- Islamist Anti-Christian Rage
- Questions Organ Donation After Woman Awakes From 'Brain Death'
- The Westminster Confession Of Faith And The Cessation Of Special Revelation
- Subscription, The WCF And Exclusive Psalmody 1
- Subscription, The WCF And Exclusive Psalmody 2
- Keeping Up Appearances – Piercing And Tattoos
- Is The Creation Of Human/Animal Hybrids Legitimate Or Ethical Science?
- The Queen Of England Dressing Up As A Muslim
- Obama’s Reasons For Keeping Christian Ethics Out Of The Public Square
- The Pope’s Universalistic Prayer
- Questions The Media Will Not Ask The Pope
- If Aborted,They Call It A Foetus. If Wanted, she Becomes Australia's Smallest Baby.
Sermon: The Glorious Duty Of The Husband, Ephesians 5:25ff
Daily Devotions: June 29 to July 5
Sermon: Christ The Altogether Lovely One - The Perfect Groom Song 5:16
(Next Week - Husbands Love Your Wives)
Daily Devotions : June 22 to June 28
Daily Devotions: June 15 to June 21
Sermon: Wives Submit To Your Husbands As Unto The Lord, Ephesians 5:22
Daily Devotions: June 8 to June 16
Sermon, 'I'm Only Human' , Psalm 22.
Daily Devotions: June 1 to June 7.
NIGERIA - RESCUE OF KIDNAPPED CHRISTIAN GIRLS TRIGGERS ANTI-CHRISTIAN RAMPAGE
On 13 May, Islamists attacked the Christian community in the town of Ningi, Bauchi state, Nigeria, burning down six churches and looting and destroying Christian shops and goods. What triggered the attack was the rescue of two Christian girls, Mary Chikwodi Okoye (15) and Uche Edward (14), who had been kidnapped by Muslims in Ningi at the end of April in an attempt to force them to convert to Islam and marry Muslim men.
After the police had managed to find the girls and return them to their parents on 12 May, Islamists under the auspices of a paramilitary arm of Kano state’s Sharia Commission went on rampage, attacking Christians, destroying shops and burning down churches.
Kidnapping teenage Christian girls and forcing them to convert to Islam and marry Muslim men is seen as a common means to “expand Islam”. According to a local pastor, at least 13 Christian girls in Ningi have been kidnapped in recent years, and some have never been reunited with their parents. One Christian girl, Maryann Chinenye Chiazo (16) was abducted in November 2007 and is still in Muslim captivity. When her father reported the kidnapping to the police, he was told eventually by the Bauchi state Sharia Commission that his daughter had converted to Islam and was now under their custody.
• Pray for Mary and Uche and their families that they will recover from the ordeal. Pray that God will protect and comfort them, and draw them closer to Himself. Pray for all the other Christian girls who have been abducted over the last few years. Pray that the Lord will give them wisdom and strength and help them to stand firm in their faith, especially those who are still with their Muslim captors.
Barnabus Fund top
Woman's Waking After Brain Death Raises Many Questions About Organ Donation
By Hilary White
Had no detectable brain waves for more than 17 hours
CHARLESTON, West Virginia, May 27, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Virginia family was shocked but relieved when their mother, Val Thomas, woke up after doctors said she was dead. 59 year-old Mrs. Thomas, while being kept breathing artificially, had no detectable brain waves for more than 17 hours. The family were discussing organ donation options for their mother when she suddenly woke up and started speaking to nurses. Ethicists have strongly criticised developments in organ donation criteria that would have made Mrs. Thomas a candidate for having her organs removed before she woke up.
At 1:30 am Saturday May 17, Mrs. Thomas' heart had stopped beating and she had no pulse when the family called paramedics. She was without a heartbeat or oxygen for 15 to 20 minutes before being put on a ventilator and transported to a Charleston, West Virginia hospital.
An attempt was made to lower her body temperature but her heart stopped three times causing doctors to estimate that her chance of survival was less than 10 per cent. The ventilator was kept running for nearly 18 hours and rigor mortis had set in while Mrs. Thomas' family considered organ donation. The decision was taken to discontinue life support but ten minutes into the process, Mrs. Thomas moved her arm and began speaking to nurses...MORE..top.
