Monday, November 28, 2016

Excellent ESV Resources for e-Sword

I have always been grateful to the folks at Crossway for making the English Standard Version freely available for e-Sword. While other modern versions are available for e-Sword at a modest price, the ESV is completely free, including introductory notes for each book, cross-references, and maps.


The picture above shows the basic ESV module without notes.


The picture above shows the ESV+ module with basic book introductions and cross-references.


 The picture above shows the ESV+ module with a book introduction showing.


The picture above shows the ESV+ module with a textual note showing.


The picture above shows the ESV+ module with a cross-reference showing.


The picture above shows the e-Sword graphics viewer containing the ESV maps.

If you haven't checked out e-Sword yet, I highly recommend it as the best free Bible study program available. There is also a large community of advanced users constantly developing free resources for e-Sword.

Saturday, November 26, 2016

"A Model for Giving Thanks" by John MacArthur



This teaching on 1 Chronicles 16:8-36 is appropriate as we continue to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday this weekend. As always, John MacArthur does an excellent job teaching the word of God.

Friday, November 18, 2016

Ten Years of the Reformed Baptist Blog

As I recall, I first started a Blogger account back in 2002 or 2003, at which time I reserved the name Reformed Baptist Blog, knowing that I would want to start writing such a blog at some point. I didn't start posting on the blog, however, until November of 2006.

The reasons I had for starting to write the blog include my conviction that I might have more to offer the body of Christ in my role as a pastor, as well as my realization that some issues that I was facing in ministry were not always being addressed sufficiently by others. For example, I had been encountering a form of the House-Church Movement that I had not seen anyone else addressing, even though one of its primary leaders claimed to hold to the Baptist Confession of 1689, as did many of its adherents.

Anyway, such were the beginnings of the Reformed Baptist Blog, which has sought to maintain a pastoral focus, with a balance of teaching the Church as well as warning the Church to beware of both potential and actual errors. The blog has also sought to inform our brothers in the body of Christ -- especially within the Reformed Baptist community -- about matters of interest to them. And, of course, it is hoped that unbelieving visitors will be able to discover a clear presentation of the Gospel so that they may come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

In July of 2009, Richard Belcher joined the blog and contributed a series of posts entitled CHARLES G. FINNEY: Heretic or Man of God? He also contributed another series of articles concerning the history of Baptist ecclesiology, but this was later taken down when he converted the series into a book. Dr. Belcher was unable to contribute after that, given his focus on writing the Journey books and his advancing age. His contribution is missed, and our prayers are with him in his twilight years of service for Christ.

However, Dr. Belcher did make one other important contribution to the blog when he introduced me to Jeff Johnson. He had been a reader of Jeff's outstanding book The Fatal Flaw of the Theology Behind Infant Baptism, and he wanted me to read it and to write about it on the blog. He felt that, since my recommendations of his Journey books had been so helpful to him, perhaps I could help in promoting Jeff's book as well. He had also been a mentor of mine and felt that Jeff and I were kindred spirits and that we should get to know one another. Well, not only did I like Jeff's book and give it a positive endorsement (in 2010) but I also liked Jeff immediately and asked him to join the blog the following year.

The most recent member of the blog team is Bob Gonzales, who joined us in March of this year. Regular readers of this blog may recall that Bob is one of my favorite theologians, and I am happy to say that he has already contributed a couple of terrific posts. We look forward to his further contributions, and we are grateful for his participation, especially given his busy schedule as the dean of the Reformed Baptist Seminary.

As I pointed out earlier, the focus of this blog has been pastoral from the beginning. We have thus never sought to be controversial simply for the sake of controversy. Too many blogs have adopted the alternative approach in an apparent attempt to get more readers, but we have waded into the waters of controversy only when we felt it necessary and truly helpful to the body of Christ.

It has been a great first ten years. We thank the blog's readers for their consistent support, and, Lord willing, we hope to serve you well in the coming years. May our blog always seek to bring glory to God through Christ Jesus our Lord!

Wednesday, November 09, 2016

2016 "What is a Reformed Baptist?" Poll November Update

Ten months ago we began a poll on the blog. If you identify yourself as a Reformed Baptist and you haven't already taken part in the poll, please check out the "What is a Reformed Baptist?" Poll on the right sidebar on this page (the red box with white type). The intention is to run the poll for one year with an interest in how the Reformed Baptist community might answer this question. I have given four options for answers that I think basically sum up the various groups or individuals that I have found to be using the term. Here are the four possible answers:
To regard oneself as a Reformed Baptist, one must ...

1) adhere at a minimum to a Calvinistic soteriology.

2) adhere at a minimum to a Calvinistic soteriology and to Covenant Theology.

3) adhere substantially to the Baptist Confession of 1689 (e.g. modify regarding Impassibility).

4) adhere strictly to the Baptist Confession of 1689.
For those interested, here are the results thus far:
14% say that one must adhere at a minimum to a Calvinistic soteriology in order to be regarded a Reformed Baptist.

24% say that one must adhere at a minimum to a Calvinistic soteriology and to Covenant Theology in order to be regarded a Reformed Baptist.

42% say that one must adhere substantially to the Baptist Confession of 1689 (e.g. modify regarding Impassibility) in order to be regarded a Reformed Baptist.

20% say that one must adhere strictly to the Baptist Confession of 1689 in order to be regarded a Reformed Baptist.
Again, if you haven't yet taken part in the poll, please do so. You may read more about the poll here in order to understand better why it is phrased as it is.

Thursday, November 03, 2016

James White Offers a Timely Rebuke to Calvinists Who Are Inconsistent and Ungracious



Sadly, there are far too many inconsistent Calvinists who need to hear this rebuke! The booklet James mentions -- "The Practical Implications of Calvinism" -- may be downloaded for free here.