Protestant Post

51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. 54 When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” 55 There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, 56 among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. -Matthew 27:51-56 When Jesus died, the veil of the Holiest of Holies tore open, and people rose from the dead. This is a proclamation of the new reality that results from men's sins being forgiven. The Holiest of Holies was where God's presence was most strongly asserted, being the former home of the Ark of the Covenant. On the Day of Atonement, the high priest had to have made himself pure, offered up sacrifices for the people, offered up sacrifices for himself, and drenched everything in blood as a sort of religious safety precaution. If he did even one thing wrong, then he was likely to die. After all, as Uzzah learned in 2 Samuel 6, so much as touching the Ark resulted in punitive death; how much more so a priest making a mistake on the one day of the year that a man could stand before God! The veil in the Temple represented the separation between man and the Divine. That it was torn apart means that such separation is no longer the case. Because of Christ's atoning work on the Cross, no longer is access to God relegated to a single high priest coming to the Holiest of Holies once a year. Now *anyone* may be in the presence of our Lord and freely receive forgiveness, salvation and life. As soon as mankind's sins were removed in the Atonement, we see Old Testament saints rising from the dead. Though they waited until Christ's Resurrection to come forth, their sentence of death was undone immediately - because that is exactly what happens when our sins are forgiven. So long as our sins remained, death remained as well; now, whoever belongs to God by faith in Christ is promised to rise from the dead the same way these old saints did. The Centurion and his soldiers see the darkness and the earthquake and convert on the spot. He has not heard of the Temple veil being torn, nor has he seen old prophets rise from the dead. All he knows is that when Jesus died the whole earth groaned. Surely, his faith justified him, as he believed in Jesus despite only knowing Hin briefly. His soldiers are in agreement. Here too the new Covenant is on full display; even the ignorant pagan Gentiles may be brought to forgiveness and life through simple faith in Jesus - no circumcision or law keeping required. As the women look on and the wait begins for Christ's Resurrection, how many of them saw and understood this proclamation of the Gospel?

Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people; but Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven." And he laid his hands on them and went away. Matthew 19:13-15

The great, even legendary.

Baptist theology is inherently Liberal and can never sustain a society over the long term. ✠

The Sacraments Are the Power of God Unto Salvation to Everyone That Believes "They represent us as reasoning thus: We are justified by faith alone, therefore not by the sacraments. But we are not so raw as not to know that the sacraments, inasmuch as they are the helps of faith, also offer us righteousness in Christ. Nay, as we are perfectly agreed that the sacraments are to be ranked in the same place as the word, so while the gospel is called the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes, we hesitate not to transfer the same title to the sacraments." —John Calvin, Last Admonition to Joachim Westphal

"The modern world represents in some respects an enormous improvement over the world in which our ancestors lived; but in other respects it exhibits a lamentable decline. The improvement appears in the physical conditions of life, but in the spiritual realm there is a corresponding loss. The loss is clearest, perhaps, in the realm of art. Despite the mighty revolution which has been produced in the external conditions of life, no great poet is now living to celebrate the change; humanity has suddenly become dumb. Gone, too, are the great painters and the great musicians and the great sculptors. The art that still subsists is largely imitative, and where it is not imitative it is usually bizarre." ~ J. Gresham Machen. Christianity and Liberalism 1923

Psalm 107:1-8 O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: For his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, Whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, From the north, and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; They found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, Their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, And he delivered them out of their distresses. And he led them forth by the right way, That they might go to a city of habitation. Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, And for his wonderful works to the children of men!

“Now touching the country wherein every one is born and brought up; every man doth well esteem of it, love it, and wish to advance it; every man doth deck it with his virtue and prowess; every one doth help it with all sorts of benefits, stoutly defending it, and valiantly fighting for it, if need be, to save it from violent robbers … Now what is he, that can abide to behold such a commonweal, the country where he is born and bred up, to be troubled, vexed, torn, and pulled in pieces, either by seditious citizens or foreign enemies? In civil seditions and foreign wars all virtue and honesty is utterly overthrown, virgins defiled, matrons uncivilly dealt withal, old men derided, and religion destroyed.” Bullinger, Decades, I:275-76.

