Reformed Christian Studies

 By William Boekestein - Posted at Place for Truth: Have you ever told someone, “I must have missed the first part of your story. I don’t understand”? Without a context most stories lose meaning. So it is with the story of humanity. Ignorance of our beginning breeds confusion and purposelessness. Even the drama of salvation by grace makes sense only in light of history’s opening act. Mainstream science tells a different origins story. But at least one leading biochemist admits that, “At present all discussions on principle theories and experiments in the field” concerning the problem of the origin of life, “either end in a stalemate or in a confession of ignorance.” [i] In reality, Scripture and nature say the same thing. We don’t always see how they harmonize. We might misinterpret scientific data or misunderstand Scripture. But our first allegiance is to the Bible through which God communicates “more openly.” [ii] The biblical story of the world opens with the eternal, triune God cr

"Nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of Heaven" — Matthew 26:64 Ah, LORD, Thou wast in Thy lowest state when before Thy persecutors Thou wast made to stand like a criminal! Yet the eyes of Thy faith could see beyond Thy present humiliation into Thy future glory. What words are these, "Nevertheless - hereafter!" I would imitate Thy holy foresight, and in the midst of poverty, or sickness, or slander, I also would say, "Nevertheless - hereafter." Instead of weakness, Thou hast all power; instead of shame, all glory; instead of derision, all worship, Thy cross has not dimmed the splendor of Thy crown, neither has the spittle marred the beauty of Thy face. Say, rather, Thou are the more exalted and honored because of Thy sufferings. So, LORD, I also would take courage from the "hereafter." I would forget the present tribulation in the future triumph. Help thou

By Bruce Gore - Posted at YouTube: Direct Link:  31. The Reformation in France - YouTube

By Pastor Brian Schwertley - Posted at Sermon Audio: Direct Link:  Is Preterism a Damnable Heresy? Part 7 | SermonAudio Scripture Text: Revelation, Chapter 21: 1-5, KJV 21 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. 5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts From Parson Farms: The Benefit of the Commandments for the Believer and the Unbeliever Good Morning, I don’t like taking up all our space with the questions themselves, but in the case of this week it was hard to separate these particular Q/A’s into their own groupings. Reason for that is it is important for when we get into the Ten Commandments (which is the summary of the moral law) that we already have a foundation to understand how each of the statutes apply to everyone, regardless of whether or not they believe in Jesus. So we’ll dispense with a lot of introductory work this week and get straight into the WLC’s for today: Q. 94: Is there any use of the moral law to man since the fall? A. Although no man, since the fall, can attain to righteousness and life by the moral law; yet there is great use thereof, as well common to all men, as peculiar either to the unregenerate, or the regenerate. Q. 95: Of what use is the moral law to all m

 By William Boekestein - Posted at Place for Truth: When studying God one quickly has to answer challenging questions. How far does God’s authority extend? How much of what happens in this world is God responsible for? For those who take Scripture seriously God’s eternal decree cannot be avoided. Paul sums up what the entire Bible reveals: God “works all things according to the counsel of his will” ( Eph. 1:11 ). He wills and does all things. You must believe that. And in the abstract, for God to be sovereign is just what anyone might expect. But the teaching gets hard when we apply it to specifics. How does God’s sovereignty relate to evil in this world? Does God’s decree undermine human responsibility? Is the eternal punishment of the wicked really God’s will? Clearly “this high mystery … must be handled with special prudence and care.” We must “deal with this teaching in a godly and reverent manner … with a view to the glory of God’s name, holiness of life, and the comfort of anx

"For He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper" — Psalm 72:12 The needy cries; what else can he do? His cry is heard of God; what else need he do? Let the needy reader take to crying at once, for this will be his wisdom. Do not cry in the ears of friends, for even if they can help you it is only because the LORD enables them. The nearest way is to go straight to God and let your cry come up before Him. Straightforward makes the best runner: run to the LORD and not to secondary causes. "Alas!" you cry, "I have no friend or helper." So much the better; you can rely upon God in both capacities - as without supplies and without helpers. Make your double need your double plea. Even for temporal mercies you may wait upon God, for He careth for His children in these temporary concerns. As for spiritual necessities, which are the heaviest of all, the LORD will hear your cry and will deliver you and supply you. O poor fri

