12/25/09
This site originated in a controversy over church government which resulted in a number of excommunications in a now defunct ecclesiastical body, the RPNA(GM).
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Link to Old Sidebar Links
Sunday, May 04, 2008
What This Was And Now Is
Updated and links added 8/3/08, 12/25/09
This site was originally started because of the lack of any real public record - or even due process - in the RPNA(GM) which in part led to, if not exacerbated the excommunications adjudicated by the extraordinary court of that body, the "Session of the RPNA(GM)".
This site was originally started because of the lack of any real public record - or even due process - in the RPNA(GM) which in part led to, if not exacerbated the excommunications adjudicated by the extraordinary court of that body, the "Session of the RPNA(GM)".
Labels:
08 Chronological List
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Jeremiah or Judas? Rev. Wright or Wrong?
Much ado has recently been made in the popular press about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, senior pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ congregation in Chicago, Illinois, where Senator Barak Obama, a leading 2008 US Democratic Presidential candidate has attended and held membership for over 20 years. Wright’s remarks about God damning America for its foreign policies particularly predominate in the sound clips that are played. These comments are considered unpatriotic and unAmerican, if not also unChristian and divisive by the mainstream media which presents little substantial criticism to the status quo and current policies of either of the mainstream parties, Democratic or Republican.
Wright for his own part, particularly as we note below in his address to the National Press Club Breakfast, has declared all this in reality to be nothing more than an attack on the black church and its traditions, largely unknown to mainstream white and racist America. To be fair to Wright, he does make some valid points and he is addressing in part a hostile and ignorant audience. As Wright mentions repeatedly, The Bill Moyers Show edited out some of his taped interview and he has to keep repeating himself to the media.
Wright for his own part, particularly as we note below in his address to the National Press Club Breakfast, has declared all this in reality to be nothing more than an attack on the black church and its traditions, largely unknown to mainstream white and racist America. To be fair to Wright, he does make some valid points and he is addressing in part a hostile and ignorant audience. As Wright mentions repeatedly, The Bill Moyers Show edited out some of his taped interview and he has to keep repeating himself to the media.
Labels:
Islam,
Jeremiah Wright,
Obama,
slavery
Sunday, April 27, 2008
The "Federal Vision" Confusion is Not Enough, Only the Roman AntiChrist Will Do.
[Updated 5/3/08.]
In that Robbins and Gerety's Not Reformed At All answers, if not largely obliterates Doug Wilson's ""Reformed" is Not Enough", it was a stroke of genius to put Brueghel's masterpiece, "The Parable of the Blindmen" on the front cover of NRAA. In other words, so much for Wilson's touted "medieval mindset"
In that Robbins and Gerety's Not Reformed At All answers, if not largely obliterates Doug Wilson's ""Reformed" is Not Enough", it was a stroke of genius to put Brueghel's masterpiece, "The Parable of the Blindmen" on the front cover of NRAA. In other words, so much for Wilson's touted "medieval mindset"
Labels:
Federal Vision,
Justification
Sunday, March 23, 2008
The Recent Demise of the RPNA(GM) Court on 3/10/08
What appears to be the real deal regarding the dissolution of the RPNA(GM) Session has surfaced.
Further, both Prov. 25:25 and Prov. 24:17,18 would seem to be applicable:
"As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country".
"Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth: Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him".
DV more comments will follow.
Further, both Prov. 25:25 and Prov. 24:17,18 would seem to be applicable:
"As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country".
"Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth: Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him".
DV more comments will follow.
___________________________________________________________________
Announcement of the Session of the RPNA(GM)
March 10, 2008
Dear Brothers and Sisters under the inspection of the Session of the RPNA(GM).
On December 2, 2007, we sent a letter to you explaining that due to financial inability we faced the possibility of formal dissolution.
In that letter we stated:
Sunday, March 16, 2008
3/16/08, Landmarks To The Abuse of Scripture, History and Reason
The chief contention in all that follows with the sermon of 12/23/07 in the subtitle, is that it does not go far enough and penetrate to the real state of affairs in that particular corner of Zion known as the RPNA(GM). Much ado is made about moving the doctrinal landmarks of the church, primarily the Terms of Communion of the historic Reformed Presbyterian Covenanted Church and not without merit. Yet nothing at all is said about the erection of additional conscience binding landmarks by the "lawful spiritual eldership" of the RPNA(GM) to stand alongside those historic Terms of Communion.
