Reformed Blogging

Sadly, the Internet speed hasn't been back to normal. I may blog here until I can post in WordPress again. It gets annoying because my WordPress site  is reaching different places. However, I'd like to look back at some important lessons. I was more or less that "rank Arminian". I would've preferred to stay in that "Arminian" view. Paul David Washer said, "Calvinism is not the issue!" It's all about the doctrine of regeneration . That's why I stayed at Cebu Bible Baptist Church for some time. The church was still critical of people who claimed to be saved but behaved otherwise. Cebu Bible Baptist Church is still strong in upholding the doctrine of regeneration.  Charles H. Spurgeon is a preacher admired by both non-Calvinists and Calvinists alike. Some say that we can respect preachers like Spurgeon, the Reformers, etc. However, they are just men . Calvin was just a man. Spurgeon mentioned this and I believe several fundamentalists know...

Calvinism or Reformed Theology is a very difficult subject for this reason - the question of free will. How does free will fit into it? If God is sovereign then what about free will? It's a really difficult question to ask when some empathetically reject Calvinism because of the question of free will. But what is free will? It really is something that I want to try and study the issue of free will. Yes, I believe in free will and I don't think there's any real contradiction with believing in Calvinism's view of the sovereignty of God. If people aren't saved by their own free will then what gives? Does that mean that God drags people into Heaven or Hell against their will? That's not what unconditional election and irresistible grace are all about. Instead, we need to understand that irresistible grace is all about God making whoever is unwilling to be willing. John 6:44 says that no person can come to Jesus except that God the Father draws that same person. Man ...

As I'm reading through Nehemian for the nth time - we can see the role of Ezra in the life of Nehemiah. Before Nehemiah is the Book of Ezra. It's said that Ezra wrote Ezra and Ezra wrote Nehemiah which is most probable. What we can see is the role of the Levite priesthood with Ezra. Although we have Joshua the High Priest yet Ezra seems to have eclipsed the former. We do read of Joshua the High Priest in Ezra, Zechariah, and Haggai. Yet, Ezra seems to be focused for a reason. I think Ezra was focused because he was that scribe or historian of the Jewish people. It seems that he did some editing on Nehemiah himself. What we can also read in Nehemiah 8 is the situation of Ezra preaching the Word of God to the people. Those who say Sola Scriptura wasn't applicable until a certain century fails to see the canon. When it came to God's standards - they had God's Word. The Bible was still an expanding book. The first books that the people had as their Bible was the Pentat...

I'd like to give my own   thoughts on another possible reason why Martin Luther launched a reformation. People call it the Reformation but I'd call it simply another reformation. Before Luther, there was also Jan Hus and Girolamo Savonarola who can be considered as reformers themselves. Reforms mean amendments or correcting what's wrong. The Baptists and other pre-Reformation groups also emerged before Luther came. I heard Baptists got called as such because they insisted on Biblical baptism by immersion and told Roman Catholics that their infant baptism didn't save. For that, many Baptists were massacred during the Dark Ages. As Paul David Washer had said it right that the reformers didn't want to be called as such - they just wanted to be biblical . Luther as a Roman Catholic priest went to Rome and finally saw what he didn't expect - a city that was full of hypocrisy from within! Matthew 23:27-28   27 “How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! ...

I remembered the time I thought lordship salvation equals works salvation when it isn't. J. Vernon McGee warned about lordship salvation while he actually taught it. CARM.org also got it wrong on lordship salvation in its article " What is lordship salvation? ". Some people think they're against lordship salvation even when they agree to its distinctions. I thought of myself as an opponent of lordship salvation until early 2011. I was stuck in the controversy until I decided to read John F. MacArthur's article " An Introduction to Lordship Salvation " which placed me on the acid test. Something about it just struck me when I thought about the distinctions which I would agree on.  The distinctions as written by MacArthur are as follows: First, Scripture teaches that the gospel calls sinners to faith joined in oneness with repentance (Acts 2:38; 17:30; 20:21; 2 Peter 3:9). Repentance is a turning from sin (Acts 3:19; Luke 24:47) that consists not of a huma...

The Reformation is indeed a very important event. I may not consider myself a Protestant but I don't believe my denomination of Baptist traces back to John the Baptist. I can't be too sure but it seems early pre-Reformation Christians during the Dark Ages got labeled as Baptists because they insisted on baptism by immersion. John the Baptist was called Baptist because of he was a baptizer - not a member of a denomination. But I would still consider the Protestant Reformation to be an important event in Church history. The Reformation gave us several useful materials such as the Geneva Study Bible which would later birth the Puritan-translated Calvinist King James Bible. What's my problem with contemporary Protestantism? Did they forget the reason why the movement happened? It would be easy to see how the movement itself has been corrupted. I've seen the following corruptions happen such as giving in to same-sex marriages (and fake pastors are now even officia...

