The Tulip Driven Life

  IN DEFENCE OF DE-CENTRALIZED & LOCAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH GOVERNMENT: Michael Foster rightly points out below that if you've been in the PCA, you've recognized all these tactics (highlighted in the image at the bottom of this post) by the progressives before. Not just the progressive really, most everyone. Conservatives do it because they often confuse "bureaucratic bloat" with "do everything decently and in order" (I Cor. 14:40) I suppose. Progressives do it for all the reasons Foster highlights below -- basically to foist their agenda on everyone even when it doesn't have majority support. Until I came into the small Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church denomination, I'd never been to a presbytery meeting I liked. All that is in the image below was on display, and it also had the effect of making things seem very artificial. At one presbytery meeting of another small denomination I was considering years back, the whole denomination dissol

 By: Thomas F. Booher  Let me begin by saying I have much appreciation for Ligonier Ministries. While I don't read Table Talk regularly anymore, it's also still a valuable resource, and when I'm Googling something online to help me with doctrinal or pastoral matters, Ligonier is often the link I click, and sometimes it even takes me to a free article from Table Talk. Having said that, I am concerned about Ligonier undermining the Christian family/household and even unintentionally laying the groundwork for women to be ordained as pastors and teachers in churches, an office that God has ordained only for men (see I Tim. 3:1-7).  To illustrate, Ligonier Ministries has Karrie Hahn writing an article in TableTalk in the December 2021 issue. They list the contributors for this issue, and I believe she's the only one who is female. (Contributors include James A. Brown Jr., Robert Rothwell, Kevin D. Gardner, Sinclair B. Ferguson, Jonty Rhodes, Dan Forrest, Todd Alexander, Geof

 By: Thomas F. Booher  R.C. Sproul would say something like, "If God is not sovereign, God is not God." That's true. But more critically for today it must be brought out clearly, "If God is not sovereign, God is not a Father, and if God is not a Father, God is not God." Sovereignty, Authority, Fore-ordination, having a grand purpose/plan, etc., especially relates to God as Father. The Son, as a man, inherits glory, power, and authority from the Father (not that the Son does not eternally have glory, power, authority, etc., He does) and came to do the Father's will. Therefore, the Father receives the God-Man Jesus Christ back up into glory, the Son is given the gift of the Spirit to pour out, and Jesus can say, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth." Who gives Jesus this authority? None other than the Father, for that is the authority that the Father has and gives to His Son in love. What has many of our Evangelical and Reformed

 By: Thomas F. Booher  1.      The Kingdom of God & its Power Comes Down from Heaven in Christ   A.      Many Christians and churches today have confusion about what the kingdom of God is, and how we are called to seek out that kingdom.         i.             The Gospel message is the good news of Christ and His kingdom coming down to earth.       ii.             Mark 1:14-15 says, “Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”     iii.             Mt. 4:23: “And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.” B.      To develop a thoroughly Christian worldview for all of life, we must understand what the Kingdom of God is, and what it means to seek first the Kingdom and God’s righteousness.         i.             Some say since Christ's kingdom