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London, Nov 15 (ANI): Religious people really do see the world differently, that's what a new research ahs suggested. The study found that Dutch Calvinists notice embedded visual patterns quicker than their atheist compatriots. According to Bernhard Hommel, a psychologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands who led the new study, culture has long been known to distort visual perception. In a bid to see if religious differences skew perception, Hommel's team tested 40 Dutch atheist and Calvinist university students, who, religion aside, had similar cultural backgrounds. In the study, Hommel's team showed participants a large triangle or square made...

Tina Brown is a New Labour/Democrat limousine liberal but, unlike the Obots running the snore-sheet monodailies, she's an editor first. And so, after the Buckley endorsement of Obama, she now presents Wendy Button, an Obama-Edwards-Clinton speechwriter who's voting for McCain: Not only has this party belittled working people in this campaign from Joe the Plumber to the bitter comments, it has also been part of tearing down two female candidates. At first, certain Democrats and the press called Senator Clinton “dishonest.” They went after her cleavage. They said her experience as First Lady consisted of having tea parties. There was...

In the tradition of shallow, insipid, diabetic coma inducing "Christian" music, ladies and gentlemen, from Pensacola Christian College: The Joy Quartet

One: The Roman Catholic Church believes that its traditions and teaching are as authoritative as Scripture. The Reformed value tradition, but accept the Bible alone as their authority, and sole rule of faith and practice. Two: The Roman Catholic Church believes that the Pope, as successor of Peter and Bishop of Rome, is head of the visible Church. The Reformed believe that Christ alone is head of the Church and that no man may claim universal primacy over the people of God. Three: The Roman Catholic Church believes that the Bible cannot be properly understood apart from the official interpretation...

I. The Death of Death in the Death of Christ is a polemical work, designed to show, among other things, that the doctrine of universal redemption is unscriptural and destructive of the gospel. There are many, therefore, to whom it is not likely to be of interest. Those who see no need for doctrinal exactness and have no time for theological debates which show up divisions between so-called Evangelicals may well regret its reappearance. Some may find the very sound of Owen’s thesis so shocking that they will refuse to read his book at all; so passionate a thing is...

*Note to all: While this thread shares the same title, it is not the same article as on this thread. ____________________________________________________ We Presbyterians call our Christian convictions the Reformed faith. What do we mean by that name? And from where did the name come? We call our faith “Reformed” because of the Protestant Reformation. During the medieval era, the Christian church became more and more distorted. Truths taught in the Bible were obscured. Ideas and practices without biblical warrant came to prominence. This led to a movement by Christians to reform the faith and practice of the medieval church. It...

Judged on the basis of the Reformed confessions and the classic reformed of theology of the 16th and 17th centuries, there can be no doubt that the Reformed theology, piety, and practice, is evangelical. The great difficulty in this discussion is that, in our time, the word the evangelical no longer denotes what it did in the 16th have the 17th centuries. Since the 18th century, and particularly since the middle of the 19th century, the word of evangelical has come to denote what I call ”the quest for illegitimate religious experience” (QIRC). By that I mean to say that...

Thank the Calvinists for one of the most thoughtfully provocative moments of the 2008 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting. (Of course, if you’re a Calvinist, you’ll say: “No, thank God. That moment was preordained from before the foundation of the world.” Just a little theological humor.) The moment happened while messengers considered the sixth of nine resolutions they passed this year. Resolution Six addressed “regenerate church membership and church member restoration.” It exhorted churches and pastors to “implement a plan to minister to, counsel and restore wayward church members based upon the commands and principles given in Scripture.” But Tom...

Abbreviations: BC—Belgic Confession CD—Canons of Dort HC—Heidelberg CatechismWCF—Westminster Confession of Faith IntroductionAMONG THE circle of churches in which I once worshipped and even was a youth pastor, you either were a Christian, which meant you went to a “Bible-believing, Spirit-filled” church like a Foursquare Church, Calvary Chapel, or a non-denominational church, or you were a Catholic, meaning, Roman Catholic. I was aware of some other kinds of churches because at different times I liked a Presbyterian girl and even dated a Lutheran girl, but their churches were considered more or less Catholic because they were “dead,” “traditional,” or, “ritualistic.” To...