By Bruce Gore - Posted at YouTube: Direct Link:  30. John Knox and a New Vision for Scotland (part 3) - YouTube

By Pastor Brian Schwertley - Posted at Sermon Audio: Direct Link:  Is Full Preterism a Damnable Heresy? Part 6 | SermonAudio Scripture Text: Revelation, Chapter 21, KJV 21 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. 5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. 6 And he said unto me, It is done. I

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts From Parson Farms: How the Moral Law is to Be Rightly Understood in Creation Good Morning, On the Lord’s Day evenings the past month or so we’ve been looking at the Covenant of Works. As part of that we’ve sought to define what a covenant is (an agreement between two parties that includes stipulations and promises) and why God chose to use that form (because He is God and needed a way to deal with His creatures by grace). The Q/A’s today are explaining to us why the LORD did this with Adam and the reason why it applies to us right now regardless of what Adam did with the command given in Genesis 2:16-17. Our Heavenly Father is not in the business of making things up as He goes along. There is a sense in which we were covenantally related to God regardless of whether or not He made this specific covenant with our earthly father. Since He cannot relate to us as peers all the work He does with us is by way of condescension. Now, we usually u

 By William Boekestein - Posted at Place for Truth: Most theological and moral failures can be traced back to a wrong view of God. We charge God with being unfair only if we think he must submit to our concept of fairness. We will contentedly live one way in public and another in private only if we believe him to be local and limited like us. We can only believe in universal salvation if deny God’s fierce hatred of sin. To think and live well we need to know God as he truly is. This is why God gave us his word. Some truths about God are obvious from nature—he exists and is unparalleled in power ( Rom. 1:19–20 ). But to more intimately know his character, his unity and diversity, and how he relates to his creatures, we need the Bible. Scripture is God’s revelation, his self-disclosure. From cover to cover Scripture tells us essential truths about God, and of the Holy Trinity . God Is Perfect in All His Attributes (2.1) We may think about God as he is in himself, without relation to crea

"Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy" — Matthew 5:7 It is not meet that the man who will not forgive should be forgiven, nor shall he who will not give to the poor have his own wants relieved. God will measure to us with our own bushels, and those who have been hard masters and hard creditors will find that the LORD will deal hardly with them. "He shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy." This day let us try to give and to forgive. Let us mind the two bears - bear and forbear. Let us be kind, gentle, and tender. Let us not put harsh constructions upon men's conduct, nor drive hard bargains, nor pick foolish quarrels, nor be difficult to please. Surely we wish to be blessed, and we also want to obtain mercy: let us be merciful, that we may have mercy. Let us fulfill the condition, that we may earn the beatitude. Is it not a pleasant duty to be kind? Is there not much more sweetness in it than in being angry and ungenerous? Wh

By Bruce Gore - Posted at YouTube: Direct Link:  (33) 29. John Knox: Prisoner, Exile, Reformer (part 2) - YouTube

By Pastor Brian Schwertley - Posted at Sermon Audio: Direct Link:  Is Full Preterism a Damnable Heresy? Part 5 | SermonAudio Scripture Text:  Revelation 20:11-15 KJV 11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts From Parson Farms: Judgment, Hell, and the Blessings of the Elect Good Morning! In some ways this is the end of one section and the beginning of another. In fact our Larger Catechism literally says after Q.90: Having seen what the scriptures principally teach us to believe concerning God, it follows to consider what they require as the duty of man. The last eight or so months has had us consider the nature of the Trinity, how we are to see and understand the saving work of Christ, and most recently the expectations we should have as believers as to the nature of God’s providential working in history to bring forth His judgment for sin, and His redemption of the elect for all time. The LC inquiries today continue that message. As we get into them we need to deal with a controversy that you may (or likely) may not be aware of in Reformed theological circles. There is an influential teacher who has come out in favor of a doctrine called Full

By William Boekestein - Posted at Place For Truth: If you were going to introduce Christianity to someone where would you begin? You might start with God and his holiness. The first fact is that “there is one simple spiritual being, whom we call God.” [i] Or you might lead with our need for God to deliver us from Satan’s tyranny. [ii] Both approaches are valid. Here is another idea. Start with the basic notion of revelation. How can we move beyond nature’s evidence for God and truly know him? This is how the Westminster Confession of Faith begins its magisterial summary of Christianity. What we believe about Scripture shapes how we think, not just about faith but about all of life. The ten sections of this first chapter —aptly, the confession’s longest—beautifully articulate four attributes of Scripture as God’s written revelation. Continue here...

