Author: westportexperiment

I am a minister serving Presbyterian Reformed Church of Rhode Island, with strong interest in the history, theory, and contemporary application of parochial church extension.

Jesus’ foresight

444px-Benjamin_Breckinridge_Warfield“The work which He came to do was a work ordained in the counsels of eternity, and in all its items prepared for beforehand with the most perfect prevision. In addressing Himself to the accomplishment of this work Jesus proceeded from the beginning in the fullest knowledge of the end, and with the most absolute adjustment of every step to its attainment. It is from this double view-point that each of the Evangelists depicts the course of our Lord’s life on earth. They consequently represent Him as having come to perform a specific task, all the elements of which were not only determined beforehand in the plan of God, but adumbrated, if somewhat sporadically, yet with sufficient fulness for the end in view, in the prophecies of the OT. And they represent Him as coming to perform this task with a clear consciousness of its nature and a competent control of all the means for its discharge, so that His whole life was a conscientious fulfilment of a programme, and moved straight to its mark. The conception of foresight thus dominates the whole Evangelical narrative.”

-B. B. Warfield

Conversion vs. consummation

“The espousals are carried on secretly; it may be the person is sitting at your side, and you do not see, nor know when Christ is making up the match; or, perhaps, on his knees at home, there is a secret transaction: but the consummation will be before millions of angels, millions of saints, and millions of spectators.”

-Ralph Erskine (1685-1752)

Una hipotética celestial

st_georges_church_graveyard_carrington_greater_manchester“Todo hombre que tiene su esperanza en Cristo, se purifica a sí mismo”. 1 Juan 3: 3. Un sermón de J. C. Ryle (1816-1900)

Suponga por un momento que a usted se le permitiera entrar al cielo sin santidad.  ¿Qué haría?  ¿Cuál sería el  disfrute que usted podría sentir allí?  ¿A cuál de todos los santos usted se uniría y al lado de quién se sentaría?  Sus placeres no son sus placeres, sus gustos no sus gustos, sus caracteres no son su carácter.  ¿Cómo podría usted ser feliz si no ha sido santo en la tierra?

Tal vez ahora usted ama la compañía de los livianos y los descuidados, los mundanos y los codiciosos, el revoltoso y buscador de placeres, el sin dios y el profano.   No habrá ninguno de ellos en el cielo.

Tal vez ahora usted piense que los santos de Dios son muy estrictos y detallistas y serios.  Prefiere evitarlos.  Usted no tiene complacencia en su compañía.   En el cielo no habrá otro tipo de compañía. Continue reading “Una hipotética celestial”

A heavenly hypothetical

st_georges_church_graveyard_carrington_greater_manchester“Every man who has his hope in Christ, purifies himself.” 1 John 3:3. A sermon by J. C. Ryle (1816-1900)

Suppose for a moment, that you were allowed to enter heaven without holiness. What would you do? What possible enjoyment could you feel there? To which of all the saints would you join yourself—and by whose side would you sit? Their pleasures are not your pleasures, their tastes are not your tastes, their character not your character. How could you possibly be happy in heaven—if you had not been holy on earth?

Now you love the company of the frivolous and careless, the worldly-minded and the covetous, the reveler and the pleasure-seeker, the ungodly and the profane. There will be none such in heaven! Now you think that the people of God are too strict and particular and serious. You rather avoid them. You have no delight in their society. But remember, there will be no other company in heaven. Continue reading “A heavenly hypothetical”

God wholly one

img_4115“God is wholly one Deut. 6. 4. Gal. 3. 20. 1 Tim. 2. 5. Hos. 13. 4. Mal. 2. 10. All creatures are subject to multiplication; there may be many of them and are many; many Angels, men, starres, and so in the rest. Not one of them is singular and onely one so; but one might conceive that there should be more; for he that made one of them, can make another and another, and as many as he pleaseth; but God is simply one, singular, and sole essence; there neither is, nor can be more then one God, because he is the first and best essence; and there can be but one first, and one best. He is Infinite, and there cannot be but one Infinite because either one of them should include the other, and so the included must needs be finite, or not extend to the other, and so it self not be Infinite. There was a first man, and a first in every kind of creature, but not any absolute first save God: one Eternall, and one Incomprehensible, saith Athanasius in his Creed.”

