tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-92203503034705588932024-03-13T22:50:21.839-05:00The Ruling Elder"Holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict."Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.comBlogger259125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9220350303470558893.post-9369614837964719792019-09-09T11:41:00.001-05:002019-09-09T11:41:23.569-05:00A Bit of Local Presbyterian HistoryIn 1906, the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church (CPC) voted to merge into the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA). This vote occurred 100 years after the Cumberland Presbyterians had split from the PCUSA over issues related to the Calvinist language of the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms.<br />
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The single largest event that lead to the two groups reuniting was the PCUSA changing the language of their version of the Westminster Confession of Faith to water down the explicit Reformed language regarding the doctrines of grace.<br />
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At the time of the merger, the CPC was the third largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States. Approximately 1,000 pastors and 90,000 members merged into the PCUSA (a significant minority, about 50,000 members, remained outside the PCUSA and continue as the Cumberland Presbyterian Church to this day).<br />
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Recently, it came to my attention that the 1906 General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church which voted to merge into the PCUSA met in Decatur, IL, where I live! I wanted to track down the location where that General Assembly met, to see if the church was still standing. I started with a photograph of the Church, First Church, Decatur, IL, provided to me by <a href="http://www.pcahistory.org/" target="_blank">Wayne Sparkman of the PCA Historical Center</a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zn7GeXM6qgI/XXZ6SYYobsI/AAAAAAAAIJY/TiqkyAO2IJ8_7tWzh21hSiokBLV6p_29QCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_8769.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="416" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zn7GeXM6qgI/XXZ6SYYobsI/AAAAAAAAIJY/TiqkyAO2IJ8_7tWzh21hSiokBLV6p_29QCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_8769.JPG" width="311" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo of First Church, Decatur, Illinois provided by the PCA Historical Center</td></tr>
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This photo only names the church as (Former) First Church, Decatur, Illinois. There is also an inset of the pastor of this church, Rev. J. W. McDonald.<br />
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I did not recognize the church building, and after comparing it to a few existing churches in Decatur, I went to the Local History room of the <a href="https://www.decaturlibrary.org/" target="_blank">Decatur Public Library</a> to see if there was any information on church buildings from that era.<br />
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While the library volunteers sorted through archives to see if they could find anything about this church, I pulled the Decatur City Directory from 1905 off the shelf and found a listing for First Cumberland Presbyterian Church located at the northeast corner of Monroe and Eldorado streets.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6oqtd9C_XQ4/XXZ7d-hUzxI/AAAAAAAAIJk/2-3eMtrjr10uK5PnDIVhBpqE4tEcFJq3gCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_8774.JPEG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6oqtd9C_XQ4/XXZ7d-hUzxI/AAAAAAAAIJk/2-3eMtrjr10uK5PnDIVhBpqE4tEcFJq3gCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_8774.JPEG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">City of Decatur Directory, 1905</td></tr>
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The 1912 City Directory did not list a First Cumberland Presbyterian Church, but there was a listed for a Second Presbyterian Church located at the same place:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YOlISUkN9fA/XXZ7rzib7OI/AAAAAAAAIJo/np6AJsY8zI8QqtZX7Qe8Hr_Gw4QhibmFgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_8777.JPEG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="203" data-original-width="1515" height="42" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YOlISUkN9fA/XXZ7rzib7OI/AAAAAAAAIJo/np6AJsY8zI8QqtZX7Qe8Hr_Gw4QhibmFgCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_8777.JPEG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">City of Decatur Directory, 1912</td></tr>
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Next, I checked the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Decatur from 1908 to see what was at the northeast corner of Monroe and Eldorado, and low and behold, 1st Cumberland Presbyterian Church is shown:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bxqZjBkm3Vo/XXZ8BbV4a3I/AAAAAAAAIJ0/GV_9LYOZU7IvFOcdgq2Zw0DwdJe3UNwAACLcBGAs/s1600/sanborn_map_1908.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1237" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bxqZjBkm3Vo/XXZ8BbV4a3I/AAAAAAAAIJ0/GV_9LYOZU7IvFOcdgq2Zw0DwdJe3UNwAACLcBGAs/s640/sanborn_map_1908.png" width="492" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Decatur, 1908.</td></tr>
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While I was checking these sources, I asked the library volunteer helping me to locate a file titled "Index to churches of Decatur scrapbook in Decatur Herald and Review Library" I had found in the library's catalog.</div>
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While there was no information about First Cumberland Presbyterian Church or Second Presbyterian Church, there was a history of Westminster Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) which still exists today. That history noted that Westminster Presbyterian came about from the combination in 1917 of Second Presbyterian Church and a Mission Sunday School of First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) of Decatur! The history (see the three pages below) recorded the name change of First Cumberland Presbyterian to Second Presbyterian, and also noted the Rev. J. W. McDonald as the pastor of First Cumberland Presbyterian/Second Presbyterian at the time of the CPC/PCUSA merger.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I-LDol1TL80/XXZ9Wx0EloI/AAAAAAAAIKI/Oguvn8LQ9OYp-L2m-Kf58QochiVRapYPwCLcBGAs/s1600/History_of_Westminster_Presbyterian_Church_page_1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1237" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I-LDol1TL80/XXZ9Wx0EloI/AAAAAAAAIKI/Oguvn8LQ9OYp-L2m-Kf58QochiVRapYPwCLcBGAs/s640/History_of_Westminster_Presbyterian_Church_page_1.png" width="492" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Page 1 of the History of Westminster Presbyterian Church</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PwQbZBDlWxg/XXZ9W9WlgTI/AAAAAAAAIKE/totiJ2YYuT4VVzwGrbaZqB1-PPLfxC-FgCLcBGAs/s1600/History_of_Westminster_Presbyterian_Church_page_1a.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1237" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PwQbZBDlWxg/XXZ9W9WlgTI/AAAAAAAAIKE/totiJ2YYuT4VVzwGrbaZqB1-PPLfxC-FgCLcBGAs/s640/History_of_Westminster_Presbyterian_Church_page_1a.png" width="492" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Bottom of page 1 of the History of Westminster Presbyterian</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8bAGF14KAiM/XXZ9W8UQOCI/AAAAAAAAIKA/OB9UfjqhmAM0VYusCCR7ZTTAQyi-6VpNgCLcBGAs/s1600/History_of_Westminster_Presbyterian_Church_page_2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1237" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8bAGF14KAiM/XXZ9W8UQOCI/AAAAAAAAIKA/OB9UfjqhmAM0VYusCCR7ZTTAQyi-6VpNgCLcBGAs/s640/History_of_Westminster_Presbyterian_Church_page_2.png" width="492" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Page 2 of the history of Westminster Presbyterian</td></tr>
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Now that I knew what had happened to the First Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Decatur, IL, I drove to the intersection where the church had stood. Here is the northeast corner of Monroe and Eldoradro today:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8eyy-8J4mlg/XXZ-P5QeiDI/AAAAAAAAIKc/0lKhUjAjDPgFdNcb9xZ0fngKpuTyNLd9QCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_8781.JPEG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8eyy-8J4mlg/XXZ-P5QeiDI/AAAAAAAAIKc/0lKhUjAjDPgFdNcb9xZ0fngKpuTyNLd9QCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_8781.JPEG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The intersection of Monroe and Eldorado, 2019.</td></tr>
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It was on this spot, where a water-related parts manufacturing company now stands, that one of the largest mergers of Presbyterian denominations in the United States occurred 113 years ago!</div>
<br />Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9220350303470558893.post-38453369363247504772015-06-23T16:28:00.003-05:002015-06-23T16:30:04.085-05:00John Chapter 6:1-40<span style="font-family: inherit;">Tonight, we'll be looking at the first half of John 6. Here is the handout for tonight's study: <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/19vn8xvLXJ46dOtZFdKzab3dFmeBqu88GOwu2WsgHlDQ/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Handout</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And here is the outline of the chapter:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Outline:</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Fourth Sign - Feeding the Multitude (6:1-15)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Fifth Sign- Walking on the Water (6:16-21)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the Fourth Discourse - The Bread of Life (6:22-66)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Audience Gathers (6:22-25)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Food that Abides (6:26-27)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Works of God (6:28-29)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Bread of Life (6:30-40)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Christ and the Bread (6:41-51)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Eating the Flesh and Drinking the Blood (6:52-59)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Words that are Spirit and Life (6:60-66)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Peter’s Confession (6:67-71)</span></span></div>
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Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9220350303470558893.post-74595780564391701482015-06-16T15:21:00.001-05:002015-06-16T15:21:47.055-05:00John: Chapter 5<span style="font-family: inherit;">Tonight, we'll be looking at John chapter 5. Here is the outline of the chapter and a link to the handout for tonight.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Outline:</span></span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Third Sign - The Healing of the Lame Man (5:1-18)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Healing (1-9a)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dispute Over the Sabbath (9b-18)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Third Discourse - The Divine Son (5:19-47)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Father and The Son (19-24)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Son and Judgment (25-29)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Witness to the Son (30-47)</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j-3WKpyPauDYdCnpDQH3QcNhb3yb_4rIF89fnhgaz6Y/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Handout</b></span></a>Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9220350303470558893.post-60045156548785517952015-06-09T17:53:00.003-05:002015-06-09T17:53:48.004-05:00John Chapter 4Tonight at Bible study, we'll be studying John 4. Lots of great stuff in this chapter: the woman at the well, the Galileans, the Nobleman's sick son. It's going to be a fun study.<br />
