Grateful for the news today that my Irish Catholic father and Catholic stepmother are being received into a PCA church by profession of faith and, Lord willing, I will be in attendance to witness. It is amazing when you see the Lord work on people’s hearts over the years.
I will say, one of the disappointing things I saw at the PCAGA was the PCA bookstore selling books with images of Christ. Can we at least make sure our own denominational bookstore doesn’t sell books that are in violation of our standards?
Pat Buchanan 🔥
1/2 “With the Democratic Party so beholden to feminism that it cannot even oppose partial-birth abortions, and the GOP in thrall to libertarian ideology and controlled by corporate interests,
2/2 the call of the gods of the marketplace for more women workers prevails over the command of the God of Genesis: ‘Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.’”
Stonewall Jackson wrote to a Ruling Elder commissioner to the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States General Assembly. He wrote:
“I am very much gratified to see that you are a delegate to the General Assembly of our church;
The American Presbyterians who revised chapter 23 of the WCF envisioned a society where Protestant Christianity was assumed and supported in the public square.
🧵Sample of Early State Constitutions and Christianity
1776 Pennsylvania Constitution required every member of the Legislature to subscribe to the following declaration:
Presbyterian minister and evangelist Daniel Baker on “paedocommunion” 🧵
“If infants are received as members of the visible church on earth, why are they not admitted to the table of the Lord? I answer, they are received not as adults, but as infants;…
The
#PCAGA
assembly-wide seminar will take place on June 12 at 8 am. The topic will be “How to Be Supportive of Your Pastor and Church Leaders in a Polarized Political Year.” The panel of speakers will include RE Paul McNulty, TE David Coffin, RE Randy Hicks, and David French.
🧵 During the time Timothy ministered in Ephesus, the church had:
Problems with elders (including false teachers)
Problems with false teaching
Problems with women in the church
People looking down on their young pastor
Widows being neglected
“This common movement for “women's rights,” and women's preaching, must be regarded, then, as simply pagan. It cannot be honestly upheld without attacking the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures.”
—R. L. Dabney
and I write to express the hope that something may be accomplished by you at the meeting of that influential body towards repealing the law requiring our mails to be carried on the Christian Sabbath”
Since we established the precedent of quotas at the last GA, if this passes, maybe there should be a motion to require that 50 percent of the committee members espouse Christian nationalism. 😏
This morning South Texas Presbytery approved an overture for a study committee on Christian Nationalism. The specific language of the overture will eventually be available online, but happy to talk privately about generalities.
For as far back as we can trace, our McGowan clan has always been Roman Catholic. For a long time, I was the only one that deviated from that. Today, there are now two of us that are confessional Presbyterians. God is good!
Grateful for the news today that my Irish Catholic father and Catholic stepmother are being received into a PCA church by profession of faith and, Lord willing, I will be in attendance to witness. It is amazing when you see the Lord work on people’s hearts over the years.
"The reading of the holy scriptures, in the congregation, is part of the public worship of God, and ought to be performed by the Ministers and Teachers."
-Directory of Worship 3.1 (1789) Presbyterian Church in the United States of America
The church that allowed a woman to preach in Metro NY claimed it did not know an occasional sermon by a woman was not permitted in the PCA.
Sorry, I find that hard to believe…
Avowed Christian nationalist 😏 and father of American Presbyterianism Francis Makemie prayed that the civil magistrate of Barbados (where he ministered briefly) would execute good laws against blaspheming, whoredom, Sabbath breaking, profanity, impiety, and irreligion.
Thoughts on giving a speech at the
#pcaga
1) write it down
2) make sure it is germane to the topic
3) don’t appeal to emotion
4) don’t say something that’s been said already
5) don’t use your full five minutes (unless you’re O Palmer Robertson)
Had my HVAC guy out today. He is a young guy around 24. He saw my open Bible and told me he was a believer. We proceeded to have a great talk about marriage, manhood, and the importance of expositional preaching. It was a good day.
🧵Northern Presbyterian Charles Hodge on “abolitionism.”
“Their doctrine, as palpably in opposition to the teachings of the Scriptures, both in the Old and New Testament, cannot be maintained in consistency with due subjection to the authority of God’s word.
R. L. Dabney on who can come to the Supper: 🧵
“The parties who may properly partake of the Lord’s Supper are so clearly defined, 1 Cor. 11:27-30, as to leave no room for debate.
