November 17, 2019 at First Presbyterian Church at Unionville, NY (BPC) Sermon Text: [Jhn 7:37-52 ESV] 37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of …
Sermon on John 7:37-52 – “Rivers of Living Water” Read More »
Calvin on John 7:38 – He who believeth in me. “He now points out the manner of coming, which is, that we must approach, not with the feet, but by faith; or rather, to come is nothing else than to believe, at least if you define accurately the word believe; as we have already said …
November 10, 2019 at First Presbyterian Church at Unionville, NY (BPC) Sermon Text: [Jhn 7:25-36 ESV] 25 Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? 26 And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really …
Sermon on John 7:25-36 – “From the Father, To the Father” Read More »
Heirs of the Reformation, A Study in Baptist Origins by James McGoldrick, Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press, Original Edition 1994, Reprint Edition 2019, 181 pp. I had been looking for a reasonably priced copy of this book for some years. Before this reprint edition the book was called Baptist Successionism. That version, now twenty-five years …
Review of Heirs of the Reformation by James E. McGoldrick Read More »
November 3, 2019 at First Presbyterian Church at Unionville, NY (BPC) Sermon Text: [Jhn 7:10-24 ESV] 10 But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private. 11 The Jews were looking for him at the feast, and saying, “Where is he?” 12 And there …
Sermon on John 7:10-24 – “Judging Jesus Rightly” Read More »
An article on “Surveying Presbyterian Beliefs” by Michael D. Bush in Theology Matters notes the results of a recent survey of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) members and ministers. For Bush “This survey makes it clear that while there are many faithful in the church, the PC(USA) remains ecclesia reformanda, a church needing to be reformed.” No …
I’m quite happy to have received the A. Donald MacLeod Award for Presbyterian History at the Presbyterian Scholars Conference earlier this week. The award was given to me for my book The Presbyterian Philosopher. At the conference I gave a speech I titled “The Grand Old Doc.” It was quite the crew of participants in …
The A. Donald MacLeod Award for Presbyterian History Read More »
[You can listen to my recorded speech here: tinysa.com/sermon/102519161232368] “The Grand Old Doc” or “Gordon Clark: A Presbyterian Philosopher and His Influence on American Evangelicals” by Rev. Douglas J. Douma Presented at the Presbyterian Scholars Conference Wheaton College October 22, 2019 In the numerous extant letters from Edward J. Carnell to Gordon H. Clark the …
October 20, 2019 at First Presbyterian Church at Unionville, NY (BPC) Sermon Text: [Jhn 7:1-9 ESV] 1 After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. 2 Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. 3 So his brothers said to …
Sermon on John 7:1-9 – “My Time Has Not Yet Come” Read More »
[I’m glad to have received this letter from Wayne Sparkman of the PCA Historical Center who has been working on the newly acquired papers of Floyd Hamilton. This is the first new discovery of a Gordon Clark letter in a while. And it is an important letter as it was written during the Clark – …
October 13, 2019 at First Presbyterian Church at Unionville, NY (BPC) Sermon Text: [Jhn 6:60-71 ESV] 60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take …
Sermon on John 6:60-71 – “The Offense of the Gospel” Read More »
Session Book of the Unionville Presby Church Middletown Sept 22nd 1831 At a meeting of the Presbytery of Hudson held at Westown September 14. 1831 A minute was made of which the following is a true extract Viz. A petition signed by sixty nine members of the Church in Westown requesting to be set off …
Reformed Dogmatics, Abridged in One Volume, by Herman Bavinck, ed., John Bolt, Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011, 847 pp. Well, that took a while to read. I generally liked Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics but can’t really give it a special place in my heart. It is at the same level of the systematic theologies of say Charles …
October 6, 2019 at First Presbyterian Church at Unionville, NY (BPC) Sermon Text: [Jhn 6:30-59 ESV] 30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave …
September 29, 2019 at First Presbyterian Church of Unionville, NY (BPC) Sermon Text: [Jhn 6:22-29 ESV] 22 On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his …
September 15, 2019 at First Presbyterian Church of Unionville, NY (BPC) Sermon Text: [Jhn 6:16-21 ESV] 16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17 got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 The sea became …
Sermon on John 6:16-21 – “It is I; do not be afraid” Read More »
September 15, 2019 at First Presbyterian Church of Unionville, NY (BPC) Sermon Text: [Jhn 6:1-15 ESV] 1 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on …
Sermon on John 6:1-15 – “Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand” Read More »
September 8, 2019 at First Presbyterian Church of Unionville, NY (BPC) Sermon Text: [Jhn 5:30-47 ESV] 30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. 31 If I alone bear witness …
Sermon on John 5:30-47 — “Multiple Witnesses to the Testimony of Jesus” Read More »
Text for the Sermon: Luke 13:1-5 [Luk 13:1-5 ESV] 1 There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in …
Sermon on Luke 13:1-5 – “Repentance and the Gospel” Read More »
September 1, 2019 at First Presbyterian Church of Unionville, NY (BPC) Sermon Text: [Jhn 5:19-29 ESV] 19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. …
First there was J. Gresham Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism. Then there was Cornelius Van Til’s Christianity and Barthianism. And now there is Keith Mathison’s “Christianity and Van Tillianism.” Machen’s contention was that Liberalism is not Christianity but an entirely different religion. Van Til was making the same point regarding Barthianism when he likewise contrasted it …
Not So Fast! – Comments on Keith Mathison’s “Christianity and Van Tillianism” Read More »
August 25, 2019 at First Presbyterian Church of Unionville, NY (BPC) Sermon Text: [Jhn 5:1-18 ESV] 1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In …
Sermon on John 5:1-18 – “Jesus Rules Over the Sabbath” Read More »
August 18, 2019 at First Presbyterian Church of Unionville, NY (BPC) Sermon Text: [Jhn 4:45-54 ESV] 45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast. 46 So he came again to Cana in …
Sermon on John 4:45-54 — “Faith in Jesus Himself” Read More »
My favorite source of historical information is letter collections. I’ve recently found these letters from William Jennings Bryan to Bible Presbyterian minister Roy T. Brumbaugh in the collection of the latter’s papers owned by Brumbaugh’s grandson, David Sinding. Whenever I find letters like these I wonder if there is some scholar, like a William Jennings …
Letters of William Jennings Bryan to Bible Presbyterian minister Roy T. Brumbaugh Read More »
In a previous post (Francis Schaeffer, Pseudo-Calvinist) I criticized Francis Schaeffer’s apparent lack of conformity with Reformed soteriology later in his life. But I also referenced there a 1948 publication of his indicating that he did hold to a Calvinist view early in his career. Now I’ve found something of his from earlier (1942) and …
