Closer than a brother

Dr. Edwin P. Elliott, Publisher, long-time Managing Editor, and reviver of the Christian Observer – first published in 1813, Creator and Publisher of Presbyterians Week, and a pioneer in Internet ministry communications, died 11 October 2009, from the effects of a heart attack suffered two days before. Dr. Elliott was pastor at Reformed Presbyterian Church in Manassas, Virginia, from 1978 until his death. [www.christianobserver.com]

Dr. Edwin P. Elliott, Jr.
“There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother” –Prov. 18:24
What more is there to say about Edwin? From the very beginning our friendship was as brothers. It started in the year 1973 and will continue, even as he is now embraced by the Savior and Lord in paradise.
At the beginning of the PCA I traveled from Zion Presbyterian Church, Tennessee, to a meeting of Presbytery in Mississippi. Edwin was the Clerk and he nominated me as recording clerk. It was a joy to serve Christ with Edwin. His knowledge of History and Reformed doctrine was an added blessing. Edwin was an encourager and a pusher. Some twenty years ago he started me writing the weekly Bible Studies for the Observer. The last ten years resulted in our fellowship over the phone at least two times weekly. We were continually developing our great love for Christ and his Church. There was no pessimism allowed, Christ was King and he would lead us always in victory. We also had a special love for our family. We rejoiced together over wives, Ann and Kay. We prayed together with thanksgiving as we thought of my daughter Dorcas, and his daughters, Laura, Rebecca, and Elizabeth (Izzi). Through the Hanover Presbytery we saw men growing in their faith and ministry; rejoicing that the Triune God was being honored, and God alone receives the glory. We believed that the power of building of the Church and the advancement of Christ’s Kingdom was of the Spirit and the Word, and therefore were not ashamed to be called Calvinists or Reformation Protestants. Therefore, Edwin held firm to the faith once delivered to the saints. There was in Edwin’s faith the understanding that there are only three books needed to make the Church strong: The Authorized Version of the Bible, The Westminster Confession of Faith and its Catechism, and the Psalter. Edwin would not have his name glorified in any way. I hope that I or any of us would have it any other way that God be glorified, alone. This was revealed in the service which I was privileged to lead. That service was filled with the Word of God read, and the Word of God Sung. Words of the Resurrection and Life from the New Testament; Words of life and hope from the Old Testament; interspersed with the singing of Psalm 90, 36, 12, 84. God’s Name be glorified in the same manner when I graduate as did Edwin. Surely, there is great joy in knowing a friend that is closer than a brother, one whom we will be rejoicing with in God’s eternity.
Dr. Robert L. LaMay

Pray for God to raise up true Christian statesmen

Considering that many things are not taught today about the Declaration of Independence (1776); let us look at one of its 56 signers: Charles Carroll of Carrollton
“Charles Carroll was the last of the signers to pass away, dying in 1832 at the age of 95. A strong and unequivocal declaration of his Christian faith appears in numerous writings, including a letter he wrote on his 89th birthday in which he declared: ‘On the mercy of my Redeemer I rely for salvation and His merits; not on the works I have done in obedience to His precepts.’ In other of his writings, Charles Carroll explained that his Christian faith was one of the chief reasons that he had entered into the American Revolution—he was fighting to preserve religious liberty. In fact, he was so committed to Christianity that he built and personally funded a Christian house of worship.
“Charles Carroll’s life and words confirm that he was a strong Christian, and he is one of that handful of Americans who have been honored at the Capital with a statue, located in East Central Hall.” --Spiritual Heritage, David Barton

500th Anniversary - II God's Glory in Creation

July 10, 2009 - 500th Anniversary of

of John Calvin - July 10, 1509 - May 27, 1564

Psalm 104:1-4—“Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty. Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain: who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind: who maketh the angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire: who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.”

