Hey everyone.

[Dave]

Hello everyone.

I don't know if Ill have time to post here much. I was invited, so I decided to sign up and check it out as I have time, and maybe drop a post when I'm moved to do so. BTW, thank you for the spell checker.

Dave

 

[Arial]

Hello everyone.

I don't know if Ill have time to post here much. I was invited, so I decided to sign up and check it out as I have time, and maybe drop a post when I'm moved to do so. BTW, thank you for the spell checker.

Dave

Welcome Dave.

 

[Carbon]

Hello everyone.

I don't know if Ill have time to post here much. I was invited, so I decided to sign up and check it out as I have time, and maybe drop a post when I'm moved to do so. BTW, thank you for the spell checker.

Dave

Welcome Dave. Nice to have you here.

Blessings

 

[DialecticSkeptic]

Welcome to the forums, Dave.

Tell us a little about yourself?

 

[David Lamb]

Yes, may I echo the welcomes already given!

 

[Dave]

Thanks for the welcomes.

As I get older, I find that I need the spell checker as much for sloppy typing as I do for poor spelling. Even with my two finger method of typing.

I was posting on forums about fifteen to twenty years ago. Mostly because of the studies that I had been buried in. My first church was a Pentecostal church. I had been invited by a family member and went there for about four years when I was young in my faith. Some things seemed off, and I wanted to test what they were teaching, but at the time, I wasn't biblically literate enough to test anything. That really bothered me. That church wasn't really teaching anything of substance so I began reading a John MacArthur sermon a day printed out from the library. I was listening to Alistair Begg a lot too. I had ordered many of his sermons on cassette tapes. Got a JMac study bible, too.

Finally, when I had some biblical understanding, nobody that I tried to reach at that church listened or cared to talk about it. Take that as a major red flag when people run from biblical discussions. That drove me to the forums even more. I wanted to test what I thought was right. Iron sharpens iron, right? So, at the forums at least there was some adult believers that I could talk to. It's hard to find that in todays world.

So at that same time, I was experiencing some major spiritual warfare, but I didn't have anyone to talk to about it. Pentecostals are supposed to be experts at these things the way that they talk about it, but the real warfare, they didn't really know too much about. The real warfare doesn't have the Pentecostal fireworks that they look for.

In a lot of ways, eventually, the forums started going kind of like my church was. I was trying to reach the same kind of people with no success. I learned a lot. I wanted to share what I learned and learn more. It didn't seem to do any good. I guess that I wasn't ready for the idolatry. I often wonder If I do the same thing and am not able to see it in myself. Anyways, in my whole life, I kind of stepped off the planet for a while, so to speak, and am just now beginning to re enter the race. This seems to be a pattern, I'm noticing, that God does with people. Not that I'm anyone special, but like Moses, or something. I needed to become a sheep herder in the mountains for a while. Maybe some good will come from this mess yet. It's good to talk to believers again.

Dave

 

[DialecticSkeptic]

So, would you say that you were formerly Pentecostal, now leaning toward a Calvinist flavor of Baptist?

 

[Dave]

I went to a Pentecostal church, but when I knew enough to determine a label for myself, I realized that I was always reformed, or headed towards it. I never really attached myself to the theology that make Pentecostalism unique from everyone else. I questioned it from the start. Baptist seems to be from one extreme to the other. I can't really pinpoint exactly what a Baptist is. I like reformed because it's not really attached to a theological party, so to speak. For the most part, it's denominational free.

Dave

 

[Arial]

I went to a Pentecostal church, but when I knew enough to determine a label for myself, I realized that I was always reformed, or headed towards it. I never really attached myself to the theology that make Pentecostalism unique from everyone else. I questioned it from the start. Baptist seems to be from one extreme to the other. I can't really pinpoint exactly what a Baptist is. I like reformed because it's not really attached to a theological party, so to speak. For the most part, it's denominational free.

Dave

That may be because except for Reformed Baptist, as far as I have seen and understand, they are not confessional. Their form of church government is congregational in most cases and there are Baptist congregations that are Calvinist and those that are not.

