Adding on to our last post summarizing a few scholastic concepts: Causality: Five Metaphysical Distinctions, this post briefly considers another important principle often used in Reformed Theology and gives a few examples of the principle in practice. Principle of Proportionate Causality. “The logic of causality also dictates that proximate or closely related causes produce only proximate or… Read More What It Does Not Have, It Cannot Impart
In our previous post, the duties required in the Ninth Commandment, as summarized in the Westminster Larger Catechism, were discussed. This post will deal with the sins forbidden in the Ninth Commandment. The focus of this post will be on aspects of this commandment that require special explanation, terms that require definition, sins generally prevalent… Read More Taming the Tongue: Sins of the 9th Commandment
This paper is not meant as a complete treatment of the Ninth Commandment, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor,” (Exodus 20:16). However, how we speak about and to one another, whether in politics or in human relationships, often neglects certain aspects of the Ninth Commandment. The intention of this paper is not… Read More Taming the Tongue: Speaking with Grace, Listening with Charity
King Solomon had penned 1,005 songs (1 Kings 4:32), but there is one that is greater than all of them; it is the Song of Songs. It is so great that God included this in the canon of Scripture as an entire book. The Song of Solomon was never questioned by Jews or Christians as… Read More The Allegory of the Song of Solomon
Many Evangelicals today see the divisions among Christians, the many denominations, and the sometimes heated rhetoric between brothers, and rightly desire to see unity among Christians. Indeed, many modern Evangelicals even want to see unity between Protestant Christians and Roman Catholics.1 While such a desire may seem well-intentioned on the surface, we need to examine whether… Read More 6 Reasons Protestants and Roman Catholics Can Never Unite
The Great Awakening either strikes fear in the hearts of many American Presbyterians or is one of the fondest memories of Presbyterianism in the United States (though it wasn’t the USA yet). Those who contend the Great Awakening was the beginning of a series of many problems for Presbyterianism or the Reformed Faith in North America… Read More Preaching with Fervour: The Need for Reformation Spiritually
In part three we considered the necessity of a Holy Spirit wrought Reformation and unity in the the Church prior to, and in harmony with, the establishment of a national Church. In this final post of our series we will envisage the dangers of ecumenical latitudinarianism to the unity of the Church and answer objections regarding persecution and… Read More Establishment Principle, Part 4: Liberty of Conscience
In part 2 we examined the Scriptural evidence for the Establishment Principle and particularly the prophecies that God will cause it to occur in history. In this post we will see the importance of a Holy Spirit wrought Reformation and unity in the polity, discipline, worship, ordinances, doctrine, and practice of the Church prior to, and in harmony with,… Read More Establishment Principle, Part 3: Reformation and Unity of the Church
In our previous post we saw that civil governments are to provide an “hospitable abode to the church” which is a singular institutional entity organized by Jesus Christ with a specific political and catholic structure. This is strictly a positive duty in Christ’s Kingdom of Grace regarding nations joining the Church corporately, not how magistrates set public policy in relation to… Read More Establishment Principle, Part 2: Prophecies
In part one of four in our series on the Establishment Principle we will see what the Establishment Principle is and how it relates to the nature of the Church as well as what it is not. In part two we will demonstrate the Establishment Principle from the many prophecies of Scripture. In part three we will elucidate, on… Read More Establishment Principle, Part 1: What it is, What it isn’t
Purely Presbyterian 