"For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His Holy Name" — Psalm 33:21 The root of faith produces the flower of heart-joy. We may not at the first rejoice, but it comes in due time. We trust the LORD when we are sad, and in due season He so answers our confidence that our faith turns to fruition, and we rejoice in the LORD. Doubt breeds distress, but trust means joy in the long run. The assurance expressed by the psalmist in this verse is really a promise held out in the hands of holy confidence. Oh, for grace to appropriate it. If we do not rejoice at this moment, yet we shall do so, as surely as David's God is our God. Let us meditate upon the LORD's holy name that we may trust Him the better and rejoice the more readily. He is in character holy, just, true, gracious, faithful, and unchanging. Is not such a God to be trusted? He is all wise, almighty, and everywhere present; can we not cheerfully rely upon Him? Yes, we will do so at once and do

By Bruce Gore - Posted at YouTube Direct Link:  (30) 28. John Knox and the Scottish Reformation (part 1) - YouTube

By Rev. Brian Schwertley - Posted at Sermon Audio: Direct Link:  Is Full Preterism a Damnable Heresy? Part 4 | SermonAudio Scripture Text:  1 Corinthians 15 KJV - Bible Gateway

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts From Parson Farms: Good Morning, The next obvious question after speaking about the nature of life after death for the believer is what takes place next in the order of God’s promises. For Christians our true hope and the reason why we die in peace and comfort is because we understand, through the vow made to us in our Savior, that we will partake in the resurrection on the last day in our glorified state. Yet, as with the apostles who inquired to Jesus about the same thing we have wonderings in our heart about the how, when, where, etc... of this future blessing. Our Larger Catechism queries and responses today are going to help us understand how to properly consider the resurrection, how to live in light of that hope, and why it is we can trust in the word spoken by Christ to His Father in the high priestly prayer of John 17, namely v.24, “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold M

 By Sarah Ivill - Posted at Place for Truth: One of the things we most want in life is to be loved. We want our parents and siblings to love us. We want our friends and extended family members to love us. We want our coaches and teachers to love us. If we are married, we want our spouse to love us. If we are parents, we desire our children to love us. But in this broken world, there are many relationships in which we feel unloved and unwanted. So, we end up turning to other things to fulfill this deep desire of our hearts, but none of them quench our thirst for love. In fact, we often feel even emptier than when we began because our search for love in the wrong places leaves us disillusioned, depressed, and devoid of joy. Where then do we turn to find true love? The answer is found in one of the most neglected books of the Old Testament, the book of Zephaniah. There are three main points that arise from Zephaniah’s prophecy. First, Zephaniah declared and described God’s com

"He that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap Life Everlasting" — Galatians 6:8 Sowing looks like a losing business, for we put good corn into the ground never to see it anymore. Sowing to the Spirit seems a very fanciful, dreamy business; for we deny ourselves and apparently get nothing for it. Yet if we sow to the Spirit by studying to live unto God, seeking to obey the will of God, and laying ourselves out to promote His honor, we shall not sow in vain. Life shall be our reward, even everlasting life. This we enjoy here as we enter into the knowledge of God, communion with God, and enjoyment of God. This life flows on like an ever-deepening, ever-widening river till it bears us to the ocean of infinite felicity, where the life of God is ours forever and ever. Let us not this day sow to our flesh, for the harvest will be corruption, since flesh always tends that way; but with holy self-conquest let us live for the highest, purest, and most spiritual ends, seeking t

By Bruce Gore - Posted at YouTube: Description: The Reformation provoked a strong defensive response from the Catholic Church, usually referred to as the Counter-Reformation, comprising the Council of Trent, the establishment of the Society of Jesus, and expansion of the Inquisition. Together these were highly effective in meeting the challenge of the posed by the Reformation, which nevertheless had a profound impact on European culture, reshaping a vision of European society in ways that continue to be important to the present day. ( www.brucegore.com ) Direct Link:  (24) 27. The Impact of the Reformation on Europe - YouTube