John Calvin wrote that “stupid folk cannot plead the excuse of ignorance. Therefore the prophet very aptly exclaims that he is ‘clad with light as with a garment’ [Ps. 104:2]. It is as if he said: Thereafter the Lord began to show himself in the visible splendor of his apparel, every since in the creation of the universe he brought forth those insignia whereby he shows his glory to us, whenever and wherever we cast our gaze. Likewise, the same prophet skillfully compares the heavens, as they are stretched out, to his royal tent and says that he has laid the beams of his chambers on the waters, has made the clouds his chariot, rides on the wings of the wind, and that the winds and lightning bolts are his swift messengers. [Ps. 1-4:2-4.] And since the glory of his power and wisdom shine more brightly above, heaven is often called his palace [Ps. 11:4]. Yet, in the first place, wherever you cast your eyes, there is no spot in the universe wherein you cannot discern at least some sparks of his glory. You cannot in one glance survey this most vast and beautiful systems of the universe, in its wide expanse, without being completely overwhelmed by the boundless force of his brightness. The reason why the author of The Letter to the Hebrews elegantly calls the universe the appearance of things invisible [Heb. 11:3] is that his skillful ordering of the universe is for us a sort of mirror in which we can contemplate God, who is otherwise invisible. The reason why the prophet attributes to the heavenly creatures a language known to every nation [Ps. 19:2 ff.] is that therein lies an attestation of divinity so apparent that it ought not to escape the gaze of even the most stupid tribe. The apostle declares this more clearly: ‘What men need to know concerning God has been disclosed to them, … for one and all gaze upon his invisible nature, known from the creation of the world, even unto his eternal power and divinity’ [Rom. 1:19-20].” –Institutes of the Christian Religion

500th Anniversary of John Calvin - I. WORD & SPIRIT

July 10, 2009 - 500th Anniverary of John Calvin - July 10, 1509-May 27, 1564

This is the beginning of valuable quotes from John Calvin as we approach the 500th Anniversary of his birth; a birth which brought about by the providence of God a servant of the Reformation.

I. John Calvin was a man of the Word and of the Holy Spirit. Calvin wrote: “that the Holy Spirit so adheres in His truth, which He expresses in Scripture, that only when its proper reverence and dignity are given to the Word does the Holy Spirit show forth His power. And what has lately been said—that the Word itself is not quite certain for us unless it be confirmed by the testimony of the Spirit—is not out of accord with these things. For by a kind of mutual bond the Lord has joined together the certainty of his Word and of his Spirit so that the perfect religion of the Word may abide in our minds when the Spirit, who causes us to contemplate God’s face, shine; and that we in turn may embrace the Spirit with no fear of being deceived when we recognize him in his own image, namely, in the Word. So indeed it is. God did not bring forth his Word among men for the sake of a momentary display, intending at the coming of his Spirit to abolish it. Rather he sent down the same Spirit by whose power he had dispensed the Word, to complete his work by the efficacious confirmation of the Word.” [The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Word and Spirit belong inseparably together, Bk 1, Ch 9]

On National Day of Prayer

Gary DeMar of American Vision wrote the following concerning the prayers of politicians and Christians, reminding us what prayer really is.

Organizers of the National Day of Prayer are upset that President Obama is not officially participating in the observation. He will pray privately, as he does every day, the president’s spokesman said. His only public acknowledgement will be to issue a White House proclamation. Well, I’m kind of glad. I’m tired of politicians who take the name of the Lord in vain. Please tell me how someone who supports abortion on demand, homosexuality, and generational theft by government edict should serve as the national spokesman for a day of prayer.Of course, President Obama is not the first president not to acknowledge an official observance. There were no official observances during the Clinton administration. While President George W. Bush did hold a formal White House event during his tenure as president, the Bush White House also recognized the Islamic observance of Ramadan with a White House dinner.Maybe God is telling His people something this year. Joshua expected a victory against Ai. Israel won its first encounter with Jericho without a casualty. Why should the battle with Ai be any different? The spies thought Ai was weak enough that only “two or three thousand men need go up” (Joshua 7:3). Thirty-six Israelites were killed, and the rest were pursued and assaulted by the men of Ai with the result that “the hearts of the people melted and became as water” (v. 5). Bible believing Christians have become disheartened. You know what the Israelites were thinking. “Maybe we should not have ventured to participate in this social thing. We were at least safe when we were ghettoized beyond the Jordan.” There was even fear that things would get a lot worse once the “Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land” heard about the defeat (v. 9). Joshua, voicing these concerns to God, did what today's political remorseful are recommending. “Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell on the earth on his face before the ark of the LORD until evening, both he and the elders of Israel” (v. 7). In a word, he prayed . . . hard. What did God tell him to do? “So the LORD said to Joshua, ‘Rise up! Why is it that you have fallen on your face? Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them’” (v. 11). In effect, God told Joshua to stop praying and act on the evil that brought them the defeat!Prayer is not a magical formula, an incantation that brings forth God like a Genie from a bottle. Prayer is an admission of weakness. It is in weakness that God can best use us (2 Cor. 12:10). But true faith and trust are not exercised if we do not act on the belief that God will work for us even in our weakness. Prayer is not the end but the beginning of the work God has called us to do. J. I. Packer says it this way:The Spirit does what he does. His supernaturalizing of our lives enables Christians, as a matter of fact, to do much for the Lord that they wouldn't be able to do otherwise. That's the whole doctrine of gifts and ministry. It's my part to see what God calls me to do, to ask the Lord to enable me to do it, then to get up off my knees and go confidently into action, watching to see what help I shall be given, and finally to give thanks for what the Spirit did in and through me.There is sin in the Christian camp. Entire denominations support abortion and homosexuality. Those who claim to be Bible-believing Christians maintain that abortion should be a protected right and homosexuals should have special rights protecting behavior that the Bible calls an “abomination.” The sins of Achan—“the mantle of Shinar” (humanism) and “silver and gold” (mammon)—are the sins of the church. After we fall on our face, let's be careful not to cover our ears. We might just hear God's voice saying to us, “Rise up!"

