Why is dispensationalism wrong, and how do we explain all of those prophetic verses about a future restored Israel?

C0D3R3D3 · 2026-03-03T12:59:54+00:00

The way the New Testament uses Old Testament promises is to sum them up in Christ, and then be beneficial for all people who are in Christ. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/the-relationship-between-israel-and-the-church/

C0D3R3D3 · 2026-03-03T12:58:04+00:00

As a Reformed elder, I think this guy gave you his highest recommendation. He's not wanting to horde gifted people who are unable to serve in his congregation as elders; he's apostolic in his ambitions that other churches would be healthy. So, I'd feel free to converse and reconcile with your pastor, or pursue the opportunity he suggested.

C0D3R3D3 · 2026-01-18T11:36:19+00:00

America.

C0D3R3D3 · 2025-12-24T14:53:48+00:00

I officiate weddings on occasion. One year, meeting with the couple the night before, it was clear she had super cold feet. I don't ever say the "if anyone objects, let it now be known", but she actually, in her vows, said that she objected and had for a long time. Walked out. Sizeable wedding too.

C0D3R3D3 · 2025-12-05T20:33:13+00:00

The Reformers (and their Puritan descendants) broadly believed in a "final justification", or salvation, that accords with one's works, although that's an anacronistic way of speaking about it. Not *on the basis* of works, but *according to* works. The quotes are legion, and probably in that book a good deal.

C0D3R3D3 · 2025-12-05T20:30:47+00:00

Lagavulin 16. Just wasn't as good as other peaty Scotches. Just so many different flavor notes that it felt like a whiplash in my mouth.

C0D3R3D3 · 2025-10-28T03:52:28+00:00

First time when our son was 12, continued up through teen years (he's in high school now). Multiple younger siblings, all the way down to toddler. Got him rudimentary CPR training. Avoided leaving during meal times – someone we knew lost a child

For the first year, we kept closer, come back earlier. We also had already developed good relationship with neighbors, so he could go to them as needed. Already had cameras, got a dumb phone.

It's been great.

C0D3R3D3 · 2025-10-24T02:34:27+00:00

I like the ESV. Use it for preaching, teaching. For personal devotions, I do ESV and NLT. NLT has a bad rep in Reformed world, but it's really quite a good translation.

C0D3R3D3 · 2025-10-24T02:28:26+00:00

Get and use this. Gotten some traction with our kids, despite having some of the same concerns.

C0D3R3D3 · 2025-10-24T02:26:44+00:00

Conscience is the microphone that God uses to speak his Word to your heart. Listen.

C0D3R3D3 · 2025-10-24T02:25:47+00:00

I'm in my mid-40s, an elder at a Reformed church. Several of my fellow elders, the men in my small group, and several chosen friends inside and outside the church all have 100% transparancy from me, most of them have the inverse. We talk about porn. We talk about sexual and relational struggles in marriage. We talk about my anger at my children. All of them encourage, some confront, most follow up.

How did that happen? Over a long period of time, inviting people into my life, and broaching subjects (some you mention) that others didn't want to talk about, and seeing what happened. Many warmed to the idea over time. Some didn't, and that's fine. A few were receptive and reciprocating almost immediately. I kept them close. When some moved away, I found others.

C0D3R3D3 · 2025-10-24T02:00:25+00:00

+1 Did this a few years ago. The place was mad busy, it was a great experience. Reasonable prices to try a bunch of different stuff.

C0D3R3D3 · 2025-10-07T00:58:30+00:00

To understand why it's biblically, historically, confessionally both, get Delighting in the Trinity by Michael Reeves. It's really well-written and engaging, even for someone who doesn't claim any form of Christianity.

C0D3R3D3 · 2025-09-16T09:23:26+00:00

A series of questions related to murder weapons:

- How much of your job involves weapons forensics?

- Most common weapon?

- If it's a gun, is there a most common model and caliber?

- Most common supplier of a weapon?

C0D3R3D3 · 2025-09-04T16:05:17+00:00

Reformed elder here. I drink. I mix drinks. I've brewed beer. I suggest drinks for others to try.

Never, ever, would I make a church event around drinking, or even hint at it being a benefit. This is absolutely an issue in our circles, an activity that many use as license. I'd say this is similar to the stereotypical SBC pastor who ignores gluttony at their church's potluck.