The Kingdom Parables The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Of course there is an obvious point of the value of the Gospel here -- such that it exceeds the value of all our other posessions. But if we look a layer deeper, both valuabled have a hidden factor. The treasure is hidden in a field, and the pearl is hidden in an oyster. The point is that the Kingdom of God is hidden in the most ordinary and mundane things. And if we are to lay hold of it, we must liquidate our pride and purchase these ordinary assets.

May God bless America. We need it desperately. There is no need to act like our nation is not in a sad state of affairs. There is also no reason to paper over our rich Christian, and yes, Protestant, heritage.

May God visit the sins of Justices Kavanaugh, Barrett, and Roberts upon their heads, and those of their children, to the third and fourth generation.

There is no substitute in the human soul for sacraments. The modern church and world has simply replaced the old ones with profane ones. Instead of Baptism, baby dedications and altar calls. Instead of Confirmation, either hyper-intellectual theology nerds on one hand or on the other congregations and small groups who haven't even read the Bible. Instead of Confession and Absolution, crises of conscience followed by rededications, rebaptisms. Instead of receiving Christ's broken body and shed blood in the Lord's Supper, congregants either have law and guilt heaped on them or receive receive no warning and eat and drink damnation on themselves. Instead of Marriage, we now have levels of "Instagram official" and cohabitation. Instead of Holy Orders, we have the biggest clowns known to man standing in pulpits across the country because they "felt led." Instead of Late Rites, we have celebrations of life, where people's eternal souls are treated as a lighter matter than their taking offense.

Psalm 121 (RSVCE) Assurance of God’s Protection A Song of Ascents. 121 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From whence does my help come? ²My help comes from the Lord,     who made heaven and earth. ³He will not let your foot be moved,     he who keeps you will not slumber. ⁴Behold, he who keeps Israel     will neither slumber nor sleep. ⁵The Lord is your keeper;     the Lord is your shade     on your right hand. ⁶The sun shall not smite you by day,     nor the moon by night. ⁷The Lord will keep you from all evil;     he will keep your life. ⁸The Lord will keep     your going out and your coming in     from this time forth and for evermore.

"Regarding our eternal salvation it is true that one must not distinguish between man and woman, or between king and a shepherd, or between a German and a Frenchman. Regard policy however, we have what St. Paul declares here; for our Lord Jesus Christ did not come to mix up nature, or to abolish what belongs to the preservation of decency and peace among us....Regarding the kingdom of God (which is spiritual) there is no distinction or difference between man and woman, servant and master, poor and rich, great and small. Nevertheless, there does have to be some order among us, and Jesus Christ did not mean to eliminate it, as some flighty and scatterbrained dreamers [believe]." Calvin, serm. on 1Cor. 11:2-3

15 June 1215: English King John signs the Magna Carta at Runnymede, near Windsor in Surrey following pressure from the English barons. The Magna Carta placed limits on royal authority and put in writing the principle that the king and his government are not above the law

“And he smote the Balrog upon the mountainside.” - The Two Towers

False dichotomy. The soul who sins shall die. God will not punish anyone for the sins of their pastor.

If splitting off from liberal denominations were a winning strategy, we would be winning.

"Singleness" is not a gift from God. Celibacy is a rare gift from God.

“But as it is now our purpose to discourse of the visible Church, let us learn, from her single title of Mother, how useful, nay, how necessary the knowledge of her is, since there is no other means of entering into life unless she conceive us in the womb and give us birth, unless she nourish us at her breasts, and, in short, keep us under her charge and government, until, divested of mortal flesh, we become like the angels (Mt. 22:30). For our weakness does not permit us to leave the school until we have spent our whole lives as scholars. Moreover, beyond the pale of the Church no forgiveness of sins, no salvation, can be hoped for, as Isaiah and Joel testify (Isa. 37:32; Joel 2:32). To their testimony Ezekiel subscribes, when he declares, “They shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel” (Ezek. 13:9); as, on the other hand, those who turn to the cultivation of true piety are said to inscribe their names among the citizens of Jerusalem. For which reason it is said in the psalm, “Remember me, O Lord, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people: O visit me with thy salvation; that I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance” (Ps. 106:4, 5). By these words the paternal favour of God and the special evidence of spiritual life are confined to his peculiar people, and hence the abandonment of the Church is always fatal.” ~ Calvin, John. Institutes. 4.1.4