In the Presbyterian church there are branches that break away from confession and even election. It is very difficult to draw consistent denominational bounds in the post modern era. They maintain some but not all of the historic outlines. In my city there is a Lutheran church called Reformed Lutheran that had the #1 abortionist in the nation serving in an administrative role. Another Lutheran church spawned BTK (bind, torture, kill) a serial killer. There are such stories all over the place in corporate churches, not just Lutheran. Which is an indication that no matter what denominational title they give themselves, church oversight Including doctrinal teachings, and flock attention is not what it used to be. Wolves in sheep' clothing roam freely among our ranks and stand in our pulpits, denominational and non-denominational alike, and not even shepherds are trained to recognize them or have the courage to boot them out the door if they do.

The theology of Reformed theology is not denominational, it is Christian. But it is not likely to be found in a non-denominational church with the doctrines of grace fully intact. They most likely agree with total depravity, and maybe with perseverance of the saints, but not the rest.

 

[Carbon]

That may be because except for Reformed Baptist, as far as I have seen and understand, they are not confessional. Their form of church government is congregational in most cases and there are Baptist congregations that are Calvinist and those that are not.

In the Presbyterian church there are branches that break away from confession and even election. It is very difficult to draw consistent denominational bounds in the post modern era. They maintain some but not all of the historic outlines. In my city there is a Lutheran church called Reformed Lutheran that had the #1 abortionist in the nation serving in an administrative role. Another Lutheran church spawned BTK (bind, torture, kill) a serial killer. There are such stories all over the place in corporate churches, not just Lutheran. Which is an indication that no matter what denominational title they give themselves, church oversight Including doctrinal teachings, and flock attention is not what it used to be. Wolves in sheep' clothing roam freely among our ranks and stand in our pulpits, denominational and non-denominational alike, and not even shepherds are trained to recognize them or have the courage to boot them out the door if they do.

The theology of Reformed theology is not denominational, it is Christian. But it is not likely to be found in a non-denominational church with the doctrines of grace fully intact. They most likely agree with total depravity, and maybe with perseverance of the saints, but not the rest.

Interesting. I would have thought the most difficult doctrines of grace would be, "Limited Atonement and Total Depravity."

 

[DialecticSkeptic]

That may be because, except for Reformed Baptist, they are not confessional, as far as I have seen and understand.

Just off the top of my head, there is the Baptist Faith and Message (1925; rev. 1963; amend. 1998; rev. 2000), the statement of faith of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), not to mention the Abstract of Principles [1858], the original charter of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

But there are (and have been) several confessional documents and statements of faith; peruse at your leisure the "Historic Baptist Documents" at The Reformed Reader website.

 

[Arial]

Interesting. I would have thought the most difficult doctrines of grace would be, "Limited Atonement and Total Depravity."

Most of Christendom does agree with total depravity in the sense of Original sin. And those who disagree with limited atonement have a limited atonement of their own that they never acknowledge. "Only those who choose to believe are saved." They do not realize that when they do this they have a Jesus who died for everyone but it was only effectual for a few (compared to the whole of all population of all time.) A death in vain.

 

[Dave]

It seems that all the major denominations that have a hierarchy and are nation wide tend to be overtaken by evil eventually.

 

[makesends]

In the Presbyterian church there are branches that break away from confession and even election. It is very difficult to draw consistent denominational bounds in the post modern era. They maintain some but not all of the historic outlines. In my city there is a Lutheran church called Reformed Lutheran that had the #1 abortionist in the nation serving in an administrative role. Another Lutheran church spawned BTK (bind, torture, kill) a serial killer. There are such stories all over the place in corporate churches, not just Lutheran. Which is an indication that no matter what denominational title they give themselves, church oversight Including doctrinal teachings, and flock attention is not what it used to be. Wolves in sheep' clothing roam freely among our ranks and stand in our pulpits, denominational and non-denominational alike, and not even shepherds are trained to recognize them or have the courage to boot them out the door if they do.

Since it was to @Dave that @Arial wrote this, I thought I would add, in case you (Dave) were not aware, there are basically two VERY different main 'Presbyterian' models/denominations: PCA is mostly rather conservative, doctrinally (and politically, for the most part, I think), but PCUSA is anything but conservative doctrinally and politically. What I have seen of PCUSA, it isn't even Reformed in any way that to me means, "Reformed".