The Tulip Driven Life

By: Thomas F. Booher Without the gospel, we are lost. Without the gospel, we have nothing. I can think of no greater truth than the truth of the cross. I can think of no greater need than a recovery of the truth of the cross in our churches. As American culture continues to slip and slide into secularism, as unbelievers increasingly overthrow their consciences, the Christian church will be seen as the most peculiar institution in existence. This means you and I will be seen as the most peculiar people in our land. This is a scary thing, perhaps, but it is not necessarily a bad thing. When persecution comes, and Christ promises that it will come, we have opportunity to stand firm and faithfully. We have the privilege and duty to speak the truth, to shine light into the darkness. But our own light has been partially eclipsed by the darkness of the world. Obviously, light cannot be dimmed by darkness, for darkness is the absence of light. Yet we Christians too often fear the darknes...

By: Thomas Booher I have been blogging on the Tulip Driven Life for several years now. Over time I have amassed a small readership. I have been told by some of you how much you appreciate this blog and the content on it. For that I am very thankful. Some of you who appreciate this blog are not Calvinists yourself. It isn't necessarily that you think it is evil like many who reject Calvinism do, or that it is some man made system imposed upon Scripture, but rather you don't see it as a necessary conclusion from Scripture. Perhaps you also do not see the importance of holding to the doctrines of grace, and therefore you have never taken it upon yourself to study them and determine whether or not they are scriptural. What I want to show is that Calvinism is both biblical and necessary. So much so, in fact, that one cannot reject Calvinism without also rejecting much of Scripture. Moreover, to reject Calvinism is to reject the clearest expression of the gospel and to distort ...

By: Thomas Clayton Booher The Protestant Reformation and the Doctrine of Justification Our denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), has its theological roots in the Protestant Reformation of the 16 th century, which essentially began when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses (points of dispute) on the castle church door in Wittenberg , Germany on October 31, 1517. It was common to post such notices for public viewing. Luther’s theses were directed primarily against the Church’s practice to sell indulgences for the dead. An indulgence , it was said, satisfied the temporary punishment of purgatory [1] so that a departed loved one could be released and enter the glory of heaven. The sale of indulgences was actually a scheme to fill the coffers of the church to fund lavish building projects. Pope Leo X (1475-1521) needed money to rebuild St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome . The Pope made John Tetzel the commissioner of indulgences for Germany . Tetzel’s marketi...

Reformation Bible College God’s Ignoble Gambit: How Free Will Destroys the Cross Doctrine of Christ By Thomas Booher Sanford, Florida May 2012             No matter how you dice it, the fall of man necessitated the death of Christ if God were to provide salvation. While the argument over the means of receiving salvation has often centered on free will versus election, most have opted to take some route through the Bible that has God allowing man to fall of his own free will, hoping to get God off the hook for the entrance of evil into humanity. If He creates man with the ability to choose obedience or disobedience, the choice itself is entirely up to man. This allegedly keeps God free of the charge of being an evil architect. Closer inspection will reveal that it is when God is not the first cause of evil’s existence that His goodness is lost. It i...

This is my paper for Church History class on the development of modern liberal theology and Arminian/ free will theology. It had to be written in a letter format, so I thought it would be neat, and fitting, to write it as a letter from B.B. Warfield, near his death, to Machen, regarding his concerns for Princeton, which was beginning to slip into liberalism around the time of his death in 1921. REFORMATION BIBLE COLLEGE LETTER PAPER PASSING OF THE TORCH CHURCH HISTORY BY THOMAS BOOHER SANFORD, FLORIDA APRIL, 2012 My dear friend and colleague,                 There is a churning in the pit of my stomach. My bones grow weak, and as I approach seventy years of age, I cannot help but wonder with fear and trepidation what the next seventy will hold. I write this letter as a passing of the torch from me to you. Read carefully and ...