM" Alphabet blogspot best Christian blogspot of the week. It is quite a blessing and I give all glory to God. He used you to bless me this Mother's Day week. LOL You gotta lov'um...HE is such a good God in the big things and the little things...I give HIM praise." -- The "I Am" Alphabet Book

" I have truly been blessed today after a tumultuous week, when even my blogging abilities were made fun of; I've received a Best Christian Blog of the Week Award by cybeRanger. What an honour! All glory to God for this one!" - - Paula

"Thanks for the encouragement. Awards like these push me to blog more to be a blessing to others as you have been to me." - - Mikes Sumondong

"Praise the Lord! All Glory to God! I am so encouraged to know that there are people out there reading my blog, which is really God's blog because I've dedicated to Him. Thanks Cyberanger, I am humbled to receive this award." - - bunnyexpress

"Thank your for the recognition. It helps to know that my blog is being read and appreciated for its mission and content. I want the blog to be a blessing to the saints who are in Christ Jesus."
-- Jerry Teets

"I am astonished I was awarded the Best Christian Blog of the Week. Thank you for the encouragement." - - Annette

"It took me by surprise to be awarded. I am really happy and honoured to share the Good News around. To HIM our Lord our God shall be the glory." - - eLLis

"This is a great encouragement for me as I am rather new to blogging and was wondering if anyone was actually reading my blog posts. " - - Paul Spencer

"Thank you Cyberanger for awarding my blog entry Christian blog of the week for May 3. What an encouragement! & Thank you Abba Father. Would your name spread far and wide, and may your glory fill the earth as the waters cover the sea. " - - eds

+ "All glory to Jesus and the great work He does in our lives and those of the children. This award is dedicated to Him first and foremost, to my hubby who is my dear prayer partner, and also to my little son, whom I hope will be encouraged to always abide in Christ." - - Daughter Of Sarah
+ "This is really nice, totally undeserved and an awesome blessing" - - Dan Bowen

+ "I am very honoured to be awarded the 'Best Christian Blog of the Week' for Jan 4 2009~All glory is given to God above,who is my pillar of strength through difficult times" - - Carolyn Koh

+ "I believe that our Abba Father wants me to know that I should continue to stand firm in what I have faith in and I am on the right track." -- Pebbles

+ "I appreciate the time and attention that Cyberanger takes to make his choice. I'm sure it's difficult given the excellent quality of the blogs listed on his sidebar." - - Aida

+ "I am happy to receive the award and I am also happy that this web site does this. It gives encouragement to those who have a Christian blog and gives affirmation that they are doing God's will. " - - Christopher

+ "Thank you for your recognition and most of all, Our Lord Jesus Himself affirms and recognizes the preaching of His grace. By His grace, I am honored to receive this award." -- Alan Hiu

+ "Very honoured to be rated “Best Christian Blog of the Week” by CybeRanger. This came as a little encouragement as a lot of things are going on right now in my life" - - King David

+ "Wow. All glory to God always. Thanks for the award Cyberanger. It came as a very blessed surprise. Very humbled and feeling undeserving of the award really. " - - As The Deer

+ "I take this as the LORD affirming me to continue to declare the great and mighty deeds He has done in my life. This award could not have come at a more appropriate time. Thanks be to God! Hallelujah! It has motivated me to carry on and blog for the glory of Jesus!" - - Malcolm Loh

+ "All glory be to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for this honor really belongs to Him and Him alone." - - Andrew Lee

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Episcopal Church bishop says: "God has given us a new revelation"

"God has given us a new revelation not shared with our forefathers in the church."

According to Fr. George Conger in an article written for Anglican Ink, this is what one bishop said about the move towards embracing same-sex marriage in The Episcopal Church.

Regardless of where one stands on this matter, this is a striking statement to make.  

"A new revelation not shared with our forefathers."  

In other words, God has given The Episcopal Church a revelation that cannot be found in Scripture or Tradition, a revelation that Jesus, St. Paul and the rest of the New Testament writers, the Church Fathers, the Reformers, the Anglican Divines, etc., did not have access to.  Because only in our time has God been gracious enough to share it.  And God has given this new revelation only to a select few among all the Christians currently living in the world.

