“Life and obedience are essential characteristics of the instrumentality of faith, in just the same way that life is an essential characteristic of a seeing eye. But I do not see blue as a reward or payment for having a living eye. This does not make life irrelevant to the seeing however.” The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 694 The post Only LIving Things Act appeared first on Blog & Mablog ..read more

Paedocommunion Question A question about paedocommunion (oh joy): Having not been to Moscow, how does paedocommunion function in CREC churches? Is it feeding the elements to practically-newborn infants, who have no idea what they’re eating or doing? Or is it merely to young kids who can walk and talk and annunciate some basic Christian creeds and understandings? Conversely, do non-paedocommunion Presbyterian churches typically withhold communion from such young kids AND infants, or only infants? (Do they only allow pre-teens and up to partake? etc.) I am always very confused reading argument ..read more

“When I say that faith is alive, I am saying nothing more than that faith is really faith. When I say that faith is obedient, I am saying nothing more than that faith is true faith. If it were not alive, not not obedient, you would not have the same basic thing, only with some of the paint chipped off. You wouldn’t have faith at all. And if you don’t have faith at all, then you don’t have justifying faith, or faith that lays hold of Christ. Put another way, faith must be faith to be the instrument of justification.” The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 694 The post An Eye Must Be Alive ..read more

1. What is Christian Nationalism? Christian Nationalism is the view that secularism is a hollow construct, now plainly revealed to be bankrupt. Additionally, CN is the belief that human societies require a transcendent anchor to hold everything together, and that this transcendent anchor should be the true and living God, and not a placeholder idol. 2. How are you defining Christian? As the adjective Christian is being used here, the objective content of the faith would be the truths contained within the Apostles’ Creed, with those truths being accepted and received as the truth of God, by mea ..read more

As we come to baptize this child, we are called to remember that baptism is primarily God’s testimony, not our own testimony. In the waters of baptism, God is declaring that Jesus is the Christ, that He is the way of true salvation, and that those who bear the mark of His testimony are obligated throughout the course of their lives to live as an ongoing amen to what God has testified. This water is not arrow pointing at this child’s heart, but rather a covenantal summons to the child, to his parents, and to all of us, to make sure our hearts are pointing at the same gospel that the baptism is ..read more

“Now if you have a law/gospel hermeneutic, you have decided going into your exegesis what that exegesis can and cannot reveal to you. So if I produced a verse that said, ‘Thou shalt exercise justifying faith as your evangelical obedience,’ this would not even be a minor challenge to a law/gospel hermeneutic. A law/gospel hermeneutic would chase the verb around the room, until the aorist imperative ran out of the door screaming, turning the verse into gospel, remarkably enough.” The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 692 The post An Aorist Scream appeared first on Blog & Mablog ..read more

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“If doing what God says to do is obedience, and true faith is doing what God says to do, then true faith is obedience.” The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 691 The post No Other Options appeared first on Blog & Mablog ..read more

Okay, That’s Impressive Open Road, In a Manner of Speaking More here A Song I Really Like for Some Reason Comes On You Quickly HT: Samuel Cherubin Featured Product The Book of the Seventh Seal A verse rendering of the book of Revelation. Almost as obscure as the original! Because of formatting issues, this one is only available in PDF. My deepest apologies. But wait . . .  now we have added an audio version, read aloud by me, with a recording instrument nearby. $1.00 Shop now The post Content Cluster Muster [04-18-24] appeared first on Blog & Mablog ..read more

“Here is a good place for some good and necessary consequence. A command can only be disobeyed or obeyed. Ignoring it is disobedience. Pretending not to hear is disobedience Given the authority and legitimacy of the command, there are no other options. If someone wants to maintain a third possibility, I am open to hearing what it might possibly be. Now, does God command men to believe the gospel?” The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 689. The post Good and Necessary appeared first on Blog & Mablog ..read more