The Tulip Driven Life

I am currently reading an outstanding book on Reformed Worship. If you want a detailed understanding of why we do what we do in worship, its rootedness in Scripture, the Early Church, and recovered in the Reformation by Calvin, Zwingli, Luther, Beza, and others, then get this book. Here's an important snippet. I do not think it is an overstatement to say that our empty seeker-sensitive worship has not only opened the floodgates to apostasy, but by trying to meet "felt needs" rather than point to God in Christ and growth through His Word, has opened the door to things like the "felt needs" of drag Queens being met by dancing like whores in front of children.  If we believe in repentance, then we need to believe in telling our "felt needs" to shut up, because they are often/usually sinful desires. But I digress. Here's the quote below and a link to the book:  https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/worshipping-with-calvin-recovering-the-historic-minis...

By: Thomas F. Booher I'm blowing the horn right here, right now. Many reformed churches aren't living up to their name. It's time we wake up to this, find out why, change, and call others to change. For God's glory. If you know me or have followed my posts closely, you probably already know that I grew up in a PCA church my whole life. Yet never did I hear the doctrines of grace in my home church. It wasn't until  I went off to a secular college that I heard of the reformed faith. That was five years ago. Now I am a convinced Calvinist, and I hold to reformed/covenant theology. I am also convinced that many reformed churches aren't reforming. I believe God uses this to convict me to become a pastor more than anything. To preach, but more, to shepherd. To write blog posts like this and call out the institutions and people I am in rank with. Maybe you think my accusations are crazy, my concerns misplaced. Maybe you think I am crazy, ignorant, too narrow-mi...

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...

In 1997, a group of Roman Catholic bishops in Ireland drafted a study document, outlining ways to deal with the sexual child abuse crisis which was becoming endemic in the Church. Under the new rules these bishops maintained that there would be mandatory reporting of offending priests and instant removal of the positions of those behind the abuse.  The Vatican shut these bishops' reforms down .  The letter the Vatican sent in response (linked to in orange) read, " In particular, the situation of 'mandatory reporting' gives rise to serious reservations  of... a canonical nature."[1] To make it more clear, the letter raised "particular" concern about mandatory reporting because of issues with canon law. WHAT IS CANON LAW? According to  The Catholic Encyclopedia , canon law is "the body of laws made or adopted by [the Roman Catholic Church] for the government of... its members."[2] Also, "The ultimate source of canon law is God...

This is another paper I did for church history class. REFORMATION BIBLE COLLEGE ESSAY LETTER TO A FRIEND CHURCH HISTORY BY THOMAS BOOHER SANFORD, FLORIDA NOVEMBER, 2011 My dearest Edward,             I wish to write to you concerning Martin Luther, the Augustinian monk who is turning the world upside down. Since you are far away, I felt it best to inform you of all that has transpired.             As you know, I began studying under Luther at Wittenberg University this past year, upon hearing all the commotion and excitement he began stirring with his ninety-five theses. For the poor commoners like me, his words were making a lot of sense. The atmosphere has been dire and solemn as long as I can remember- the fear of eternal damnation always looming, the tears cried for loved ones in purgatory, and the lack of money to get them into heaven. [...