Machen (1881-1937) was Professor of New Testament, first at Princeton Theological Seminary, and afterwards at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia. Published in God Transcendent (1949). ________________________________________________________ "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him, which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:28). These words were not spoken by Jonathan Edwards. They were not spoken by Cotton Mather. They were not spoken by Calvin, or Augustine, or by Paul. But these words were spoken by Jesus. And when put together with the many other words...

CHRISTIAN READER, I CANNOT suppose thee to be such a stranger in England as to be ignorant of the general complaint concerning the decay of the power of godliness, and more especially of the great corruption of youth. Wherever thou goest, thou wilt hear men crying out of bad children and bad servants; whereas indeed the source of the mischief must be sought a little higher: it is bad parents and bad masters that make bad children and bad servants; and we cannot blame so much their untowardness, as our own negligence in their education. The devil hath a great...

January 25, 2008 ESV Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. In recent days I have spent time in Lima and Sullana Peru and Mexico City and I have discovered that people by nature are the same. Man has a heart that is inclined to selfishness and idolatry. Sin abounds in the remotest parts of the land because the heart is desperately wicked. Thousands bow before statues of Mary and pray to her hoping for...

January 25, 2008 ESV Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. In recent days I have spent time in Lima and Sullana Peru and Mexico City and I have discovered that people by nature are the same. Man has a heart that is inclined to selfishness and idolatry. Sin abounds in the remotest parts of the land because the heart is desperately wicked. Thousands bow before statues of Mary and pray to her hoping for...

From the author's description: About This Video The audio for this was made by Abraham Juliot. ... (more) Added: December 23, 2007 The audio for this was made by Abraham Juliot. He has other compilations which can be found at the following: Mp3's are here: music.theopenlife.com Abe's personal site: abe.theopenlife.com I found this audio from a link at Slice of Laodicea last night and decided to put this video together. Many of the Paul Washer videos I put up have been uploaded by the webmaster of upp.mypodcast.com, Matt Haney . You should visit his site. There are some great messages...

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (BP)--Daniel Akin called on Southern Baptists to rally around a "Great Commission Resurgence" to reach the lost that he hopes will define the denomination's direction for years and decades to come. "Building on the 'Conservative Resurgence' that was initiated in 1979, we believe the time has come for us to focus on the great task the Lord Jesus left us as He ascended back into heaven," said Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. "Fulfilling the task will in no way leave behind or neglect an equal commitment to a faithful biblical theology." Akin...

What does the intractable, often contentious debate about Calvinism in Southern Baptist life have to do with the Great Commission? A great deal, as far as Danny Akin is concerned. The president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary was the concluding speaker at the "Building Bridges: Southern Baptists and Calvinism" conference a few weeks ago. Akin's seminary co-sponsored the meeting with the Founders Conference. Thom Rainer and the able executives and staff of LifeWay Christian Resources graciously hosted this important event at Ridgecrest Conference Center. The meeting raised more than a few eyebrows across the Southern Baptist Convention when it was...

The Old Testament prophet Samuel provides ministers with an expert model for ministry because he was an instrument that God used to bring the light of truth to a dark period in Israel’s history, R. Albert Mohler Jr. told a record number of fall graduates Friday during The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary’s 200th commencement service. The class featured two graduating father and son pairs: Tom and Jonathan Elliff and Jeffrey and Timothy Girdler (see related story). Mohler encouraged the class of 204 students to emulate the prophet Samuel, who remained faithful to God’s truth during a time when many of...