But how do we know this is truly revelation from God?  By what authority and what criteria does a claim to new revelation get checked out and determined to be true or false?  

To his credit, this bishop apparently told Fr. Conger that "we must proceed slowly and with generosity of spirit" in case it turns out that the majority of bishops and deputies at General Convention are wrong.  What might be the signs that we've got it wrong?  How would we know?

I note that this bishop made this statement in the context of Salt Lake City, a city founded in 1847 by Brigham Young and other Mormon leaders.  Seeing as Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, claimed a new revelation not shared with our forefathers in the church, Salt Lake City may strike some as a fitting place for an Episcopal bishop to make a similar claim.

It's possible that this bishop's take on what's happening in The Episcopal Church correctly represents a prophetic vision of how God is doing something new and unforeseen in our time through the actions of General Convention. 

It's also possible that what this bishop said expresses the hubris and false teaching, perhaps even the heresy, of General Convention's actions.

I'll leave it to you, dear reader, to decide.

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Episcopal Church's Current Understanding of Marriage Supports "Sacramental Apartheid"

In a recent blog posting, I noted that an Episcopal priest at the 78th General Convention of the Episcopal Church compared the marriage rite in The Book of Common Prayer to the Confederate flag.  According to this priest, just as the Confederate flag is a symbol of hate that must be taken down, so, too, the Prayer Book's marriage rite is a symbol of discrimination that must be jettisoned and replaced with a gender neutral rite.  

Unfortunately, the harsh rhetoric and loony comparisons continue.  According to a Living Church article, for example, another priest speaking before the Special Legislative Committee on Marriage had this to say:

"It is time to let our yes be yes, and end what is nothing less than de facto sacramental apartheid," said the Rev. Susan Russell of All Saints Church, Pasadena, a member of the marriage task force.

It is sad to see such ridiculous nonsense used to justify sweeping changes in the Church's faith and practice.  But at least the implications of the Rev. Russell's language are clear: "If you disagree with us, then you are hateful, ignorant, discriminatory bigots and the moral equivalent of racists and segregationists."  

It is beyond question that racism and bigotry, and endorsing segregation and apartheid, are evil.  The Church cannot and should not tolerate such evil.  So if the Rev. Russell is correct, anyone espousing the traditional, orthodox understanding of marriage as currently contained in the Prayer Book's marriage rite is endorsing the sacramental equivalent of apartheid, and thus endorsing evil.  Such persons should not be allowed to hold positions of power and influence in the Church.  They should not be tolerated.  

If rhetoric like the Rev. Russell's wins the day, it's hard to see how there can be space for diversity and disagreement.  If General Convention goes down this path, difficult days may lie ahead for anyone in The Episcopal Church who believes in and adheres in practice to the theology of the 1979 Prayer Book's marriage rite.

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Episcopal Bigotry: Prayer Book's Marriage Rite Compared to Confederate Flag

Even before the 78th General Convention officially started, things got interesting.  According to a Living Church article entitled "Prayer Book Discrimination?", an open hearing of the Special Legislative Session on Marriage included some forceful comments in favor of clearing the way for gender-neutral language in authorized marriage rites.  

One speaker took aim at the Prayer Book's marriage rite as follows: 

�How long are we going to allow documents like the Book of Common Prayer to contain language that is explicitly discriminatory?� asked the Rev. Will Mebane, interim dean of St. Paul�s Cathedral in Buffalo and a member of the Task Force on the Study of Marriage. �Demands for the Confederate flag, a symbol of hate, to come down have been heard. � It is time to remove our symbol that contains language of discrimination.�

So just as the Confederate flag is a symbol of hate, the rite for "The Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage" in The Book of Common Prayer is a symbol of discrimination.  Just as we need to take down the Confederate flag because it perpetuates bigotry, we need to do away with the Prayer Book's current marriage rite because it, too, perpetuates bigotry.  

