Previously we saw that baptism (1) identifies Christians; (2) signifies and seals the benefits of the covenant of grace; and (3) offers and applies the grace of God. Those are things that baptism does. Our task now is to explain how baptism does those things. To explain how baptism works, we must first recall what …
Have you ever been challenged or asked to explain how we came up with our modern Bible? Do we have enough evidence to prove that the 66-book Protestant Bible has all the right books? Who made that decision to establish the Bible? We answer these questions and much more! You will not want to miss …
VIDEO: The Canon & Sola Scriptura w/ Austin Reifel (Sippin’ On Theology) Read More »
It is not uncommon for Christians to ask: “What does baptism actually do?” Often this question comes in the context of other questions such as: “Do I have to be baptized?” or “Should I have my children baptized?” In this article I will attempt to explain briefly what it is that baptism does, showing that …
“What Does Baptism Actually Do?” By Rick Appleton Read More »
Perhaps the title of the chapter is not sufficiently explicit to indicate its theme. This is partly because so few are accustomed to meditate upon the personal perfections of God. Comparatively few who occasionally read the Bible are aware of the awe-inspiring and worship-provoking grandeur of the divine character. That God is great in wisdom, …
How often do we hear Christian men and women who love to study theology talk about the doctrine of faith? In my experience, not very much. Why is that? Would it be too surprising to find out that one of the most neglected doctrines in Christendom is the doctrine of faith? We can hardly define …
It is said that the ancient Greek maxim “know thyself” (Gk. γνῶθι σεαυτόν, Lt. temet nosce) was once inscribed in what is now the ruins of the forecourt of the temple of Apollo at Delphi. From Aeschylus, to Socrates, to Plato, and even to the Wachowski brothers’ The Matrix, this ancient aphorism at the very …
Temet Nosce: Calvin and the True Knowledge of Self Read More »
As many of you know (if you follow us on Facebook), I’ve decided to start a GoFundMe campaign to support my friend, Mafabi Chris Omir, who pastors a Reformed Baptist church in Mbele, Uganda. You can find the campaign page by clicking this link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/helping-pastor-mafabi039s-ministry Like many of us in the US, he is surrounded …
If there was a disingenuous category of arguments against the Reformed, this one belongs in it. Perhaps that sounds too dismissive, but I find it very difficult to believe that a fellow Reformed person, in all sincerity, can charge another Reformed person of violating the Regulative Principle of Worship (RPW) on the basis of not …
Infant Baptism Does Not Violate The Regulative Principle Of Worship Read More »
Francis Turretin, in Institutes of Elenctic Theology (vol. 3), argued that the Great Commission was grounds for baptizing both adults and infants (Q. XX.III). I did not see how that was possible until I considered the Greek, but it was not as if only paedobaptists recognized the construction of the Greek grammar. Baptists fully acknowledged it, too. …