In other words, as before, we are speaking of the unofficial, but still very official papers from the "Session" of the RPNA(GM), Tattoos and the Word of God (TATWOG) (4/30/06) and the Position Paper on Sessional Authority (PPSA) (6/4/06). As in you may, you can and you really will get excommunicated for disagreeing with or having doubts about them, although inconsistently the "Confidential" Oath only includes the last. And just as in the sermon, you will also be hard pressed to find any mention of them at all publicly, even on the official RPNA(GM) website. As a consequence of this officially approved omission, these two items might be very inauspicious motes, but they are motes nonetheless in the eagle eye of our RPNA(GM) sermonizer, who all the while criticizes the scandals and shortcomings of others. To whom much is given, much after all, is required (Lk.12:48), whether they are willing to acknowledge it or not.
In other words, as before, we are speaking of the unofficial, but still very official papers from the "Session" of the RPNA(GM), Tattoos and the Word of God (TATWOG) (4/30/06) and the Position Paper on Sessional Authority (PPSA) (6/4/06). As in you may, you can and you really will get excommunicated for disagreeing with or having doubts about them, although inconsistently the "Confidential" Oath only includes the last. And just as in the sermon, you will also be hard pressed to find any mention of them at all publicly, even on the official RPNA(GM) website. As a consequence of this officially approved omission, these two items might be very inauspicious motes, but they are motes nonetheless in the eagle eye of our RPNA(GM) sermonizer, who all the while criticizes the scandals and shortcomings of others. To whom much is given, much after all, is required (Lk.12:48), whether they are willing to acknowledge it or not.
Labels:
08 Chronological List
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
2/12/08, A Reply to A Question About Ron Paul’s ‘08 Presidential Campaign
[revised 12/18/09]
While there is much to agree with in Chuck Baldwin’s column of Jan. 28, ‘08 on Ron Paul and his supporters, “Why Are Ron Paul's Supporters So Angry?”, let’s not put the “high horse” of politics before the gospel or Christianity. Contra the conservative Baptist pastor’s closing comments, if American Christians would just support “the principles of liberty, the U.S. Constitution, and limited government” is not enough in itself to provoke “a spiritual revival as well”, however much that is needed. Rather the problems of modern American Christians are far worse than just their “elitism, and partisan phoniness,” though their “ignorance” does have a lot to do with it.
Neither was it because “America's Colonial preachers and Christian people fought for liberty and independence, [that] God gave us two Great Awakenings.” Rather the First Great Awakening preceded the struggle for independence and arguably the Second Awakening in the 1830's deteriorated into the revivalism and pelagian perfectionism of Finney that plagues the American church to this day. Finney’s abolitionism also arguably deteriorated into the radical atheistic abolitionism that plunged this country into a bloody civil war, while at the same time every other major Western power abolished slavery without bloodshed.
While there is much to agree with in Chuck Baldwin’s column of Jan. 28, ‘08 on Ron Paul and his supporters, “Why Are Ron Paul's Supporters So Angry?”, let’s not put the “high horse” of politics before the gospel or Christianity. Contra the conservative Baptist pastor’s closing comments, if American Christians would just support “the principles of liberty, the U.S. Constitution, and limited government” is not enough in itself to provoke “a spiritual revival as well”, however much that is needed. Rather the problems of modern American Christians are far worse than just their “elitism, and partisan phoniness,” though their “ignorance” does have a lot to do with it.
Neither was it because “America's Colonial preachers and Christian people fought for liberty and independence, [that] God gave us two Great Awakenings.” Rather the First Great Awakening preceded the struggle for independence and arguably the Second Awakening in the 1830's deteriorated into the revivalism and pelagian perfectionism of Finney that plagues the American church to this day. Finney’s abolitionism also arguably deteriorated into the radical atheistic abolitionism that plunged this country into a bloody civil war, while at the same time every other major Western power abolished slavery without bloodshed.
Labels:
Arminianism,
Baldwin,
Constitution,
Politics,
Ron Paul
Sunday, February 03, 2008
2/3/08, The Reformed Argument Against Musical Instruments in Public Worship
2/21/08, Updated Addendum to the Federal Vision's Fraudulent Revision of Reformed Worship.
John L. Girardeau's exposition of the historic reformed argument against musical instruments in public worship is little known and somewhat beside the point of the previous comments on Federal Vision's mischaracterization of the Regulative Principle of Worship. Nevertheless it is still worth mentioning, not only in order to persuade people to further examine the question, but also purely for the love of the truth alone (2 Thess. 2:10), without which nothing good or great can be accomplished. Yet not only has Girardeau's Instrumental Music in the Public Worship of the Church (1888) been reprinted along with Robert Lewis Dabney's review of it a year later, G.I. Williamson, who is well known in American presbyterianism for his popular study guides on the Westminster Confession and Shorter Catechism, also wrote a not so well known tract on Instrumental Music in Worship.