Fr. Matt Marino hits the nail on the head about this over at The Gospel Side:

The dean from Buffalo actually equated the language of the prayer book marriage rite (lifted directly from another "hate document," the bible) used in a church in which 3/4 of our diocese' have same-sex commitment ceremonies to the racially motivated murder of nine faithful Christians assembled in their church to study the scriptures?  That is patently irresponsible, thoroughly insensitive, and wholly unexplainable to my African American friends.

I would add that if Fr. Mebane is correct, then every time a clergy person has used or will use this marriage rite to preside at a wedding, he/she has been or will be actively discriminating against persons created in the image of God.  This violates the Baptismal Covenant promises to seek and serve Christ in all persons, to love our neighbor as ourselves, and to respect the dignity of every human being.  Such clergy persons commit sin for which they should repent.  And as proof of amendment of life, they should forswear ever again using this marriage rite.  

Not only that, but if Fr. Mebane is right, clergy who use the Prayer Book's marriage rite are not only sinning.  They are also running afoul of the the Episcopal Church's non-discrimination canon:

"No one shall be denied rights, status or access to an equal place in the life, worship, and governance of this Church because of race, color, ethnic origin, national origin, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, disabilities or age, except as otherwise specified by Canons" (Canon I 17:5). 

Using the Prayer Book's marriage rite is therefore grounds for disciplinary action.

And if Fr. Mebane is right, then we have a conundrum to address regarding the theological warrant for marriage included in the Prayer Book's marriage rite.  That warrant reads as follows: 

"The bond and covenant of marriage was established by God in creation, and our Lord Jesus Christ adorned this manner of life by his presence and first miracle at a wedding in Cana of Galilee" (BCP, p. 423).  

If Fr. Mebane is correct that the marriage rite is a symbol of bigotry, then we are faced with two unpalatable options.  

The first is that the opening exhortation is a lie.  God did not establish the bond and covenant of marriage between one man and one woman in creation, and Jesus did not adorn this manner of life by his presence and first miracle at a wedding in Cana of Galilee.  So in addition to committing the sin of discrimination, clergy using this marriage rite have also been blaspheming by publicly proclaiming a lie about God and Jesus.  

The second option is that the opening exhortation truthfully represents what God did in creation and what Jesus did at the wedding in Cana.  In which case God inscribed bigotry into the very order of creation, and Jesus endorsed that bigotry at the wedding in Cana.  But if Jesus endorsed bigotry, then he was a bigot.  And if Jesus was a bigot, then Jesus was a sinner.  And if Jesus was a sinner, then he could not possibly be the Savior.

What Fr. Mebane said can easily be dismissed as ridiculous.  But that doesn't necessarily mean such ideas won't be taken seriously and acted upon by deputies and bishops at General Convention.  

Lord, have mercy.

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Gordon H. Clark Sermon: The Holy Wisdom of God

College will give one knowledge, but not wisdom. -- Dr. Gordon H. Clark


The Gordon H. Clark Foundation posted this sermon at their site. The sermon was recently discovered in the Clark family archive of unpublished papers. Here is a quote from the sermon:



Undoubtedly this passage from Job implies that the study of minerals, the study of geology, indeed all academic study is not the

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What Is a Parable? A Clarkian Analysis of Dr. Robert A. Traina's Comment

It may truly be said that the context of each term of a book is the book itself. -- Dr. Robert A. Traina



I never took any classes with Dr. Robert A. Traina. However, when I was a young Pentecostal and Arminian student at Asbury Theological Seminary, Dr. Traina's book on inductive biblical exegesis, Methodical Bible Study, was a standard textbook and still is today in many seminaries

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St. John Chrysostom: Living With Security

"Living With Security"

Commentary on Matthew 7:24-27

Whereas his teaching has up to now largely focused on the future kingdom, its unspeakable rewards and its consolations, now he shifts his focus to the present life, its current fruits and how great is the strength of virtue within it. What then is its strength? It is living with security, not being easily overcome by any of life�s terrors and standing above all those who treat others maliciously. What could be as good as this? For not even the one who wears the royal crown would be able to furnish this for himself. 

