The OPC Summer Institute is still looking for qualified young men from seminary and college who are considering the vocation of ministry in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The new deadline is May 15, 2013. For two days (June 18-20, 2013) in the delightful setting of New Hampshire’s White Mountains, church officers will lead participants in readings and discussions of topics of particular relevance to ministry in the OPC. These include: the distinguishing characteristics of Reformed Protestantism; the nature and value of confessional churches, the importance of the means of grace, the pilgrim character of the Christian life, and the work and proper expectations for a pastor (in either an organized congregation or mission work).
If you are interested in attending or know of someone who may be, consult this application form for the email address of the Institute’s director or simply respond to this post.
Old Life 
Fabulous idea. My son’s only 12, but I’m working on him to start thinking about maybe considering theological training and perhaps ministry someday. Sunday night we were all listening to a sermon by Rev. Doug Barnes (Covenant Reformed in Pella) on Word & Sacrament and we had a chance to talk about why we worship the way we do as Reformed People. The work of a pastor is not easy and we need to help those who have that calling to take the necessary steps.
The Barnes sermon:
[audio src="https://ia601701.us.archive.org/34/items/April212013EveningSermon/April%2021%2C%202013%20-%20Evening%20Sermon%20%28Doug%20Barnes%29.mp3" /]
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DGH, will you be leading the praise band?
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Vermonster: DGH, will you be leading the praise band?
RS: I heard he has written a song espousing the virtues of 2k to the tune of Amazing Grace and will teach and lead that. Even better, John Newton originally wrote 13 verses to the song. While DGH has just finished the six, the rest will be finished soon. He will not apply for a copyright as he does not want the government to have anything to do with it. I am not sure how that is consistent with the government protecting his books, but so be it.
Amazing 2K, how sweet the sound,
that saved an evangelical, like meeeee.
I once was lost in evangelicalism,
was blind but now 2K I see. .
Through many dangers, toils and evangelical snares
I have already come;
‘Tis 2K that brought me safe thus far
and 2K will lead me home.
2K has promised good to me.
2K my hope secures.
2K will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.
Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,
A life of 2K’s joy and peace.
T’was 2K that taught my heart to fear.
And 2K, my fears relieved.
How precious did 2K appear
The hour I first believed.
When we’ve been 2K ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We’ve no less days to sing 2K’s praise
Than when we’ve first begun.
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I. Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible Church; but also to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace of his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in the newness of life. Which sacrament is, by Christ’s own appointment, to be continued in His Church until the end of the world.
II. The outward element to be used in this sacrament is water, wherewith the party is to be baptized, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, by a minister of the Gospel, lawfully called thereunto.
V. Although it is a great sin to contemn or neglect this ordinance, yet grace and salvation are not so inseparably annexed unto it, as that no person can be regenerated, or saved, without it: or, that all that are baptized are undoubtedly regenerated.
mark: Who will be there to answer this question. What is the efficacy of water baptism? I understand that the timing of the efficacy can be delayed. I even understand that the water does not even have efficacy for all who receive it. I also understand that some will be saved without the efficacy of baptism.
( And I know there is some question about if the water is a sign “of his engrafting” or simply a sign of “engrafting”.)
But knowing those answers does not really tell me yet what is the efficacy of water baptism. Is it necessary to leave out the word “water” when we talk about “efficacy”? Or is it a better strategy to add the word “water” to those Bible texts which speak of the efficacy of baptism?
I really do like the mountains of New Hampshire. But some people can’t seem to learn what the Reformed confessions so clearly teach.
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Take Richard & Mark along to show the candidates the kind of characters they will be dealing with in ministry. If they can survive the weekend, they’re good to go.
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Vermonster, if I say yes, will you apply?
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No, I won’t ask who will be giving the talk on future justification (according to, not based on) by works.
I want to know instead who will be talking about how churches can influence the political transformation of the culture.
Carson on I Cor 7, in the latest Themelios—Part of the problem is that some of our versions render ἀνάγκη by “crisis.” The English word “crisis” conjures up a short-term supreme test or climax. By contrast, the first lexical definition provided by BDAG is “necessity or constraint as inherent in the nature of things, necessity, pressure of any kind.” None of this evokes images of crisis (such as social unrest spawned by war or famine), still less of the impending parousia.
It might be less misleading to render 1 Cor 7:26, “Because of the present constraint, I think that it is good for a man to remain as he is.” The “constraint” that is “inherent in the nature of things” is then the sum of difficult challenges coughed up by a world that is simultaneously, on the one hand, lost and subject to catastrophic judgment, and, on the other, the locus of the gospel, mysteriously ruled by Christ until death itself is destroyed (1 Cor 15:25-26). It covers the entire period between the first advent of Christ and his second. It is akin to some uses of “tribulation” in the NT. The time is “short” (1 Cor 15:29) in exactly the same sense that Jesus is coming “soon” (Rev 22:20): the last act of the old order is winding down, and the new order has already begun, though it has not yet broken out in consummation splendor.
If this is right, then all of the “as if not” phrases make sense. “From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not” (1 Cor 7:29): this cannot mean that they should become monks or otherwise withdraw from their spouses Paul cannot be dismissing marriage; rather, he means something subtler: marriage is not the summum bonum, but stands under God’s as if not. Because the new age has dawned and marriage itself does not continue into the resurrection existence of the new heaven and the new earth, then, as important and as wonderful as marriage is, the thoughtful Christian will not invest it with eternal significance.
Similarly: “From now on . . . those who mourn, as if they did not”: our tears, however free-flowing, belong to this dying age of death. They, too, stand under God’s as if not: we sorrow, but not as those who have no hope. But exactly the same thing must be said of the inverse of mourning: “those who are happy, as if they were not” (7:30). Happiness is not banned, any more than marriage is banned or mourning is banned. Rather, the happiness that the world calls forth stands under God’s as if not. Some people find their pleasure and identity in the acquisition of things, but Paul writes, “those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep” (7:30). Exactly so. It is not that there is no place for purchasing things, any more than there is now no place for marriage. But how can we attach overweening importance to things we cannot bring with us? They all stand under God’s as if not. More generically: “those who use the things of the world, as if engrossed in them” (7:31).. Paul puts the matter succinctly: “For this world in its present form is passing away” (7:31).
Carson: Recent years have witnessed a plethora of books and articles on the relationship between the gospel and culture, between proclamation and doing good deeds, between the gospel of Paul and the gospel of the kingdom. But the lesson to be learned from the passages we have been surveying in 1 Cor 7 is this: even when we are rightly developing faithful cultural expressions of art and music, even when we are digging wells in the Sahel and developing centers to help the homeless, even when we patiently and lovingly build solid marriages in line with God’s disclosure of what marriage should be, even when we connect the use of our fiscal resources to kingdom priorities, the entire fabric of our current existence stands under God’s as if not…
mark: Carson must not have got the memo from the brothers B. The time of Obama is crisis time, apocalyptic time, and it will be revealed who sat on their —— and who joined the good guys….
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Any room for a frustrated PCA TE? 😉
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DGH: Vermonster, if I say yes, will you apply?
Sorry, but if this weekend is for the “young”, my being born a week or so before The Day the Earth Stood Still‘s release would surely disqualify me.
Not only that, but I’m not sure that I could get an exit visa from the People’s Republic for such an event.
Gort, klaatu barada nikto!
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Is it different enough from the last go around to justify a second trip? I doubt as though I could fit it into my busy schedule this summer, but I would be interested in knowing the answer to that question.
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