Q. Could the sufferings of Christ, which was but for a short time, countervail everlasting damnation, and so appease God’s wrath?
A. Yes; for seeing Christ suffered, God suffered, though not in his Godhead; and that is more than if all men in the world had suffered for ever and ever. -William Perkins @Presbyterianism

Since there talk on social media about a men falsely presenting themselves as ministers, this is a good time to remind people that I don't hold church office. If I were an elder, prudence would force me to be more diplomatic — and that would make this channel boring. @Presbyterianism

There is but one only living and true God...

who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute, working all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will, for His own glory, most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him; and withal most just and terrible in His judgments; hating all sin; and who will by no means clear the guilty. WCF 2.1 @Presbyterianism

Over on Threads, David French wrote that "when you look at American history, there are moments of progress, and there are periods of horrific backsliding. We're living in a moment of terrible backsliding, and it's our job to shorten the darkness." (CNN)

David French should take his own advice about how his identity is in Christ — so believers must not confuse ideology with the Kingdom of God. @Presbyterianism

They say about US elections that the only thing that changes are the pictures on the wall.

Now we have other pressing matters to face: our own future.

Face it, we're not going to be leading anything any time soon. We have no numbers, scant resources and our brethren are widely confused. Nor will hiding in the prayer closet help.

We need to protect things we used to take for granted: our basic liberties. Can we work, make transactions or use technology without being being blocked by an ideological firewall? Will we be able to observe Word and Sacrament in public services without having to bow before the official pieties?
Things are getting harder and societal changes are not likely to abate. @Presbyterianism

When Love Crosses Party Lines

Elections can be a bitter pill for some and a reason to rejoice for others. It’s natural to feel passionately about political outcomes. But people are not arguments to be won; they are souls to be loved.

In this moment, resist the pull to see opponents as enemies. Instead, reach across the aisle with warmth, humility, and grace. Our neighbors—those who disagree—aren’t obstacles to our joy; they’re the very people we’re called to love. A gentle, respectful spirit speaks volumes, showing that our faith isn’t swayed by wins or losses but is rooted in a deeper hope.

Just kidding! Such rhetoric is an cop out for cowards and the morally compromised. Truth deserves more than winsome words. Have the courage to hold the line when everyone else is willing to bend it. @Presbyterianism

Works and Grace

In general, we may observe, first, the main difference between the Covenant of Works, made with all mankind: and the Covenant of Grace made with Abraham and his seed, the heirs of promise.

1.) In the former, the Lord requires perfect obedience to the performed by our selves to our justification, and salvation and denounces his fearful curse against those, that do not continue in a total and perfect obedience.

2.) In the latter, the Lord, instead of requiring perfect obedience to be performed of us to our justification and salvation; promises to those, which believe, redemption and justification without works: and being redeemed and justified by faith, he promises to give them grace to walk in new obedience, as being an inseparable fruit of our redemption and justification, and as the highway wherein we are to walk towards our glorification. - George Downame

Downame was an interesting fellow. He was an Anglican bishop of the kind they don't make anymore. While not a Puritan, he was Calvinistic enough that Archbishop Laud ordered the book I'm quoting from seized.

Another highlight of Downame's career was that he took a post in Ireland and, while there, wrote another book, defending the doctrine of Papal Antichrist. @Presbyterianism

The Dispensationalist, The Poet and Their Paramours

While we were all distracted by the collapse of a dispensationalist celebrity, Steve Lawson, news of a bigger, more historically significant scandal broke:

T. S. Eliot had a secret girlfriend during his difficult first marriage to Vivienne Haigh-Wood. The woman, Emily Hale, was immortalized, secretly, as the Hyacinth Girl in The Waste Land. Now that all those involved are safely dead, the story can be told — and it was in a recent book called The Silenced Muse by Sara Fitzgerald. (See the movie Tom and Viv for more about that marriage.)

Eliot will be remembered for generations while Lawson is already erased from church history. Yet the nonentity's scandal is the one that attracted publicity. Even comparing the two men seems awkward.

Ask yourself why.

It all has to do with the high/low church split in the English-speaking world. If your church has a guy in a suit who talks a lot, you are low and presumed to be both serious about your faith and working class.

If your church has a man in a funny costume doing magic tricks on an altar, your religion is treated as a cultural quirk — and you are seen as too high-status and educated to be too religious.

This is why Lawson's acts are considered shocking while Eliot's personal life is trivia for literature buffs: There are weird sociological quirks to denominational affiliation that no one wants to discuss.

Everyone expects a Baptist to present strict morals and no one does about Anglicans or ordinary Catholics. Jimmy Carter is a leftist yet considered pious because of his church affiliation. By comparison, C. S. Lewis, the world's all-time favorite Anglican, lived with a woman named Janie Moore for decades and no one cares.

I still respect Lewis and admire Eliot as cultural figures. But I am under no illusions that they lived in the same ethical universe as @Presbyterianism

Whosoever For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (J,n. 3:16-18)

The words (“that whosoever believeth in him”) are not exceptive or restrictive of the object (as if from that world beloved by God believers alone are declared to be those actually to be saved).

Rather they are exegetical or designative of the means and condition by the intervention of which salvation is promised and will be conferred (to intimate that no one can be a partaker of so great a benefit except through faith). Thus it pertains to all believers and them alone, not eventually but definitely (to wit, as many as would believe from the decree of God).

Thus Christ in one verse embraces the whole structure of salvation: the leading (proegoumenen) cause—the love of God; the object—the world; the means acquiring—Christ; applying—faith; and the end—salvation and eternal life. Turretin, Institutes, vol. 1

Here's how to ruin a Christian family before it even starts: Teach husbands to see sex as consideration for supplicating favors given to the wife. @Presbyterianism