The Reformation has gone beyond its 500th year and now it's celebrating its 501st year. I was reading through Ligonier Ministries and here's an excerpt about the Reformation: Martin Luther, a scholar, took quill in hand, dipped it in his inkwell and penned his 95 Theses on October 31, 1517. These were intended to spark a debate, to stir some soul-searching among his fellow brothers in the church. The 95 Theses sparked far more than a debate. The 95 Theses also revealed the church was far beyond rehabilitation. It needed a reformation. The church, and the world, would never be the same.  One of Luther’s 95 Theses simply declares, “The Church’s true treasure is the gospel of Jesus Christ.” That alone is the meaning of Reformation Day. The church had lost sight of the gospel because it had long ago papered over the pages of God’s Word with layer upon layer of tradition. Tradition always brings about systems of works, of earning your way back to God. It was true of the Pharis...

I remembered I was told that I could tell people I belong to the catholic or universal church founded by Jesus Christ but not to the Roman Catholic institution. There's a difference. Catholic is derived from the Greek words "kath" and "oles" from "all throughout" in Acts 9:31. So how is the Church universal and local at the same time? While there is no visible central organization but guess who is the Head of the Church? Colossians 1:17-18 and Ephesians 5:22-25 says that Jesus is the Head of the Church. Therefore, if Christ be the Head of the Church then therefore the Church is spiritually universal or catholic - even if there's no visible central organization on Earth! An early edition of the Apostle's Creed talks about the holy catholic church and communion of saints. Roman Catholics tend to use it to justify their heresy when it doesn't. What does it mean to believe in a holy catholic church? When the great Christian theologian Ig...

After a lengthy rant on the Antichrist - I decided to think about writing on why I thought the Reformers actually considered the Pope as the Antichrist. The view itself believes that the Antichrist actually exists as a dynasty instead of a single man though 1 John 2:18 says that there are many antichrists and that Antichrist will come. There is a distinction between an antichrist and the Antichrist. One refers to an antichrist or a false messiah or one against Christ. The other refers to that imposter who will pretend to be Christ. It's no secret that many of the Popes have had blasphemous statements. Today, it's really very well hidden. I remembered talking with a Roman Catholic apologist who won't believe that certain Popes said certain things. Why? It's because the average Roman Catholic today is ignorant of their actual church history. But the Pope himself in claiming to be the Vicar of Christ. While the word vicar can mean deputy but in Catholic theology - it ...

While I don't consider myself Protestant and historically, Baptists are NOT Protestants but I don't consider myself a Baptist Bride follower. The problem of the Baptist Bride movement is that it lies on the false claim that John the Baptist supposedly founded the denomination and Jesus is the first Baptist. That's really as ridiculous as the Roman Catholic claim that Peter is the first Pope.  Here's the problem of the Baptist Bride movement: they are enjoying stuff that were historically contributed by Protestant Christians all the while believing that they are the only "Bride" of Christ. Other Christians are just waiters and janitors. This should start raising the question of the contributions of other non-Baptist Christians to Christendom. I can understand if not everyone can embrace Calvinism as to the reason why not everyone believes. I can embrace non-Calvinist Christians as brothers and sisters in Christ. What needs to be mentioned is that some t...

As the 500th anniversary of the Reformation hits today, I feel like writing this post. This is going to be an "open letter" to Pope Francis telling him that I'm not going to accept his offer of reconciliation. People tell me that I should be more "open" because for them there's hardly any difference between Roman Catholic and Protestant doctrine. For starters, I'm not a Protestant but a Baptist though I embrace Protestant Christians as brothers and sisters in Christ. But I'm afraid how many Protestants and Baptists today are not true converts. Some of them have even become Roman Catholics as proof they weren't saved to start with (1 John 2:19).  What's the issue with me not accepting Pope Francis' offer of reconciliation? For one, there can be no reconciliation between Bible-believing Christians and the Roman Catholic system. The Roman Catholic system continues to insist that she's the Church founded last 33 A.D. yet nothing in...

I am confident that the upcoming 500th anniversary of the Reformation is proof that the gates of Hell cannot prevail against the Church. The gates of Hell have formed in many ways and among them are the Dark Ages. The Roman Catholic institution ruled the world claiming to be the one true Church that Jesus founded on 33 A.D. The Pope was viewed as one who not only succeeded St. Peter's throne but also as one who had authority over kings. To do so and to challenge its false claims meant death. Everywhere where the Roman Catholic institution was dominant made them all colonies of the Vatican.  Before the Reformation, there were already people who opposed the Vatican's false claims. Some of them were the early Baptists and the more radical Anabaptists and Waldenses. Many opposed Rome openly like Girolamo Savonarola who used a Latin Vulgate Bible to protest against Alexander VI's immoral lifestyle. Jan Hus was another martyr before the Reformation who was burned alive for pr...