Seventeen82

  In my study right next to a deer skull/antler mount is a picture of Seceder and original Marrow Man Alexander Moncrieff. He’s long been my favorite of the Gairney Six due to his doggishness and godly spirit, both as a minister and as a fighter for the truth of the Scriptures. Moncrieff was called “the Lion of the Secession” and was later appointed as the Secession Church’s Professor of Divinity and served faithfully at the Associate congregation in Abernethy near Perth. He was most well-known later in life for aligning himself with those who were against the imposition of the Burgher Oath, which sadly caused a break amongst his brethren. Yet in all these things Ebenezer Erskine was able to say of Moncrieff that he was the backbone that allowed others to stand tall in the day of trial in the difficult days of 1733. Here recently I had the blessing to re-read a pamphlet of his entitled, The Glory of Immanuel and the Desolation of Immanuel’s Land For the Sins of Them That Dwell T...

If you were going to ask random people to quote something from the Bible there is a high likelihood that they would pick John 3:16 or Psalm 23. Another one that would also hit the top 5 is Romans 8:31.  “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” .  Those words of the apostle Paul in the book of Romans have long been the calling card of faithful Christians facing any number of trials. Yet it wasn’t just New Testament Christians who benefited from the teaching the Apostle lays out here. It has long been the heartbeat of peace for the people of God; knowing that the Lord is sovereign and truly the One in whom we can trust. One of the best examples of putting into practice Romans 8:31 in the Old Testament was the scene between Hezekiah and Sennacherib. In 2 Chronicles you have the chief spokesman for the king of Assyria promising death and destruction to any who would stand in the way of the will of his king. There resulted from this a gre...

      In a light-hearted post this last week my compatriot and dear friend, the Rev. Tim Phillips, posted a meme on an ARP Facebook page that opened up a discussion about the so-called "Three-Office" view and the "Two-Office" view. After much back and forth there was seemingly a lot that needed said. This is a question which has vexed primarily American Presbyterianism for over two-centuries. The issue I want to look at in this brief essay is: Why does this matter? What effect does one or the other have in real life? We'll look at one particular example, because to look at too much more would tax your time.      Often well-meaning people will push back at any discussion over things of this nature with the often misused phrase, "...it's like arguing over how many angels can fit on a pin!", implying that the value of the answer is so unimportant that spending much effort entering into the fray either gets in the way of ministry, or wastes vital time ...