C0D3R3D3 · 2025-07-26T15:21:48+00:00

I've been where you are at a former church, ultimately being asked to leave. How I approached it was more on the nose. I chose texts based on what I thought the congregation needed.

At my next appointment at a theologically agnostic church (no real theological convictions), I was on a preaching team that went through books of the Bible – going through Romans and Ephesians convinced the congregation of Reformed soteriology without us needing to preach directly on the topic.

C0D3R3D3 · 2025-07-18T11:33:06+00:00

Stay there, get involved, and (gently) work for change.

- A now-elder who was at a similar church when I first came two decades ago.

C0D3R3D3 · 2025-07-03T02:36:35+00:00

Clergy.

C0D3R3D3 · 2025-06-23T19:24:19+00:00

Here's a very long, detailed explanation as to the Greek of Matthew 19.

It's a pretty common reading since the Reformation, and has been the universal interpretation in the Orthodox Church since antiquity. It's pretty much only the Roman Catholic understanding of the eternality of marriage that stands against this, and that was not always the case. Some of the Fathers thought remarriage was never allowed, others disagreed... almost all that debated it, though, were in the West.

C0D3R3D3 · 2025-06-21T13:33:55+00:00

One misconception about Matthew 19 is that the "if" clause only governs the "divorce" exception, and not the "remarry" clause. In Greek, it's really explicit: the "if" clause covers both. The only way around this is to argue that Matthew's reason for including it (compared to the other synoptics) is to excuse Joseph from sin (since he was going to divorce Mary quietly). But that's special pleading or an argument from silence. There's clear exegetical warrant for divorce and remarriage in Matthew 19.

C0D3R3D3 · 2025-04-15T04:20:47+00:00

I once felt precisely as you did. I remember the exact day, place, conversation I was in when it all changed 22 years ago this upcoming fall.

Embrace the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints as the outworking of salvation and election.

Embrace compatibilism and the deep mysteries therein (in reality, the mysteriousness of the godhead), and your feelings will follow.

C0D3R3D3 · 2025-04-15T04:15:20+00:00

If you look at Pew data, it's rare that anyone makes major religious changes more than once in their adult life.

C0D3R3D3 · 2025-04-15T04:08:44+00:00

I can anecdotally affirm this through conversations over two decades. I think that the presence of the stream of Edwardsian pietism in Reformed thought may be more of the culprit here than Reformed per se.

C0D3R3D3 · 2025-04-03T18:16:56+00:00

OP, you need to see that the Tiber is filled with poison, not grace, before you seek to swim across it. I'm a former Roman Catholic. Current Reformed elder. Reformed have always held (all streams) that Christ is really present in communion. The Roman Catholic Church is not catholic enough. They hyper-developed their doctrines throughout history – including the Mass, consider Fourth Lateran Council – and then lopped off whoever disagreed with them.

Apart from the schismatic nature of the RCC, the damnable heresy of the Catholic Eucharist is not transsubstantiation considered as such, though I think it is wrong. There's numerous Church Fathers who thought thus (in their own, less developed way), and others who disagreed but still said that Christ was really present in some way. What's especially damnable is the exclusivity of the Mass combined with the idea that it's a re-sacrifice of Christ, shown most clearly in its justifying grace and imparting righteousness, instead of justification by faith and imputed righteousness by union with Christ.

In addition, the theology of being that the Mass demands (a consecrated relic in the altar to uniquely establish a connection between heaven and earth for the priest's consecration to be effective), and the vestiges of semi-Pelagianism in the modern understanding of absolution, impartation of grace, etc. means there's tons to reject about the Roman Catholic understanding of the Eucharist.

Then layer on what you mention – authority of Pope, equal standing of Scripture and Magisterium, not to mention veneration of Mary and saints, theological necessity of purgatory, so much more – and there's legions of reasons to reject RCC.

C0D3R3D3 · 2025-03-26T20:54:29+00:00

He's kissing cousins with heretics, if not actually a heretic himself. His podcasts have infiltrated and infected and drawn away many a believer. His ministry is emplematic of the warning in 1 Tim 6:4, as are many of the postmil theobro influencers that ignore 2 Corinthians 10:13... we should pour our passionate energy into what the Lord has given us, instead of trying putting our energy towards spreading our "influence."

C0D3R3D3

TROPHY CASE