http://www.christianforums.com The forum for Reformed, Calvinist, Presbyterian and other similar denominations. en Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:45:06 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.christianforums.com/style/misc/rss.jpg http://www.christianforums.com http://www.christianforums.com/t7418400/ Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:44:10 GMT Which manuscripts constitute the scriptures? Which manuscripts constitute the scriptures? ]]> Semper Reformanda - Reformed JM http://www.christianforums.com/t7418400/ http://www.christianforums.com/t7417540/ Sat, 14 Nov 2009 08:31:22 GMT Just seen a guy on TV , his name is Nick , born with no arms or legs , converted to the Lord age 15 , now preaching all over the world the Gospel of Christ with great results ........ his faith is strong , his face is full of peace and love , isn't God amazing !!!!


just found the clip :cool:

YouTube - Nick Vujicic: Life Without Limbs - CBN.com ]]> Semper Reformanda - Reformed cygnusx1 http://www.christianforums.com/t7417540/ http://www.christianforums.com/t7417468/ Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:59:14 GMT Does anyone watch the religious programs on sky, if so, what do you enjoy?:wave: Does anyone watch the religious programs on sky, if so, what do you enjoy?:wave: ]]> Semper Reformanda - Reformed Tyndale http://www.christianforums.com/t7417468/ http://www.christianforums.com/t7417311/ Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:09:35 GMT *A strong majority of Reformed theologians would consider Equal Ultimacy to be purly heretical. If you were given the task, how might you argue against Equal Ultimacy from the Scriptures?* A strong majority of Reformed theologians would consider Equal Ultimacy to be purly heretical. If you were given the task, how might you argue against Equal Ultimacy from the Scriptures? ]]> Semper Reformanda - Reformed TimRout http://www.christianforums.com/t7417311/ http://www.christianforums.com/t7417143/ Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:56:56 GMT Hi to old friends... :wave: Hi to old friends... :wave: ]]> Semper Reformanda - Reformed bradfordl http://www.christianforums.com/t7417143/ http://www.christianforums.com/t7417047/ Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:44:12 GMT This question was asked on another forum, do you subscribe to a confession because it's biblical or insofar as it's biblical? ]]> Semper Reformanda - Reformed JM http://www.christianforums.com/t7417047/ http://www.christianforums.com/t7416908/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:16:40 GMT And no I'm not talking about Mark Driscoll! lol

As some of you know, I recently started working in the office at a Presbyterian church. It's definitely nothing like the PCA that I've heard you guys describe here. They have women elders, used to have a woman head pastor, they don't seem to deal very much with sin, they're extremely seeker sensitive, etc. I knew all of this going in.

What I did not expect is for the pastor to use the language that he does. Not that it's extremely crude. But I've heard him say jeez and Oh my G.. quite a number of times, he says things like P O 'd (the full version, not like I've typed it here) and the like. And he likes the idea of "shock factor" when people in ministry use swearing to shake people up. Maybe I'm just being overly sensitive or prudish, but I am really uncomfortable with a pastor acting like this. No, he's not my pastor. I still go to the Baptist church. But he is my boss and does this in my workplace. And he's a brother in the faith. How do I handle this? Speak up? Say nothing? He is the kind of guy who appreciates open honesty. But I'm really not good with confrontation and don't know how to do this. Any suggestions? ]]> Semper Reformanda - Reformed desmalia http://www.christianforums.com/t7416908/ http://www.christianforums.com/t7416764/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:44:35 GMT if anyone feels like reading it, just got my first post up today.

it's actually me and 2 other guys as-of-now, I just happened to be the first to post something.

I would LOVE feedback tho. ]]> Semper Reformanda - Reformed itisdeliciouscake http://www.christianforums.com/t7416764/ http://www.christianforums.com/t7416556/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:52:59 GMT Here is an article I found interesting about the current state of the Reformed Church in America: Reformed Church in America Is Imploding, Professor Says | Christianpost.com (http://www.christianpost.com/article/20091109/reformed-church-in-america-is-imploding-professor-says/index.html) ... Here is an article I found interesting about the current state of the Reformed Church in America:

Reformed Church in America Is Imploding, Professor Says | Christianpost.com

Thoughts? ]]> Semper Reformanda - Reformed NRB http://www.christianforums.com/t7416556/ http://www.christianforums.com/t7416206/ Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:39:00 GMT Hi there, yours is a wonderful site, thanks for having me on board. I've recently felt called to share a series of Reformed devotionals that I've written. These short daily devotionals deal with God's awesome grace as He comforts the suffering, hurt and downtrodden. The are geared toward those suffereing with chronic pain, though I'm hoping that all can be blessed through it. I'm new to blogging but I'm getting the hang of it. The blog is called Thorn of Grace and can be found at wordpress.com
Thanks for your time and God bless! ]]> Semper Reformanda - Reformed ThornofGrace http://www.christianforums.com/t7416206/ http://www.christianforums.com/t7416013/ Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:57:20 GMT I've had a few thoughts today as I've been doing research on the net.