But one who pursues the way of excellence can have this stability, for that one alone is possessed of this equilibrium in full abundance. In the crashing surf of the present circumstances such a one experiences a calm sea. This is amazing. It is when the storm is violent, the upheaval great and the temptations continual that such a person is not shaken in the slightest. This is not a way of living that applies to fair weather only. For he says, �The rain came down, the floods came, the winds blew, and they beat against that house. And it did not fall because it was founded upon the rock.� 

 In referring to rain, floods and winds, Jesus is speaking about all those human circumstances and misfortunes, such as false accusations, plots, bereavements, deaths, loss of family members, insults from others, and all the horrid things in life about which one could speak. Jesus says that a soul that pursues the way of excellence does not give in to any of these potential disasters. And the cause of this is that this soul has been founded upon the rock. 

 Now �rock� refers to the reliability of Jesus� teaching. For his commands are stronger than any rock. They place one quite above all the human waves of life. For the one who guards these commands with care will excel not only over human beings when treated maliciously but even over the demons themselves in their plots. � St. John Chrysostom, The Gospel of Matthew, Homily 24.2 


Source: Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, New Testament Ia: Matthew 1-13, edited by Manlio Simonetti (InterVarsity Press, 2001), pp. 156-157.

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Where to find my reviews now...

Hi everyone



Just letting you know that I have moved my book and movie reviewing to two new blogs.



For book reviews: http://ontherunbooks.blogspot.com.au/



For movie reviews: http://ontherunreviewer.blogspot.com.au/



Cheers

Steve

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Roger Olson Continues to Equivocate and Mislead

"It should be clearly understood that even faith itself is not the basis of justification." -- Dr. Gordon H. Clark



"James Arminius was born in 1560, in Oudewater, the Netherlands. In 1582,
he studied under Beza in Geneva, the successor to John Calvin. There he
met Uitenbogaert, who would later become one of his staunchest allies
and promoters of his heresy. When asked in 1591

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Gordon H. Clark Quote of the Day: What Is Natural Liberty?

"Man's will 'is neither forced nor by any absolute necessity
of nature determined.' These words were written to repudiate those
philosophies which explain human conduct in terms of physico-chemical
law. . . . Man is not a machine; his motions cannot be described by mathematical
equations as can the motions of the planets." Dr. Gordon H. Clark

Many semi-Arminians in the neo-Calvinist

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Gordon H. Clark: The Gospel Includes the Five Points of Calvinism

Now, what did Paul preach? He himself says, "I am pure from the blood
of all men, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel
of God." This includes the five points of Calvinism, the TULIP, . . . Dr. Gordon H. Clark

Unwittingly, many Evangelicals and even Calvinists have been duped into thinking that the Gospel can be reduced down to a few pet propositions or verses of the

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What Do Reformed Christians Believe? Part 1

I have been negligent of late in writing for my blog due to my discussions and debates on Facebook. You can visit my Facebook groups at Reformed Anglicans for Scripturalism and Calvinism Defended Against All. That being said, I want to start a new series of articles where I will compare and contrast the Anglican Formularies (Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, the

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The Line in the Sand?

Dr. Paul Elliott has rightly said that the Presbyterian Church in America keeps erasing the line in the sand and moving it back a step. It's analogous to President Obama's continuing to erase the lines in the sand that he drew when Russia started its overt aggression against Ukraine. The problem with the PCA, as with the PCUSA and the Auburn Affirmation in the 1920s, is that it has failed to

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The Obama Administration's Anti-Christian Attack on Evangelicalism

�Within certain defined areas, opponents of gay rights will be
unaffected by an embrace of same-sex marriage. But in others, the impact
will be substantial. I am not optimistic that, under current law, much
can be done to ameliorate the impact on religious dissenters.� -- Marc D. Stern


It looks like everything I have been warning Christians about is going to happen as soon as the Supreme

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Christ Receiveth Sinners, Walter Marshall

Christ Receiveth Sinners


by Walter Marshall



17TH CENTURY




�Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool� �Isaiah 1:18 KJV

We are not to imagine that our hearts and lives must be changed from sin to holiness in any measure, before we may safely venture

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Ted Cruz: Defender of Freedom of Religion

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Dr. Gordon H. Clark Quote of the Day: Is God Sovereign or Is God Subject to the Law?