Without the clergy guiding them, and with religion still a very important factor in the average person's life, their fate rested in their own hands, Simpson said. The rise of fundamentalist interpretations during the English Reformation can be used to understand the global political situation today and the growth of Islamic extremism, Simpson said as an example. "Very definitely, we see the same phenomenon: newly literate people claiming that the sacred text speaks for itself, and legitimates violence and repression," Simpson said, "and the same is also true of Christian fundamentalists."

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - The Episcopal Church isn't the only mainline Protestant group shaken by open conflict between theological liberals and conservatives. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is facing similar trials, with traditionalist congregations planning to bolt and a conservative denomination preparing to take them in. About 30 of the nearly 11,000 Presbyterian congregations have voted to leave the national church since the denomination's national assembly session in 2006, according to The Layman, a conservative Presbyterian publication that has been tracking the breakaways. Denominational leaders say they could lose an additional 20 congregations as a result of this latest rupture. The...

Why Every Calvinist Should Be a Premillennialist, Part 1 [Discusses Sovereign Election, Israel, and Eschatology] by John MacArthur Copyright 2007, Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Selected Scriptures Now I’ve been telling you for a number of months that we were going to get in to the subject of eschatology, the doctrine of last things. We’ve been working our way through doctrinal emphases in Scripture, doctrinal themes. And we have covered a lot of ground, but we now come to the doctrines that relate to the end times. And in line with that, I want to try...

Event: The Reformation Wall Date: all year round In Geneva stands the Reformation Wall which is located in the beautiful Bastions Park area of the city and has been designed to guard over the "City of Refuge". The wall commemorates all the major events and figures around at the time of the Protestant Reformation, at which point Geneva was the centre of Calvinism and closely linked to all matters of theology. It was built in 1909, at the 400th anniversary of "Pope of the Reformers" Jean Calvin's birth and is five metres high, backed onto the defensive walls which...

"Covenant theology at the utmost, is forgiveness of sins and divine favor enjoyed; and all that concerns their new position in the Lord Jesus Christ is ignored, or alas! guarded against as dangerous."Men are placed under the New Covenant which does not go beyond remission of sins and the law written on the heart.  But being new creations in the Lord Jesus, and knowing it by the Holy Spirit, and what it involves now, has all but dropped out of their creeds." -- J.N.D."We are to come 'to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant' (Heb. 12:24).  We are not...

Dispensationalism - A Reformed Evaluation    If you have your Bibles, I would invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 2.  I want to point your attention to two verses.  We are going to begin today by making some observations about dispensationalism and then we are going to give a rapid overview to the Davidic Covenant and especially the establishment of the house of David in II Samuel 7.  But first I want you to concentrate on two verses here at the end of Romans 2, 2:28-29.  Hear God’s Word.       “For he is not a Jew who...

I was baptized on April 29, 1973, in East Paris Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. My religious upbringing until college was completely CRC; my schooling through college was in Christian schools sponsored by the CRC. I can’t say that I was aware of any Protestant denominations other than the CRC. The first time I heard the words of the "Hail Mary" was from the lips of my CRC minister during a high-school catechism class. My only other contact would have been the pictures of the seven Catholic sacraments in the family encyclopedia. In many ways this "cloistered"...

Over the past few years, pastors and members of the Reformed/Calvinist tradition have become alarmed at a new movement called the “Federal Vision.” I first became aware of what became the “Federal Vision” when I was a member of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). I watched this storm form and take shape during the years that I attended Westminster Theological Seminary in the debates that were stirring up around the writings of N.T. Wright, E.P. Sanders, along with the growing discontent with Meredith Kline’s “merit model.”From Where did the Federal Vision Arise?For those Catholic readers that are likely...

I am a convert to the Catholic Faith from Calvinism. I loved Calvinism and owned a library full of Calvin, Luther, Warfield, Hodge, Murray, Owen, Machen, etc. as well as helped plant a local Orthodox Presbyterian Church. I knew Reformation Theology and how much hatred it generates for the Catholic Church. As a Calvinist, I could boast with the best of them. I even persecuted the Catholic Church and went after every one of them I found, beating them back with Scripture, upon Scripture, upon quotes of Luther, Calvin, etc. I found great pleasure in debating Catholics. My one flaw...

