This Week at Christ Reformed Church (October 5-11)

Sunday Morning (October 11):  We will resume our series on Ezra-Nehemiah, and address the rising dissent within the ranks of the Israelites as recounted in Nehemiah 5.  Our Lord's Day worship service begins at 10:30 a.m.

Sunday Afternoon:  We are continuing our study of the Heidelberg Catechism (Lord's Day 2 Q & A 3-5), and we will address the misery brought about by human sin.  Our service begins @ 1:15 p.m.

Wednesday Night Bible Study:  Will resume on October 14, as we return to our study of Paul's letter to the Galatians.

The Academy:  On Hiatus (TBA)

For More Information on Christ Reformed Church you can always find us here (Christ Reformed Info), or on Facebook (Christ Reformed on Facebook)

This Week's White Horse Inn

You Are What You Feel?

We are continuing our series on Brand Me, issues in authority and identity in the Christian life, on the White Horse Inn. This week we will be looking at feelings in a therapeutic culture. What are feelings and how should they shape our identity? Are our feelings that which constitute who we are and the moral path we should follow?

Are we what we feel? What are the challenges of the Christian faith in a therapeutic world? That's what we're going to be asking in this program. What does it mean when we keep trying in this culture to invent and reinvent ourselves? When objective truth is no longer valued, subjective experience fills the void. The result is that feelings end up becoming the new reality. Thus, sinful feelings of various kinds aren't things to be repressed or resisted but end up becoming defining characteristics which are to be not only enjoyed but celebrated as they shape our new identities. Join us this week on another edition of the White Horse Inn as we discuss such an important topic.

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The Missus and I Crossed the Tiber -- In a Tour Bus and It Was Raining

Micki and I finally made it to our last destination--Rome.  This was after two days of walking ourselves sore in Florence.

My disdain for Roman theology only grew after seeing paintings of Saint Francis supposedly receiving the stigmata, as well as the "Assumption of Mary" in the famous Uffizzi gallery in Florence.  Quite a place--despite the papal influence scattered throughout--and well worth being sore and leg weary the next day.

We have had great weather our entire trip--until today.  Rained hard all day.  But we donned our hats and jackets, grabbed our umbrellas, and went for it.  We spent five hours in Rome--about a tenth of what is necessary.  I know many of you have been to Rome, but this was my first trip, and it was under very adverse conditions.  Wow-there are not words.

To stay dry, we spent much of our time in the Capitoline Museum.  I had no idea Constantine had such a big head!

It was pouring as we made it to the Forum, and we had to turn back to catch our return bus.  Never did made it to the Colosseum or Titus' Arch, but I did get a picture of both from a distance.  Here's Titus' Arch.

Oh well, we'll just have to come back some day, Lord willing!

Finally, if anyone needs papal/priestly accoutrements, we found just the place--"The Mitre Store."

The Lion of Princeton -- In Stock!

The Lion of Princeton is now available through Amazon and other book distributors!  In fact, the first batch at Amazon sold out!

To order now, go here:  Lion of Princeton

For more information on this study, go here: The Lion of Princeton -- Preview and endorsements

With the Saints in Milan on the Lord's Day

 I'm standing with Rev. Andrea Ferrari, pastor of the Chiesa Evangelica Riformata Filadelfia, a URCNA church plant in Milan.  What a joy to worship with brothers and sisters who love Christ and his saving work.

The church was full and pastor Ferrari shared the news with us of several promising church planting efforts in Italy and Romania. It is truly exciting to hear what God is doing throughout Italy and beyond.  What a wonderful thing to hear of a growing number of Heidelbergers in a land so dominated by Romanism.

The Lord's Day bulletin was familiar to us, even if in Italian--my faint remembrance of ecclesiastical Latin certainly helped.

Any time you walk into a church bookstore and the first thing you see is a book from B. B. Warfield translated into Italian, you know you are in the right place!

