Church Courts

Does the PCA in general understand the role of music in the worship of the Reformed Church? The answer must be no if our annual experience at the General Assembly gives any indication. What the Reformation revived was the congregational singing of the patristic church. The medieval church had...

The Scandal of Undisciplined Disciples: Making Church Discipline Edifying. James Durham. Reformation Heritage Books, 2022. 165 pp. Softcover. $14. The dying words of Rev. James Durham (1622-1658) [1] was his major writing on the vital need for proper ecclesiastical disciplinary procedures in, A...

Dear Mr. False Teacher, Permit me to write boldly to you. You have repeated your shallow shibboleths in sermons, blogs, and conferences, and you have tried very hard to pretend that secular society is a neutral playground, a marketplace of ideas where Christianity is welcome to flourish. You punt...

Editor's note : Theology for Everyone (TfE) recognizes that churches and denominations hold different views on the deaconate. We also recognize that these are intramural debates among those who embrace the essentials of the faith. However, we also believe that iron sharpens iron. We believe that...

This Church Discipline series focused on guiding members in need of repentance by formal levels of rebuke. But the hopeful prayer of elders at each point of censure along the way is that it need never go further, especially not to the final act of excommunication. Proverbs 25:11-12 reads, A word...

There are times within a disciplinary process that some in the church must be temporarily postponed from their normal opportunity to take part in the formal fellowship or service of the saints. The status of those so suspended is not revoked (as with excommunication from membership or deposition...

Reformed, confessional theologians often point out that discipline is one of three signs of a true church. [1] Highlighting this distinguishing mark, my seminary professor once rhetorically asked our class, “How many true churches are out there?” The Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) chapter 30...

In 381 the Council of Constantinople wrote the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed. In that creed we find the attributes of the Church. The famous line says that the church is “one, holy, catholic and apostolic.” However, in the days of the Reformation disputes arose. The Roman Catholics contested the...

No Creed but the Bible? James Renihan joins us. He’s president and professor of Historic Theology at IRBS Theological Seminary in Mansfield, TX. At issue: Is it accurate to say that Baptists have no confessions, and “no creed but the Bible”? Our guest quickly and politely debunks these myths! What...

Anne du Bourg – A Conflicted Martyr Anne du Bourg is an important French Protestant who is almost entirely forgotten. Born around 1520 in Riom, in the French region of Auvergne, he studied law at the University of Orléans, where he received his doctorate in 1550. He then remained there as professor...