On Richard Baxter

Grandpa received this email message from Pastor Nathan Eshelman: "This past Saturday, Los Angeles RP Church met for a ministry planning day. We began with an hour of prayer and Psalm singing which was quite edifying. I then gave a lecture on Richard Baxter's work in Kidderminster, England (1640s) as a way to begin discussion about our ministries. From there Deacon Bill Aiken (who has been a member since 1919) spoke candidly about some of the history of the congregation. Then we spent the afternoon brain-stroming as we sought God's blessing for our ministry."

Reading about Richard Baxter is one of the ways we can celebrate the 500th anniversary of John Calvin. I took a tour of the Internet and found the following article by Leonard Ravenhill, 'Richard Baxter of Kidderminster' --

"Scriptural pedigree is fascinating: “Isaac begat Jacob; Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs. . .” No less intriguing is evangelical pedigree: 'Walter Craddock begat Richard Baxter; Richard Baxter, through his fiery preaching and writings, begat a multitude that no man could number.'
"Richard Baxter was born in London in 1615. I know no date for his conversion. He 'felt a great pull on his soul' about the year 1634 from the anointed preaching of Walter Craddock and Joseph Symonds. Step back a little and get a picture of the lean, lanky Richard Baxter strolling as a teenager through the woods and meditating amidst the fragrance of wild nature. He is mentally masticating the thoughts derived from three writers of his time - Bunny, Sibbes, and Perkins. From confusion he merges to conviction, from there to conversion, and then to confession of Christ.
"After Baxter's marvellous regeneration, the things of earth grew strangely dim, and he lived, moved, and had his being in God. He had in his soul the blaze of a seraph and tried to cram eternity into a lifetime. Within four years after his personal surrender to Christ, he was ordained (1641) and appointed to the church at Kidderminster, England.
"Baxter was opposed to the idea that in order to minister in the things of God a man must have the ordination of the bishops and pass through the schools of learning. He declared that he feared no man's displeasure nor hoped for any man's preferment. The latter phrase he proved by refusing a bishop's miter.
"Let us now glimpse Baxter as a preacher, revivalist, and soul-winner. No gladiator ever watched the eye of a Caesar or yearned for the plaudits of men for his skill as much as this tireless Puritan looked into the face of his God in prayer and listened for the sweet voice of the Spirit. No miser ever loved his gold as Baxter loved souls. No man, trapped by human love, ever wooed a maid as this man pled with impenitent sinners. His couplet was true: 'I preached as never sure to preach again, And as a dying man to dying men.'
"It might be a bitter herb for us present-day ministers to chew when we say that converts often take upon themselves the likeness of their spiritual father. Sparks from the soul of Baxter seem to have fallen on the souls that he so visibly affected for his Lord. Here is his record: 'Day and night they thirsted after the salvation of their neighbors.'
"The outcome of this contagious passion is best measured by Baxter's own words: 'To the praise of my gracious Master.. . the church at Kidderminster became so full on the Lord's Day that we had to build galleries to contain all the people. Our weekday meetings also were always full. On the Lord's Day all disorder became quite banished out of the town. As you passed along the streets on the Sabbath morning, you might hear a hundred households singing psalms at their family worship. In a word, when I came to Kidderminster, there was only about one family in a whole street that worshipped God and called upon His name. When I left, there were some streets where not a family did not do so. And though we had 600 communicants, there were not twelve in whose salvation I had not perfect confidence.'
"Hear his answer to the taunt that he was idle: 'The worst I wish you is that you had my ease instead of your labor. I have reason to take myself for the least of all saints, and yet I fear not to tell the accuser that in comparison to mine, I take the labor of most of the town's tradesmen to be a pleasure to the body, though I would not exchange it with the greatest prince. Their labor preserveth health; mine consumeth it. They work in ease; I in continual pain. They have hours and days of recreation; I have scarce time to eat and drink. Nobody molesteth them for their labor; the more I do, the more hatred and trouble I draw upon me.'
"The leading theologians of our day 'work out religious theories,' but - and note this well - they are not known as soul-winners. My gripe against the leading theologians of our day is that they are Bible critics lounging on flowery beds of ease and offer us from their sinecures mental suits of tailor-made theology.
