The Tulip Driven Life

 By: Thomas F. Booher  "Cretans" might as well be "Martians" to us today. So the Apostle Paul's words below do not make us queasy: “'Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.'” This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith." But replace Cretans with any country or race, especially one in your own nation, and perhaps other than applying it to whites, you will immediately begin to object. "Hispanics are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons." "Blacks are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons." "Indians are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons." "Whites are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons." My point is not to say that these statements apply to any or all of these particular races in a one-to-one (though I have no problem saying it applies far more to some than others, and today in our wicked age is a generalization we all could wear to on...

  "Natural affection must give way to divine grace. Our country is dear to us, our kindred dearer, and our father’s house dearest of all; and yet they must all be hated (Lu. 14:26), that is, we must love them less than Christ, hate them in comparison with him, and, whenever any of these come in competition with him, they must be postponed, and the preference given to the will and honour of the Lord Jesus. (2.) Sin, and all the occasions of it, must be forsaken, and particularly bad company; we must abandon all the idols of iniquity which have been set up in our hearts, and get out of the way of temptation, plucking out even a right eye that leads us to sin (Mt. 5:29), willingly parting with that which is dearest to us, when we cannot keep it without hazard of our integrity. Those that resolve to keep the commandments of God must quit the society of evil doers, Ps. 119:115; Acts 2:40. (3.) The world, and all our enjoyments in it, must be looked upon with a holy indifference and con...

The ritual shaming of white people is a hatred for how we as white persons have been made in the image of God. When the Apostle Paul had to boast because his authority was being denigrated, he did so, giving the glory to God for his giftings and graces as an Apostle, yet insisting upon His apostolic calling and message as being equal with Peter and all the other Apostles (see the book of Galatians and other places in the New Testament). But Paul even speaks of his being "of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews" (Philippians 3) because others were boasting of their pedigree, though Paul exhorts to not boast in the flesh but have confidence rather in God and His saving grace. Yet he notes, if anyone is going to boast in the flesh, he can do so more than all of them. Paul has an extended discourse on these matters in 2 Corinthians 10-12, of boasting in his accomplishments and equality with the chief Apostles when he has to do so, to defend his m...

  Matthew Henry on the Church/People of God in the state of glory (heaven), from part of his commentary on Revelation 21: "The subject-matter of the vision—the bride, the Lamb’s wife (v. 10); that is, the church of God in her glorious, perfect, triumphant state, under the resemblance of Jerusalem, having the glory of God shining in its lustre, as uxor splendit radiis mariti—the bride comely through the comeliness put on her by her husband; glorious in her relation to Christ, in his image now perfected in her, and in his favour shining upon her. And now we have a large description of the church triumphant under the emblem of a city, far exceeding in riches and splendour all the cities of this world; and this new Jerusalem is here represented to us both in the exterior and the interior part of it. 1. The exterior part of the city—the wall and the gates, the wall for security and the gates for entrance. (1.) The wall for security. Heaven is a safe state; those that are there are encl...

By: Thomas F. Booher Matthew Poole's commentary on all of Genesis 10 is well worth reading, but let's just take his remarks on Genesis 10:5 and relate it to all the prissy Protestant Popes who are persecuting men for believing what their prominent forefathers believed: Genesis 10:5, "By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations." Poole: "The isles of the Gentiles; not isles properly so called; for why should they, having their choice, forsake the continent for islands, and thereby cut off themselves from their brethren? And where had they ships to transport them? But the word isles here and elsewhere signifies all those countries that had the sea between them and Judea, as it doth Isaiah 11:10-11, Isaiah 40:15, Jeremiah 2:10, Jeremiah 25:22, Ezekiel 27:3, Zephaniah 2:11. And isles are here put for the inhabitants, as the words earth and land are commonly used. This division of t...

William Perkins on True and False Churches (from his commentary on Galatians):   "Now follow the churches to which the epistle is sent: "to the churches of Galatia." At this time the Galatians had made a revolt, and were fallen from justification by the obedience of Christ; so as Paul "was afraid of them" (ch. 4), and yet he called them churches still, using great meekness and moderation. His example must we follow in giving judgment of churches of our time. And that we may the better do this, and the better relieve our consciences, mark three rules. The first is that we must rightly consider of the faults of the churches. Some are faults in manners; some in doctrine. If the faults of the church be in manners, and these faults appear both in the lives of ministers and people, so long as true religion is taught, it is a church and so to be esteemed, and the ministers must be heard (Matt. 23:1). Yet may we separate from the private company of bad men in the churc...