"God establishes moral norms by sovereign decree." -- Dr. Gordon H. Clark


In a recent exchange with another so-called Calvinist, I was challenged to show how God is not subject to His own nature as God. The presupposition being that the law of God is superior to God because God is by nature subject to a moral law. But as the late Dr. Gordon H. Clark pointed out, this is really the view of

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Jeremy Taylor: "We have a great work to do ..."

�For we must remember that we have a great work to do, many enemies to conquer, many evils to prevent, much danger to run through, many difficulties to be mastered, many necessities to serve, and much good to do, many children to provide for, or many friends to support, or many poor to relieve, or many diseases to cure, besides the needs of nature, and of relation, our private and our public cares, and duties of the world, which necessity and the Providence of God hath adopted into the family of Religion.�

- Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living (1650)

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Can the Unconverted Elect Respond to the Gospel Call with Confidence?

Here's another example of the brilliant arguments against Calvinism that Arminians endorse:


"Without realizing it, the Calvinist is finally saying that repentance
and faith (as the gift of God in the salvation �package�) are being
offered to all who will repent and believe, when in fact none can do so.
This reduces to pure tautology and is no offer at all. (Grace, Faith,
Free Will, pp.

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Gordon H. Clark: Quote of the Day: Combat Semi-Arminianism

"It
seems to me that a great many objections to specific Christian
doctrines, objections to the propitiatory atonement or the Incarnation,
arise from a non-Christian view of God's nature. The modernists object
to a vicarious sacrifice because they do not
think God is that sort of a person. Theirs is not the God of the early
Christians. And my sincere conviction is that if we are to retain

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Good Friday Homily 2015

Sometimes the truth of the Gospel hits home at unexpected times and from unexpected persons.  

Take what happened a few years back at an Episcopal Church in downtown Atlanta [source].  It was Holy Week, and the congregation was staging a dramatic enactment of the Passion Gospel.  After the reading was announced, the lights dimmed and red-robed participants moved into their places around the church.  A ten-foot-tall wooden cross, draped with a blood-red stole, towered at the top of the chancel steps.  Even the children fell silent.

The drama was coming to its dreadful conclusion.  Jesus stood at the front of the cross, his head bowed, as players leapt to their feet from the pews, screaming out, �Crucify him!�  It�s all part of the story we know so well.

But then something unexpected happened.  After the brutal cries of �Crucify him!� had echoed throughout the church, a strange, new, and unscripted voice cried out: �Oh my Lord, no!  Don�t kill my sweet Jesus!  You�ve got to stop!  You can�t kill my sweet Jesus!  O Lord, make them stop!�

A homeless woman had wandered into the service with no clue about what was going on.

A parishioner later told the rector: �I tried to tell her that it wasn�t real.  But I realized that, for her, it was.�

There�s an important sense in which that homeless woman is our best guide for grasping the meaning of Good Friday.  Because it�s true: this story is, indeed, all too real.  And it�s not something we can safely relegate to the past.  We can�t take comfort in the knowledge that these gruesome events happened almost 2,000 years ago. We can�t pass the buck off to Pilate or to the Jewish religious leaders or to the Roman soldiers.  For the truth is that all of us are responsible for Jesus� passion and death.  No one is innocent.  

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?  Yes, you were there.  And so was I.  The whole world was there at that moment, at the focal point of history, the intersection of time and eternity, when the nails were hammered into hands and feet and the broken body of Jesus was lifted high up on the cross, and he died, forsaken.  

What happened that day to Jesus is the direct consequence of human sinfulness.  We all share in that sinfulness.  It cannot be blamed on any one person or group.  Sinful humanity crucified Jesus.  

St. Francis of Assisi speaks to each of us when he says: "It is you who have crucified him and crucify him still when you delight in your vices and sins" [source].  In countless ways, we continue to sacrifice God�s love on the altar of our selfishness.