A reminder for us elders as we prepare to gather for the
#PCAGA
Our calling requires us to be men that are:
1) Lovers of good
2) self-controlled
3) upright
4) holy
5) disciplined
6) defenders of sound doctrine
And not:
1) quick tempered
2) arrogant
3) drunks
4) violent
“I predict that the time will come in this once free America when the battle for religious liberty will have to be fought over again, and will probably be lost, because the people are already ignorant of its true basis and conditions.”
—R. L. Dabney
“Every Christian man, whether law-maker or law-executor or voter, should carry his Christian conscience, enlightened by God’s word, into his political duty, in another manner than we have been accustomed to do.” —R. L. Dabney
A contrast that demonstrates the erosion of God’s moral standard in our country:
1813 PCUSA GA petitions the US Congress to stop the delivery of mail on Sunday so not to profane the Sabbath.
2023 PCA GA petitions the US Government to ban sex change operations for minors
As the PCA turns 50 today, I am thankful to serve as minister in one of the original congregations in Florida. May the Presbyterian Church in America continue to be faithful to Christ in the years to come.
R. L. Dabney on government education:
“While we have no right to ask the State to propagate our theology, we have a right to demand that it shall not oppose it. But to educate souls thus is to oppose it, because a non-Christian training is an anti-Christian training.”
As we prepare for the
#PCAGA
in Richmond next week, I think it is helpful to correct two mistakes that people on the outside often say about the PCA.
First, we are the Presbyterian Church IN America, not OF America.
Second, the PCA separated from the PCUS, not the PCUSA.
Stonewall Jackson’s first wife was Presbyterian minister George Junkin’s daughter. She died giving in child birth.
Jackson fell in love with her sister but both agreed to not marry because of the Presbyterian church’s prohibition on marrying a deceased wife’s sister.
“The Saturday sabbath, commemorating the first creation was changed into the Lord’s Day commemorating the new creation begun in Christ’s resurrection.”
—Thomas Aquinas
In 1619, John Woodlief, member of the Virginia Company arrived in Virginia. He gave instructions that the day of his ships arrival be “yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to almighty God.” It is recognized as the “First English Thanksgiving in North America.
Today marks three years for me serving as minister of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Tallahassee. I am thankful in many ways, but also, at times, still feel unworthy given the weight of the calling. God’s grace is sufficient!
2005: Met a girl as a young 18 year old pagan chasing fame and money.
2007/8: Radically converted by the preaching of the word.
2008: The girl was converted afterwards.
August 16, 2008: We were married.
Thankful to celebrate 15 years of marriage tomorrow! God is good.
What's a book you think everyone should read that would challenge the standard narrative about something important?
Example about WWII: Churchill, Hitler and the Unnecessary War: How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World by Patrick Buchanan.
1812 PCUSA General Assembly stated that the crying sins of the land were:
1) Profane swearing
2)Drunkenness
3) Sabbath breaking
Against which all Christians and people who had an interest in the good of society were expected to oppose by warning, example, and wholesome laws.
“If human language can make anything plain, it is that the New Testament institutions do not permit the woman to rule or “to have authority over a man” (See 1 Tim. 2:12; 1 Cor. 11:3, 7-10; Eph. 5:22, 23; 1 Peter 3:1, 5, 6).”
R. L. Dabney
“If the Sabbath is a creation ordinance, and if the state is called upon by God to maintain the law of God outside the church, then it would be the state’s duty to legislate with respect to the Sabbath.”
—R. C. Sproul, Truths We Confess, vol. 2, 250-251
Christians should be familiar with the category of imprecation in the Scripture and how to utilize it in their own prayer life, especially given the times we are living in.
Among other things. Yet Timothy was called to faithfully serve. Pastors, remember this when you are tempted to leave your church over problems.
Christians, remember this when you are tempted to complain about your church.
Presbyterian Robert J. Breckinridge was anti-slavery and believed in gradual emancipation. He also believed two threats to the US were (Catholic) immigration and (radical) abolition. A reminder that, historically, to be anti-slavery did not mean one *had* to be an abolitionist.
From 1778 to 1790, South Carolina had a general Protestant Christian established church. Article XXXVIII stated that in order to be considered part of the established Protestant church, denominations had to agree according to the following articles:
“Even the profane admit, in their hearts, this explanation of his power, and are prompt to declare that it was [Stonewall] Jackson's religion which made him what he was. His life is God's lesson, teaching that ‘it is righteousness that exalteth a nation.’”
—RL Dabney on Jackson
One of the benefits of studying Southern Presbyterianism is finding awesome connections! My grandfather ministered here when I was a child. It’s named after the Irish blind preacher James Waddell who ministered in Orange County Virginia.
Waddell Memorial Presbyterian Church
WSC Q. 77. What is required in the ninth commandment?
