“The cup is described as the cup of blessing, not the cup of blessings and curses. But, because certain Corinthians despised that blessing, many were sick and some had died. Huzzah died because he got too close to the mercy seat”
Content Cluster Muster [01-11-24]
Nicely Done: The Car Must Have Been Going Too Slow: More here. A Song I Really Like for Some Reason: One of My Songs From the Archives: HT: Samuel Cherubin: Vadim Sekatski Practicing for His Promotion: Are You Referring to St. George?: Me Too: Featured Product: Letters on Homosexual Desire:In this series of (fictional) letters, …
Where Westminster Sounds FV
“My central point here is that if heresy charges can be leveled on the basis of ‘ambiguous’ language, then the bapterians have only succeeded in indicting the Westminster Confession. It is the Westminster Standards that say both sacraments are effectual means of salvation to worthy receivers. It is the Westminster Confession that says one of the things signified by baptism is regeneration. It the Westminster Confession that says the things signified by baptism (among which we include regeneration) are really exhibited and conferred by baptism at the time of the effectual call. So fine. Don’t use the language of baptismal regeneration if you don’t want to. I don’t want to either. That is not a problem. But it is a problem when you reluctance to use that language yourself prevents you from reading a seventeenth century document in its historical setting.”
Exhibited and Conferred
“I got accused of holding to baptismal regeneration, and a bunch of other unflattering things, but a number of hostile Injuns who had the warpaint on, and who were wearing the Westminster Confession of Faith as a ceremonial headdress, feathers and all. Without me having used this kind of language provocatively (for obvious reasons of prudence), I was accused of holding to the substance of baptismal regeneration by men who did not know the history of their own confessions. Because of their compromises with the American baptistic ethos, they had institutionalized a number of ‘workarounds’ to the language of their own confession and baptismal formulae.”
Book of the Month/January 2024
Apologies for the delay in getting to this. Life keeps happening, and my days fill up with excuses. This month’s selection is a delightful little book called Rabbit. It is by one Charles Higgins (a pen name, so don’t hunt around for a Facebook page), and it recounts a number of adventures/mishaps involving a monosyllabic …
An Old Coot Rants a Bit
Well, 2024 is certainly off to a roaring start. And that’s another thing . . . HT: @ChrchCurmudgeon When I was but a callow youth, and election time came around the way it always did, everybody went to the polls, and marked their selection in the wet clay of the cuneiform tablets, and the votes …
Regarding the CREC FV Exam
“The second is to acknowledge that the questions and answers were really good, and that I might actually be descended from A.A. Hodge.”
We Have Already Broken Our Resolution Not to Write Any More Letters
Letter to the Editor: I think it was you who put me on to Mao's America, which is great. Here's a good followup I'm listening to now: Blessings! Rob -- Doug responds: ...
An Out of Control Metaphor
“In short, if you want to know, I am a Puritan. The trouble some are having with understanding this just reveals that they are dutiful curators at the Puritan Waxworks (day pass $9.95) and need a night in the museum. You know, where some Elizabethan pamphleteers come to life and show us all that Reformation is more like chopping down the redwood of Self-Righteousness with the ax of the Gospel than it is like threading the needle of Condign Merit with the gossamer thread of Supralapsarianism. Whatever that might mean.”
And There Was No Remedy
Introduction: We are often reminded, in the words of the preacher, that there is nothing new under the sun (Ecc. 1:9). By this observation, he certainly does not mean that there cannot be any ...