The Tulip Driven Life

By: Thomas F. Booher Maybe that should be the overarching name that most identifies conservative churches in America today. The SCA (Shattered Church in America) comprises Christians from various conservative denominations that would consent on paper and proudly affirm the authority of Scripture, the trinity, the full deity and humanity of Christ, and the five solas of the reformation. There may be Arminians and Calvinists and people in between. What they are all united in would be the above affirmations, even if different camps emphasized them and expressed them in slightly different ways. From the Bible belt to the burnt over district, these believers see themselves as the champions of orthodoxy, the heart and soul of American spiritual vitality.  I think our heart has almost stopped beating.  We have marketed Christianity. We have made church into a mirror (albeit poor one) of popular culture. We have lost most anything that is distinctly Christian, and we have t

The Doctrines of Grace – Elect According to Foreknowledge, Part 1 In his first letter, Peter wrote to certain exiles as those who were elect according to the foreknowledge of God, 1 Pet 1:1,2. These exiles are believers scattered in ancient Asia Minor (modern Turkey ). Precisely who these saints are is somewhat difficult to answer, that is, is Peter writing to Jewish believers who were interspersed among the Gentiles, or are they believers in general, Jewish and Gentile? Good arguments can be made for both interpretations. What is striking is that Peter uses language that is similar to Paul’s in his letters to Gentiles, e.g., Ephesians. Yet, generally speaking, Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, while Peter went to the Jews (Gal 2:7). Regardless, whoever his readers were, what Peter declared to them is true for all of God’s people, and that declaration is this-- they are elect according to the foreknowledge of God.  Election refers not to a general choice by God to save so

By: Thomas Fletcher Booher Hello everyone, this is Thomas F. Booher. For a while I have wanted to write a book on Christian living. I am pleased to announce that I have done so, and I will self publish it as a free e-book on Amazon before the end of summer. Over the next couple months I will be giving more information about the book, including an audio recording where I discuss some of my concerns for reformed preaching and the general lack of holy living of we the reformed. What I hope my book will shed some light on is the desperate need for our Calvinistic theology to be practically applied with intentionality in our everyday lives. The following is an introduction to the book that I have written, where I give a bit of my background and the perspective I am bringing to the table. I hope you enjoy, and I hope you will read my book and be spiritually nourished by it.     INTRODUCTION                 I grew up in a small Presbyterian church that was part of the PCA (a

By: Thomas Clayton Booher This post first appeared here . In response to my article  On Fantasy Christ Figures , I was asked what I thought about Aslan, the great Lion in C S Lewis’s  The Chronicles of Narnia  series. It is a good question. In answer, let me begin by a statement from the original article, “Everything that Christ did was revelatory of the Father. His body language, facial expressions, speech, choice of words, etc. was all revelatory.” I believe that postulation to be true. Even as Christ walked amongst us before his resurrection and subsequent session at the right hand of the Father, Christ was  The Revelation of God  – the final revelation, as Hebrews 1:1,2 implies. His followers, in particular, the Twelve, not only witnessed what he  did , but they bore witness to  him . I may observe what one does from a distance, even on a daily, sometimes hourly basis. It could be a co-worker, a celebrity, my pastor, a teacher. In a case like one of these, I m