Sermon: The Glory Of The Church, Ezekiel 43:1-2
UN Human Rights Council Elections: Islamic States Increase chokehold .
May 21, 2008: At the General Assembly's UN Human Rights Council elections, held in New York, Islamic states increased their numbers and the number of democracies decreased. Foxes still minding the chicken coop. www.eyeontheun.org - click on picture to right to activate video. top
Daily Devotions May 25th - May 31st
Now That British Politicians Have Approved The Creation Of Chimeras, or a Frankenstein, We must Continue To Ask -
Is the Creation of Human/Animal Hybrids Legitimate or Ethical Science?
Garnet Milne
The British Parliament has just decided that it will permit the creation of a hybrid embryo either by mixing animal sperm with human eggs or human sperm with animal eggs. They have already approved a process where other human genetic material is injected into animal eggs to make hybrid cells, with the proviso that the living material must be destroyed at 14 days. They were created by injecting DNA from human skin cells into eggs taken from cows which had almost all their genetic material removed. Moreover, already scientists in different countries have fused rabbit and human cells, made human blood flow through pigs and are planning to grow human brains in mice. British scientists want to use the hybridizing techniques so that they can produce embryonic stem cells in order to discover causes and cures of diseases such as motor neurone disease, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
How are we as Christians to evaluate these processes and technologies? Does the manufacture of animal/human hybrids or living hybrid cells or embryos offend against the Law of God?...MORE.top.
Sermon: Worship And Christ The Temple, Exek 40
The Queen Of England Dressing Up As A Muslim And Participating In Moslem Worship In Turkey
Isa 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
Isa 30:1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
2Co 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
Last week the English Queen made an historic trip to Turkey where sheparticipated in a service of a false religion. It is doubful that Elizabeth I [inset] would have been amused. It never fails to amaze when those like the US President and other heads of state kowtow to Islam – an entity our fathers in the faith referred to as a manifestation of the anti-Christ. And can I also ask when did you last see King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia or Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad attend a Christian church in the full glare of the world media? Or when did you see them receive a gift of the Bible, both the New and Old Testaments?
I could not help wondering as I watched the sad spectacle of the English Queen, who claims to be the head of the English church and claims to be the ‘defender of the faith’, wearing an ill-fitting scarf and having removed her shoes in deference to a false religion listen, albeit with a strained face, to a Muslim cleric reading from the Koran. She was also given a Koran, but unlike the pope at least had the presence of mind not to kiss it. Nonetheless she is bound by covenant to oppose the false religion of Islam, but instead is found encouraging it. No wonder mosques continue to spring up around England as more and more churches close their doors.
Then I began to speculate: ‘which part of the Koran did the queen hear as she sat to receive teaching from an anti-Christian Muslim?’ Was it?
Sura 9:29 Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His apostle nor acknowledge the religion of truth (even if they are) of the People of the Book until they pay the Jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.
Daily Devotions: May 18 - May 24
Obama seeks to move the US into a post-Christian nightmare where the values of atheists and idolaters hold sway: Or Obama’s reasons for keeping Christian ethics out of the public square
Garnet Milne PhD
The Muslim terrorists who drove airliners into the twin towers in New York managed to kill several thousand, maim many others and create fear among the general population in the US. Obviously this audacious terrorist act of evil was devastating. Nonetheless, the terrorists who planned and executed this mayhem could have achieved a far greater ‘victory’ for their cause had they done something more cerebral and more profound. Had they sought to argue for an Islamic morality in a peaceful manner, they might have conceivably been successful in changing the thinking of many Americans about ultimate issues such as the identity of God and the source of morality - they could have exceeded their wildest dreams and begun to take over a nation for their false god Allah.
While military might has often been used to defeat an ideological enemy, true victory only occurs when a population agrees with its (former) enemies because there has been a fundamental shift in the moral and philosophical mindset. You have to win hearts and minds as well as real estate.
