Go here
This is the place to go Wednesday, May 27 2009
Uncategorized 3:52 pm
The Gospel Story Saturday, Mar 21 2009
Uncategorized 1:03 pm
D.A. Carson says that a good exercise for everyone would be to attempt to write a single paragraph putting the gospel into the storyline of Scripture. Here’s how Carson does it:
Thus the gospel is integrally tied to the Bible’s story-line. Indeed, it is incomprehensible without understanding that story-line. God is the sovereign, transcendent and personal God who has made the universe, including us, his image-bearers. Our misery lies in our rebellion, our alienation from God, which, despite his forbearance, attracts his implacable wrath. But God, precisely because love is of the very essence of his character, takes the initiative and prepared for the coming of his own Son by raising up a people who, by covenantal stipulations, temple worship, systems of sacrifice and of priesthood, by kings and by prophets, are taught something of what God is planning and what he expects. In the fullness of time his Son comes and takes on human nature. He comes not, in the first instance, to judge but to save: he dies the death of his people, rises from the grave and, in returning to his heavenly Father, bequeaths the Holy Spirit as the down payment and guarantee of the ultimate gift he has secured for them—an eternity of bliss in the presence of God himself, in a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. The only alternative is to be shut out from the presence of this God forever, in the torments of hell. What men and women must do, before it is too late, is repent and trust Christ; the alternative is to disobey the gospel (Romans 10:16; 2 Thessalonians 1:8; 1 Peter 4:17).
HT – Between Two Worlds
Our Church’s Purpose Monday, Jan 12 2009
Ecclessiology and Uncategorized 10:01 pm
Our Vision: “Our church exists to exalt Christ and manifest His Kingdom through the power of the Spirit to the glory of the Father as His covenant people.”
Our Mission: It is our mission that our church would become a community that is being freed and transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ, is learning to worship God as His sons and daughters, and is bringing the gospel to bear on people personally, socially, and culturally by word, deed, and community that God’s glory may be revealed.
Our Strategy: Our church will accomplish her mission and fulfill her vision as we receive His grace through the Word and Sacraments, as we edify one another through by serving in the Body of Christ, and as we worship Christ in spirit and truth through praise and adoration. (more…)
The Best Work in the World Thursday, Nov 20 2008
Covenant Theology Great Commission, Ordinance of Labor 8:22 pm
Regardless of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, we Christians must remember that our blessed mandate to work originated in the Garden of Eden as a means to glorify God. It was repeated in the Great Commission that we may be reminded that our work and our wealth is all for the purpose of glorifying Christ.
Both the Creation Mandates and New Creation Mandates are designed for the subduing of the earth to the glory of God. The Creation Mandate was to begin at (more…)
Creation Ordinances Thursday, Nov 20 2008
Covenant Theology Antinomianism, Covenant of Works, Dominion, Government, Marriage, Theonomy 6:43 pm
What Life is All About
MP3’s of GOMVC Podcast:
Creation Ordinance of Dominion
Creation Ordinance of Labor
Creation Ordinance of Marriage
Creation Ordinance of Procreation
Creation Ordinance of the Sabbath
The Law of God was given to Adam and Eve in the Garden. God’s moral law is eternal and binding upon mankind forever. It was restated and clarified to Noah, again to Moses, and again to the New Covenant church through Jesus. God’s moral law is the standard by which God judges righteousness; a standard of which we all have fallen short. Thankfully, Jesus fulfilled the Law of God for us and imputes His righteousness to us when we trust in Him. Through Adam we all died, but through the Second Adam, Jesus Christ, believers live. Indeed, by God’s grace a believer is accepted into heaven based on the righteousness of Jesus. Until then, (more…)
Affirmation of Baptism Thursday, Nov 20 2008
Ecclessiology Baptism 1:48 am
Christian Baptism is a sovereign New Covenant ordinance of the Lord in which repentant believers submit themselves to immersion in water in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit at the hands of an authorized disciple. This act is a sign of believer’s faith in the Lordship of Christ; of union with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection; of being grafted into Christ; of remission of sins; of walking in newness of life; and of their belonging to the new people of God — the true Israel. It is also (more…)
God’s Word, Our Yardstick Thursday, Oct 30 2008
by Greg L. Bahnsen, Th.M., Ph.D.
Day by day we make decisions on how to act, we form attitudes and cultivate emotions, we set goals for ourselves and try to attain them. We do these things individually, as well as in various groups: our family, friends, church, community, occupation, state. In all of these contexts the kind of people we are, the kind of goals we have, and the kind of rules we observe in decision-making are ethical matters. All human behavior and character is subject to appraisal according to moral values; every one of our attainments (whether they be aims that are fulfilled or character traits that are developed) and every one of our actions (whether they be mental, verbal, or bodily behavior) express an unspoken code of right and wrong. All of life is ethical. (more…)
Affirmation of the Church Saturday, Sep 27 2008
Ecclessiology 12:35 am
The elders of Murrieta Valley Church believe in the one universal Church, composed of all those, in every time and place, who are chosen in Christ and united to Him through faith by the Spirit in one Body, with Christ Himself as the all- supplying, all- sustaining, all- supreme, and all-authoritative Head (1). We believe that the ultimate purpose of the Church is to glorify God (2) in the everlasting and ever-increasing gladness of worship (3).
We believe it is God’s will that the universal Church find expression in local churches (4) in which baptized believers covenant together to hear the Word of God proclaimed (5), to engage in corporate worship (6), to practice the ordinances of baptism (7) and the Lord’s Supper (8), to build each other’s faith through the manifold ministries of love (9), to hold each other accountable in the obedience of faith through Biblical discipline (10), and to engage in local and world evangelization (11). All local (more…)
What Do We Call It? Tuesday, Aug 26 2008
Ecclessiology Lord's Supper 12:37 am
What do we call it: The Lord’s Supper, an Ordinance, Sacrament, or Communion? This question is common. So let me try to answer it.
First, take a look at the 1689 Baptist Confession and notice the four things I emphasized in bold-italics:
CHAPTER 30 – Paragraph 1. The supper of the Lord Jesus was instituted by him the same night wherein he was betrayed, to be observed in his churches, unto the end of the world, for the perpetual remembrance, and showing to all the world the sacrifice of himself in his death, confirmation of the faith of believers in all the benefits thereof, their spiritual nourishment, and growth in him, their further engagement in, and to all (more…)
Postmillennialism Briefly Defined Monday, Jul 21 2008
Eschatology Postmillennialism, Rapture, Revelation, Second Coming 3:48 pm
A Subset of Covenant Theology
Postmillennialism is the primary ecclessiology and eschatology of Covenant Theology.
Postmillenarians affirm that the people of Israel have not been cast off or replaced, but rather, that the Gentiles have now been included among the Jews in God’s Covenantal promises. In other words, not replacement but expansion. God’s redemptive plan, as first promised to Abraham, was that “all nations” would be blessed through him. Israel is, and always has been, saved the same as any other nation: by the promises to the seed, Christ.
Postmillennialism is highly Christocentric: it makes Christ the center of all the biblical covenants (more…)
