Husband, father and PCA pastor. ETX native. I enjoy fly fishing and bow hunting.
Huntsville, TX
Joined November 2024
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𖧞 𝔑𝔬𝔩𝔞𝔫 𝔚𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔧𝔞𝔪𝔰𝔬𝔫 𖧞 retweeted
Hey, listen, if a guy says in a live debate that he wouldn’t leave his church even if the leaders began practicing and teaching Islam (and doubles down when asked again!), you can pretty well disregard most of what he has to say about what constitutes a true or healthy church.
𖧞 𝔑𝔬𝔩𝔞𝔫 𝔚𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔧𝔞𝔪𝔰𝔬𝔫 𖧞 retweeted
Since there is a little chatter going on on X about the sin of schism, this is a good time to remember the principled, godly, Scriptural, confessional, catholic-spirited, churchly argument of the PCA founders in the Message to All Churches (1973).
"When a denomination will not exercise discipline and its courts have become heterodox or disposed to tolerate error, the minority finds itself in the anomalous position of being submissive to a tolerant and erring majority. In order to proclaim the truth and to practice the discipline which they believe obedience to Christ requires, it then becomes necessary for them to separate. This is the exercise of discipline in reverse. It is how we view our separation.
Some of our brethren have felt that the present circumstances do not yet call for such a remedy. They remain in the Presbyterian Church in the United States. We trust they will continue to contend for the faith, though our departure makes their position more difficult. We express to them our hope that God will bless their efforts, and that there may come a genuine spiritual awakening in the Presbyterian Church in the United States.
We trust that our departure may cause those who control and direct the programs and policies of the Presbyterian Church in the United States to reexamine their own position in the light of the Word. Our prayer is that God may use this movement to promote spiritual awakening, not only in the new Church, but also in that from which we have separated. If in the providence of God, such were to occur, we would gladly acknowledge that the grounds for separation and division would have to be reassessed.
We declare also that we believe the system of doctrine found in God’s Word to be the system known as the Reformed Faith. We are committed without reservation to the Reformed Faith as set forth in the Westminster Confession and Catechisms. It is our conviction that the Reformed faith is not sectarian, but an authentic and valid expression of Biblical Christianity. We believe it is our duty to seek fellowship and unity with all who profess this faith. We particularly wish to labor with other Christians committed to this theology."
𖧞 𝔑𝔬𝔩𝔞𝔫 𝔚𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔧𝔞𝔪𝔰𝔬𝔫 𖧞 retweeted
Today, you can uphold one of America’s most enduring traditions by observing the Lord’s Day and attending a Protestant church.
𖧞 𝔑𝔬𝔩𝔞𝔫 𝔚𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔧𝔞𝔪𝔰𝔬𝔫 𖧞 retweeted
Lord, give us more spiritual fathers like this man. Make me a man who speaks for the glory and honor of Jesus carefully and strongly like this man. Images of Christ matter. Praise God for his speech against them.
“Christians should be people of their own time only in the sense that they should live the Christian faith in keeping with the circumstances of their own day. They should be in all other respects people of the ages who possess as their inheritance the entire accumulated wisdom and virtue and conviction which their spiritual ancestry has passed down to them.” - Robert S. Rayburn
“The significance of the Westminster Standards as a creed is to be found in the…fact that: historically speaking, they are the final crystallization of the elements of evangelical religion after the conflicts of sixteen hundred years and scientifically speaking, they are the richest and most precise and best guarded statement ever penned of all that enters into evangelical religion and of all that must be safeguarded if evangelical religion is to persist in the world.” - B. B. Warfield
“The Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed, in their liturgical usage, foster a sense of belonging to the one, holy, catholic church. Their importance lies not only in the excellence of their form of words but in their antiquity, the witness they bear to the unity of the church through the generations.
In worship, creeds give expression to the living connection between contemporary Christians and their spiritual ancestry.” - Robert S. Rayburn
𖧞 𝔑𝔬𝔩𝔞𝔫 𝔚𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔧𝔞𝔪𝔰𝔬𝔫 𖧞 retweeted
Resolved: To endeavor to conduct myself on social media so as never to post anything I would feel awkward or embarrassed explaining to my presbytery, my session, or pastoral care committee.
𖧞 𝔑𝔬𝔩𝔞𝔫 𝔚𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔧𝔞𝔪𝔰𝔬𝔫 𖧞 retweeted
“The battleground on the modern scene is whether the Bible is completely authoritative where it touches history and the cosmos, or only where it touches religious matters.”
-Francis Schaeffer in Presbyterian Journal
An overture idea for #PCAGA:
“In 1690 and in 1696 the General Assembly of Scotland both allowed subscription to the Confession of Faith as a test of ministerial communion and further forbade anyone to speak, write, preach, teach, or print anything whatsoever that would be contrary to or even inconsistent with, any view contained in the Confession.” - David Hall
"The Church is healthiest which knows what it believes, has such beliefs codified in a confession, and formally has a sturdy mechanism for perpetuating such orthodoxy. The churches growing out of the Reformation relied—in part—on confessional subscription to accomplish the final part of that resolution, and before jettisoning such, that tradition should be thoroughly examined and repudiated before rejecting any portion of it. Thus, the burden of proof, in light of the history of this question, is on those who wish to dismiss confessional subscription." - David Hall
“The Protestant Reformers, and those in their tradition, wrote confessions to keep the whole of the church from being held hostage by a part…The Reformed faith has sought to be confessional because they knew that the changing opinions of even the best modern thinkers or the most established traditional hierarchies are inadequate guides to the peace and purity of the church of Christ.” - Chad Van Dixhoorn
𖧞 𝔑𝔬𝔩𝔞𝔫 𝔚𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔧𝔞𝔪𝔰𝔬𝔫 𖧞 retweeted
The burden of proof for diverging from the Westminster Standards or the reformed tradition lies not with those who uphold them but rather those who depart from them.
"Those who imagine that true Christianity has any tendency to make people unhappy, are greatly mistaken. It is the absence of it that does this, and not the presence. True Christian faith has the directly opposite effect. It tends to promote peace, love, kindness and goodwill. The more that people are brought under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, the more they will love one another, and the more happy they will be." - J.C. Ryle
“We should not imagine that in attributing qualities to God, we are assigning something outside of God to God or adding something to his essence. God's attributes are not things that exist apart from God himself, neither are God's attributes things that come together to form God. We must also admit that in an absolute sense the divine attributes cannot be distinguished from the divine essence. What God is cannot be separated from what God has." - Kevin DeYoung