Calvinistic Piety And The Tulip Driven Life E-Book

By: Thomas F. Booher

For more posts about The Tulip Driven Life E-Book, go here.

As usual, I refer to piety as Calvinistic because I believe Calvinism is an accurate reflection of what Scripture teaches. However, I also believe that those who hold to the doctrines of grace will find certain temptations greater than others who hold to a different theology of Scripture. If God is sovereign, why evangelize? If God is sovereign, why pray? If God is sovereign, why discipline yourself and your children? If God is sovereign, why concern yourself with piety and holiness at all? Won't God grow us when He is good and ready by Himself?

Those who hold to a free will theology do not have the aforementioned issues inherent in their theology. Rather, their problem is that they must evangelize, pray, and discipline themselves and their children without an all-sovereign God. Further, they believe that they can do these things without God being sovereign. What this does do is put the impetus on themselves and their own free will. If evangelism fails, it is because of what they did. If their prayers don't get through, it may be because they didn't pray the right way. If the children are disobedient and they are unholy, it is because they must not have exercised their wills rightly.

These things are, of course, true. Our wills are freed in Christ. The difference is that we have a sovereign God, and we have remaining, indwelling sin that previously enslaved our wills but now claws at us and seeks to entice us back to our former bondage. We are also indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and Scripture says we must wage war against sin by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:13). Because God is sovereign, we can trust that God will grow us in the faith by His strength, for it is He who is working in us both to will and to do His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13). And yet, God calls us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12). Piety then, religious devotion and practice, finds its strength not in ourselves, but in God. We need weapons and armor to wage war against the flesh. These are provided, not by our free will, but by God's grace in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 6:10-18 says:

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saint.

Notice that v. 10 says we are to be strong "in the Lord and in the power of His might." It is His strength, not ours. Truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation, and the Holy Spirit, these are all gifts of God, and access to God through prayer is likewise given to us through the atonement of Christ.

How then, shall we pursue truth? How shall we use righteousness, proclaim the gospel, exercise faith, devote ourselves to prayer, and live in the Spirit? Calvinists will answer this differently from non-Calvinists because we see all these things as a gift from a sovereign God given to helpless men who were dead in trespasses and sins.

As I thought about why I am writing a book called The Tulip Driven Life, I realized this is one of the reasons- to understand how we as reformed people should live using the means God has given us. How do we apply our theology to our Christian piety? How do the doctrines of grace inform our religious devotion?

I am pleased to say that The Tulip Driven Life e-book should be ready sometime in July. I plan on making it available through Amazon for free. I hope you will read it and be helped by it to live more faithfully and devoutly to God.

Why Pastors Shouldn't Preach In Jeans (Especially Skinny Jeans)

By: Thomas F. Booher I can't think of a better way to get labeled a legalist than to title a post like this. Hopefully by the end you will not see this as legalism and will see this as what it is- my attempt at describing what I believe is proper ecclesiology as defined by God in Scripture. So then, what is church? What does Scripture say we should be doing and not doing on Sunday mornings? That's what I want to explore. The Bible says to gather together in Christ's name; to teach, encourage, and admonish one another; to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in our hearts to God (Heb. 10:24-25; Mat. 18:20; Col. 3:16). There are to be deacons (Acts 6:1-6) and elders (Ti. 1:5) in the church who act as overseers, and in the case of elders, are the shepherds of the flock who teach the word and rebuke with authority (Ti. 1:9). God must call one to be a pastor/elder (Eph. 4:11). As such those who are called by God to preach the word are held to a ...

The Stone Choir/Corey Mahler Invert God's Revelation

https://coreyjmahler.com/the-european-peoples-and-christianity/ *****EDIT: Some have said that they, or at least Corey Mahler perhaps believes, that the European religions were deviations from Christianity, believed by Noah and his sons. Over time, sinful man and demons twisted these European religions, which I think their argument is that it was originally Christian/derived from Noah and his offspring. Nordic paganism had the most in common with Christianity, even with Odin sacrificing himself on a tree, and therefore the Europeans were the most ripe and ready to embrace Christianity and continue to advance the cause of Christ more than other peoples/races/nations over the last 2,000 years since Christ. To that I simply say, I appreciate the context given, but even if all that were true (maybe it is, maybe it is not), it doesn't change the fundamental points of my post below. Syncretism, Odinism, etc., even if it was somehow a distorted derivation flowing from the true...

Some Problems in the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America)

By: Thomas F. Booher NOTE: I posted what's below to Facebook on this day, December 6, 2016. I wanted to post this here for record keeping and so that it can have a more visible and permanent viewership for those concerned or wishing to be more informed about the PCA. I would like to explain my love for and grave concerns within the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America), the denomination in which I am currently a member and have served as a ruling elder. The state of the PCA is, in my estimation, not a consistently conservative, orthodox, and confessional one. I believe it is in the midst of much compromise, and I do not think that the average lay person is aware of it. It grieves me to say these things. I wish they were not true. I grew up in the PCA, and until several years ago I was still under the delusion that all was well in this denomination, that it was, by and large, holding fast to the Word of God. I still believe that there are many...

The Tulip Driven Life

Search This Blog