9/11 achieved the opposite for the terrorists. They only managed to mobilise a good part of the free world against their cause, making their safe house of Afghanistan no longer safe. But what 9/11 could never achieve may be accomplished by the fresh-faced black senator Barack Hussein Obama.
Although many Americans do not realise it, Obama and his closest advisors are intent on shifting the underlying mindset or ethos of the US majority to a radically different ideology of secularism sanitised by vaguely religious rhetoric. And he plans to expunge Christian and biblical discourse from the public square unless it happens to coincide with the morality of non-Christian idolaters and atheists. Whatever his speech may appear to offer Christians with one hand, he takes it away with another.
Obama exposes his true motives in a speech he gave to the Renewal Conference on Wednesday, June 28, 2006, where he revealed his true intentions for the US, and if it was in his power, for the rest of the world. For this reason his election to the office of president must be opposed by every legal device possible. Well, what did he say at this conference in a speech ostensibly about the relationship between politics and religion – specifically American politics and Christianity?
In this speech Obama deliberately brings confusion to the idea that God has spoken concerning both public and private morality....MORE...top. Or follow this link for a MS Word copy.
Sermon: The Christian Life Is Not A Bed Of Roses, Ezek 38, Matth 6:33
Daily Devotions May 11- May 17
Sermon: 'The Need For A Spiritual Awakening', Ezekiel 37:4
Daily Devotions: April 27 - May 3
The Pope’s Universalistic Prayer
The Pope Seeks To Make The Concrete Happy
True Protestants consider the pope to be a manifestation of the antichrist spoken of in Scripture (1Jo 2:18 ; 1Jo 2:22; 1Jo 4:3; 2Jo 1:7) or the ‘beast’ (Re 13:2-4, (twice,); Re 13:11-12, (twice,); Re 13:14, (twice,); Re 13:15, (twice,); Re 13:17-18 14:9,11; Re 15:2 16:2,10,13 17:3,7-8, (twice,);Re 17:11-13,16-17; Re 19:19-20, (twice);Re 20:4,10.).
We would not expect the actions and prayers of the pope to be in line with biblical Christianity, and this was confirmed when he attended this week the twin towers' site of the 9/11 terrorist attack. One of the defining characteristics of this pope’s predecessor was his recognition and endorsement of other religions, which he taught would also enable people to know God and attain heaven. Infamously the pope kissed the Koran in a visit to a mosque. This pope is no different. Below is the full text of his prayer at ‘ground zero’. And you will notice that he never mentions the name of Christ once in his prayer. He blasphemously claims to be Christ’s vicar on earth, and yet he deliberately and studiously avoids reference to the blessed Lord Jesus Christ so as not to offend other ‘faiths’ (But see Mark 8:38 'If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.') The Bible also says that there is only one way to heaven and that is through Christ alone, and this pope failed to even mention Him in prayer or pray in His name.
The pope prays with other heretics from various false religions for he says in his prayer: ‘look on us, people of many different faiths and traditions...We ask you in your goodness to give eternal light and peace’. The ‘We’ includes these assorted false religionists gathered with him and whom the pope specifically mentions.
He also shows his universalistic beliefs in his prayer. A universalist is someone who says that everyone is going to heaven. And the pope specifically prayed for all the dead, including Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, atheists, Satan worshippers, witches and warlocks. Of course one might argue that he did not pray for the terrorists, because he only mentions ‘innocent’ men and women. But ‘all’ includes everyone and he repeats this when he prays for those who died at the Pentagon without clarification. Of course terrorists died there also.
The pope is claiming that one can pray for the dead and expect God ‘to give eternal light and peace
to all who died here’. One can only have eternal light and peace in heaven, so he is praying for the salvation of the dead.The Bible teaches quite plainly, in contradiction to the pope, that man can only come to God through Christ and that man cannot find salvation after death if they have not previously embraced Christ by faith alone in this present life. Indeed Christ-rejecters and deniers do not go to the fictional purgatory, but to the very real pit of hell (As Christ puts it: Mt 13:42 ‘ They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth’).
Of course the Devil always mixes a little truth with error. We are therefore not surprised that the pope prays for peace, which is a good wish and hope. Nonetheless, he does not even mentioned the way to peace, the Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus Christ (Joh 14:6 Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me').