I would not in all intellectual honesty call myself a Calvinist right now, because though I'm about 85% the way there and it makes much more sense to me than the alternative, and you'll probably wonder by the end of this post just what am I waiting for, but I'm looking around at the debates going on the internet, and most of them are about predestination and irrestistible grace; specifically, the L and the I, because those are the two hardest to swallow. It doesn't make sense to people that God could choose some to be saved and choose others not to be. There's a lot of talk about predestination, but what does predestination mean? Well, it could mean setting you for a particular path that is irreversible because God has decreed it so, but why is it that God would predestine some for heaven and some for hell? We can proof-text this till kingdom come that it's what He does, but I think the only thing you will do unless you explain total depravity along with it is make God look like a sadistical tyrant.

About6 months ago I was Arminian enough; didn't want to associate with either, but it certainly wasn't Calvinism. I had a couple weeks working third shift in a manufacturing department and a lot of time to think; and for some reason, this is one of the things that I decided to think about. I've listened to a lot of Paul Washer by this point, who is a Calvinist and I notice that he talks relatively little about the U, L, I or P. Perhaps a little of the U, I and the P in concerns to assurance, never heard him talk on the L yet, but the man has stressed the T to no end. Now Paul Washer is not Scripture, don't get me wrong, but he was the first person I thought of as I considered this. He's made several statements that made me think twice, things akin to what he says in this video:

YouTube - All Men Are Born Evil. (Paul Washer)

I hadn't seen the video at the time, but things he said in the Shocking Youth Message one, or talking about Hitler, as I thought about it, it made a lot of sense to me. You read passages like in Jeremiah talking about the desperate wickedness of human beings. I know more passages now, like in Genesis 6, then you look at the lives of the Pharisees, and even the fact that Christians get persecuted in such hideous ways around the world and throughout history, you can truly see that their issue is with something much deeper. I ask my friends sometimes, "Why on Earth would a person give up the opportunity to walk streets of gold, in a city made of precious stones, and live a life without grief, death or pain? What would drive them to say no to something like that?" You look at these things, and you can't help but sense that man is not bent in the direction of God; he's bent altogether the other way.

That had to come first. It had to come before anything else, otherwise at least now it makes no sense to me how the rest could work while still maintaining the goodness of God. I think next was unconditional election. That was easy, because I've seen election in the Bible, and if a man is so wicked because of his own sin, and he cannot save himself, and we know that God works salvation by election, then of course God would not elect based on their merit. Okay, that eliminates decisionism. That of course means too that because they are elected, they can't be lost, because if God transforms them into something they never were, then how could they go back? They can't. They didn't regenerate by making a decision; God regenerated them into something they were not, aka born again. Okay, there's perserverence. Irresistible grace? Well if they can't save themselves anyways because of their terrible sinful condition, then how could grace be anything but "irresistible?" Truthfully, it's a beautiful act of mercy. I will admit I'm not sold on the limited atonement just yet, but admittedly, given all things stemming from TD it makes sense..

Do you see how this all started with total depravity?

Now when we talk predestination, we're essentially encompassing the U, L, I and P all into one, but how many times in these debates is assent given to the T? If God is so loving, then why does He send people to hell? How can God be good and appoint some unto hell? But when the condemned is exposed for the wicked thing he naturally is, you find that he is more to "blame" than God! If anything, by predestining a person to eternal life He is in fact interfering with what would be the normal course of business in the universe; predestination is not God on His Throne simply picking and choosing which of these half-good-half-bad creatures to save or damn, but saving a totally vile creature and making him something he isn't, literally snatching him out of the fire! All of a sudden, hell made sense! Why is there hell? Because of wickedness. Why is it eternal? Because man and the devil are wicked completely. If we had any slight of good in us, then it seems it would be more reasonable for God to at least limit the time there in the hopes that we would get it right, because certainly the omniscient all-loving God could get on a man's good side if he had one!