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Here is the <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qwF_iWNy9j_OnYkUZfFUDx2GBCDN4PFEUrrUXfKEfW0/edit?usp=docslist_api" target="_blank">link to the handout for tonight.</a>Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9220350303470558893.post-73283904918413966362015-06-02T16:11:00.001-05:002015-06-02T16:11:28.482-05:00John: Chapter 3<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.3000001907349px; line-height: 20.0200004577637px;">This week, we are studying John chapter 3 (after having to cancel Bible study last week!). Here, Jesus has a very interesting discussion with a Pharisee named Nicodemus, and we also get some insight from John the Baptist as to who Jesus is. Here is the link to the handout for tonight's study: </span><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/11ZsU8TNSZ1nqy0BMd_tSsOOKHL85zgWEKBzI3HYAFl4/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">John Chapter 3</a>Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9220350303470558893.post-14586665843383113572015-05-19T16:02:00.000-05:002015-05-19T16:02:04.379-05:00John: Chapter 2This week, we are on John chapter 2. Jesus' first miracle, His first cleansing of the temple, and His fame grow while in Jerusalem doing signs.<br />
<br />Here is a link to the handout for tonight's study: <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EX8zaVcXMMQmIIiODX-3KPC3CY2yAIm4XJfOpPkuAt8/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">John Chapter 2</a>Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9220350303470558893.post-69437597736859247542015-05-12T12:45:00.001-05:002015-05-12T12:45:03.390-05:00John: Chapter 1<span style="font-family: inherit;">Our study through the Gospel of John continues! Tonight, we'll be looking at chapter 1, keeping in mind that the purpose of John's writing this account of Jesus' life and work is so "<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;">that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name" (John 20:31).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;">In this chapter, John really hammers at the fact that Jesus is God: through John's own testimony, through the testimony of John the Baptist, and through the testimony of Jesus Himself as He calls his first disciples.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;">Here is the handout for tonight's study:<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yKm7rc2MQIwe7IlI9_Q61ntW85o14HKiB_VD-JWSMag/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank"> John Chapter 1</a></span></span><br />
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<br />Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9220350303470558893.post-11070395276411048982015-05-05T08:28:00.001-05:002015-05-05T08:28:08.675-05:00John: IntroductionTonight, I'll be starting a new Bible study through the book of John. Below is a link to the first week's handout dealing with some background information about the book. I'll be posting the handouts and notes I use each week, so check back for more every Tuesday!<br />
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<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-AoCps0_iYT9GeaqHSoCmBN5h-JU_O4XpaATc1et6sg/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">The Gospel of John: Introduction</a>Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9220350303470558893.post-14516935588385198192014-02-27T15:00:00.000-06:002014-02-27T15:10:00.609-06:00Jesus Calling, from the PCA?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In case you are unfamiliar with the book </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus Calling</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">, let me bring you up to speed. It is one of the best selling Christian books on the market. </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591451884/" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank"><i>Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence</i> by Sarah Young</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> has sold hundreds of thousands of copies since it was first published in 2003. The marketing of this book is only expanding. Type "Jesus Calling" into an Amazon search, and you will find a devotional journal, a devotional for kids, a </span>sequel<span style="font-family: inherit;"> titled </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus Today: Experience Hope Through His Presence</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">, and now a </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus Calling Study Bible</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On its surface, <i>Jesus Calling</i> is just another daily devotional, like many others that have come before it. But,<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>Jesus Calling</i> differs from most other devotional books in one significant way. The author writes in the introduction, <span style="background-color: white;">"</span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I knew that God communicated with me through the Bible, but I yearned for more. Increasingly, I wanted to hear what God had to say to me personally on a given day. I decided to listen to God, with pen in hand, writing down whatever I believed He was saying."</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; text-align: center;">The author claims that the content of </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; text-align: center;">Jesus Calling</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; text-align: center;"> are direct messages from God to her. This is a problem.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I am by no means the first person to point this out. See </span><a href="http://www.reformation21.org/blog/2013/11/did-jesus-really-say.php" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, and </span><a href="http://www.challies.com/book-reviews/jesus-calling" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, and </span><a href="http://www.whitehorseinn.org/blog/2013/03/05/review-of-jesus-calling/" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> for just a few examples.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But, unlike those of you who have been aware of this book for sometime, I only recently became aware of it. And, as I like to do, I started doing some research on the author, Sarah Young. </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591451884/" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">Amazon</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> tells me this: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 19px;">Sarah Young</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"> is quietly leading millions on a journey of intimacy with Christ. She has been featured in the </span><i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 19px;">New York Times</i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">, </span><i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 19px;">Wall Street Journal</i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">, </span><i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 19px;">USA Today</i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">, and </span><i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 19px;">Christianity Today</i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"> and has sold over 10 million books worldwide. </span><i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 19px;">Jesus Today</i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"> received the 2013 ECPA Christian Book of the Year award. Sarah and her husband lived overseas for decades, counseling and planting churches in Japan and Australia. They currently live in the US.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I found out that Mrs. Young attended Covenant Seminary in St. Louis, and spent some time at L'Abri (she mentions both these facts in the introduction to <i>Jesus Calling</i>).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But, what I have not seen anyone else point out is that Mrs. Young and her husband are listed as missionaries on the </span><a href="http://www.pcanet.org/" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">PCA's</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><a href="http://www.mtw.org/" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">Mission to the World</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> site (scroll down to "Young, Steve and Sarah" </span><a href="http://www.mtw.org/Pages/MISS_List.aspx" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">on this page</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">.) [Note: The Youngs are currently listed as being on "Home Missionary Assignment" meaning they are on leave from the field.]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Per</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">haps this is not a surprise to anyone. Maybe this is old news. But, to me, it came as a bit of a shock that the woman who claims to have direct revelation from God is also sponsored by a supposedly-Reformed mission agency. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">After all, our </span><a href="http://www.reformed.org/documents/wcf_with_proofs/" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">Confession of Faith</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> makes it clear that Scripture is necessary, because, "</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">those former ways of God's revealing His will unto His people being now ceased." (WCF 1.1). Scripture is sufficient (WCF 1.6, "</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">The <b>whole counsel of God</b> concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, <b>faith and life</b>, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, <b>whether by new revelations of the Spirit</b>, or traditions of men."), and Scripture is the final authority unto which all matters Spiritual are to be appealed (WCF 1.10, "</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">The supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, <b>and private spirits</b>, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture.")</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">I wonder, then, where is there room for Mrs. Young's supposed messages from God? I also wonder how someone who is a member of the PCA could claim to receive direct revelation from our Lord Himself and have absolutely nothing done about it.</span></div>
Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9220350303470558893.post-15966780415836875712014-02-18T11:27:00.001-06:002014-02-18T11:27:29.948-06:00An Outline of Christianity and Liberalism, Part 1: Introduction<br />