Furthermore, the pope prays for light and guidance, but fails to mention that this is found in the Scriptures alone. Of course he does not believe this, but he does not even pretend to.
The pope’s prayer foolishly teaches that living as an enemy of God in this life to the point of one’s death, even as an Islamic terrorist does not prevent you obtaining eternal life with God. This is heresy and will encourage many to live for themselves and not seek after Christ. He fails to point to the Lord Jesus Christ as only source of life and peace for the living, and fails to pray in Christ’s name.
The pope also sprinkles ‘holy water’ around the place and gives a blessing to the concrete. When he gives the Aaronic blessing , he does it in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, it is true. But in blessing the concrete he is associating the Triune God with a superstition. His sprinkling of holy water around the place has absolutely no warrant from the Holy Scriptures for New Testament times. The superstition is also represented by the action of lighting a candle – again with no warrant from the Word of God as having any religious significance at all for New Testament times.
The media have mostly given this pope a free pass. They have applauded his ‘apology’ when he has not apologised at all for the paedophile priests. And he won’t apologise on behalf of the Roman Catholic church, because he holds that the church is perfect and can do nothing wrong. Saying that you are ashamed of sexual abuse is hardly an apology. Neither does saying ‘it was handled badly’ represent an apology or an admission of guilt by the Roman Catholic church.
Garnet Milne
The following is a transcript of pope Benedict XVI's prayer at ground zero:
O God of love, compassion, and healing,
look on us, people of many different faiths and traditions,
who gather today at this site,
the scene of incredible violence and pain.
We ask you in your goodness
to give eternal light and peace
to all who died here --
the heroic first-responders:
our fire fighters, police officers,
emergency service workers, and Port Authority personnel,
along with all the innocent men and women
who were victims of this tragedy
simply because their work or service
brought them here on September 11, 2001.
We ask you, in your compassion
to bring healing to those
who, because of their presence here that day,
suffer from injuries and illness.
Heal, too, the pain of still-grieving families
and all who lost loved ones in this tragedy.
Give them strength to continue their lives with courage and hope.
We are mindful as well
of those who suffered death, injury, and loss
on the same day at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Our hearts are one with theirs
as our prayer embraces their pain and suffering.
God of peace, bring your peace to our violent world:
peace in the hearts of all men and women
and peace among the nations of the earth.
Turn to your way of love
those whose hearts and minds
are consumed with hatred.
God of understanding,
overwhelmed by the magnitude of this tragedy,
we seek your light and guidance
as we confront such terrible events.
Grant that those whose lives were spared
may live so that the lives lost here
may not have been lost in vain.
Comfort and console us,
strengthen us in hope,
and give us the wisdom and courage
to work tirelessly for a world
where true peace and love reign
among nations and in the hearts of all..........top
Sermon: Psalm 32, 'A Hiding Place For The Righteous'.
Daily Devotions: April 20 to April 26
So The Pope Is Concerned About Life - Abortions etc?
So at his Mass this week here is pro-abortion, pro-killing little babies Senator John Kerry receiving the communion from the priests on behalf of the man of sin (2Th 2:3). If the pope was really concerned about baby-killing, he would have excluded any pro-abortion politicians from his mass. But he obviously believes that abortion cannot be a heinous sin at all. I wonder what other folk such as murderers, rapists and priestly paedophiles joined in the happy celebration? top
Questions The Media Will Not Ask The Pope
Why Does The Pope Get A Free Pass? - Votes of course
An allegedly Protestant president of the US fawns before and kowtows to the antichrist because Roman Catholic votes are needed for the Republicans to retain the White House. Mustn't there be something wrong with a political system when its highest officer embraces a leader of a false religion as a great man? - a religion which has caused the death of millions of innocents at the hands of popes and cardinals.