You know you are not Reformed if . . . you think the Apostles Creed is the guy who fought Rocky in Rocky I. . . . you think the Canons of Dort are like the Guns of Navarrone. . . . you think Ursinus is a nasal condition. . . . you think Arminians are the people who run convenience stores. . . . you think the Belgic Confession was from WWII war crimes trials. . . . you think “popery” in the church makes it smell flowery. (IT'S A JOKE!!!) . . . you think the psalter goes...

[snip] How might we judge the success of the Protestant family ethic? For nearly four centuries it worked reasonably well, as judged by its understanding of the divine ordinance to be fruitful and replenish the earth. Accordingly, the Protestant opposition to contraception remained firm. Writing in the late eighteenth century, for example, John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, also condemned the sin of Onan, adding, “The thing which he did displeased the Lord.” The nineteenth-century Reformed Pastor Johann Peter Lange, in his Christian Dogmatics, described contraception as “a most unnatural wickedness, and a grievous wrong. This sin . . ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuabITeO4l8 This is a Shockingly Powerful & Biblical message preached to about 5,000 youth in a day when youth are appealed to through shallow and worldly means. At one point in this sermon the 5,000 Youth are clapping and yelling BUT THEN the preacher makes a comment that CHANGES THE WHOLE ATMOSPHERE TO WHERE YOU COULD HAVE HEARD A PIN DROP... As you can imagine, the preacher was never invited back. We believe the whole sermon will be a blessing to many souls. For more info about Paul Washer go to www.heartcrymissionary.com

Wednesday morning: the chapel is filled to the brim with students who seem more or less happy to be there. They could be sipping Nutty Irishmen and chatting with friends in the Fish House, but instead they’ve come to worship God through song and prayer. This many people have deliberately chosen to spend their mid-morning break at chapel. This is the first thing that surprises Melissa, a sophomore transfer student from Taylor University, an evangelical college in Indiana. She figures that to get this kind of voluntary attendance, the 20-minute service must be packed with vibrant praise and worship songs,...

The Calvinistic Heritage of Dispensationalism by Thomas Ice Modern, systematic Dispensationalism is approaching two hundred years of expression and development. We live at a time in which Dispensationalism and some of its ideas have been disseminated and adopted by various theological traditions. This is not surprising since our day is characterized by anti-systemization and eclecticism in the area of thought. It may be surprising, to some, to learn that Dispensationalism was developed and spread during its first 100 years by those within a Reformed, Calvinistic tradition. It had only been in the last 75 to 50 years that Dispensationalism and...

The Visible Church Was There All Along by Cindy Beck “I just can’t be Protestant anymore,” I blurted out one night as my husband and I were driving in the car. “What?” “This is just crazy. Every church teaches something different. Every pastor interprets the Bible according to his own personal beliefs. How is anybody supposed to know who’s teaching the truth?” “Well, all we can do is choose the denomination that’s most faithful to the Bible.” “So we decide what the Bible means? We decide what’s true? Then the Bible isn’t our final authority – we are.” Kerry was...

Ash Wednesday2 Peter 1:3-5, 23-25             The Lenten Season really begins on Ash Wednesday. Perhaps your congregation has a long history (or a short one) of marking Ash Wednesday. Or perhaps you have not observed it previously and wonder about beginning it this year. We recommend it as a very rich and meaningful way to begin the Lenten season. To answer questions you or others in your church may have about the tradition, we are reproducing excerpts from articles written by Harry Boonstra that appeared in Reformed Worship 6 (December 1987) and 30 (December 1993). Reprinted by permission of CRC...

by Harry Boonstra Issue #6 Grace Episcopal Church is very quiet when I enter at 9:20. In fact, even though the service is to start at 9:30, I am the only person in the sanctuary. A few minutes later several more people show, but it turns out the big service will be in the evening. (After the soup supper. Ah! even Episcopalians must be urged with food. But during Lent?) I had hoped to slip unobtrusively into a pew in the back and be more observer than participant in my first Ash Wednesday service. But the service is being held...

