The Tulip Driven Life

REFORMATION INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY BOOK SUMMARY: THY WORD IS TRUTH Thomas Booher SYS 501 Systematic Theology January 5, 2017 Professor Edward J. Young’s Thy Word is Truth is a helpful book that defines and defends the doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture. He demonstrates that this doctrine is indispensable; without it one cannot rely upon the Bible as the inerrant word of God, and thus man must become the ultimate arbiter concerning which parts of the Bible are truly God’s word and which are not. In contrast, to establish the doctrine of inspiration grants complete confidence in the whole Bible as God’s word, solidifying the statements about man, sin, Christ, and salvation by evoking the eternal truth of God Himself as man’s guide for all of life. The whole of the Christian faith stands or falls on the doctrine of inspiration, and it is for this reason that a careful summary of each chapter of Young’s book on inspi...

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 ...