Returning to the Blessed Bible

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 11:40:07 +0000

Some 350 years ago, our faithful Reformed forefathers in Scotland took hold of the covenant of grace in their National Covenant, by this means fulfilling their duty and privilege as Christ’s witnessing church in the British Isles. Thus was born the Second, or Covenanted Reformation of religion in those Isles, sustained and greatly furthered by the swearing of the Solemn League and Covenant five years later. The latter “covenanted uniformity of religion” undergirded the work of the famous Westminster Assembly, and bound the covenanting churches and nations to the adoption and implementation of that Assembly’s work (the Confession of Faith, Larger and Shorter Catechisms, Directory for Public Worship, and Form of Church-Government). Sadly, of these churches and nations Scotland was most faithful to pay her vows, and only for a brief time. In 1650, a deadly, Church-dividing blow was dealt by the majority of backsliding civil and ecclesiastical leaders in their support of the “Public Resolutions.” England and Ireland had already broken their sacred bond. The next four decades were times of bitter and often unrelenting trial for the faithful, protesting remnant (which included such men as Samuel Rutherford, Archibald Johnston of Warriston, James Guthrie, Patrick Gillespie, John Brown of Wamphray, Robert M,Ward, William Guthrie, Donald Cargill, Richard Cameron, and James Renwick), who themselves by God’s grace were unrelenting in their testimony against the covenant-breaking Resolutioners and the defections in Church and State. Though the merciless persecution by the civil and ecclesiastical tyrants ended with the Reformation-denying Revolution settlement of 1688, the blessed but short-lived Covenanted Reformation has been, and continues to be, opposed by many, ignored by or unknown to others, and embraced and loved by only a faithful few, who, like their fathers (and unlike the RPCNA today) truly wear the name, “Covenanter.”
There have been many in the last three centuries who have gloriously praised the work of the Westminster Assembly, yet there has been at best only an incomplete adherence to the Assembly’s doctrine and practice. Many factors have contributed to this, of which the foremost must certainly be our wretched failure to receive the love of the truth. Consequently, our righteous God has given the people and nations professing His name over to a profound blindness, in keeping with His fearful threatenings in the Scriptures (2 Thess. 2:10-12; Rom. 1:28; etc.). This “judicial blindness” has led to an increased preaching, publishing, and practicing of numerous errors condemned by our forefathers as Popish on the one hand, and schismatic and Independent on the other, in so-called “Protestant,” “Reformed,” and “Presbyterian” churches. Richard Bacon exemplifies this dreadful dynamic in our day.
As we see, then, our quarrel goes back over three hundred years – and really, back to the dawn of the human race. Our contending is for nothing less than the Crown Rights – the comprehensive Crown Rights – of the blessed promised Seed, the Lord Jesus Christ, which are denied, trampled, and usurped on all sides. The Serpent and his seed throughout the millennia have unceasingly sought and fought to strip the Lamb of God of his due honor and glory in Church and State. The Lamb and his followers have continually met them in battle, being made strong through his Spirit and Word, and through his might “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5). By such faithful contendings, God has graciously granted two major Reformations in days past: we stand desperately in need of a third. There is great cause for rejoicing in Zion, however, for an increasing number of God’s people are beginning to be awakened, and to return to the blessed biblical attainments of the Covenanted Reformation. We are hopeful that the prayers of the faithful Covenanters of old are being answered: that the rediscovery of their precious principles and practices are nothing less than a prologue to the third reformation and the worldwide overthrow of Antichrist.

Legal Group to Defend Church Reported to IRS

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 09:54:47 +0000

The Christian legal group behind the Pulpit Initiative announced Tuesday that it will defend a South Dakota church that was reported to the Internal Revenue Service.

Alliance Defend Fund, which launched the Pulpit Initiative in 2008 to defend the right of pastors to speak freely from the pulpit, agreed to represent Liberty Baptist Tabernacle. The Americans United for Separation of Church and State had reported the church to the IRS on June 10 in an attempt to remove the church’s tax-exempt status after its pastor voiced support for a gubernatorial candidate.
“Pastors and churches shouldn’t live in fear of being punished or penalized by the government, yet that’s precisely what Americans United wants,” said ADF senior legal counsel Erik Stanley, in a statement. “Under the First Amendment, a pastor, not the IRS, determines what his sermon will say.”
The AU and similar groups have tried to spark IRS investigations to silence churches through fear and intimidation.
“It’s a contradiction for groups that say they believe in ‘separation of church and state’ to say it’s the role of the IRS to decide what pastors can talk about in church without being investigated,” Stanley said.
The Pulpit Initiative is part of a broader effort by ADF called the Church Project, which was launched earlier in 2010 to protect churches from “excessive” and “unconstitutional” government intrusion.
Some of the objectives of the Church Project is to alert and educate pastors and ministry leaders nationwide about the forces working to limit religious freedom in America; to equip the leaders with the legal information, resources, and support to defend their freedom; and to help ensure churches can remain free to govern themselves.
In 1954, Congress passed a tax code amendment by then Sen.-Lyndon Johnson that prohibits any speech about a political candidate.
But Stanley said, the “IRS rules don’t trump the Constitution, and the First Amendment certainly trumps the Johnson Amendment.”
“No tax exemption can ever be contingent upon someone giving up a constitutional right,” he said. “We will continue to monitor this situation and take appropriate steps to defend the church (Liberty Baptist Tabernacle), if necessary.”
The third annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday, part of the Pulpit Initiative, will take place on Sept. 26. On Pulpit Freedom Sunday, participating pastors preach biblically-based sermons at their churches about the positions of electoral candidates and current government officials.

Church Revival Movement » government

Returning to the Blessed Bible

Legal Group to Defend Church Reported to IRS