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In preparation for a men's fellowship talk I'll be giving in March at <a href="http://graceopcspi.org/">Grace Presbyterian Church</a> in Springfield, IL (<a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=1800+N+Grand+Ave+W,+Springfield,+Sangamon,+Illinois+62702&hl=en&sll=39.816415,-89.630025&sspn=0.007672,0.013937&t=h&geocode=Fa-LXwIdM4in-g&hnear=1800+N+Grand+Ave+W,+Springfield,+Sangamon,+Illinois+62702&z=17">click here for directions</a>), I'll be posting some notes from Machen's <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Liberalism-J-Gresham-Machen/dp/0802864996">Christianity and Liberalism</a></i> over the next few days. I'll be compiling and distilling these notes into a presentation.</div>
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One thing I have been struck by while reading this book is how relevant it still is today. If you're unfamiliar with it, it was first published in 1923. If you've never read it, I highly encourage you to do so.</div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Machen’s </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Christianity and Liberalism</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: An Outline</span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-15ec70e7-4606-43aa-9f91-3984444c2151"><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Introduction</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thesis: There exists a religion which calls itself Christianity and uses Christian terminology, but which, in fact, is not Christian. Machen names it “Liberalism.”</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“In the sphere of religion, in particular, the present time is a time of conflict: the great redemptive religion which has always been known as Christianity is battling against a totally diverse type of religious belief, which is only the more destructive of the Christian faith because </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">it makes use of traditional Christian terminology</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. This modern non-redemptive religion is called ‘modernism’ or ‘</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">liberalism</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.’” (2)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Despite the liberal use of traditional phraseology </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">modern liberalism not only is a different religion from Christianity but belongs in a totally different class of religions</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.” (7)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Background: Changes in life in past 100 years (1820s-1920s): Industrial age, rise of “science”, naturalism.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“But manifold as are the forms in which the movement appears, the root of the movement is one; the many varieties of modern liberal religion are </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">rooted in naturalism</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--that is, in the denial of any entrance of the creative power of God (as distinguished from the ordinary course of nature) in connection with the origin of Christianity.” (2)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Modernism: The view that all the past is suspect. The modern age is the best age in every respect.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“It is no wonder that that appeal is being criticized today; for the writers of the books in question [the Bible] were no doubt </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">men of their own age</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, whose outlook upon the material world, judged by modern standards, must have been of the crudest and most elementary kind. Inevitably the question arises whether the opinions of such men can ever be normative for men of the present day; in other words, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">whether first-century religion can ever stand in company with twentieth-century science</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.” (4)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Proposed solution</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Separation of religion from science</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Religion, it is said, is so entirely separate from science, that the two, rightly defined, cannot possibly come into conflict.” (4-5)</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">PROBLEM</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: The truth claims of Christianity are based in real, historical acts. </span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“For, rightly or wrongly, religion during the centuries has as a matter of fact connected itself with a host of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">convictions</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, especially in the sphere of history, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">which may form the subject of scientific investigation</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">; just as </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">scientific investigators</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, on the other hand, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">have sometimes attached themselves</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, again rightly or wrongly, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">to conclusions which impinge upon the innermost domain of philosophy and of religion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.” (5)</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Liberalism’s answer: Rescue the core religious principles of Christianity.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The liberal theologian seeks to rescue certain of the general principles of religion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, of which these particularities [the person of Christ, redemption through His death and resurrection] are thought to be mere temporary symbols, and these general principles he regards as constituting ‘</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the essence of Christianity</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.’” (6)</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">PROBLEM</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: Modernism will not stop if we abandon the “non-essentials.”</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Modern materialism, especially in the realm of psychology, is not content with occupying the lower quarters of the Christian city, but pushes its way into all the higher reaches of life; it is just as much opposed to the philosophical idealism of the liberal preacher as to the Biblical doctrines that the liberal preacher has abandoned in the interests of peace. Mere concessiveness, therefore, will never succeed in avoiding the intellectual conflict. In the intellectual battle of the present day there can be no ‘peace without victory’; one side or the other must win.” (6)</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">PROBLEM</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: What is left when “non-essentials” are stripped away is not christianity at all.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“What the liberal theologian has retained after abandoning to the enemy one Christian doctrine after another is not Christianity at all, but a religion which is so entirely different from Christianity as to belong in a distinct category.” (6-7)</span></div>
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</ol>
</ol>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Liberalism is un-Christian</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“In trying to remove from Christianity everything that could possibly be objected to in the name of science, in trying to bribe off the enemy by those concessions which the enemy most desires, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the apologist has really abandoned what he started out to defend</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.” (7-8)</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Modernism’s Problems</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Decline of the spiritual state of man</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“The improvement appears in the physical conditions of life, but </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">in the spiritual realm there is a corresponding loss</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The loss is clearest, perhaps, in the realm of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">art</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.” (10)</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Material betterment has gone hand in hand with spiritual decline.” (15)</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Decline of individual freedoms</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“In the interests of physical well-being </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the great principles of liberty are being thrown ruthlessly to the winds</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.” (11)</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Machen’s Solution</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Christianity/Reformation</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“But the Christian religion which is meant is certainly not the religion of the modern liberal Church, but a message of divine grace, almost forgotten now, as it was in the middle ages, but destined to burst forth once more in God’s good time, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">in a new Reformation</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and bring to light and freedom mankind.” (15-16)</span></div>
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</ol>
Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9220350303470558893.post-59280848425320840972012-12-09T21:52:00.001-06:002012-12-09T22:03:13.698-06:00A Puritan Connection to the Upcoming Star Trek Film?<br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Warning: prepare yourself for a strange hybrid of theological and scifi geekery!</span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">If you are a fan of Star Trek, you may have already seen the <a href="http://youtu.be/XSoIs4wfaeM">trailer</a> for the upcoming Star Trek film "Star Trek Into Darkness". In the trailer, we are given a glimpse of the villain, though we are not given his name. There is speculation in may be Khan, the best known foil to Captain Kirk. There is also some buzz that it may be Gary Mitchell, a villain from the original series (he appeared in the episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before"). When I heard that the villain maybe Mitchell, I looked him up.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Here is the article I found: <a href="http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Gary_Mitchell">http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Gary_Mitchell</a> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In that article, the writers state that Mitchell, who develops super-human traits after an encounter with the galactic barrier (I warned you this would get geeky!), should "become oracular, in the sense of Moses or even Cotton Mather."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Well, there you have it. If the villain of the upcoming Star Trek film does indeed turn out to be Gary Mitchell, remember that part of the original inspiration for the character was none other than the Puritan, Cotton Mather himself!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9220350303470558893.post-34590692537114228112012-04-20T12:05:00.000-05:002012-04-20T12:05:06.471-05:00Quote of the Day: William Tyndale<div style="text-align: justify;">
