Pastor Benjamin C. Rochester,
At our church, we are fairly liturgical. We are not Book-of-Common-Order-high-church, but we have a liturgy, we have all the elements, and we sing Scripture, we confess the faith, we fight the good fight. Nevertheless, our session ran into this pastoral problem: people like certain styles of music and they want them in worship even … Continue reading How we Secretly Switched to Psalms Only
A recent video by Neil deGrasse Tyson related to the March for Science emerged on Youtube. His basic claim is that a number of Americans are anti-scientific. Many brilliant counterpoints are rolling in, so my goal is to give one counterpoint among from the angle of a Trinitarian Christian, specifically a Neo-Calvinist one. The topic … Continue reading Scientific Naturalism and Trinitarian Covenantalism
The Third Commandment In his short instruction on Rules of Civility George Washington wrote, “When you speak of God or his Attributes, let it be seriously.” This sensitivity to the person and attributes of God is largely lost on sinful humanity. We naturally know how to curse, not how to speak reverently. What we know … Continue reading The Third Commandment
Decalogue 3 – The Second Commandment God liberated his people out of Egypt, which is a pattern for how he delivered his people out of bondage to the old master of sin. He then outlined Israel’s duty in covenant with himself in the first commandment, which pertained to the Godward mind. All of life is … Continue reading The Second Commandment
Ten Commandments 2 – The First Commandment Ethics from God In the last section we discovered that the scientific study of what the scriptures principally teach is summarized in two terms, dogmatics and ethics. Dogmatics refers to the study of beliefs to be held as presented in the scriptures. Ethics refers to the study of … Continue reading The First Commandment
Introduction to Ethics One may summarize the basic teaching of scripture as what God says about belief and duty. One would be hard pressed to think of something which this summary does not include. The Westminster Shorter Catechism, a protestant educational document from the 17th century puts it this way in its answer to the … Continue reading Ten Commandments 1 – Introduction & Preamble
This begins with a translation and some exegesis from the languages and then moves to the interpretation and application below. 1, Command for the Word Minister - Speak Sounds Doctrine BGT Tit. 2:1 Σὺ δὲ λάλει ἃ πρέπει τῇ ὑγιαινούσῃ διδασκαλίᾳ. And you yourself speak [2s] what [PN-RPN use] is proper to sound doctrine [dative] … Continue reading Ladies and Gentlemen in the Household of God: Some Notes on Titus and the Restored Image of God in the Family