One author puts it well:

�When we ignore the homeless on our doorsteps, we fail to care for Jesus Christ himself.  When we eat our fill while others starve, we steal nourishment from Jesus Christ himself.  When we stir up hatred against the vulnerable or fear of those who differ from us, we alienate ourselves from Jesus Christ himself.  In other words, Good Friday is the chief exemplar of a pattern of sinful behavior that we continue to this very day.�

Good Friday bursts the bubble that protects us from seeing what the consequences of our sin really look like.  It looks like the Incarnation of God�s love nailed to a cross.  And when we see Jesus nailed to a cross it�s like looking into a mirror.  We see our own reflections staring back at us, rightly accusing us of crucifying the only Son of God, abandoning him to a painful death, doing away with him so our self-indulgent appetites and exploitation of other people go unchallenged.  If we really look into that mirror, we see the depths of our need for healing and redemption.

But just as important as facing the truth of how much damage sin does to our world is Good Friday�s call to embrace an even greater truth.  And that is the truth of God�s extravagant love and mercy.  

Jesus gave himself over to death on the cross, not out of anger, and not because he was coerced to do so, but because of his great love and compassion for a sin-sick humanity.  God loved the world so much that He sent His only Son, that through His Son�s suffering and death our sufferings and deaths might be redeemed for eternal life.

Many years ago, a therapist told me: �If you can�t feel it, you can�t heal it.�  Something like that is happening on Good Friday.  To heal our sins, God in Christ had to feel our sins.  In order to heal us, in order to atone for our sins, God had to fully experience the consequences of our sins through the suffering and death of Jesus.  

On the cross, Jesus experienced the full weight of suffering caused by the sins of the world.  All of the misery, heartbreak, and infidelity; the poverty and starvation; the treachery and lies; the violence and bloodshed; the bone-crushing pain of sickness and disease; the greed, exploitation, and injustice; the loneliness; the feelings of abandonment; the fear of death - all of the suffering of every single person who has ever or will ever live in this broken world came crashing down upon the crucified Jesus like one great tidal wave, crushing him, and leaving his dead body hanging on the cross.  

Stretching out his arms of love on the hard wood of the cross, Jesus took the full brunt of the world�s darkness, death, and violence upon himself and, by the power of love, transformed them into light, life, and peace.

By the cross of Christ, God has abolished our sins, acquitting us and declaring us righteous.  By the cross of Christ, God has made peace where once there was strife.  By the cross of Christ, God has bridged the canyon that separated us from knowing the joys of his love.  By the cross of Christ, God has embraced the totality of our humanity - including suffering and death - in order to guarantee our passage from death to life.  By the cross of Christ, God has redeemed the world.   

This same Jesus who was nailed to the cross continues to reach out with arms of love to you and to me - inviting, welcoming, forgiving, healing, and commissioning us to go and embrace a broken and hurting world.  

For by the power of the cross we are saved.  By the power of the cross, we are changed.  And by the power of the cross, we are sent forth to share God�s love and mercy with a world starving for forgiveness, hope, healing, and salvation.

�And so we glory in your cross, O Lord,

and praise and glorify your holy resurrection;

for by virtue of your cross

joy has come to the whole world� (BCP, p. 281).

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Richard Gaffin, Jr.: Promoter of Faith Plus Works

For anyone willing to investigate, you can listen to Dr. Richard Gaffin, Jr.'s lectures on union with Christ for free at Monergism.com.
Dr. Gaffin is a proponent of the Federal Vision within the Orthodox
Presbyterian Church and openly denies that sanctification is the logical
result of justification. Instead, Dr. Gaffin says that justification
and sanctification are united together

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Are Good Works Necessary for Salvation?