"The opposite to this was the case with Baxter. His soul ached for the souls of men. Off he went beaming the blessed message of the blood of the everlasting covenant. He was no spiritual dreamer locked away in an ivory theological tower. Nor was he operating a theological laboratory, dissecting dead dogma. Like Wesley, Baxter was a practical saint. Baxter stood firm as a rock in season and out of season!
"In all, Baxter labored some nineteen years in Kidderminster and, as one writer expresses with beauty, 'Through his preaching and the power of his holy life, the whole community was changed from a habitation of cruelty and immorality to a garden of true piety.' This writer then adds: 'It stands as a moral distortion that Richard Baxter, the purest of 17th century theologians, the man who longed for, fought for, prayed for, and would cheerfully have sacrificed his life for the unification of the church, should have been imprisoned by a Protestant judge and a Protestant jury.'
"The Act of Uniformity, which came into being about 1662, meant that a revised prayer book had to be used and that all ministers not ordained by the Episcopalian Church should be unfrocked. Baxter withstood this act, and so with 2,000 other ministers, found himself without a charge. He was maligned, misquoted, and misrepresented. “In perils oft” was as true of him as the blest Covenanters, who at the same time were dyeing the heaths of Scotland with their blood.
"The final humiliation of this great soul, Richard Baxter, was in May 1685 at the hands of the notorious Judge Jeffries of the 'Bloody Assize.' Especially in his Paraphrase of the New Testament, Baxter was foolishly charged with libeling the church. For these false charges this saint was fined a sum of 400 pounds ($2,000) - a fortune in those days. Until this was paid, he was to lie in prison, bound over to keep the peace for seven years. It was last-minute clemency that saved this seventy-year-old Baxter from being tied to a cart's tail and whipped through the streets of London.
"After God, books were Baxter's chief interest. He wrote them, bought them, read them, quoted them, and gave them away. His own pen never dried. His literary efforts are staggering. In all, he wrote some 200 books. Another 200 pamphlets are accredited to him. He gave us a metrical version of the Psalms and two volumes of poetry.
"Boswell asked the famed Dr. Johnson, 'Which of Baxter's books should I read?' Johnson's reply was this: 'Read any of them; they are all good.' Treat yourself to Baxter's The Saints' Everlasting Rest or his Call to the Unconverted. And don't miss his Reformed Pastor. Some fortunate soul might find Baxter's Autobiography. Pastor, if you see it, buy it at any cost. Also read Dean Boyle's writings on Baxter (if you can find them).
“'Baxter never tampered with his oracle and never sold the truth to serve the hour.' As he aged, enfeebled in limb and racked with cruel pain, he preferred prisons to pensions and the smile of the King invisible to that of the king present. No word that he wrote did he ever withdraw.
"In that great day for which creation and all its tribes were made, I for one will sit in fascination as the King of kings rewards this faithful servant, Richard Baxter. His secret is not hard to find. 'He was animated with the Holy Spirit and breathed celestial fire to inspire heat and life into dead sinners and to melt the obdurate in their frozen tombs.'
"In this spiritual ice age we, like, Baxter, also need an anointing.
"Let me string for you a few pearls of other men's opinions about Baxter. 'If Baxter had lived in primitive times, he would have been one of the fathers of the church,' observed Bishop Wilkins. Archbishop Usher esteemed him highly. Lord Morley called Richard Baxter 'the profoundest theologian of them all.' Coleridge speaks of Baxter's Autobiography on this wise: 'I could almost as soon doubt the gospel veracity as Baxter's veracity.... Baxter feels and reasons more like an angel than a man.' 'In labors more abundant' might well have been his life's motto. Had this great soul lived as long as Methuselah, he would have given 'every flying minute something to keep in store!'" (DAYSPRING copyright (c) 1963)

Teach the Truth about Darwin

In 2009, the eyes of the world will turn to commemorate the anniversaries of the births of the two most influential men of the last one thousand years — the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin, and the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. No two men of the past millennium have done more to shape the thoughts of mankind or to affect the political and social destiny of nations than Calvin and Darwin — the former for the glory of God, and the latter for unimaginable evil. The following is a synopsis and excerpt of a larger article by Doug Phillips presented on the bicentennial of the birth of Charles Darwin. - From an article in Vision Forum