John Foxe
describes an argument with a "learned" but "blasphemous" clergyman, who
had asserted to William Tyndale that, "We had better be without God's laws than
the Pope's." Swelling with emotion, Tyndale responded: "I defy the
Pope, and all his laws; and if God spares my life, ere many years, I
will cause the boy that driveth the plow to know more of the Scriptures
than thou dost!"</div>
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<br /></div>
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From <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tyndale">Wikipedia: William Tyndale</a> </div>Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9220350303470558893.post-84191824209756724352012-03-21T10:29:00.004-05:002012-03-21T10:29:48.816-05:00The Hunger Games: A Review at Greenbaggins<div style="text-align: justify;">
Over at <a href="http://greenbaggins.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/the-hunger-games/">Greenbaggins</a>, a very brief <a href="http://greenbaggins.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/the-hunger-games/">review of The Hunger Games novels</a> has been posted. It is worth reading the few short paragraphs. I believe he makes some wonderful points about violence as portrayed in the books (which I have not read, for the record), as well as how that applies to violence in our society. Further, the lack of reason for violence or reason why such violence is wrong is completely missing from the novels, per this review. </div>
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All in all, some good food for thought, especially if you or someone you know will be (or already has) read these books.</div>Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9220350303470558893.post-19835700762116390742012-03-15T12:21:00.001-05:002012-03-15T12:21:40.184-05:00Apologetics and the Reformed Church: Part 3<div style="text-align: justify;">
It has been quite a while since my last installment of "Apologetics and the Reformed Church" but I wanted to highlight a wonderful apologetic ministry that, while not explicitly Reformed, has a lot of <a href="http://www.answersingenesis.org/about/faith">reformed underpinnings</a> to it (not the least of which is their presuppositional approach to apologetics). </div>
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<a href="http://www.answersingenesis.org/" target="_blank">Answers in Genesis</a> exists to "enable Christians to defend their faith and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ effectively." They "focus particularly on providing answers to questions surrounding the book of Genesis, as it is the most-attacked book of the Bible."</div>
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Their <a href="http://www.answersingenesis.org/" target="_blank">website</a> contains a wealth of information and very helpful <a href="http://www.answersingenesis.org/get-answers/daily-articles" target="_blank">articles</a> mostly on the subject of the age of the earth and the proper interpretation of the first few chapter of the book of Genesis, <a href="http://www.answersingenesis.org/media/video/ondemand" target="_blank">videos</a>, and other <a href="http://www.answersingenesis.org/cec/" target="_blank">educational resources</a>.</div>
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Perhaps the biggest venture of Answers in Genesis recently has been their <a href="http://creationmuseum.org/" target="_blank">Creation Museum</a> just outside of Cincinnati, OH. I look forward to eventually taking my family back east and visiting the museum.</div>
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If you are unsure how to answer the charges brought by those outside (and inside!) the Church when it comes to questions of science and the Bible, I heartily recommend the ministry of Answers in Genesis!</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-style: italic;">[Do you have a favorite reformed
apologetic ministry? Feel free to post it in the comments and I may
highlight it in a future post in my "Apologetics and the Reformed
Church" series.]</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><i>Past Apologetics and the Reformed Church installments:</i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><a href="http://www.therulingelder.com/2010/06/apologetics-and-reformed-church-part-2.html">Apologetics.com</a></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><a href="http://www.therulingelder.com/2010/02/apologetics-and-reformed-church.html">Alpha and Omega Ministries</a></i></div>Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9220350303470558893.post-54840513277460397412012-03-13T13:25:00.000-05:002012-03-13T13:25:24.856-05:00Notes on Presuppositional Apologetics Stated and Defended by Greg Bahnsen: Chapter 1<div style="text-align: justify;">
I realize I am a couple of years behind, but I was finally able to buy a book I have wanted to read since I first heard of it: <a href="http://www.monergismbooks.com/Presuppositional-Apologetics-Stated-and-Defended-p-18584.html" target="_blank">Presuppositional Apologetics: Stated and Defended by Greg Bahnsen</a>. The story behind the publication of this book is quite remarkable (the manuscript was lost behind a book case in Dr. Bahnsen's office for years!), but the content of the book is even more amazing.</div>
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Having gone to grad school at <a href="http://www.biola.edu/academics/sas/scienceandreligion/" target="_blank">Biola University</a>, I did not encounter many (or any? Well, maybe one.) presuppositionalists. So, reading Bahnsen's book has been a bit of a breath of fresh air. Bahnsen puts forth an apologetic which is consistently Biblical and Reformed.</div>
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I've only read the first chapter, thus far, but what I hope to do is blog my notes on each chapter as I finish them. I hope this encourages those of you who have not read this book to do so, and I also hope to be able to return to my notes in the future to use a reference, since I have a strong feeling I will be referring to this book for a long time to come. (NOTE: I will use the blog label "PASD" on all posts related to <b>P</b>resuppositional <b>A</b>pologetics <b>S</b>tated and <b>D</b>efended to make it easier to find them!)</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>PRESUPPOSITIONAL APOLOGETICS: STATED AND DEFENDED</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Greg Bahnsen</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>(edited by Joel McDurmon)</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>NOTES ON</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Chapter 1: Introduction: God in the Dock?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Thesis of the Book</b>: "The purpose of this treatise is to exhibit
presuppositional apologetics as the only faithful and sound method of
contending for the Christian hope and biblical message." (4) </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u>Summary of Chapter 1</u></b><br />
<u><br /></u></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A Christian Apologetic MUST:</div>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Exalt Christ as Lord over all, including argumentation and reasoning (3)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Be exercised upon the infallible and presupposed authority of the Word of Christ in Scripture (3)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Start with <b>Scripture </b>coordinated with the <b>Holy Spirit</b>'s inner testimony to the regenerate heart (5)</li>
<ol style="text-align: justify;">
<li>NOTE: The theme of Scripture + Spirit runs throughout Chapter 1 </li>
</ol>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Submit to and adopt a revelational epistemology and scriptural apologetic that are honoring to God and powerful tools against unbelief (5)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Be based on <b>God's self-attesting revelation</b> as the firm foundation of all knowledge (5)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Call men to covenantal obedience in terms of <b>God's Word</b> and praying for the operation of the <b>Holy Spirit</b> (6)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Interpret facts properly--that is as God interprets them--through the foundation of <b>God's special revelation</b> (6)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Use reason in its legitimate function as a servant or tool of <b>God's Word</b> rather than its judge (6)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Have a view of fulfilling the cultural mandate and being conformed to the image of the Savior by the power of Christ's <b>Spirit </b>(6)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Apply the Christian presupposition by</li>
<ol style="text-align: justify;">
<li>Bringing God's truth and commands to bear upon the lives of unbelievers (6-7)</li>
<li>Doing an internal critique of the non-Christian's system (7)</li>
</ol>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Partly consist of an aggressive offense (7)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Seek the repentance of the sinner (7)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Begin with the presupposition of the Bible's truth (10) </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Answer the question, "What standard should be utilized for guidance, judgment, and argument?" (11)</li>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The <b>Holy Spirit</b> speaking in <b>Scripture </b>(WCF 1.10)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The inward work of the <b>Holy Spirit</b> bearing witness by and with the <b>Word </b>in our hearts (WCF 1.5)</li>
</ol>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Have as the final criterion for the Christian in every department of his
thinking (theology and philosophy, proclamation and defense) the
self-attesting <b>word of God</b>. (12)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Endeavor to demonstrate that without Christian presuppositions there is no intelligible use of facts and logic--human knowledge and interpretation fail instantly (14) </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Argue that the non-Christian's epistmology and corresponding metaphysic
not only prevent him from coming to faith in Christ, but they prevent him
(if held consistently) from coming to any knowledge whatsover. (15)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Appeal to the necessity of Christianity's truth (15)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Pit the unbelievers system of belief <i>as a unit</i> against the believer's system of thought <i>as a unit</i> (16) [NOTE: Worldview vs. worldview] </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Set forth its outlook by stressing the kind of God
to whom it is committed, the nature of the world in relation to God,