". . . No matter how great the totality of our good works, they do not merit
pardon for sin or eternal life. Contrary to the modernist and Roman
theories of salvation by works, Calvinism teaches that when we have done
all we can, we are still unprofitable servants." Dr. Gordon H. Clark





The Arminians and the Pelagians presuppose that man is not guilty of Adam's original sin. The

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On This Date in Presbyterian History: The Auburn Heresy Address by Dr. Gordon H. Clark

On February 28, 1935 Dr. Gordon H. Clark addressed an assembly of Presbyterian laymen on the reasons why the Auburn Affirmation of the Presbyterian Church in the United States was an attack on the basic doctrines of the Bible and the Westminster Standards. You can click here to read the post on This Day in Presbyterian History. Dr. Clark said:


�The reason the Auburn Affirmation is

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Richard Gaffin, Jr., the New Perspective on Paul, and Union with Christ

Dr. Richard Gaffin, Jr.



From this perceptive, the antithesis between law and gospel is not an end in itself. It is not a theological ultimate.
Rather, that antithesis enters not by virtue of creation but as a
consequence of sin, and the gospel functions for its overcoming. The
gospel is to the end of removing an absolute law-gospel antithesis in
the life of the believer [emphasis Cunha

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Musical Interlude with Hammock: "I Could Hear the Water at the Edge of All Things"

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Why the Presbyterian Church in America Is No Longer Confessional

"The Federal Vision and the PCA�s response to it looms large in Phelps�
conclusion that the denomination as a whole has departed from the
Reformed Faith."The Reformed Free Publishing website has posted an article explaining why the Presbyterian Church in America is no longer Reformed or committed to its confessional documents. Click here to read the article: The PCA Has Failed to be

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Is It Wrong for Christians to Argue? Quote of the Day: Dr. Gordon H. Clark

�But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, �These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.� (Acts 17:6, NKJV)



In his commentary on the book of Philippians, Dr. Clark said the following in reference to Philippians 1:16, 17, 18:





Verse 16 continues the sentence in verse 15. [Philippians 1:15, 16].

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Spiritual Guidance? Dr. Gordon H. Clark Comments on Knowing Scripture

Pentecostalism and the Charismatic movement has infiltrated virtually every Evangelical denomination today, including, unfortunately, the Reformed denominations. The Pentecostals and Charismatics are especially fond of showing off their spiritual discernment and ability to foretell the future and following the leading of the Holy Spirit. But as Dr. Gordon H. Clark's comment below will

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Logic and Assurance

"If sanctification
is a necessary element in salvation, it is hard to see why some
Christians feel no need to understand it better. No doubt the real
reason is that they are not presently sanctified enough." Dr. Gordon H.
Clark


Logic and Assurance


In
recent years I began on my own to read Reformed theology and Reformed
systematic theology. During my reading I came across the

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Sewanee New Testament Professor Slams Bishop N. T. Wright

The University of the South (Sewanee) recently awarded an honorary degree to N. T. Wright, the retired Anglican bishop of Durham, prolific author, and current Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at St. Mary's College with the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Dr. Paul Holloway, Professor of New Testament at Sewanee's School of Theology, will have none of it.  In a blistering letter to the editor of The Sewanee Purple, here's what Professor Holloway wrote:

I am writing to express dismay at Sewanee�s recent awarding of an honorary degree in Theology to Tom Wright, former bishop of Durham and now professor of New Testament at St. Andrews University in Scotland. I am the current professor of New Testament at the School of Theology at Sewanee, and Wright�s receiving an honorary degree during my tenure is a professional embarrassment. Some of the readers of this letter will know Wright as an outspoken opponent of LGBT rights and a vociferous critic of the Episcopal Church for its progressive stance. I find Wright�s position on these matters offensive and harmful. It is an affront to the School of Theology in general and to its LGBT community and its allies in particular. 

But that is not my complaint here. My complaint is that Sewanee has recognized Wright as a scholar in my discipline, when in fact he is little more than a book-a-year apologist. Wright comes to the evidence not with honest questions but with ideologically generated answers that he seeks to defend. I know of no critical scholar in the field who trusts his work. He contradicts what I stand for professionally as well as the kind of hard-won intellectual integrity I hope to instill in my students. I feel like the professor of biology who has had to sit by and watch a Biblical creationist receive an honorary degree in science. 