A. The ninth commandment requireth the maintaining and promoting of truth between man and man, and of our own and our neighbor’s good name, especially in witness-bearing.
Stonewall Jackson on the Christian and his Christianity:
1/2 “The Christian should carry his religion into everything. Christianity makes man better in any lawful calling; it equally makes the General a better commander, and the shoemaker a better mechanic…
🧵The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America to President George Washington:
(1) "We are happy that God has inclined your heart to give yourself once more to the public...
American Presbyterians in the 19th c. would not have had a problem with magistrates upholding Sabbath laws. In fact, they requested that the Federal Government do just that.
Excerpts from The Petition of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, to the honourable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, in Congress, assembled, 1812: 🧵
Dabney on the publication of Hodge’s systematic theology:
“Why will our modern publishers give the most weighty and enduring works to the public in a dress appropriate only to some worthless fiction, to be quickly, almost as quickly as it deserves, worn out and thrown away?
The news is claiming that Trump turned at the last minute to point to a screen. If he did not turn at that moment he would have been hit in the head. God’s mercy.
“Sometimes Christians cannot have children. But there needs to be a truly extraordinary reason for them to refuse to have children.” —Chad Van Dixhoorn
2013 was a different world. Doug Wilson writing on Reformed rap, Thabiti Anyabwile praising Wilson’s article, and even Lecrae showing appreciation for Wilson’s article.
Long 🧵: Virginia Presbyterian, and Kentucky missionary, David Rice (1733-1816) had twelve children and wrote his last advice to them. Here is a sample:
On Doctrine:
Perhaps we can begin here and follow our Presbyterian forefathers:
"The reading of the holy scriptures, in the congregation, is part of the public worship of God, and ought to be performed by the Ministers and Teachers."
-Directory of Worship 3.1 (1789) Presbyterian Church USA
The PCA is the only reformed denomination without a constitutionally binding Directory of Worship. May we come together as presbyterians to rectify this anomaly. What say ye?
What does this require officers in the church to believe about the duties of the magistrate?
“the disapproving, detesting, opposing all false worship; and, according to each one’s place and calling, removing it, and all monuments of idolatry.” WLC 108
I see a lot of ministers preaching through the psalms during the summer. A great psalm to preach is Psalm 137 which provides an opportunity to introduce the imprecatory psalms to the church. In my book, I attempt to provide a faithful exegesis of Ps. 137
(1) My how we have fallen! Presbyterians, historically, have believed in the importance of an educated ministry. It was a reproach to religion and dangerous to the church to entrust the holy ministry to weak and ignorant men.
1806 PCUSA GA declared that nothing in the Scriptures, Constituion or proceedings of the church, expressly prohibit a minister from entering civil office. At the same time, they cautioned the clergy and reminded them that the cure of souls is their peculiar business.
1808 PCUSA GA on the neglect of family worship:
(1) “Truly it is shameful in men, who call themselves by the name of Christ, not to honor him before their families, by worshipping him stadely. Every head of family is responsible for all its members to God and his country.
The trials to be licensed to preach in the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (1789) from the Form of Government:
"Because it is highly reproachful to religion, and dangerous to the church, to intrust holy ministry to weak and ignorant men...
The great Virginian and Princeton theologian Archibald Alexander on the reality of future judgment:
“Youth soon runs out in the giddy circle of pleasure and amusement. Middle age is completely occupied with cares and business; and old age, if it ever arrives (1)
that because a child is it admitted to a certain ordinance in the church, therefore, he cannot,in any sense, be a member of that church.”
—A Plain and Scriptural View of Baptism
Excerpts from The Petition of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, to the honourable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, in Congress, assembled, 1812: 🧵
“I can see little consistency in a type of Christian activity which preaches the Gospel on the street corners and at the ends of the Earth, but neglects the children of the covenant by abandoning them to a cold and unbelieving secularism.”
-Machen
This is not hard. Families are God’s good gift to society, and are a blessing to civilization. Governments have a vested interest in making sure people get married, stay married, and raise children. Thus, they should incentivize that kind of lifestyle through public policy.
.
@JDVance
comes out swinging against a reporter who told him that his remarks on families were "offensive to millions of women."
"What I said is very simple: I think American families are good and government policy should be more pro-family. If the media wants to get offended
“When the time appointed for public worship is come, let the people enter the church, and take their seats, in a decent, grave, and reverent manner.”
PCUSA Directory for the Worship of God, 1788
R. L. Dabney on the preacher:
“Let the preacher take the application of the principles, as well as the principles applied, from the word of God; let him take, not only his starting position but his whole topics, from God’s word,