I know some will say, "Well total depravity doesn't mean you're trying your hardest to be as wicked as possible." That's true, though left to ourselves without the Spirit, we would be; if anyone disagrees, then explain the devil. It's a true definition of total depravity, but God had to use a preacher who would demonstrate the monstrosity of it to me. Once I understood total depravity, I could look through this lens, and I could see God's work in a way that I had never saw it before; I had never known before how wicked I truly was, then I saw how desperately I needed a Savior; thus came repentance, and then came the seal of my salvation. And only recently did faith alone truly make sense. After 21 years of Christianity, I have to be humble enough to admit I just now got that...

Faith alone in Christ... the faith is not even mine. I don't even know how to say it.. in some ways I feel freshly converted. Perhaps I am. I almost don't know how to take it, because I'm not the person everyone sees as being bad, but I can say that I am the most wicked sinner I know! Though I am also at the same time overjoyed to say that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

I bring this up because I've been thinking a lot lately, "Well if I've got this new way of thinking, how do I use it in evangelism? I can't just say, 'Ask Jesus Christ into your heart' and call it good." How do you go from that to something like, "Jesus may love you" or "Jesus perhaps died for you," as the satirists put it? Well who's to say that God doesn't still love the unregenerate? He allows them to live another day, and when Jesus told us to love our enemies I wouldn't doubt that He still does the same thing; the only issue is that it's only more coals on their heads. Limited atonement? I don't know much to say on that because I need to study it deeper, though I admit it makes sense to me, yet it's another tribute back to the T in that you cannot save yourself. Without the atonement of Christ, you truly are hopeless; and this grievance over your own natural condition will produce tears of life. If the whole counsel of God requires that we understand that a man cannot save himself, that he must cry out to God to save him instead, then although they may hate the very idea at first and perhaps hate God for it, it will produce a greater joy and surer solidity than to think that they passed from death to life on their own merit.

I suppose the way this wraps up in my mind, given all this, is that God's election and predestination attribute tyranny to Him if man is not indeed completely wicked. If man is completely wicked, then the fact that God saves any at all is pure mercy, although justice requires Him to act different; thus through Jesus Christ he has gone farther than He ever had to for a dog like myself; and I thank Him that He, for whatever reason He had, though it had nothing to do with me, snatched me from the fire, and molded me for eternal life!

Now I know why they call these the doctrines of grace; because it is pure grace...

I'm sorry that was long, I had my intentions and plans set for this, though I see in some parts I've strayed a bit. So for what it's worth I hope it was of benefit. Through Him may your joy be full! ]]> Semper Reformanda - Reformed JSGuitarist http://www.christianforums.com/t7416013/ http://www.christianforums.com/t7415497/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:42:50 GMT Anyone been involved with this organization? We have a few in our fellowship who are and I am somewhat concerned that there is more focus on that than the local church. What are your thoughts positive or negative. Pros, Cons? Anyone been involved with this organization? We have a few in our fellowship who are and I am somewhat concerned that there is more focus on that than the local church. What are your thoughts positive or negative. Pros, Cons? ]]> Semper Reformanda - Reformed oworm http://www.christianforums.com/t7415497/ http://www.christianforums.com/t7415487/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:17:35 GMT Hi friends , I have started this thread to encourage better use of our technology :) I will start by asking a simple question . Can I synch my WORD spell check (MS) with this forum so that when I type an incorrect word it will flag me before I post , I hate spelling mistakes , I still have a... Hi friends , I have started this thread to encourage better use of our technology :)

I will start by asking a simple question .

Can I synch my WORD spell check (MS) with this forum so that when I type an incorrect word it will flag me before I post , I hate spelling mistakes , I still have a niggle that the last thread I started had a bad one (inevitable) .

Thanks for your help. :wave: ]]> Semper Reformanda - Reformed cygnusx1 http://www.christianforums.com/t7415487/ http://www.christianforums.com/t7415422/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:54:11 GMT *Hindrances to Meditation (http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=1070718570) **Meditations from Psalm 119 (http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=1409191234) * Hindrances to Meditation

Meditations from Psalm 119


]]> Semper Reformanda - Reformed JM http://www.christianforums.com/t7415422/ http://www.christianforums.com/t7414696/ Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:10:42 GMT I'm confused -- Sometimes I hear the terms used interchangeably, sometimes I hear the terms used in opposition to each other. ]]> Semper Reformanda - Reformed Lemmiwinks http://www.christianforums.com/t7414696/