Category: Worship, true and false

The Marks of the Church

If you move to a new town, you have to find a new church. The search for a new church can be difficult and frustrating. If you pick up the Yellow Pages and look under “church,” you are likely to confront a bewildering array of possibilities. Perhaps you already have some fairly definite ideas of what you want in a church. You may be looking for a good youth group or active senior citizens group. You may want a powerful preacher or a certain kind of music. You may be very loyal to one denomination or you may like to “shop around.”

What should you be looking for in choosing a new church? Your first concern should be that the church be a “true church.” You do not want to choose a church that is part of a sect or a cult. You do not want a church that still bears the name of church, but whose lampstand Christ has removed (Rev. 1–3). How do you recognize a true church? This question was acute at the time of the Reformation. The Roman Catholic Church in the sixteenth century basically argued that Christ preserved the true church through the work of the pope, the bishop of Rome. The true church is easy to recognize because it is in fellowship with the pope. Any church that does not submit to the pope is a false church.

Read the whole article here.

Family religion

A Church in the House: A Sermon Concerning Family Religion

Preached in London, April 16, 1704
by Matthew Henry

“With the church that is in their house.“
1 Corinthians 16:19

Among the salutations presented by the Apostle Paul in his first epistle to the Corinthians, was that from Aquila and Priscilla, and “the church that is in their house” (1 Cor. 16:19). Some very good interpreters, I know, understand this of a settled, stated, solemn meeting of Christians at the house of Aquila and Priscilla, for public worship; and they were glad of houses to meet in, where they wanted those better conveniences, which the church was afterwards, in her prosperous days, accommodated with. When they had not such places as they could wish, they thankfully made use of such as they could get.

But others think it is meant only of their own family, and the strangers within their gates, among whom there was so much piety and devotion, that it might well be called a church, or religious house. Thus the ancients generally understood it. Nor was it only Aquila and Priscilla whose house was thus celebrated for religion (here and Rom. 16:5), but Nymphas also had a church in his house (Col. 4:15 and Phil. 1:2). Not but that others, to whom and from whom salutations are sent in Paul’s epistles, made conscience of keeping up religion in their families; but these are mentioned, probably because their families were more numerous than most of those other families were; which made their family devotions more solemn, and consequently more taken notice of.

Read more here.

Radio Covenanter: “Lo antiguo es mejor!”

Un teólogo dijo una vez: “La religión evangélica estadounidense tiene mil millas de ancho y una pulgada de profundidad.” En la misma línea, hay “mucho calor donde hay poca luz.”

¿Te interesa un evangelicalismo más profundo? ¿Más histórico? ¿Uno con mucho calor y mucha, mucha más luz? Escuche Radio Covenanter, emitida desde Bolivia. Y aprenda más de los viejos y mejores caminos de la Reforma Protestante y su rica herencia.

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The Visible Church, the house of God & gate of heaven

“But its a rich mercy that [professing Christians] are dwelling in the work-house of the Grace of God, within the Visible Church, they are at the pool side, near the fountain, and dwell in Immanuel’s land where dwells Jehovah in his beauty, and where are the Golden Candlesticks, and where there run Rivers of Wine and Milk, such are Expectants of Grace and Glory, to such the Marriage Table is covered, eat if they will.”

-Samuel Rutherford

 «¿Está alguno alegre? cante salmos!» (una oferta)

Así dice el apóstol Santiago (Santiago 5:13). Así también adoraban al Señor todos los puritanos de Nueva

Inglaterra en sus reuniones de iglesia del día del Señor, cantando salmos a capella de versiones métricas y rimadas del salterio. Esta era la adoración antigua de nuestros antepasados piadosos, la cual creían que era una ordenanza del Nuevo Testamento.

Con el fin de despertar entre los cristianos de Nueva Inglaterra la práctica de cantar los salmos, estamos ofreciendo copias gratuitas de Los salmos métricos de David (1650) a las que respondan desde cualquier lugar de Nueva Inglaterra. Si desea intentar cantar los salmos, intente unirse aquí. Para obtener una de estas copias gratuitas, escríbame a: mjives dot refparish at gmail dot com. Incluya su dirección, y se lo enviaremos por correo.

Considere cómo Juan Calvino recomienda el cantar salmos en su prefacio al salterio de Ginebra de 1543:«Por tanto, ¿qué se ha de hacer? Pues tener canciones no solamente honestas, sino también santas, las cuales nos sean como aguijones para incitarnos a orar y alabar a Dios, a meditar en sus obras, a fin de amarlo, temerlo, honrarlo y glorificarlo. Mas esto que dices. Agustín es cierto, que nadie puede cantar nada digno de Dios, sino lo que ha recibido de Él. Por lo cual, cuando hayamos andado por todas partes par buscar aquí y allá, no encontraremos mejores canciones ni más apropiadas que los Salmos de David; los cuales el Espíritu Santo le dictó e hizo. Y por consiguiente, cuando los cantamos, estamos seguros que Dios nos pone en la boca las palabras, como si Él mismo cantara en nosotros, para exaltar Su gloria. Por lo cual, Crisóstomo exhorta tanto a hombres como a mujeres y niños pequeños, a que se acostumbren a cantarlos, a fin de que esto sea una meditación para asociarse a la compañía de los ángeles.»