and the nature of man as God's creature (16).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Be "Thinking God's thoughts after Him." (16)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Work through the nature and implications of the unbeliever's worldview. (17) </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Make its point of contact the actual state of affairs: man as God's image, the suppressed knowledge of God, the world as totally revelatory of God (19)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Show the unbeliever the irresolvable conflict between his espoused principles and
ours, and then argue that apart from the self-attesting Christ of
Scripture his thinking--based on autonomous presuppositions--loses
meaning, coherence, and intelligibility. (20)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Call for the unbeliever's unconditional surrender (20)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Defend Christianity as a complete worldview (21)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Be transcendental in character (21) </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Show that Christianity is reasonable in virtue of the impossibility of the contrary (21)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Apply the truth of God's revelation to the unbeliever by: (21)</li>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Setting forth the pervasive, positive evidence provided by God of His veracity</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"> Performing an internal critique of the unbeliever's worldview and
presuppositions so as to show that they destroy the possibility of human
knowledge</li>
</ol>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A Christian Apologetic MUST NOT:</div>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Take an unattached or neutral stance with respect to his faith in order to win the unbeliever over to Christ's authority (3)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Seek to externally verify the Christian presupposition, but apply it (see 10 above) (6) </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Seek autonomously to verify God's Word. (9)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Settle for the conclusion that Christianity is possibly, perhaps probably, true. (15) </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Make its point of contact a "religious neutral" common ground, nor facts and logic as the unbeliever falsely conceives them. (19) </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Consent that the facts have been properly interpreted unless the
certainty of Scripture's truth is our conclusion--not merely its
probable truth. (21) </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Error to one side or the other, as both Kuyper and Warfield did: (21-22)</li>
<ol>
<li>The antithesis between the natural mind and the regenerated mind, Kuyper saw, would produce opposing theories of knowledge (21)<br />
</li>
<ol>
<li>Kuyper drew the illegitimate inference that apologetics was virtually useless</li>
<li>Apologetics and communication with the unbeliever, according to
Kuyper, were seen as hopeless because of the unbeliever's depravity</li>
</ol>
<li>Warfield drew the illegitimate inference that the natural man, using "right reason," could interpret and judge the revelation of God correctly. (22)</li>
</ol>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u>Notes on Specific Sections of Chapter 1</u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Autonomy vs. Revelational Authority (4-7)</div>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Natural theology that reasons autonomously from logical and/or empirical grounds to God results in an exclusion of revelational necessity and authority. (4)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Man suppresses the Truth in unrighteousness (4)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">History of the downfall of apologetics (5)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">God's self-attesting revelation must be taken as the firm foundation of all knowledge (5)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Systems of philosophy to be wary of (6)</li>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li>Rationalism and Empiricism (6)</li>
</ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The only proper starting point for an adequate theology and apologetic is God's special revelation; only upon this necessary, sufficient, authoritative, and clear foundation can any fact receive a proper interpretation--God's interpretation. (6)</li>
</ul>
Who Shall Judge (7-10)<br />
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li>We defend a genuine system of authority that cannot be known except by divine revelation; this <b>inscripturated Word from God</b> stands in judgment over all and is itself to be judged by no one. (7-8)</li>
<li>The submission to this authoritative revelation is caused, not by impudent reasoning, but by the <b>Holy Spirit</b>. (8) </li>
<li>J. I. Packer, "...transcending reason's power to verify..." (8)</li>
<li>The fact that God has delivered redemptive special revelation should itself indicate to us that we cannot overture the unregenerate to use principles of logic and science rooted in natural revelation (which he suppresses in unrighteousness) to evaluate the Bible. (8)</li>
<li>Abraham Kuyper, "The psychiater, who treats the maniac, cannot render his method of treatment dependent upon the judgment of his patient." (8)</li>
<li>John Murray, "This is just saying that rational demonstration is not he ground of faith...God alone is adequate witness to himself." (9-10)</li>
<ul>
<li>NOTE: Hebrews 6:13</li>
</ul>
<li>Faith and Reason (10):</li>
<ul>
<li>Faith precedes and undergrids any and all genuine understanding by the human intellect. (10)</li>
<li>Faith is not established upon the groundworkings of reason, but vice versa.</li>
<li>Human understanding can never be made the verification of faith since without faith there is no proper understanding available to man whereby he might judge.</li>
<li>Augustine, "I believe in order to understand."</li>
<li><b>Scripture </b>is an absolutely necessary presupposition, the assurance of which is produced by the <b>Holy Spirit</b>.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
By What Standard? (10-20)<br />
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li>John Calvin (11): </li>
<ul>
<li><b>Scripture </b>is self-authenticated; hence it is not right to subject it to proof and reasoning.</li>
<li>The certainty it attains by the testimony of the <b>Spirit</b></li>
<li>We seek no proofs, no marks of genuineness upon which our judgment may lean.</li>
</ul>
<li>Central question: What standard should be utilized for guidance, judgment, and argument? (11-12)</li>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The <b>Holy Spirit</b> speaking in <b>Scripture </b>(WCF 1.10)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The inward work of the <b>Holy Spirit</b> bearing witness by and with the <b>Word </b>in our hearts (WCF 1.5)</li>
</ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">This <b>self-attesting revelation of God</b> is <i>objectively </i>true and authoritative, even though <i>subjective</i> persuasion about it comes only by the internal testimony of the <b>Holy Spirit</b> (12)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">By the standard of God's self-attesting word. (12) </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The final criterion for the Christian in every department of his thinking (theology and philosophy, proclamation and defense) is the self-attesting <b>word of God</b>. (12)</li>
</ul>
The Insufficiency of Traditional Methods (13-15)<br />
<ul>
<li>All facts and logic must support the truth of Christianity (13)</li>
<li>Facts are unintelligible and without meaningful interpretation apart from Christianity (13) </li>
<li>Christianity is the only reasonable outlook available to men (13)</li>
<li>Fideism says Christianity is not a matter of reason (13)</li>
<li>Endeavor to demonstrate that without Christian presuppositions there is
no intelligible use of facts and logic--human knowledge and
interpretation fail instantly (14)</li>
<li>Unbeliever is not uncommitted and neutral from the outset (14)</li>
<li>Unbeliever has been begging the question (14)</li>
<li>Nobody is a disinterested observer (14)</li>
<li>All men have presuppositional commitments prior to their examination of various hypotheses (14)</li>
<li>Only within the context of the Christian world view could the unbeliever know anything at all (14) </li>
<li>We must argue that the non-Christian's epistemology and corresponding metaphysic not only prevent him from coming to faith in Christ, but they prevent him (if held consistently) from coming to any knowledge whatsoever. (15)</li>
<li>Appeal to the necessity of Christianity's truth (15)</li>
</ul>
The Necessity of a Presuppositional Apologetic (15-18)<br />
<ul>
<li>Neutrality is unattainable (15)</li>
<li>There are no facts or uses of reason which are available outside of the interpretive system of basic commitments or assumptions which appeals to them (15)</li>
<li>Thus there can be no direct proof offered for the truth of either perspective (15)</li>
<li>The argument must pit the unbelievers system of belief <i>as a unit</i> against the believer's system of thought <i>as a unit</i> (16) [NOTE: Worldview vs. worldview]</li>
<li>When the Christian sets forth his outlook he will stress the kind of God to whom he is committed, the nature of the world in relation to God, and the nature of man as God's creature (16).</li>
<li>The standard of meaning and truth is always the mind of God (16).</li>
<li>"Thinking God's thoughts after Him." (16)</li>
<li>The fall did not take away man's reasoning and moral decision-making; it removed their perfection, giving them a new perverted direction (16)</li>
<li>All of reality (every aspect thereof) must now be seen correctively through the instruction of <b>Scripture</b> (16).</li>
<li><b>Scriptural revelation</b> is necessary for man, authoritative over man, and communicated clearly to man. (16)</li>
<li>Because everything outside the <b>Bible </b>derives its meaning and intelligibility from what is infallibly taught only in the <b>Bible</b>, nothing outside the <b>Bible </b>is in a position to verify it independently and self-sufficiently (17).</li>
<li>Facts and logic will not be intelligible and used correctly apart from submission to the truth of <b>Scripture</b>. (17)</li>
<li>Christ is the necessary starting point for knowledge (17).</li>
<li>Facts and logic are meaningful and useful to man within the context of Christ's word. (17)</li>
<li>The apologist must work through the nature and implications of the unbeliever's worldview. (17)</li>
<li>As a creature he can and does use his mind to know things. (17)</li>
<li>As fallen he will not--and morally cannot--love God, profess knowledge of Him, or reason in a way that is subject to the authority of God's revelation. (17)</li>
<li>The unbeliever sees (18):</li>
<ul>
<li>The world as contingent</li>
<li>The standards of logic as abstract</li>
<li>Himself as autonomous</li>
<li>The world as religiously neutral</li>
</ul>
<li>The unbeliever will consider his thinking and interpretation to be normal and normative (18)</li>
<li>An insurmountable tension exists between the contingent, diverse, fluctuating, chance character of his experience and history and the necessary, uniform, unchanging, regular character of his reasoning principles. (18)</li>
</ul>
<br />
Christ the Only Foundation for Reasoning (18-20)<br />
<ul>
<li>How should the unbeliever decide whether or not to receive the word of God in Scripture as true? In attempting to decide for himself and on his own standards, he will have already decided against the God who is revealed in Scripture, who makes the unqualified and unchallengeable claim that all thinking must be subordinate to Him. (18)</li>
