tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153884922024-03-12T21:42:08.172-04:00Reasonable ChristianDefends the Gospel of Jesus Christ and classical confessional Calvinism. The term "Reformed" refers to the five solas of the Reformation and the two classical confessional standards: the Three Forms of Unity, and the Westminster Standards. Isaiah 1:18; Romans 12:1,2.Charlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.comBlogger2980125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15388492.post-25633782118834118242024-02-17T13:21:00.002-05:002024-03-01T08:10:43.501-05:00Recovering the Reformed Confession? Calvin Against R. Scott Clark and Richard MullerGiven the diversity of the movement and the fact that Calvin was not the primary author of any of the confessional norms just noted, the better part of historical valor (namely, discretion) requires rejection of the term “Calvinist” and “Calvinism” in favor of the more historically accurate term, “Reformed.” --Richard MullerSome time ago I wrote a book review of R. Scott Clark's book, Recovering Charlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15388492.post-79105002764995301782024-02-10T11:44:00.015-05:002024-02-11T09:37:27.247-05:00Compromise Leads to Persecution"It’s easy to decry right-wing scaremongering in the abstract, far more difficult to give advice to real people who have to make decisions that could cost them their careers." Carl R. TruemanAt last Carl Trueman has to face the reality of the layperson in the pews. Yes, your mealy-mouthed pontifications about not making enemies with the world and how grace is common to all has come Charlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15388492.post-76714531216033620272023-11-17T07:46:00.008-05:002024-02-17T11:08:52.368-05:00Semi-Calvinist Confusions: Common Grace and the Well Meant OfferWho will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. (1 Tim. 2:4 KJV)3 By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death. 4 These angels and men, thus predestinated and foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed; and their number so certain andCharlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15388492.post-48306784132903311842023-11-10T13:01:00.007-05:002024-02-17T11:20:50.864-05:00A Brief Response to Scott Clark on Predestination and the Well Meant Offer Indeed, in the next few lines
Calvin says much the same thing: “It is unreasonable that man should scrutinize
with impunity those things that the Lord has determined to be hidden in
himself.… The secret of his will which he determined to reveal to us, he
discovers [discloses] in his Word.”2 It is not only unreasonable to
scrutinize the hidden will of God, as Calvin says; it is impossible. Charlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15388492.post-24915849761572688522023-09-25T09:27:00.006-04:002023-10-06T08:17:01.382-04:00What Does the Bible Say About the Civil Magistrate? ". . . My thesis is that secularism necessarily implies dictatorship and totalitarian rule. . . . The result is state control of religion and of all human good, nothing excepted. . . . "“The
Confession in section i states that it is God who has ordained civil
magistrates. Their authority comes from
him; therefore, they cannot rightfully
act as dictators; their just Charlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15388492.post-26482378154392616642023-09-15T09:11:00.004-04:002023-12-12T09:01:33.346-05:00Is Assurance of Salvation a "Second Blessing"? A Short Response to R. Scott Clark"Before regeneration a sinful human being does not think this way. He believes that God is too good to condemn anybody, and, besides, he himself is quite respectable. But the gift of faith changes his ideas. Jesus, whom he previously admitted to be an admirable ethical teacher, he now believes to be the Lord of Glory. The sins he has loved, he now hates, or at least begins to hate, for Charlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15388492.post-49349032979276352222023-09-09T12:15:00.000-04:002023-09-09T12:15:04.945-04:00Calvin on Predestination and Original Sin "To this witless argument I reply, What wonder is it that Pighius should thus, (to use his own expression,) indiscriminately confound all things, in reference to the deep judgments of God, when he knows not how to make the least distinction between remote and proximate CAUSES!" John CalvinThe third end of man’s creation which is so clearly and powerfully expressed by Solomon (The LordCharlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15388492.post-44415681936423993442023-09-09T09:56:00.002-04:002023-09-09T10:36:18.014-04:00Is Westminster Seminary California a Calvinist Seminary?The faculty members of Westminster Seminary, California openly deny that they are Calvinists, and they wish to downgrade the doctrine of predestination. Richard Muller is their magisterial pope. Anyone who disagrees with Westminster, California is therefore a hyper-Calvinist, a biblicist, and a trouble maker:Was Calvin a Calvinist? (wscal.edu)Charlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15388492.post-89783932589281051692023-09-06T10:31:00.008-04:002023-09-14T09:13:51.368-04:00Is Preaching the Word of God? Further Comments"There is no ambiguity in the Calvinistic position. The Word of God is the sixty-six books of the Bible." Dr. Gordon H. Clark.Back in May I posted a short response to Mark Beach, who contends that preaching is the Word of God. I remembered reading something that Dr. Gordon H. Clark said in response to this. Clark's remarks appear in his book on the Westminster Confession Charlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15388492.post-79213682620956769032023-08-09T12:32:00.006-04:002023-08-13T00:01:53.890-04:00William Lane Craig: A Molinist Argument for Salvation by Ignorance of the Gospel
“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” (Mark 16:15–16, KJV 1900) I generally do not have time to respond to every heresy on YouTube. However, when an heretical view is expressed at an allegedly Presbyterian church, I am Charlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15388492.post-21875071360392466982023-07-22T12:14:00.003-04:002023-08-09T09:19:29.172-04:00Concise Remarks on Richard Muller's Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics A Few Remarks Regarding
Richard Muller’s Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics, Volume 1 (#1)
I have been hearing for several
years about the great scholarship of Richard Muller. I finally bought the Logos edition of all
four volumes, and I am in the process of slowly and methodically reading through
the multi-volume work. My favorite
apologetics multi-volume work is by Charlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15388492.post-87033717361577201592023-06-26T13:26:00.003-04:002023-06-26T13:26:31.317-04:00Gordon H. Clark: Civil Law “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For
there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are
appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance
of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are
not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the
authority? Do what is Charlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15388492.post-21503648356597704312023-05-21T12:41:00.004-04:002023-09-06T08:34:54.181-04:00A Short Response to Mark Beach: The Bible Alone Is the Word of GodThe preaching of ministers is NOT the word of God and even the author of the theological journal author, Mark Beach, had to back pedal his bicycle on the issue. He says, "First, the high view of preaching articulated by Luther and Calvin does not mean that the biblical sermon is the Word of God in the same way that Scripture is the Word of God. They are not saying that preachers are divinely Charlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15388492.post-85463389538528121752023-04-16T09:53:00.001-04:002023-04-16T09:53:21.388-04:00Scripturalism Versus Empiricism: The Shroud of Turin Is a FakeThe following article by the late John Robbins is as pertinent today as it was when Robbins wrote it. Empiricism can never contradict the logical propositions recorded in the Bible because a tabula rasa or blank slate is the wrong starting point. Man is the image of God and as such he is created with a priori abilities to think, reason logically, and communicate in rational language.&Charlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15388492.post-73624386082499111622023-03-15T08:53:00.007-04:002023-04-08T07:54:07.903-04:00A Reformed Response to the Asbury University Revival A Reformed
Response to the Asbury University Revival
by Charlie J. Ray, M. Div.
