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Reformed Basics

Atonement

July 22, 2022 • Toby Sumpter

The doctrine of the Atonement lies at the center of our salvation. Many true Christians know that Jesus took away their sins because like Christian in 'Pilgrim’s Progress' when they came to the cross, the heavy burden of their guilt and shame fell off their back and rolled away, never to be seen again. Many Christians know that this has happened, but many do not know exactly why. The doctrine of the atonement is the Christian teaching that explains how the death of Jesus actually takes away our sin and makes us right with God.

Infant Baptism

June 24, 2022 • Douglas Wilson

Say that you know about some infidel at college, living like the devil. He was baptized as an infant many years before, but that was a ritual that he doesn’t remember, he was never taught in terms of it, and consequently, he assigns no meaning to it. Now let us assume that one day he is radically and remarkably converted. The Lord gets a hold of him, and utterly transforms his life. He starts going to church and Bible studies, and one of the questions that pops into his mind is the question of whether he needs to be baptized. He cracks open his (very new) Bible, and looks up every use of the word baptism or baptize in the New Testament. In every instance, he sees that baptism follows conversion. He therefore concludes that it should follow conversion in his case also, and so he asks to be baptized. What could be simpler? Now we have no objection to him studying the Bible to answer this question. That part of it was exactly right. In fact, our wish is that he had studied a little longer, and that he had looked up more words than those that were just a variant of baptism or baptize. We think he should have looked up *covenant,* and *olive tree,* and *circumcision,* and *Israel,* and *promises,* and *children,* along with quite a few more.

Sabbath Delight

May 10, 2022 • Toby Sumpter

When Christ saves a man, woman, or child, one of the fundamental gifts He gives is rest. Instead of striving on the treadmill of human performance, Christians are seated in Heavenly Places in Christ Jesus. They are seated at a great banqueting table full of bread and wine and every good thing, and they hear the words: eat, drink, and be merry, for your works have already been accepted. Far from being some Puritan anomaly or Pharisaical vestige of legalism, the Christian Sabbath is the great symbol of Christian rest. In the ancient world and in many impoverished societies, a day off is unheard off. Only the most wealthy, the nobility, royalty get days off, days of rest and leisure. But when Israel was set free from bondage in Egypt, God commanded them to live as free men and women. He called them His royal priesthood, His nobility. The sons and the daughters of the King gather with their Father weekly to feast at His table, to commune with the King, and to rest in His sovereign grace.

General Equity Theonomy

February 18, 2022 • Douglas Wilson

the law of God is not a static thing, suspended from a great celestial sky hook. God’s law is given to men, in time and history, and what happens in that history is relevant to the application of the law. The law of God is structured in such as to take history into account. This is not relativism. It is one of the law’s perfections. This includes the development of the law over the course of Old Testament history, and it of course includes the cosmic culmination of the law in the events of the Incarnation.

Chestertonian Calvinism

October 11, 2021 • Douglas Wilson

The supposed “severity” of our doctrine should not result in us having pinched faces, downcast glances, and shuffling guilty feet. Our doctrines are sharp and severe, but only in the way a surgeon’s scalpel is sharp. The cancerous tumor he will remove is soft, and malleable, and warm—and it will kill us. The scalpel is cold, and hard, and sharp. Don’t be a child in your thinking. If God is kind, and you have your wits about you, you will walk out of the hospital overflowing with gratitude and gladness.

The New Birth

July 6, 2021 • Douglas Wilson

Before we are converted to God, our spiritual condition does not really admit of incremental improvements. This is because our spiritual condition, prior to such a conversion, is one of spiritual death. And the issues of death and life are not something that can be operated on a dimmer switch. You are either dead or you are not dead. There is no genuine halfway point between dead and alive.

Sola Et Tota Scriptura

June 1, 2021 • Douglas Wilson

The fact that we hold to the unique place of Scripture, treating it as the only ultimate and infallible rule for faith and practice means that we are simply holding firm to the great Protestant doctrine of sola Scriptura. At the same time, we want to avoid the trap that some have fallen into—the trap of confusing being “people of the Book” with being a bookish people.

Creator/Creature

April 1, 2021 • Toby Sumpter

One of the most basic features of a Christian worldview is the distinction between God the Creator and everything else. Even a cursory glance at the Creator-creature distinction ought to make you feel very, very small. It ought to make you humble. It also ought to make you fear God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And men who fear God do not fear the machinations of men. The most powerful men and nations and forces of natures are still just tiny specks of dust (like us) in our tiny circle next to the infinite greatness of our Creator God.

The Shape of Christian Worship

April 1, 2021 • Douglas Wilson

The church is an assembly, a gathering. And we have assembled in the heavenly places. But gathered to do what? People could gather to celebrate a birthday, or to watch a movie, or perhaps a circus juggler. They can also gather to fight off an invasion from a neighboring country. What they are gathering to do will affect what they bring with them, and what mindset they have as they gather. We have all been conditioned to assume certain things about true worship—but that is what they are: simply assumptions. For example, we tend to believe that true worship should be spontaneous, flowing, comfortable, heartfelt, and extemporaneous. But what if I told you that the Bible taught that worship ought to be structured, joyful, disciplined, serious, reverent, and regimented?

Presuppositionalism

March 2, 2021 • Toby Sumpter

Knowledge is entirely a gift from God. When we acknowledge that and give God thanks, we are making God and His Word our presupposition. As it turns out, in order for us to do that, God must begin that work in us. The real obstacle to faith in Christ is not sufficient evidence or good reasons. The real obstacle is pride. But many a hard heart of pride has been cut down by the sharp grace of Christ crucified. And that is our fundamental presupposition: Christ is all.

Triune Grace

February 2, 2021 • Douglas Wilson

The Father determined, before the foundation of the world, the full number of the elect. He knows all of their names. The number of these elect cannot be increased or diminished. And then, in the fullness of time, the Son came to earth in order to lay down his life in order to secure the salvation of the elect. And when the right time arrives in the lifetime of each one of the elect, the Holy Spirit regenerates that individual. The Father chose Smith, Jesus died for Smith, and the Holy Spirit regenerates Smith.

The Governments

December 21, 2020 • Toby Sumpter

God has established four governments among men: self-government, family government, church government, and civil government. Christians must love and honor these authorities, and these authorities must love and honor the God who gave them.

Sola Fide

October 13, 2020 • Douglas Wilson

So if you put your faith on a slide for a microscope, and stare at it for hours, perhaps muttering exhortations to it, the one thing you can be sure of is that it will not grow. But if you learn to look away, if you learn to look to Christ, and if you turn to Scripture, you will find that your faith-precisely because you weren't paying attention to it—has been quietly growing. Watch the Reformed Basics series on Amazon Prime Video: https://bit.ly/reformed-basics.

Postmillennialism

December 17, 2019 • Douglas Wilson

The Scriptures contain many prophecies, and so one of the most important things we can do as Christians is learn how to read them. We are to do more than believe what we read—we are supposed to understand what we are believing.

What is the Covenant?

December 17, 2019 • Toby Sumpter

What is a covenant? A covenant is a solemn bond, sovereignly administered, between two or more persons with attendant blessings and cursings. Or put simply, covenant is the way God relates to His creatures.

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