The Worship Sourcebook gives us this excellent explanation to the Lenten season of Christian Worship (pages 551-552): The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are at the heart of the Christian gospel, and Good Friday and Easter are two of the most significant celebrations of the Christian year. Lent is a season of preparation and repentance during which we anticipate Good Friday and Easter. Just as we carefully prepare for big events in our personal lives, such as a wedding or commencement, Lent invites us to make our hearts ready for remembering JesusÂ’ passion and celebrating JesusÂ’ resurrection. The...

People have described some of the contemporary practices within evangelicalism as being driven by consumerism. We can see evidences of this with many of the popular devices that are employed, whether it be in the altering of vocabulary, the transition from preaching to conversations, the emphasis upon felt needs rather than spiritual needs, the polling of unbelievers as to how church should be conducted, a deemphasis upon doctrine, a redefinition of Jesus as weak and effeminate, and an idolatrous portrayal of a God who’s love is able to trump his righteousness. Regrettably, all of these things are common today. Even...

The large gap that exists between Roman Catholic historical scholarship and Roman Catholic apologists is a large one indeed. One often finds the historians admitting what the apologists will not regarding the truths of history that are so often utterly contradictory to later Roman dogmatic claims. This is especially true regarding such modern doctrinal developments as the Marian dogmas and the infallible Papacy. Over the past few years Roman Catholic apologists have been producing a great deal of written material of varying levels of quality. Books and magazines of this nature gain a wide audience. As in so much of...

Beginning in 1865, Charles Haddon Spurgeon gave an annual conference address to the alumni of his Pastor’s College. Over the next twenty-seven years, the decline of Christian influence amid the towering issues of the age formed his recuring theme.[i] “It is hard to win attention to the Word of God,” Spurgeon lamented. “We all feel that a hardening process is going on among the masses.”[ii] Elsewhere he concluded,“Revelation which is unchanging,” is not considered “fast enough for an age of which it may be said, ‘Change is its fashion’.”[iii] These words may surprise twenty-first century preachers. After all, the European...

Each Sunday morning where my wife and I worship we admit that we are public sinners. Upon an invitation from the pastor, we join in what is called the General Confession. The words are incisive and solemn. We admit that we have sinned against God, in “thought, word and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have failed to do.” It is a general statement, and we are not called upon to stand up and say publicly what particular sins we have committed. Now and then I worship in churches that offer written forms of confession that...

Bethlehem Baptist pastor John Piper took the podium at a Saturday evening service in downtown Minneapolis last fall and introduced Curtis "Voice" Allen, a hip-hop artist. After warning the largely white congregation that his music would "thump" a bit more than typical Bethlehem fare, Allen launched into a lyrical testimony about the unstoppable power of God's irresistible grace: "I been exposed to bright lights, the doctrines of grace, I'm elected, imputed perfected, becuz of the power of God resurrected and his gift of faith, that when we see his face we're not rejected." Allen repeated the rap at two subsequent...

BEFORE THE REFORMATION It may occasion some surprise to discover that the doctrine of Predestination was not made a matter of special study until near the end of the fourth century. The earlier church fathers placed chief emphasis on good works such as faith, repentance, almsgiving, prayers, submission to baptism, etc., as the basis of salvation. They of course taught that salvation was through Christ; yet they assumed that man had full power to accept or reject the gospel. Some of their writings contain passages in which the sovereignty of God is recognized; yet along side of those are others...