2 Chronicles 7:14 (NKJV)
14 if My people who are called
by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from
their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and
heal their land.
Because of all the recent
publicity I have decided to write a Charlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15388492.post-68068747427704025122023-02-12T13:46:00.004-05:002023-02-22T13:08:44.367-05:00Trinity Review Article: Tim Keller's Exegetical MethodTimothy Kauffman wrote an article for the Trinity Review in 2013, which I am just now re-reading with interest after watching a series of YouTube videos by Jon Harris on Tim Keller's liberal views. (Conversations that Matter). Keller's compromises in the direction of pragmatic church growth began with his mentor, Edmund Clowney. This is unfortunate because Clowney originally Charlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15388492.post-89741762691276986212022-08-10T21:11:00.002-04:002022-08-10T21:11:39.960-04:00Doug Douma: 85th General Synod of the Bible Presbyterian ChurchCheck out Doug Douma's post on the Bible Presbyterian Church general synod of 2022: 85th General Synod.Charlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15388492.post-87839438805503830572022-01-09T07:48:00.000-05:002022-01-09T07:48:43.878-05:00Quote of the Day: Lorraine Boettner: The Inspiration and Authority of Holy Scripture The answer that we are to give to the question, “What is Christianity?” depends quite largely on the view we take of Scripture. If we believe that the Bible is the very word of God and infallible, we will develop one conception of Christianity. If we believe that it is only a collection of human writings, perhaps considerably above the average in its spiritual and moral teachings but Charlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15388492.post-86075007934342137152022-01-08T10:57:00.008-05:002022-04-04T10:52:20.365-04:00Fact Checking Preachers: Your Christian Duty? Acts 17:11
“These were more noble than those in
Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind,
and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”
King James Version (KJV)
I am frequently on the road so I often listen to church services while I am driving. Since I live in the Columbia, South Carolina area I frequently attend First Charlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15388492.post-23839725997062857992021-12-25T11:40:00.003-05:002021-12-31T22:02:56.223-05:00For Those Professing Christians Who Struggle with Assurance of Salvation Christ cannot be known without the sanctification of his Spirit:
therefore faith cannot possibly be disjoined from pious affection. John Calvin, Institutes III:2:8. Assurance of SalvationAs the Bible and the Westminster Standards affirm, there are sometimes new believers or even those who have believed for a significant length of time who struggle with assurance of Charlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15388492.post-3326172458419279132021-07-06T14:23:00.003-04:002023-08-25T23:19:28.048-04:00An Open Letter to Pastor Chuck Parker Concerning Homosexual Ministers <!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Charlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15388492.post-28204710068145478602021-07-04T14:19:00.001-04:002021-07-07T18:47:57.396-04:00Is the Notion of a Homosexual Orientation Biblical? WLC 150 Are all transgressions of the law of God equally heinous in themselves, and in the sight of God? A. All
transgressions of the law of God are not equally heinous, but some sins
in themselves, and by reason of several aggravations, are more heinous
in the sight of God than others. In a recent post at the Aquila Report I read the following nonsense which amounts to Charlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15388492.post-73266668116376547232021-05-26T11:51:00.007-04:002021-12-20T13:01:08.188-05:00Dr. Gordon H. Clark: Free Will, God's Will, and Good Works<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Charlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15388492.post-62620557091079182582021-05-08T09:21:00.003-04:002021-05-26T07:33:09.102-04:00Sanctification and JustificationUnfortunately the false view that Dr. Clark thought that saving faith is simply believing the propositions of the Gospel message and that this is the same thing as the doctrine of once saved always saved is still pervasive today. These new believers and superficial followers of Clark have made the mistake of assuming that Dr. Clark did not accept the entire system of propositions in the Charlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15388492.post-89837074669704180342021-05-01T11:25:00.006-04:002021-12-20T13:55:16.696-05:00The Reformed Doctrine of Assurance of Salvation as Expounded by the Westminster Standards: A Clarkian Scripturalist Response to Once Saved Always Saved <!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Charlie J. Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18185331029930925967noreply@blogger.com0