<li>The unbeliever will charge Christianity with being unfactual or illogical (19)</li>
<ul>
<li>While asserting that no one can know anything for sure, he will claim to know that Christianity must be false! (19)</li>
</ul>
<li>We always have a point of contact (19)</li>
<li>Not a common ground which is religiously neutral, nor is it facts and logic as he falsely conceives them (19)</li>
<li>The point of contact is the actual state of affairs (19)</li>
<li>The unbeliever is able to think correctly about our argumentation and is always accessible to the gracious work of <b>God's Spirit</b> (19)</li>
<li>No fact can be understood, and no reasoning can be meaningful, apart from Christ as the Creator and Redeemer of men. (19)</li>
<li>Faith in the self-attesting Christ of <b>Scripture </b>is the beginning, not the end result, of wisdom. (20)</li>
<li>In debating with the unbeliever we will need to show him the irresolvable conflict between his espoused principles and ours, and then argue that apart from the self-attesting Christ of Scripture his thinking--based on autonomous presuppositions--loses meaning, coherence, and intelligibility. (20)</li>
</ul>
<br />
Developing a Faithful Apologetic (20-23)<br />
<ul>
<li>Van Til urges us to call for the unbeliever's unconditional surrender (20)</li>
<li>Van Til renounces the claims of neutrality and will not consent that the facts have been properly interpreted unless the certainty of <b>Scripture's truth</b> is our conclusion--not merely its probable truth. (21) </li>
<li>The truth of <b>God's Word</b> is the precondition of intelligibility for man's thinking and interpretive efforts (21)</li>
<li>The Christian apologist wishes to show that Christianity is reasonable in virtue of the impossibility of the contrary (21)</li>
<li>Van Til applies the truth of that revelation to the unbeliever by: (21)</li>
<ul>
<li>1. Setting forth the pervasive, positive evidence provided by God of His veracity</li>
<li>2. Performing an internal critique of the unbeliever's worldview and presuppositions so as to show that they destroy the possibility of human knowledge</li>
</ul>
<li>The antithesis between the natural mind and the regenerated mind, Kuyper saw, would produce opposing theories of knowledge (21)</li>
<ul>
<li>Kuyper drew the illegitimate inference that apologetics was virtually useless</li>
<li>Apologetics and communication with the unbeliever, according to Kuyper, were seen as hopeless because of the unbeliever's depravity</li>
</ul>
<li>Warfield drew the illegitimate inference that the natural man, using "right reason," could interpret and judge the revelation of God correctly. (22)</li>
<li>Apologetics is definitely useful, for the unbeliever is still a creature made in God's image and God has made His revelation manifest to all men. (22)</li>
<li>Other apologetical systems either fail to be genuinely presuppositional, or their presuppositions fail to be genuinely biblical (23)</li>
<ul>
<li>They seek a neutral common ground</li>
<li>They are too concessive to the unbeliever</li>
<li>They aim to show Christianity as <i>probably </i>true.</li>
</ul>
<li>Those who do not utilize the transcendental kind of defense found in Van Til's presuppositionalism treat Christianity as a viable hypothesis to be considered by the unbeliever and tested according to certain standards: logical coherence, empirical evidence, personal utility, or a combination of them all. (23)</li>
</ul>Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9220350303470558893.post-5786951744782384492012-03-06T15:00:00.000-06:002012-03-06T15:13:43.708-06:00Timeline of Deaconesses in the PCA<div style="text-align: justify;">
Over at <a href="http://www.weswhite.net/" target="_blank">Johannes Weslianus</a>, Wes White has put together a very helpful <a href="http://www.weswhite.net/2012/03/the-issue-of-deaconesses-in-the-pca-2007-2011/" target="_blank">timeline on the issue of deaconesses in the PCA</a>. As an outsider, it has been hard to keep all the resolutions, committees, appeals, and General Assembly decisions straight. This timeline simplifies all that information, and really presents a clear history of the issue.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
As I read through the timeline, my opinion of the PCA on this issue actually improved. When the history is laid out in this fashion, it becomes clear that the PCA, as a denomination, has repeatedly rebuffed attempts to allow female ordination to the office of deacon. Have a look for yourself, here: <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.weswhite.net/2012/03/the-issue-of-deaconesses-in-the-pca-2007-2011/">http://www.weswhite.net/2012/03/the-issue-of-deaconesses-in-the-pca-2007-2011/</a></div>Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9220350303470558893.post-59790386690363934862012-03-01T13:23:00.000-06:002012-03-01T13:23:40.287-06:00ARPTalk Update<div style="text-align: justify;">
For those of you who have recently visited my blog, you may not be aware that I am an elder in the <a href="http://arpchurch.org/" target="_blank">Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church</a>. My denomination has a college and seminary in South Carolina named <a href="http://www.erskine.edu/" target="_blank">Erskine College & Seminary</a>. There has been a great deal of conflict between our institutions of higher learning, and our denomination for several years. Another bout has begun by the Erskine Board of Trustees (the same Board oversees both the college and the seminary) rejecting a compromise resolution of the Synod (compromise made with Erskine itself) dealing with the relationship of the Synod to the College. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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Dr. Charles Wilson, a minister in the ARP, has done an outstanding job of bringing to light the anti-ARP stance (I would add, the anti-Confessional stance) of many involved with Erskine and the ARP. He has a website devoted to the discussion of ARP/Erskine issues, which he has just updated. You can read his latest post, here: <a href="http://www.arptalk.org/2012/03/01/joe-that-aint-rain/" target="_blank">ARPTalk: Joe, That Ain't Rain</a>.</div>
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It appears that Erskine will be a hot topic at Synod this year!</div>
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PS- You can see past posts on The Ruling Elder related to the ARP and Erskine by clicking the following blog labels: <a href="http://www.therulingelder.com/search/label/ARPTalk" target="_blank">ARPTalk</a>, <a href="http://www.therulingelder.com/search/label/Erskine" target="_blank">Erskine</a>.</div>Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9220350303470558893.post-44634810339027659122012-02-28T12:29:00.000-06:002012-02-28T12:30:41.948-06:00Notes from Sunday Afternoon's Sermon (Joel Beeke)<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tOfMN3TpEJg/T00aIjzmK1I/AAAAAAAAA3s/CVZZkAxRMJ8/s1600/beeke.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tOfMN3TpEJg/T00aIjzmK1I/AAAAAAAAA3s/CVZZkAxRMJ8/s320/beeke.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr. Joel Beeke in the pulpit of the RPCLA</td></tr>
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This past Lord's Day, my family and I, and a friend from <a href="http://www.communionpres.org/" target="_blank">Communion Presbyterian Church</a> drove up to Los Angeles to attend an afternoon Psalm sing and worship service at the <a href="http://www.rpcla.org/" target="_blank">Reformed Presbyterian Church of L. A.</a> where <a href="http://puritanseminary.org/academics/faculty/" target="_blank">Dr. Joel Beeke</a> would be preaching (due to traffic, we arrived too late for the Psalm sing, and just as the worship service was beginning--Life in Los Angeles!). It was a blessing to be able to worship with my Covenanting Presbyterian brethren. The sermon by Dr. Beeke was on the topic of "Running the Good Race." His text was <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews%2011:37-12:3&version=NKJV" target="_blank">Hebrews 11:37-12:3</a>. It was an encouraging word and I appreciated being able to hear a man I respect preach in person. Below are my notes from the sermon, which I hope are useful to you.<br />
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I should add that after the service, I was able to meet Dr. Beeke (who graciously signed a couple of books for me) and Rev. Nathan Eshelman, the pastor of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Los Angeles. <br />
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<b>Dr. Joel Beeke</b><br />
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RPCNA Los Angeles<br />
February 26, 2012<br />
Hebrews 11:37-12:3</b></div>
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"Keep on keeping on."<br />
"Remaining a Christian is as much a miracle as conversion."<br />
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<b>Running The Race:</b><br />
<ul>1. The Mission (what we are to do)<br />
2. The Manner (how we are to do it)<br />
3. The Motives (what is to move us to do it)</ul>
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<b>Mission</b>:<br />
<ul>- Living antithetically<br />- To continue under pain without flinching</ul>
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<b>Manner</b>:<br />
<ul>- Run the race by not sinning<br />
- Don't desensitize your conscience<br />
- A Christian has NO BUSINESS sinning!<br />
- Sin is a foreign intruder in the home (heart) of the Christian<br />
- Bunyan's example of Mr. Sin knocking at the door.
<ul>- (To open the door and see sin, and then slam the door in Sin's face is no sin. To invite Mr. Sin into your home IS sin.)</ul>
- Romans 7 struggle<br />
- Set aside the sins that so easily besets us--even if it's not something sinful (Dr. Beeke's example of basketball taking up too much of his time when he was converted).<br />
- Deny those things that hinder our progress in Christ. Deny ourselves.<br />
- Sin is spiritual insanity<br />
- No race is only negative<br />
<ul>- The positive of the Christian race is looking to Jesus.<br />
- Jesus is uniquely qualified as our savior, author, finisher alpha, omega, etc.<br />
- Old Christians are beautiful (Dr. Beeke's mother. Dr. Beeke's father--a Ruling Elder for 40 years!)</ul>
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<b>Motivation (Be motivated by...)</b>:<br />
<ul>1. What Christ endured (the cross)<br />
2. What Christ rejoiced in (the resurrection/ascension/victory of
Christ). Christians have the best of both worlds: joy in this life,
true joy in eternity. We will no longer see Jesus through a glass dimly
lit but face to face.<br />
3. What He despised (v 2). The shame. What does God think of you?
Despise the fear of man! "The smile and frown of God is of more weight
than the smile and frown of men." John Brown of Haddington<br />
4. The cloud of witnesses! Hebrews chapter 11. By faith Abel being dead yet
speaks! Enoch walked with God. Has Enoch ever motivated you? David in
the Psalms. 2000 years of church history!</ul>
</div>Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9220350303470558893.post-85718615606865127702012-02-27T11:48:00.000-06:002012-02-27T11:48:15.982-06:00Words have meaning. And by "words" I mean...<div style="text-align: justify;">
When
someone tells me "I believe in ______, just not the way you define it."
I feel like saying, "I believe in cars, just not the way you define it.