Mugabe is a keen Roman Catholic, yet he is responsible for millions of deaths (he is responsible for the 35 year life expectancy in Zimbabwe as well as all those murdered by police and ‘war veterans’), the poverty and crime that ravages Zimbabwe, and the brutal punishment of his political opponents. He is a cheat and a liar and goes off to mass faithfully every week. If the pope and his fellow papists were really concerned about Zimbabwe they would begin to show it by excommunicating Mugabe. The Bible does not permit an unrepentant sinner to attend communion (I am not suggesting that the RC mass is anything resembling the biblical sacrament of the Lord’s Supper).
Why Does The Pope Not Excommunicate Robert Mugabe?
Why Won't The Pope Apologize For The Paedophile Epidemic Among Their Priesthood?
The former pope apologised ‘for the actions of individuals’ in the past who have hurt others. This was a copout, because the Roman Catholic church will not apologise as an institution because they claim it is perfect and can do no wrong. In the case of the 10000 American children fiddled with by evil priests the pope will not admit that the church has done any wrong, even though he had and has the opportunity to excommunicate these evil priests.Furthermore, the church employed and protected paedophile employees and these paedophiles were and are representatives of and part of the Roman Catholic institutional church. In his former job, before he became pope, Ratzinger was responsible for dealing with the US paedophile ring of priests (although this paedophilia is not restricted to US Roman Catholics), and he has done nothing. Just as he will not apologise on behalf of the church for the actions and inaction of his church, he claims to lead, for the murdering of millions of Protestants at the behest of popes and other priests, he will not apologise on behalf of the church for the church’s evil. He will apologise only for the actions of individuals.After all, why would the antichrist want to start being honest at this late stage of world history?...top.
Garnet Milne
Sermon: 'Human Uncleanness And Divine Sanitation', Ezekiel 36
Daily Devotions for April 13 to April 19
Sermon: The Love Of The Great Shepherd For The Sheep, Ezek 34:11
Daily Devotions for April 6 to April 12
Sermon: Making Sense Of Suffering, Ezekiel 33:17
Daily Devotions for March 30 to April 5
Doctor Says about "Brain Dead" Man Saved from Organ Harvesting - "Brain Death is Never Really Death"
Expert says, "Brain death was concocted, it was made up in order to get organs. It was never based on science."
By John Jalsevac
OKLAHOMA, March 27, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - 21-year-old Zack Dunlap, a man who was diagnosed as "brain dead" and who was mere minutes away from having his organs harvested, now says, four months after the accident that brought him to the brink of death, that he feels "pretty good." Dunlap's story was told in an NBC piece aired earlier this week, in which the young man himself was interviewed.
While Zack's case is being touted in the media as a "miracle", a neonatologist and expert on brain-death has told LifeSiteNews.com that Zack's case, while remarkable in a sense, is not as rare as the mainstream media's reporting makes it seem.
"The young man was never dead," said Dr. Paul Byrne, a former president of the Catholic Medical Association who began writing about brain death in 1977. What makes Dunlap's case unusual, though not unheard of, says Byrne, is that Zack was lucky enough to be found out to be alive before his vital organs were removed....MORE. top
Why Full Subscription To The Westminster Confession Requires A Commitment To Exclusive Psalmody: Or How The Westminster Assembly Taught In Their Confession Of Faith That Only The Biblical Psalms Could Be Sung In Worship.
Essay 2 – Exclusive Psalmody, The Default Practice And The Position Of The Early English Puritans
The recovery of congregational singing only occurred at the time of the sixteenth-century Reformation, even though there were those, such as the Swiss Reformer Zwingli, who did not agree with sung praise in worship. And it was only after Calvin arrived, that congregational singing was included as part of public worship in Geneva on the Lord’s Day. Calvin had also accepted a call to serve a French congregation in Strasbourg (or Strassburg) in 1538. A liturgy ascribed to Calvin appeared first in 1540 which including the singing of the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed and the Song of Simeon. Calvin returned to Geneva in 1541 where he introduced the Strasbourg liturgy for the end of a communion service but without reference to the Song of Simeon.1 We can say that there was a movement towards exclusive psalmody, but not quite arriving there. However, in order to understand developments in England and Scotland we cannot ignore two streams of thinking within the Protestant communities of Marian exiles in the sixteenth century.
