The Kingdom of God (Revelation 11:15-19)

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying,

The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever.

And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying,

We give thanks to thee, Lord God Almighty, who art and who wast, that thou hast taken thy great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but thy wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, for rewarding thy servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear thy name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.

Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, loud noises, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.

If you send your kids to public school, I'm not saying you're necessarily sinning, but the chances are really high you're sinning big time.

Federal Vision Informational Resources:

In 2002, Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church held a pastor's conference entitled "The Federal Vision" which emphasized the objectivity of the covenant of grace and criticized the larger Reformed world for ceding much theological and practical ground to baptist influences. This ignited a years-long controversy which many new to Reformed theology are just now stumbling upon.

Unfortunately, misrepresentations and misunderstandings abound. The best place to begin is the "Joint Federal Vision Statement." Below are three illuminating civil discussions.

James White and Doug Wilson
Rich Lusk and Doug Wilson
Rish Lusk on Reformation Red Pill

If you're looking for reading material, below are the (in)famous denominational reports.

PCA FV & NPP 2007 Study Report
OPC 2006 Justification Study Report
RCUS FV 2006 Report
URCNA 2009 FV Report

And here are responses by various FV proponents:

Steve Wilkins re PCA
Jeffrey Meyers re PCA
Rich Lusk re PCA
Doug Wilson re PCA
Peter Leithart re OPC
Rich Lusk Pt. 1 re OPC
Rich Lusk Pt. 2 re OPC
Rich Lusk Pt. 3 re OPC
Doug Wilson re OPC

To Be in the Church Is to Be in the Covneant:

Since the fall of Adam had brought disgrace upon all his posterity, God restores those, whom He separates as His own, so that their condition may be better than that of all other nations. At the same time it must be remarked, that this grace of renewal is effaced in many who have afterwards profaned it. Consequently the Church is called God’s work and creation, in two senses, i.e., generally with respect to its outward calling, and specially with respect to spiritual regeneration, as far as regards the elect; for the covenant of grace is common to hypocrites and true believers. On this ground all whom God gathers into His Church, are indiscriminately said to be renewed and regenerated: but the internal renovation belongs to believers only; whom Paul, therefore, calls God’s “workmanship, created unto good works, which God hath prepared, etc.

-- John Calvin, Commentary on Deuteronomy

Piety =/= Pietism

Piety = serving and worshipping God

Pietism = emphasizing the individual "relationship" with God as experienced primarily through the emtions as the paramount of Christianity.

The Practical Importance of Liturgy:

I recently visited a conservative, Bible-believing, MacArthur type church where the pastor quoted Martin Luther.

I recently visited a liberal Episcopalian church where the homily was about waking the sleeping Christ within us.

Yet in which church did I confess my sins to God, receive absolution, take the Supper, read multiple passages of Scripture, recite ancient creeds, and pray theologically sound prayers written by Calvinists from the 1500s?

I'll give you a hint: not the one that looked like a rock concert. American evangelicals have for too long emphasised what we believe doctrinally on paper at the expense of how we worship in practice.

5 Reasons Churches Need Shorter Sermons

1) Beyond 25-30 minutes, what content needs to be said which cannot be said more briefly?

2) Shorter sermons make church more digestable and enjoyable for children.

3) Men do not particularly enjoy being lectured to at length and prefer to be more active participants in the service.

4) Shorter sermons are the historical norm for the church. Yes the Puritans went long, and yes the Papists went short, but overall, a half hour is quite standard historically.

5) Many pastors write their sermons in the same way freshman "heap up empty words" to meet arbitrary word counts and find it more difficult to summarize ideas more concisely.

NOW - Trump covered in blood after assassination attempt.

@disclosetv

Lutherans will maintain that the Reformed are arrogant for trying to explain or understand how Christ is present in the Eucharist.

Yet in the same breath, they will dogmatically assert that Christ's presence must be local or physical (and is the only valid viewpoint).

My Lutheran friends, it's difficult to take your critique seriously given this jarring irony.

Futurism inevitably degenerates into boomertard newspaper exegesis.

Historicism inevitably degenerates into speculative history book exegesis.

Idealism attempts to sidestep the whole question, forgetting there was never an Old Testament prophecy which no matter the metaphorical language nevertheless had a very real and concrete fulfillment.

Preterism rightly accounts for the prophetic dimension while also eliminating the weird obsessions people develop in eschatology and simultaneously explaining a myriad of other New Testament interpretive difficulties.