Is It Just Me, or Does Francis I Remind Anyone Else of . . .

Peter Seller's portrayal of Chauncey Gardiner in the film Being There?

My DNA-Driven Family Reunion

Urs Rothlisberger and I stand atop the "Rothlisberg," a small hill in Heimesbach near the city of Langnau-Im-Emmental, in the Canton of Bern.   We had never met, and had no idea whatsoever of any family ties until we both took DNA tests and got a match.  Urs and I share the exact same y-DNA, have a common ancester (Cunradt Rothlisberger, baptized in the Reformed church of Langnau 1561), and the Rothlisberger family lived in this area for many centuries--many of the line settling in the Langnau area, some heading to the new world.  What a thrill to finally stand here together.  I wonder what our ancestors would think about two long-lost cousins standing together on the site of the old family farm?

The view from the top was simply breath-taking.  We could see radio towers in Bern in one direction, and the Alps in another.  The family which now owns the land welcomed "the two Americans" as Urs explained our interest in their hill.  They stopped their farm work, served us coffee and homemade Walnut-cake and wanted to know all about how Urs and I were connected.  They told us that they were worried when Ben Roethlisberger came to the same area several years ago looking for his ancesters, who descend from Cunradt's brother Nikolaus.  Ben had a big Swiss media group with him, and they were worried about too many people tramping on their farm.  Ben never did make it here--but we did (thanks to Urs)!  The family was sure gracious to us, showing us old pictures and explaining everything! 

The "new" farmhouse was built in the 1820's on the site of the old Rothlisberger farmhouse.  Some of the outbuildings date from the early 1700's.

It had been raining all week, but God graciously provided a perfect, warm Fall day.  All-in-all, the reunion fulfilled every expectation, and has become one of those remarkable days in life you will remember vividly until you die.

The Communion of Saints

My wife and I were privileged to experience the communion of saints in a unique and wonderful way.  On the Lord's Day we worshiped with the saints of the Independent Evangelical and Reformed Church in Heidelberg.  I preached on 1 John 2:18-27, "antichrist is coming" as the capstone to our series on eschatology.  We sang psalms and recited the creed in German, we shared a common cup with fellow Reformed Christians at the Lord's Table, and we felt as though we were in our home church.  Truly an amazing experience.

The pictures above are of Rev. Sebastian Heck, the pastor (along with me and the church's sign--the first question and answer of the catechism), while the other is of their bulletin, which contains a liturgy very much like our own.

Luther, Ursinus, Olevianus

During our walking tour of Heidelberg, led by Rev. Sebastian Heck, we stood on the spot where Martin Luther gave his famous "Heidelberg Disputation" (in April of 1518) while speaking at the Augustinian Cloister in the city.  It was one of Luther's first public discourses.  Luther spoke on human sinfulness and the bondage of the will.  One of those in the audience that day--Martin Bucer of Strasbourg--became a follower of Luther as a result.  Johann Eck also got wind of Luther's lecture, and subsequently challenged Luther to a debate which became known as the Leipzig Debate.

This is St. Peter's Church in Heidelberg, where Caspar Olevianus (1536–1587) served as pastor for a number of years.   St. Peter's was considered the "university" church of the famed University of Heidelberg, founded in 1386.  Students and faculty worshipped here.    

This was one of the high points of the trip so far---enjoying a fine cup of coffee and a pastry while sitting at tables in the old town square.  We were just outside the magnificent Church of the Holy Spirit where Zacharius Ursinus often preached, as did Olevianus.  A great way to spend an hour or so before dinner!

I'll bet our small group were among the very few in the vast multitude of tourists passing through the square who even cared about such things.

A Very Pleasant Surprise . . .

The members of the Selbständige Evangelisch-Reformierte Kirche surprised me with a German edition of my book, A Case for Amillennialism.

The translation was done by one of the church members and approved by the publisher (Baker Books).  The German title means "Dispute Over the Millennium."