Two Streams
The English/Scottish exile communities at Strasbourg and Geneva (although the exiles at Wessel and other centres made a contribution) were to be the greatest influence for later English and Scottish congregational singing. The British practise of congregational singing, therefore, cannot be understood without some insight into a dispute which occurred within an English exile congregation in Frankfurt. The Frankfurt congregation was established in 1554 at the time of Queen Mary, the persecuting Roman Catholic queen who had taken over the throne of England following the death of Edward VI in 1553. Her desire was to return back to the religious status quo at the beginning of Henry VIII’s reign and place England once more under the authority of the pope....MORE...top
1. Robin A. Leaver, ‘Goostly psalms and spirituall songes’, English and Dutch Metrical Psalms from Coverdale to Utenhove, 1535-1566 (London: Clarendon Press, 1991), 46-47.
Daily Devotions, March 23 to March 29
Why Full Subscription To The Westminster Confession Requires A Commitment To Exclusive Psalmody: Or How The Westminster Assembly Taught In Their Confession Of Faith That Only The Biblical Psalms Could Be Sung In Worship.
Essay 1 - An Introduction To The Debate
It would probably come as a shock to many Presbyterian elders and ministers to hear that their subscription to the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) required them to uphold the practice of exclusive psalmody. WCF 21:5 lists one element of public worship as the ‘singing of Psalms with grace in the heart’.
A complete study has never been attempted of the Westminster Standards and the views of their authors over the identity of ‘Psalms’ these standards instruct us are to be sung in worship. While many contemporary Presbyterian or Reformed churches have rejected the teaching of the Westminster Standards at various points, making such precise questions irrelevant in their eyes, those remaining churches which have wanted to maintain the view that they really are the heirs of the English Presbyterian Puritans, or the Scottish Presbyterians have not uncommonly sanitised the WCF and other Reformed standards to ease their consciences over subscription. Removing references to the pope as antichrist is one example, but many modern Presbyterians do not only differ with the Westminster eschatology. They have also modified their worship practices in a manner which would leave them unrecognisable to the Reformed orthodox of a more consistent age.
When this modification has taken place in subscriptionist churches, such denominations have not necessarily seen fit to add a declaratory act to their subscription standards, or change the WCF to fit their beliefs. Instead, they have argued that the WCF or other subordinate standards allow more than one interpretation. Alternatively they might contend that where the WCF is silent on a matter, other practices are not ipso facto excluded. For example, because Christmas and Easter are not specifically mentioned in the WCF, some would argue that it is therefore lawful to celebrate those feast days. Another example might be that since musical instruments are not discussed, it is not, therefore, contrary to the Confession of Faith to use such instruments in public worship. Thus it is not considered inconsistent to claim a strict subscription to the Westminster Standards while observing feast days, using musical instruments, performing dance and drama, or singing uninspired hymns in public worship. This new attitude towards subscription and the Westminster Standards, however, must be challenged, because it is a departure from the attainments of the Second Reformation and a dishonest interpretation of the intentions of the Westminster divines who composed these documents of uniformity – a uniformity which they had hoped would usher in a more pure Reformation even beyond the shores of the British Isles.
This series of essays will make the case from primary and secondary sources: Why Full Subscription To The Westminster Confession Requires A Commitment To Exclusive Psalmody: Or How The Westminster Assembly Taught In Their Confession Of Faith That Only The Biblical Psalms Could Be Sung In Worship....MORE...top.
(If you wish to be notified as each essay becomes available please send me a note with your email address included here.)
Garnet Milne
Keeping Up Appearances – Piercing And Tattoos
We live in a society, where many former taboos have become acceptable. It has long been chic to be a social iconoclast. It is uncool to be decent and cool to be indecent. What was once evil is now good (Isaiah 5:20).
When it comes to specifics like appearance, standards and values have indeed changed. Growing up in the fifties and sixties, you will recall that male students were expelled from school if they failed to cut their hair to the required length. How times have changed, although hair length has always been the subject of fluctuation. But times have changed in church life as well. Few young men wear a tie these days, and often instead wear casual clothing, which once would not have been considered acceptable in church.
