Come Down, Lord!

 "I'd be happy to go to heaven tonight..." 

A number of men have expressed concerns about my previous post , the follow up on our compromise in the face of Covid-19 .  After giving it consideration I have decided to offer some clarifications A. First, I freely admit that there are godly men on the other side of this issue who have arrived at their conclusions through thoughtful study of Scripture.  I believe they are wrong, but I don’t doubt their sincerity.  Nor do I believe that everyone on the other side is reasoning pragmatically.  There is no doubt in my mind that many men who heartily disagree with me are further along in their walk with the Lord.  For that reason I have found myself often hesitating to write or say anything at all.  I know what I am; and I remain painfully aware of the fact that there are numbers of men with whom I strongly differ who are more godly than I.   But I have not written for myself.  I have written (and I still write) for Christ and for truth. ...

Leonard Ravenhill offered this definition of revival in America is Too Young to Die .  There are other good definitions out there, but this one has a prophetic ring to it.   "Revival is the act of the Spirit upon believers who have lost their first love. Revival is the restoration of true doctrine.  Revival is the rekindling of the power of prayer in individuals and in groups. Revival is seeing that God must be vindicated either by His mercy in pardoning - or by judgment! Revival is the ascendancy of the spiritual over the material . Revival is the Spirit's passion within the believer to know and to obey the total will of God. Revival is the willingness to forsake all - that God might be all-in-all to the individual and to the Church. Revival is the "no-time-limit" operation of God on the saints, resulting in a moving of God among the sinners. Revival is the redeemed, sobbing with broken hearts over a nation of broken lives from breaking the comman...

I admit I have chosen an odd title for a blog entry on a site dedicated to revival and authored by a reformed presbyterian minister.   Part of me would like to say that nothing is wrong with reformed presbyterianism.   But something is very much wrong.  I don't mean to say that there is something very wrong with the thing itself, but something very wrong with reformed presbyterianism as it is in our day.   A little background...  My roots are Baptist.  I spent a few years on the mission field as a child, and in my early adulthood I spent some years in charismatic churches (pentecostal and non-denominational).  In the reformed world there is a love for doctrines and distinctions.  We are truth men.  Many of us are confessional.  We ought to be!  We read old books and circulate them.  We love good publishing companies like Banner of Truth .  But there is something almost too civilized about us.  I re...