The Prophetic Presbyterian & His Narrow Way

When you think about, the 4th Commandment reminds us that we must lay down our (rooted) works righteousness in order to be justified,   12 And the Lord said to Moses, 13 “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. 14 You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you.  Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.  15 Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. 16 Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. 17 It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lordmade the h...

Let’s take a look at the 4th Commandment in Exodus 20 8  “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9  Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10  but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the  Lord  your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.   11  For in six days the  Lord  made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the  Lord  blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. The 4th Commandment is part of an increasingly specific list.     God is the only Creator-Deliverer. Worship no other gods; there is only one, the I AM THAT I AM. Don’t take God’s name in vain.    Don’t say “Thus says the LORD!” when the LORD has not so said.  The Sabbath is blessed by God.    Find 1 day out of 7 t...

The first clear Sabbath command appears with Israel, and Exodus 31:16-17 says it was a sign between God and the children of Israel.   Actually it first appears as an enumerated command in Exodus 20:8.  Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are New Covenant ordinances commanded by Christ and His apostles. Sabbath-keeping is not. Baptism & the Lord’s Supper correspond to circumcision & washings & the Jewish liturgical feast cycle.     They are acts of inductive-intuitive prophecy through which God speaks.   Your theology of what Sabbath regulations encompass is grossly defiecient.    Administration of ordinances is governed by the 1st Table of the Law as a whole.   Colossians 2:16 says, “Let no man therefore judge you… in respect of… the sabbath days.” So the New Covenant does not bind Sabbath law on Christians. The present administration of the Covenant of Grace most certainly does. We are still commanded to administer & obse...

There are some Christians who think that the New Testament doesn’t support the administration & observance of the Sabbath.       In their minds, the 4th Commandment no longer applies whereas the other 9 do.     One way they articulate this runs through drawing a sharp distinction between what they call the Old Covenant & another covenant they call the New Covenant.  What follows comes from an interaction I myself had on social media a day or 2 ago.  The Bible itself uses “new covenant” language, not merely as a casual descriptor. Jeremiah 31:31 says, “I will make a new covenant.”  Notice that the text uses the word A not THE.     God says He will make A new covenant not THE New Covenant.   Hebrews 8:8-13 quotes that and says the first covenant became old.  Which means old is a descriptor of  A  previous covenant **The Old Covenant.** The proper name of the covenant that precedes the one you call The ...

For the past 2 or 3 weeks, the Christian Internet/Social Media has been abuzz with chatter about the Gubbmit revealing that space aliens exist & are demons. First of all, this all comes across as yet another conspiracy theory working its way through some quarters of American Evangelicalism.     Second, why would space aliens be demons.      Maybe some are & some aren’t.    So what if some of them are.     Demons are still beings who left their positions of power & authority (Jude).   Most importantly why is a challenge for our faith as Christians?     According to the Bible, the purpose of the created order is to testify to God’s existence, attributes, & authority (Romans 1:18 - 32).    God is not tribal, territorial spirit.     God is universal.     He created everyone & everything every-when-&-where.      That means that if extr...

In skeptical circles these days, it is not at all unusual to hear that the Gospels are anonymous works.  The implication is that the ascriptions are fabrications. If / When you run across this assertion, pay careful attention to the way it is often argued.   You’ll get a range of opinions, some of which argue against this Levi person being the author because nobody writes themselves into the story that way,  Others argue that the people who added the ascription “Kata Matthaion” were motivated by the need to render the text authoritative in light of competing claims of authenticity of any number of works, as if doing so means the traditional authorship is inaccurate,  Bart Ehrman has been known to assert that nobody writes in “Title according to author name” form. 1. Authors throughout history have written in 3rd person / 3rd person omniscient form .  The issue therefore isn’t whether or not an author would do such a thing.  The issue is whether or not Matth...