To be fair, Wright was voted his degree under a previous administration before I became professor of New Testament. And he was voted that degree when he was simply another conservative Church of England prelate of the sort we used to court. (A few of these are still in the pipeline!) But a number of things have changed. Not only are there a new administration and a new NT professor, but Wright has since retired as bishop and found a job at an under-funded Scottish university anxious to attract young full-fee-paying American Evangelical men questing for old-world cultural capital. My only consolation is that the embarrassment of Wright�s honorary degree was overshadowed by the even greater debacle of the stridently propagandistic Eric Metaxas, who was tapped to speak at this semester�s convocation. Sewanee seriously needs to rethink is honorary degrees. I am afraid that after last week they will bring a little less honor. 

Sincerely, 

Paul Holloway

Professor of New Testament 

The School of Theology 

The University of the South

Setting aside the caustically contemptuous and intolerant tone of the letter, as well as its open hostility to Christian orthodoxy, here's the gist of what Professor Holloway says: "N. T. Wright disagrees with my views on particular matters and he represents theological positions that contradict my own.  That offends and embarrasses me.  Therefore, Wright is not a real scholar and he doesn't deserve an honorary degree." 

It doesn't take a Ph.D. in logic to see how silly this "argument" is.

Nor does it take a genius to see that if Professor Holloway's letter makes the rounds among moderate-to-conservative lay and clergy graduates of The School of Theology, they just might decide to send their money to other institutions.  I'm aware of persons who have made just that decision before this letter was even written.  This letter will simply underscore that they made the right decision.  And there are others for whom Professor Holloway's letter may be the straw that breaks the camel's back when it comes to financially supporting The School of Theology.  I doubt that's the outcome the Sewanee administration had in mind when they issued the invitation for Bishop Wright to speak and receive an honorary degree!

---

Since I posted on this story yesterday, Fr. Peter Carrell of Anglican Down Under has offered a most worthy response to Professor Holloway's letter in a posting entitled "N. T. Wright dismissed as 'little more than book-a-year apologist.'"  Here's a money quote:

It is very surprising that Holloway misses the point of Wright's role in NT scholarship which is to generate fresh discussion of familiar texts. Wright's singular achievement is to make us think again - critically! - about what we read in the NT. Looking at Holloway's professional career I don't think that is going to be said about him! His output is of a different kind, and that is fine. But fifty year's from now students will still be examining Wright's writings for their doctoral theses and Holloway's works - like most NT scholars that ever lived - will be in a dusty corner of the library.

Read it all.

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Dr. Gordon H. Clark on the Full Preterist Heresy

Dr.
Gordon H. Clark was not a full preterist and I sincerely doubt that he
would have agreed with anything C. H. Dodd had to say since Clark called
Dodd a theological liberal. Here's a quote from Clark's book, The Holy Spirit, (Jefferson: Trinity Foundation, 1993). After saying that
miracles only occur in certain periods of biblical history, Clark says:




"There
will be, however, a

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Full Preterism: Damnable Heresy

I am posting this after I discovered that many so-called Calvinist apologists on Facebook are secretly promoting a damnable heresy called hyper-preterism or full preterism. I am particularly referring to Jeff Swayzee, who has posted many videos that support Dr. Gordon H. Clark's theology. I have in the past posted some of those videos on this blog. I do not wish for anyone to think that

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Common Grace and the Higher Criticism Connection

The following article was originally published in Calvin Theological Journal, the official journal of Calvin Seminary. Calvin Seminary is affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church. The article was written by John Bolt. The connection between Professor Ralph Janssen and higher criticism and his resulting view that theistic evolution was an option is clearly shown in this article:




The

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Holy Water Bucket Challenge

Give me that old-time religion!

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Gordon H. Clark: The Contents of Revelation Form a System

"Since God is truth, and since Christ is the Logos, Wisdom, or Reason of God, one naturally expects that the contents of revelation would form a system. This expectation is not disappointed. The various doctrines of the Bible dovetail and fit into each other. A later part explains more fully the implications of an earlier part. For this reason a given chapter of the Westminster

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