I believe cars have four hooves instead of four tires, a tail instead
of a bumper, reins instead of a steering wheel, and instead of making a
VROOM noise, they say NAAAAY. But I totally believe in cars."</div>
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Words have meaning, folks!</div>
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(PS: This first appeared as a status update on The Ruling Elder's Facebook page. If you haven't already done so, you can "Like" The Ruling Elder by clicking on the Like button on the right-hand side of this page.) </div>Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9220350303470558893.post-28223879320647271692012-02-23T10:01:00.000-06:002012-02-23T10:01:39.281-06:00ARP Memorial ("Resolution") on the Historicity of Adam and Eve<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.theaquilareport.com/" target="_blank">The Aquila Report</a> is reporting that the Session of <a href="http://www.midlaneparkarp.org/" target="_blank">Midlane Park ARP</a> in Louisville, KY has adopted a memorial (the ARP term for "resolution") affirming the historicity of Adam and Eve. This is an important issue throughout the Reformed and Presbyterian world right now, as the report points out: two Presbyteries of the <a href="http://www.pcanet.org/" target="_blank">PCA</a> have adopted very similar statements and it will come up to the General Assembly of the PCA this year. If the Mississippi Valley Presbytery of the ARP adopts Midlane Park's memorial, then it would be passed up to the Synod of the ARP this summer, as well.</div>
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Read the entire story, including the text of the adopted memorial, <a href="http://theaquilareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6671%3Aadam-and-eve-historicity-debate-enters-the-associate-reformed-presbyterian-courts&catid=50%3Achurches&Itemid=133" target="_blank">here</a>. And, well done Midlane Park Session!</div>Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9220350303470558893.post-53479119411264395412012-02-22T12:33:00.000-06:002012-02-23T10:01:45.376-06:00Ordination Exam Study Guide<div style="text-align: justify;">
The <a href="http://arpchurch.org/" target="_blank">Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church</a> has a helpful <a href="http://www.arpsynod.org/downloads/studyquestions.pdf" target="_blank">study guide</a> posted on their website for men preparing for ordination in the ARP. Although some of the study questions are specifically related to ARP history and distinctives (for example: "Discuss Gairney Bridge in terms of its significance for the Church today."), most of the guide applies to any Reformed denomination. Are you preparing for a Presbytery Exam? Are you training men in your congregation to serve as elders? Would you just like to enrich your knowledge of the Bible, Theology, and Church History? Then have a look at the study guide, <a href="http://www.arpsynod.org/downloads/studyquestions.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>. I think it is a great tool!</div>Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9220350303470558893.post-81009899380229299442012-02-21T09:30:00.000-06:002012-02-21T09:30:00.389-06:00Why So Many Denominations? (Radio Show)<div style="text-align: justify;">
The podcast of my recent appearance on the <a href="http://apologetics.com/">Apologetics.com</a> Radio Show is now posted at their <a href="http://www.apologetics.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=701:why-so-many-denominations&catid=43:kkla-995-fm-los-angeles&Itemid=74" target="_blank">web site</a>. You can download it <a href="http://www.apologetics.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=701:why-so-many-denominations&catid=43:kkla-995-fm-los-angeles&Itemid=74" target="_blank">here</a>. We didn't get to talk about as many denominations as I would have liked, but hopefully the show is still beneficial to some.</div>Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9220350303470558893.post-29870839312297321462012-02-11T01:50:00.000-06:002012-02-11T01:50:54.234-06:00About to Go on the Air!<div style="text-align: justify;">
In about 10 minutes, I'll be on the air on the <a href="http://apologetics.com/">Apologetics.com</a> Radio Show with host Lindsay Brooks to discuss "Denominations". Where do they come from? What makes them all different? You can listen live at <a href="http://kkla.com/">KKLA.com</a>!</div>Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9220350303470558893.post-62692189258649940832012-02-08T10:55:00.000-06:002012-02-08T10:55:12.464-06:00On the Radio This Friday Night<div style="text-align: justify;">
This Friday night/Saturday morning (Midnight to 2:00am, Pacific Time), I will be on the <a href="http://www.apologetics.com/" target="_blank">Apologetics.com Radio Show</a> in Los Angeles to discuss "Denominations" with host <a href="http://www.apologetics.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=69&Itemid=70" target="_blank">Lindsay Brooks</a>. You can tune in to KKLA 99.5 FM if you are in the area, or listen online at <a href="http://www.kkla.com/">http://www.kkla.com</a>. A podcast of the show will also be available at <a href="http://www.apologetics.com/">http://www.apologetics.com</a>.</div>Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9220350303470558893.post-78334076202169272382012-02-06T10:24:00.000-06:002012-02-06T10:24:43.541-06:00Westminster Confession of Faith Sunday School Class: Chapter 26, Of The Communion of the Saints<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">
Yesterday, at <a href="http://www.communionpres.org/" target="_blank">Communion Presbyterian</a>, we had a great talk about the <a href="http://www.reformed.org/documents/wcf_with_proofs/ch_XXVI.html" target="_blank">communion of the saints</a>. This is a vitally important doctrine, which is confessed in the most basic <a href="http://www.reformed.org/documents/index.html?mainframe=http://www.reformed.org/documents/apostles_creed.html" target="_blank">creed of the Church</a>, and yet, I believe few people ever stop to consider what it means. Below are my lecture notes, which I adopted from A. A. Hodge's <a href="http://www.mbrem123.com/creeds/wcf_26.php" target="_blank">Commentary on the Westminster Confession</a>. You can also access these notes via Google Docs by clicking <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UNcI2_QAq9oWhOUUwLtPe0PfMjPrjw-_v5MZ7fRiiQk/edit" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
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As always, notes and handouts from previous classes can be accessed by clicking on the <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1997159493" target="_blank">Westminster Confession of Faith Sunday School</a><a href="http://www.therulingelder.com/search/label/Westminster%20Confession%20of%20Faith%20Sunday%20School%20Class" target="_blank"> Class</a> tag on the right side of my blog.</div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">WCF Chapter 26 - Of The Communion of the Saints</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Lecture Notes</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">All Saints are United to Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Foundation of this Union</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Rests in the Eternal Purpose of the Triune God as expressed in the Decree of Election</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Eph 1:4</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">just as He chose us </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">in Him</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Eternal Covenant of Grace between the Father and the Son</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">John 17:2, 6</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You have given Him</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">...I have manifested Your name to the men whom </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You have given Me</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> out of the world. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">They were Yours, You gave them to Me</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, and they have kept Your word.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Nature of this Union</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Federal and Representative</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Christ acts in all things as our head and representative</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">All His rights, honors, relations are all made ours</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It is a vital and spiritual union--it’s actuating source is the Spirit of the Head who dwells and works in the members</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Cor 6:17</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Cor 12:13</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For
by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or
Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one
Spirit.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 John 3:24</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">by the Spirit</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> whom He has given us.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 John 4:13</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">because He has given us of His Spirit</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Galatians 2:20</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">life</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Our bodies are involved through our souls</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Cor 6:15, 19</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Do you not know that </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">your bodies are members of Christ?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Shall I then take the members of Christ and make </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">them</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> members of a harlot? Certainly not!...Or do you not know that </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">who is</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> in you</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How this Union is Established (“We are united to Christ...”)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Through the powerful operation of the Holy Spirit on the elect</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Eph 2:5</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">together with Christ</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> (by grace you have been saved), </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">By the actings of faith on their part</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Eph 3:17</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">that Christ may dwell in your hearts </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">through faith</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Scriptural Illustrations of this Union</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A foundation and its superstructure</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Peter 2:4-6</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Coming to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Him </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">as to</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> a living stone</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">and</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> precious, 5 </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">,
a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
through Jesus Christ. 6 Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture,
‘Behold, I lay in Zion </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">a chief cornerstone</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.’</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A Tree and its Branches</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">John 15:5</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I am the vine, you </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">are</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> the branches</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Members of the Body and the Head</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Eph 4:15-16</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Him who is the head—Christ</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">— 16 from whom </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">the whole body</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">,
joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the
effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of
the body for the edifying of itself in love.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A Husband and Wife</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Eph 5:31-32</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For
this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to
his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This is a great
mystery, but </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I speak concerning Christ and the church</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Adam and his Descedents</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Romans 5:12-19</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Therefore,
just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin,
and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— 13 (For until the
law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who
had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam,
who is a type of Him who was to come. 15 But the free gift </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much
more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus
Christ, abounded to many. 16 And the gift </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> not like </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">that which came</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> through the one who sinned. For the judgment </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">which came</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> from one </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">offense resulted</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> in condemnation, but the free gift </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">which came</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> from many offenses </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">resulted</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
in justification. 17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned
through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of
the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus
Christ.) 18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">judgment came</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">the free gift came</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
to all men, resulting in justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s
disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many
will be made righteous.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This Union is Mystical -- Read </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hodges, 323, middle paragraph</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“This union has been called by theologians a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">‘mystical’ </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">union, because, it never could have been known </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">unless revealed by the Lord himself</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, and because it is so incomparably intimate and excellent that </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">it transcends all other unions of which we have experience</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Nevertheless it is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">not mysterious</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> in the sense of involving any </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">confusion between Christ's personality and ours</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, nor does it make us in any wise </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">partakers of his Godhead</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> or to be </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">equal with him</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
in any respect. It is a union between persons in which each retains his
separate identity, and in which the believer, although immeasurably
