The Tulip Driven Life

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

By: Thomas F. Booher Christ predicted woe and destruction on cities that did not repent at His preaching, and after He had done many miracles there (Matt. 11:21-24), saying that it would be more tolerable on the day of judgment for Sodom than for them. This indicates that not only was Christ healing, but He was preaching repentance from sin, which means He was also engaging society by telling them that they in fact were sinners that needed to repent to be saved. Christ healed, and Christ told those whom He healed that they were sinners that needed spiritual healing, not just physical healing. For those that did not repent, Christ now pronounced woe on them (on whole cities!) and warned them of their coming doom. Now it is interesting to note that the sin of Sodom was sexual sin, and homosexual sin gets a special mention all by itself (Jude 1:7). For Christ to use Sodom as an example of moral perversion and wickedness means that Christ is pointing out that the kinds o

By: Thomas F. Booher Last time I wrote about  reforming evangelicalism . I wagered that there was a solid 25-30 million non-Reformed evangelicals that would be willing to listen to Reformed/biblical teaching that could be positively impacted by it. I argued for incrementalism, that any improvement in the non-Reformed is a victory, even if they end up simply incorporating some Calvinistic teaching into their theology. Obviously, we want them to see the reality of their deadness in trespasses and sins and to express that biblically, which would lead to belief in election and predestination, but if they come closer to that, becoming more God-centered and biblical, that's still a victory. Progress, any degree of trending in the right direction, would be a huge improvement over the current state of affairs in Evangelicalism. Tonight, however, I want to address the issues in the PCA that I have seen. Because it is a confessionally Reformed denomination, I cannot so easily

By: Thomas F. Booher In my rough estimations, I would bet there are between 35-45 million non-Reformed Evangelicals that attend church weekly and would be willing to listen to biblical teaching, even Calvinism so long as it was presented carefully. There's probably another 35-45 million Evangelicals that wouldn't care to listen. The side that would be less likely to listen is far more likely to vote for Trump. Given that Obama won the 2012 election by about 5 million votes, it should be apparent that if Evangelicals were voting in accord with Christian and biblical principles, they would have chosen Cruz (or another candidate) in a landslide over Trump. Instead they have propelled Trump to the nomination. Consider that Cruz himself said that half of born again Christians do not vote. I've read that only half who identify as "born again" are registered to vote, and of that half only half of them actually make it to the polls. So it's quite possible th

By: Thomas F. Booher I want to begin by saying that I have not written much for The Tulip Driven Life in the last couple of years. Time constraints have been a large factor, but the biggest reason I haven't written much is that I haven't really seen the point in doing so. I left (I think and hope) the cage stage of Calvinism, and after my fiery volleys, I realized I burnt some bridges unnecessarily, and was left with an echo chamber of other fire-wielding Calvinists who loved anything I posted that really "stuck it" to free will, but only kinda sorta liked other Reformedish stuff that I posted. Facebook has become (for me at least) an ineffectual way to reach non-likeminded Christians. All my Christian friends, apart from some in my family, are Reformed. Most on the Tulip Driven Life are Reformed. I like preaching to the choir, but really, there's plenty of websites with more qualified men of God to get your theology fix from.  But something changed in

             GREENVILLE PRESBYTERIAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IS THE USE OF CONTRACEPTION BIBLICAL? Thomas Booher AP 42 Ethics March 26, 2016                The question of whether or not using contraception is biblical is a difficult one because there are many variables at play. Despite the variables, however, principle must determine practice; practice ought not make principle. Therefore, the first question to ask regarding the use of contraception is to ask what the principle for using contraception is. The principle must be taken from Scripture, and while Scripture has little to say about contraception directly, it does have much to say about children, which is directly related to the matter of contraception. In a sinless, unfallen world, contraception wouldn’t even be considered, because covenant children are a blessing from the Lord, without qualification. On this ground, some argue that contraception is necessarily evil because it prevents

By: Thomas F. Booher When reading the OT prophets, I can see the temptation to read Israel as America, because we would like to believe that God has made some special covenant with us as a nation that ensures our protection, at least if we repent. This isn't the case, as God now saves all who put their faith in Him, and His covenant is with believers and their children. The reason this isn't a step back is that we have something that Israel didn't yet have, namely, the sacrifice of Christ for our sins. We stand before God justified because of the righteousness of Christ credited to our account. Our promises are primarily spiritual and eternal, not physical and temporal this side of heaven (though in glory we will inherit the universe). The truth of the matter is, if this doesn't sound better to you, it calls into question your faith, because Christ promised that we would face trials in this life and be hated, but those who ENDURE to the end will be saved (Matt.