A Letter to The Learning Channel To Whom It May Concern, I write today to offer your television network the rights to what I am convinced will soon be the most popular reality show on television. Reality television has offered the discerning viewer much entertainment and so many opportunities to learn. We have learned how to dress, how to cook, how to build motorcycles and hotrods and even how to build beautiful rooms using plywood, staple guns and glue guns. We've seen what it takes to make it as an executive for the world's leading corporations. We've seen the inner-workings...

Picture the following scenario. Crowds of Americans rioting in the streets. Two opposing groups shout loudly, vying to have their messages heard and heeded. The groups meet. Confrontation ensues. Fistfights break out. Church windows are smashed. What are these rioters fighting about? Christmas. One group favors celebrating Christmas, the other opposes all Christmas observances. This isn’t an imaginary event, it is history. It happened in Boston on Christmas day in 1706. In America's increasing love-affair with Christmas (both the Christian and commercial versions), we have forgotten that there was a time when much of European and American Christianity thought that...

Martin Luther, Founder of the Reform, Speaks on Mary In his sermon of August 15, 1522, the last time Martin Luther preached on the Feast of the Assumption, he stated: There can be no doubt that the Virgin Mary is in heaven. How it happened we do not know. And since the Holy Spirit has told us nothing about it, we can make of it no article of faith . . . It is enough to know that she lives in Christ. The veneration of Mary is inscribed in the very depths of the human heart. (Sermon, September 1, 1522)....

Every Christian wrestles with the question, how does the Old Testament law relate to my life? Is the Old Testament law irrelevant to Christians or is there some sense in which we are still bound by portions of it? As the heresy of antinomianism becomes ever more pervasive in our culture, the need to answer these questions grows increasingly urgent. The Reformation was founded on grace and not upon law. Yet the law of God was not repudiated by the Reformers. John Calvin, for example, wrote what has become known as the “Threefold Use of the Law” in order to...

Washington DC, Nov. 28, 2006 (CNA) - According to a press release from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Catholic and Reformed churches have recently made “significant” progress toward mutual understanding, signing a document that recognizes their common baptism. The Reformed-Catholic Consultation met at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, Oct. 8-10. News of the signing was issued on Nov. 22. “Roman Catholics and representatives of Reformed bodies say clearly to each other, to the larger world, and, - perhaps most importantly - to local parishes and ecclesially divided families - that we embrace each other as pilgrims who...

Leaders of a conservative Christian student fellowship suspended from using campus resources at Brown University are wondering whether they were singled out for their beliefs and are pressing school officials to explain the punishment. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Leaders of a conservative Christian student fellowship suspended from using campus resources at Brown University are wondering whether they were singled out for their beliefs and are pressing school officials to explain the punishment. Brown University has not publicly explained why it suspended the Reformed University Fellowship, which is allied with the conservative Presbyterian Church in America, as an official student...

Why I am A Calvinist An Oversimplified exhortation to Sovereign Grace Theology by Dr. C. Matthew McMahon There are a variety of theological persuasions in the world. One might say there are too many of them. We may go from denomination after denomination and find a great variety of beliefs and doctrines concerning things about God, things about Christ, things about man and so on (to the utter detriment of the church's power in the world). Yet these ideologies are but ripples from the great stone of the Gospel which was plunged into the lake of humanity. All theological persuasions...

If salvation is all of grace -- if God is God and he has chosen us for salvation even though we did nothing to deserve it -- then we ought to live by the grace we have received. Of course, some of you will look at that and say to yourselves, “Yeah, I really need to do better at living by grace. I’ve really been a failure there. I hope God will forgive me again.” If that’s you, you still don’t get it. Go back and re-read the last seventeen pages and (if you’re a believer) remember that you’re one...

A seminary student tells this story about the first day of a class. The professor was the well known Reformed theologian and Presbyterian pastor R.C. Sproul. Sproul stormed into class on the first day, slammed his Bible on the desk and said, "You are all very very bad and God is very very mad!" I plan on telling that to my children before they go to sleep every night. There's a movement growing in young protestants in America over the past decade or so. It's called Calvinism and there are pastors around who would kill all the babies of this...