John L. Girardeau's exposition of the historic reformed argument against musical instruments in public worship is little known and somewhat beside the point of the previous comments on Federal Vision's mischaracterization of the Regulative Principle of Worship. Nevertheless it is still worth mentioning, not only in order to persuade people to further examine the question, but also purely for the love of the truth alone (2 Thess. 2:10), without which nothing good or great can be accomplished. Yet not only has Girardeau's Instrumental Music in the Public Worship of the Church (1888) been reprinted along with Robert Lewis Dabney's review of it a year later, G.I. Williamson, who is well known in American presbyterianism for his popular study guides on the Westminster Confession and Shorter Catechism, also wrote a not so well known tract on Instrumental Music in Worship.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
1/30/08, Hiding Behind the Landmarks and Other Sanctimonious Monuments
[As promised previously in . . . . And In Secret Have I Said Nothing the following should be self explanatory. It consists of some remarks in red with links in italics on the original sermon "Moving the Landmarks" in black.
Further, in that Part II, Chapt. 23:7 of Reformation Principles Exhibited on "Christian Worship" says. "The ministers of religion have no warrant for reading their Sermons to the congregation", there are some interjections/additions to the sermon below when it is given/read from what we know of the practice in the RPNA(GM) although we didn't listen to the mp3 which is also available on the Albany website. However, we can just about guarantee that any further remark by the minister as the sermon below was delivered, steered pretty clear of any remarks in red, verbatim or substantively. Consequently the whole story was not given and a less than forthright defense of what is supposed to be the truth, prevailed - in our opinion. The reader of course, may judge for themself.]
Further, in that Part II, Chapt. 23:7 of Reformation Principles Exhibited on "Christian Worship" says. "The ministers of religion have no warrant for reading their Sermons to the congregation", there are some interjections/additions to the sermon below when it is given/read from what we know of the practice in the RPNA(GM) although we didn't listen to the mp3 which is also available on the Albany website. However, we can just about guarantee that any further remark by the minister as the sermon below was delivered, steered pretty clear of any remarks in red, verbatim or substantively. Consequently the whole story was not given and a less than forthright defense of what is supposed to be the truth, prevailed - in our opinion. The reader of course, may judge for themself.]
Moving The Landmarks
Proverbs 22:28
Covenanted Reformed Presbyterian Church, Albany, NY
December 23, 2007
Rev. Greg L. Price
Proverbs 22:28
Covenanted Reformed Presbyterian Church, Albany, NY
December 23, 2007
Rev. Greg L. Price
It is paradoxical how individuals, families, church courts, churches and nations recognize this principle and yet how often when the subject shifts to moral issues and God’s commandments they do not want to hear about God’s boundaries. To the contrary, they want to talk about freedom by which they mean to be free of God’s moral boundaries found in His Law. This is one of the purposes of God’s commandments--to set moral boundaries for all men including elders, women, and children in thought, word, and deed.
Labels:
08 Chronological List
Saturday, December 29, 2007
12/29/07, Federal Vision's Fraudulent Revision of Reformed Worship
Some Necessary Background to the Current Federal Vision Assault on Justification By Faith Alone
(updated from 10/2/07)
While it is somewhat of an aside to the original reason for this website, it needs to be said that the relevant parties in the current Federal Vision controversy perturbing and disturbing contemporary P&R churches on the doctrine of justification by faith alone, previously had conducted a similar campaign and assault on the Regulative Principle of Worship (RPW). Their deceitful modus operandi of distorting and misrepresenting a confessional position in order to supplant it with one of their own imagination hasn't changed. Unfortunately. Perhaps if the P&R churches had nipped things in the bud, things wouldn't have got to this stage, but the compromises on worship being what they were and still are in modern American P&R churches - though there has been some improvement - the FV got off easy on the RPW. Now they are back at it and serious about modifying the doctrine of justification by faith alone to fit their popish and judaizing style of worship.
(updated from 10/2/07)
While it is somewhat of an aside to the original reason for this website, it needs to be said that the relevant parties in the current Federal Vision controversy perturbing and disturbing contemporary P&R churches on the doctrine of justification by faith alone, previously had conducted a similar campaign and assault on the Regulative Principle of Worship (RPW). Their deceitful modus operandi of distorting and misrepresenting a confessional position in order to supplant it with one of their own imagination hasn't changed. Unfortunately. Perhaps if the P&R churches had nipped things in the bud, things wouldn't have got to this stage, but the compromises on worship being what they were and still are in modern American P&R churches - though there has been some improvement - the FV got off easy on the RPW. Now they are back at it and serious about modifying the doctrine of justification by faith alone to fit their popish and judaizing style of worship.
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