The Tulip Driven Life

By: Thomas F. Booher  There are conservative, confessional, parliament/BCO sticklers who know the "playbook" but not how the other side is thwarting their playbook with tricks. They fail to recognize that keeping the rules sometimes promote breaking the rules, that nefarious forces can twist upholding the letter of the law to destroy the spirit and actual intent of the law's letter.  I'd argue this is why it is actually good in the PCA that overture 37 is not going to pass. I have just now come to that position, but knowing how slippery the liberals are, they'll take "racism" to mean "being white unrepentantly". Many of the conservatives would have considered overture 37 passing to be a great victory, but then there jaw would hit the floor when they see the liberals twisting it to their advantage, excluding white men from candidacy for the ministry in the PCA unless they repented in sackcloth and ashes for being white. But that's what liber...

By: Thomas F. Booher    THE PASTOR'S FIRST FLOCK IS HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN: In many of our churches today, we have the exact opposite emphasis of what Christ Himself practiced. Pastors and churches today are hungry for numbers. I imagine the intent for many is mostly good -- they want to see souls saved. The problem is that, to be quite blunt, they don't understand salvation very well. Salvation broadly considered is a life-long process, it does not begin and end at that moment of being born again. Sanctification and growth as Christians will come only with faithful preaching and proclaiming of God's Holy Word, serious and diligent study, prayer, Christian fellowship, discipleship, counseling, etc. The Pastor is not merely an Evangelist, and he is not merely a preacher. He is a shepherd of the Lord's sheep. The emphasis and "flow" that we find in Scripture is only men, qualified men, are to enter pastoral ministry. Teaching is one qualification, but the bulk is...

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in the PCA, and my thoughts on the way forward for conservatives/faithful men and women in the PCA.

  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 eve...