I'm sure that there are some reading this who lament this change, as indeed I do. I think, however, that we can agree that it is very unlikely that most of the younger generation will begin to wear suits and ties again. Some people don't even own one. And it is also true that ‘best clothes’ for the younger generation are now something other than a pin-striped suit. For some, I know, if a suit is required as part of one's employment, it is seen by them as a uniform, say like that of a policeman or a bus driver. If you remember back to the fifties and early sixties families would go uptown on Friday night and dad would wear his suit and probably a hat as well. There were also recognisable occasions when you donned your suit. You probably only had one and it was definitely your best clothing. Today it is so different.
Should there be standards of appearance?
But this raises the question, are there to be any standards concerning appearance for the Christian? I want to suggest that not only are there such standards, but that our standards are slipping. There are two areas of appearance that we will briefly look at – tattoos and body piercing.... MORE...top.
The Westminster Confession of Faith and the Cessation of Special Revelation - The
Majority Puritan Viewpoint on Whether Extra-biblical Prophecy is Still Possible.
By Garnet Howard Milne (Published by Paternoster in Bletchley, Milton Keynes UK, 2007)When the seventeenth-century English Puritan-dominated parliament became embroiled in a conflict with Charles I, the members of the Long Parliament sought military assistance from the Scots. The Scots, however, also desired to see a united Reformation of church and society and proposed a covenant to institute a greater religious uniformity in the three kingdoms. The English parliament established the Westminster Assembly to prepare the documents for that uniformity. One of those documents, the Westminster Confession of Faith, addressed the major theological disputes of the day; one of which centred on whether God still revealed His will outside of the Bible. The book concludes that the Westminster divines believed that God still directed people in all of life, though revelation which came immediately from God had ceased now that the church had the completed Scriptures.
In the opening chapter of the Confession, the divines of Westminster included a clause which implied that there would no longer be any special immediate revelation from God. Means by which God had once communicated the divine will, such as dreams, visions, and the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, were said to be no longer available. However, many of the authors of the WCF accepted that 'prophecy' continued in their time, and a number of them apparently believed that disclosure of God's will through dreams, visions, and angelic communication remained possible. How is the 'cessationist' clause of WCF l:l to be read in the light of these claims? This book reconciles this paradox in a detailed study of the writings of the authors of the Westminster Confession of Faith.
What Others Think
'Garnet Milne presents us with a much-needed study... He builds his case by presenting judicious and thorough evidence from a large number of both primary and secondary sources. It is a fascinating and groundbreaking book ...and clarifies a remarkable amount of profound, theological detail.'
Joel R. Beeke, from the Foreword - President and Professor of Systematic Theology, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA'Connecting the past to the present is always a difficult but necessary task for the responsible Christian theologian. Dr Milne's work is a good example of how modern questions can be sensitively engaged in a manner which gives due respect to the great formulations of the past without either imposing Procrustean criteria on such historic discussions or simply historicising such to the point of irrelevance.'
Carl R. Trueman, Professor of Church History and Historical Theology, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, USA'Scholars in puritan studies are increasingly alert to the variety of the movement's theology and spirituality. Garnet Milne's carefully-argued conclusions will provide a major resource for the reassessment of the most critical of puritan doctrines - the sufficiency of Scripture.'
Crawford Gribben, Long Room Hub Senior Lecturer in Early Modern Print Studies, Trinity College, DublinFor different purchase options email me at the contact box in the left hand nav bar....top
If Aborted,They Call It A Foetus. If Wanted, It Becomes Australia's Smallest Baby.
Women receive abortions in New Zealand into the third trimester. Little babies have to be killed in a brutal and callous manner. But the abortionist and the present government and the vast majority of our other politicians and media claim that this 'foetus' even into the third trimester is not a human being. However, when a baby in its second trimester with 16 weeks before full term is born alive as this little baby was, it is graphic evidence that a baby is a human being. This little cutey can fit into her mother's hand. Born in January weighing 319 grams Elora De Bondi defied the pessimism of the doctors and nurses and lived to prove that not only is an unborn child of 24 weeks a real human being, but is also perfectly formed and ready for life...MORE..top.