-Edward Leigh (1602-1671)

The self-sufficient God

img_4122II. God has all life,[25] glory,[26] goodness,[27] blessedness,[28] in and of Himself; and is alone in and unto he himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which he has made,[29] nor deriving any glory from them,[30] but only manifesting his own glory in, by, unto, and upon them. He is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things;[31] and has most sovereign dominion over them, to do by them, for them, or upon them whatsoever himself pleases.[32] In his sight all things are open and manifest,[33] his knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent upon the creature,[34] so as nothing is to Him contingent, or uncertain.[35] He is most holy in all his counsels, in all his works, and in all his commands.[36] To Him is due from angels and men, and every other creature, whatsoever worship, service, or obedience he is pleased to require of them.[37]

–Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), 2.2

El Dios autosuficiente

img_4122II. Dios posee en sí mismo y por si mismo toda vida, (1) gloria, (2) bondad (3) y bienaventuranza; (4) es suficiente en todo, en sí mismo y respecto a si mismo, no teniendo necesidad de ninguna de las criaturas que El ha hecho, (5) ni derivando ninguna gloria de ellas, (6) sino que solamente manifiesta su propia gloria en ellas, por ellas, hacia ellas y sobre ellas. Él es la única fuente de todo ser, de quien, por quien y para quien son todas las cosas, (7) teniendo sobre ellas el más soberano dominio, y, haciendo por ellas, para ellas y sobre ellas toda su voluntad. (8) Todas las cosas están abiertas y manifiestas delante de su vista; (9) su conocimiento es infinito, infalible e independiente de toda criatura, (10) de modo que para El no hay ninguna cosa contingente o incierta. (11) Es santísimo en todos sus consejos, en todas sus obras y en todos sus mandatos. (12) A Él son debidos todo culto, adoración, servicio y obediencia que tenga a bien exigir de los ángeles, de los hombres y de toda criatura. (13)

1. Juan 5:26
2. Hechos 7:2
3. Salmos 119:68
4. 1 Timoteo 6:15; Romanos 9:5
5. Hechos 17:24,25
6. Job 22:2,3
7. Romanos 11:36
8. Apocalipsis 4:11; Daniel 4:25,35; 1 Timoteo 6:15
9. Hebreos 4:13
10. Romanos 11:33,34; Salmos 147:5
11. Hechos 15:18; Ezequiel 11:5
12. Salmos 145:17; Romanos 7:12
13. Apocalipsis 5:12-14

–Confesión de Fe de Westminster (1646), 2.2

The cross, the Tree of Life

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beautiful_tree_at_Akershus_Fortress_(Akershus_Festning)_(29252416734).jpg“This tree is my everlasting salvation. It is my food, a shared banquet. Its roots and the spread of its branches are my own roots and extension. In its shade, as in a breeze, I luxuriate and am cared for. Its shade I take for my resting place; in my flight from oppressive heat it is a source of refreshing dew for me. Its blossoms are my own, my utter delight its fruits, saved from the beginning for my harvest. Food for my hunger and well-spring for my thirst, it is also a covering for my nakedness, with the spirit of life as its leaves. Far from me henceforth the fig leaves!

“Fearful of God, I find it a place of safety; when unsteady, a source of stability. In the face of a struggle, I look to it as a prize; in victory, my trophy. It is the narrow path, the restricted road. It is Jacob’s ladder, the passage of angels, at whose summit the Lord is affixed.  This tree, the plant of immortality, rears from earth to reach as high as heaven, fixing the Lord between heaven and earth. It is the foundation and stabilizer of the universe, undergirding the world that we inhabit. It is the binding force of the world and holds together all the varieties that human life encompasses. It is riveted into a unity by the invisible bonds of the Spirit, so that its connection with God can never be severed.

“Brushing heaven with its uppermost branches, it remains fixed in the earth and, between the two points, its huge hands completely enfold the stirring of the air. As a single whole it penetrates all things and all places.”

-Pseudo-Hippolytus (tr. by B. Ramsay)