By Doug Phillips
February 12, 2009
Today is the bicentennial of Charles Darwin’s birth. What shall we tell our children about this great man?
I have pondered this question for some time. Certainly there is much to say about the specifics of his Theory, its pernicious influence on the world, and the shoddy scholarship that produced it. Perhaps there is even more to say about the god-like status attributed to him by his worshippers in the unbelieving world, or the deep faith in man, materialism, and process to which they cling.
But on a more fundamental level, there are just a few things I want my children to know about Darwin the man. These are the summaries of my lessons to my children:

1. Darwin was bitter.
Charles Darwin was once a student of theology preparing for the priesthood in the Anglican Church. His experiences in university, traveling, and through his studies contributed to his gradual rejection of the Bible over time. However, it was when he lost his beloved daughter, Annie, that Darwin began to grow bitter. Darwin allowed his bitterness over the death of his daughter to destroy his faith in God. This bitterness impacted Darwin’s entire worldview, and he turned to vain speculation and “the oppositions of science falsely so called” (I Tim 6:21). Darwin became foolish because he said in his heart that there is no God (Proverbs 14:1). He lacked knowledge because he refused to fear God (Proverbs 1:7). Because he was bitter at God, his reason was adversely affected, as explained in I Corinthians 2:14: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

2. Darwin worshipped a false God.
All men are religious because all men have an object of worship. They either worship the Creator, or they worship the creature — but they worship something (Romans 1). Darwin’s bitterness directed him to a new form of religious zealotry. He exchanged faith in Christianity for a form of religious pantheism known as materialism. By faith he tenaciously clung to this belief system, exalting the vain speculations and reasoning of man over the infallible Revelation of God. In the end, Darwin’s God was his mind, and his mind told him that truth could be found in the material world without reference to any higher authority like the God of the Bible.

3. Darwin was sloppy and he was not a scientist.
Darwin was a theology student. He was not a scientist. He was, however, able to talk his way into opportunities through which he hoped to present himself to others as a naturalist. Darwin allowed his new-formed faith in man, materialism, and process to justify irrationality, shoddy scholarship, and wild speculation. Once in the field, his lack of training and his inability to draw reasonable conclusions from his observations became apparent. This is why many followers of his Theory of Evolution must ignore the actual research of Darwin during the Voyage of the Beagle and elsewhere, since so much of his work in places like the Galapagos Islands has been discredited.

4. Darwin trained his children to hate the God of the Bible.
Every father leaves a legacy to his children. That legacy is defined by the battles he fought, the character he modeled, the lessons he left behind through word and deed. Darwin’s life legacy was the rejection of the faith of his fathers for a faith in the autonomous mind of man as the final and absolute court of appeal for all matters religious and scientific. Free from the bondage of Divine Revelation, Darwin believed man could finally come to truth. Darwin’s progeny took the philosophy of their famous ancestor and used it to justify a bold and arrogant atheism. Darwin’s rejection of the faith of his own fathers and his embrace of the new theology of naturalistic materialism resulted in generations of God-haters in the Darwin family. Commenting on his own materialistic faith which negates the belief in God, Sir Charles Galton Darwin, grandson of the author of the Origin of the Species, wrote: “I am entirely lacking in the thing which so many people seem to regard as their mainstay in life, a mystical sense of religion. This I lack, and I am perfectly content to be without it.”

5. Darwin trained others to be hateful toward their fellow man.
Darwin introduced the world to a form of radical atheistic fundamentalism that is responsible for bigotry, hatred, and the death of untold numbers of humans. This religious fundamentalist worldview is also exclusive. By this I mean that the leaders of this faith cannot tolerate opposing views. In fact, the high priests of this new religion — men who populate universities around the world — demand that all individuals submit to the tenets of their faith or be excluded from both the discussion and the political franchise.

Darwin’s presuppositions included a form of racial bigotry, a belief that the world matures as the strong kill the weak, and the assumption that man can know truth apart from Jesus Christ—of whom the Bible says He is “the way, the truth and the light.” Future followers of these principles that Darwin taught in moderation would take them to an extreme, applying them to social theory. It was the neo-Darwinian social theorists who gave us abortion, eugenics, Nazism, and a host of evils that plague the earth to this day.

6. Darwin Darwin’s legacy could be the legacy of anyone who worships the creature more than the Creator.
When men look to the creation, rather than the Creator, for ultimate answers they begin the process of reprobation that leads to complete destruction. Romans 1 says this: For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

Apart from Jesus Christ, any of us — even you my children — could end up with the same miserable legacy as Charles Darwin. Here is the antidote: Ecclesiastes 12:13: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”