exalted and blessed, nevertheless is entirely subordinated to and
continues dependent upon his Lord.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">On
the basis of this union a most intimate fellowship or interchange of
mutual offices ever continues to be sustained between believers and
Christ. They have fellowship with Christ...</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In all the covenant merits of his active and passive obedience.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Forensically they are "complete in him." </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Col. 2:10</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">His Father, his inheritance, his throne, his crown, are theirs</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As their mediatorial Head he acts as prophet, priest, and king. In union with him they are also prophets, priests, and kings</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 John 2:27</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But
the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you
do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you
concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it
has taught you, you will abide in Him.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Peter 2:5</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">you
also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy
priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through
Jesus Christ. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Rev. 3:21</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Rev. 5:10</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In the transforming, assimilating power of his life.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">" </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">John 1:16</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Thus they have the "Spirit," and " the mind" of Christ, and bear his " likeness " or " image."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Rom. 8:9</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Spirit of God</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Spirit of Christ</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, he is not His.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Phil. 2:5</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Let this </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">mind</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 John 3:2</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Beloved, now </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">we are children of God</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">;
and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that
when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He
is.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This includes the bodies also, making them temples of the Holy Ghost</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Cor. 6:19</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">who is</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Cor 15:43, 49</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It
is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it
is raised in power...And as we have borne the image of the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">man</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Man.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In all their experiences, inward and outward, in their joys and victories, in their labors, sufferings, temptations, and death. </span></div>
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<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: lower-roman; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Rom. 8:37</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2 Cor. 12:9</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And
He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made
perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my
infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Gal. 6:17</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” </span></div>
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<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: lower-roman; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Phil. 3:10</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: lower-roman; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Heb. 12:3</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Pet. 4:13</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">but
rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that
when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Christ
has fellowship with them. They belong to him as the purchase of his
blood. They are devoted to his service. They are co-workers together
with him in building up his kingdom. They bear fruit to his praise, and
shine as stars in his crown. Their hearts, their lives, their
possessions, are all consecrated to him, and are held by them in trust
for him. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Prov. 29:17</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He who has pity on the poor lends to the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Lord</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, and He will pay back what he has given.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” </span></div>
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<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: lower-roman; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Rom. 14:8</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: lower-roman; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Cor. 6:19-20</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">who is</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you
were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your
spirit, which are God’s.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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</ol>
</ol>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Since
all true believers are thus intimately united to Christ as the common
Head of the whole body, and the Source of a common life, it follows that
they must be intimately united together. If they have but one Head, and
are all members of one body, they must have one common life, and be all
members one of another.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
Romish and Ritualistic view is, that individuals are united to the
Church through the sacraments, and through the Church to Christ.<br class="kix-line-break" /><br class="kix-line-break" />Believer-->Sacraments-->Church-->Christ<br /> </span></div>
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<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
true view is, that the individual is united to Christ the Head by the
Holy Ghost and by faith; and by being united to Christ he is, ipso
facto, united to all Christ's members, the Church.<br class="kix-line-break" /><br class="kix-line-break" />Believer-->Holy Ghost & Faith-->Christ-->Church<br /> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
holy catholic Church is the product of the Holy Ghost. Wherever the
Spirit is, there the Church is. The presence of the Spirit is known by
his fruits, which are "love, joy, peace," etc. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Gal. 5:22, 23</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">All
believers receiving the same Spirit are by him baptized into "one
body;" and thus they all become, "though many members," but "one body,"
"the body of Christ " and "members in particular." </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Cor. 12:13-27.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Thus
true believers, all being united in one living body, sustain many
intimate relations, and discharge many important offices for one
another, which are summarily expressed by the general phrase, "</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The communion of saints.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">They
have a common Head, and common duties with respect to him; a common
profession, a common system of faith to maintain, a common gospel to
preach, a common worship and service to maintain.</span></div>
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<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">They
have a common life, and one Holy Ghost dwelling in and binding together
in one the whole body. Hence they are involved in the ties of sympathy
and identity of interest. One cannot prosper without all prospering with
him -- one cannot suffer without all suffering with him.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As
they constitute one body in the eyes of the world, they have a common
reputation, and are all severally and collectively honored or dishonored
with each other. Hence all schisms in the body, injurious
controversies, malignant representations of Christian by Christian, are
self-defaming as well as wicked. </span></div>
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<li style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The
body of saints is like the natural body in this also, that, although
one body, each several member is an organ of the Holy Ghost for a
special function, and has his own individual difference of
qualification, and consequently of duty. Hence, in the economy of the
body, each member is to contribute his special function and his special
grace or beauty, and has in his turn fellowship in the gifts and
complementary graces of all the rest. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Eph. 4:11-16</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And He Himself gave some </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">to be</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and
teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity
of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man,
to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we
should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with
every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning
craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love,
may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom
the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies,
according to the effective working by which every part does its share,
causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Cor. 12:4-21</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There
are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are differences
of ministries, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of
activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. 7 But the
manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">of all:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
8 for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another
the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by
the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, 10 to
another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another
discerning of spirits, to another </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">different</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 But one
and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one
individually as He wills. 12 For as the body is one and has many
members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body,
so also </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether
Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink
into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many. 15
If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,”
is it therefore not of the body? 16 And if the ear should say, “Because
I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the
body? 17 If the whole body </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">were</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> an eye, where </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">would be</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> the hearing? If the whole </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">were</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> hearing, where </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">would be</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
the smelling? 18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in
the body just as He pleased. 19 And if they were all one member, where </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">would</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> the body </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">be? </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">20 But now indeed </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">there are</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
many members, yet one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I
have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of
you.”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This shall be perfectly realized in heaven. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">John 10:16</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And
other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring,
and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">and</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> one shepherd.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">John 17:22</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If
all saints are one, and are embraced in this holy "communion," then all
who profess to be saints should regard and treat all their
fellow-professors on the presumption that they are saints and "heirs
together with them of the grace of life."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In
spite of all controversies and jealousies, one in the eternal electing
love of God! -- one in the purchase of Christ's sacrificial blood! --
one in the beatifying indwelling of the Holy Ghost! -- one in the
eternal inheritance of glory!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Surely we should be also one in all the charities, sympathies, and helpful offices possible</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But
while these mutual relations and offices of the saints sanctify, they
are not designed to supersede the fundamental principles of human
society, as the rights of property and the family tie.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ON THIS POINT, SEE DICKSON, CHAPTER 26, QUESTION 3</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">DAVID DICKSON, TRUTH’S VICTORY OVER ERROR, CH. 26, QUESTION 3</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Doth
not the communion of saints, which they have one with another, take
away or infringe the title or property, which each man hath in his own
goods and possessions?</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">No;</span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%205:4;%20Exod.%2025:14;%20Eph.%205:28&version=NKJV"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Acts 5:4; Exod. 25:14; Eph. 5:28</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Well then, do not the Anabaptists err, who affirm, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">that the goods and possessions of the saints ought to be in common?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yes.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">By what reasons are they confuted?</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1st, Because in the time of the primitive church, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">no man was obliged out of necessity to deliver his goods</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Neither did believers lose their right and property which they had to them,</span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%205:4&version=NKJV"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Acts 5:4</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2nd, Because </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">the eighth command</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">,
which is of perpetual use to all men, supposeth a distinction and
propriety of goods. For it all goods were common, it were impossible to
steal.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3rd, Because </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">there should be no giving of alms, there should be no hospitality</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, which is contrary to the apostle,</span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Eph.%204:28;%20Heb.%2013:2&version=NKJV"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Eph. 4:28; Heb. 13:2</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
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</div>Seth Starkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06421306762594335686noreply@blogger.com0