Urban Puritano

Dreams, visions, promptings may not be spiritual gifts, but what is their ongoing spiritual significance? Are they inherently authoritative?

Is their content veridical? How can we assess them? Do they provide infallible guidance as lesser rules of faith and practice?

Must confessional calvinists be against hyper-cessationism? Our guest, Ryan Denton, says:
“Yes!” I tend to demur and say: “If loving hyper-cessationism is wrong, then I don’t wanna be right!”

Is there divine communicative intent to dreams? Did His revelation end in the New Testament or is He still speaking to us today through our dreams, visions, and promptings?

Beginning with the premise that dreams, visions, and promptings are facts in the sense that they exist—the host explores how he assesses testimonies from the past and present of dreams, visions, promptings to the Christian life in the here and now. Join us as we scratch the surface on a disagreement on a secondary issue among brothers concerning an aspect of cessationism. If your anger and frustration levels rise, touch grass!

What does deconstruction mean in the context of faith, Christianity, and the Church? On today's episode, we scratch the surface on the phenomena of deconstruction, deconversion, and apostasy. We've all heard of professing believers fall away from the faith. Sometimes, we've even known them. What does the confession (2LBC or WCF) say about such people and their faith in flux? Is there hope for the backslider or must deconstruction win the day? Take up and listen as I talk to Pastor of Christ the King Reformed Baptist Church about Deconstruction from a Pastoral perspective.

Pastor Mike Neglia invited me to The Expositor's Collective to discuss my recently published book:

Christ's Scope and Scepter: His Word, His World

With his permission, I've slightly edited it and chopped it up in a good way...not like the way the Quadriga chops up the Word of God.
Speaking of chopping things up that shouldn't be chopped up, we discuss the continuity between a Christocentric interpretation of the Word and a Christocentric interpretation of the world. For me that has taken me on an adventure in Christian Education, Spanish lay preaching in church, and healthcare chaplaincy. 

This conversation scratches the surface on issues covered more in depth in my book. Don't just take up and listen for my spicy, confessional take on the pre-critical Quadriga. Stay for the encouragement to join the ranks of lay ministers in church and chaplains in healthcare. The harvest is ripe and the Christocentric laborers are few!

Reformed Baptists. Confessionalism. Honoring our predecessors, investing in our successors. Religion & the State. A Political Reckoning in America. Leftist Meltdowns. Masculinity. On Wives and Hobbits. Getting to know the neighbors. Zachary Garris. "Sinning in the right direction."
Joel Webbon. White Knight Syndrome. "Attractional Church Model." Is re-posting Andrew Tate approvingly equally as problematic as re-posting Calvin Robinson? Wes Huff, Joe Rogan, Billy Carson. Networking. Moody Bible Institute students. A smorgasbord of topics!

FROM THE VAULTS! This episode survived a house fire and was almost lost. Now, a year later, it has been recovered for such a time as this! 

Biblically, theologically, and pastorally, we scratch the surface on Dr. Jared Moore’s book titled, “The Lust of the Flesh: Thinking Biblically About Sexual Orientation, Attraction, and Temptation.”

Gird your loins and ponder the verities of this solid conversation about an issue the church in North America, especially, has had a lot of unnecessary confusion about.

Like a bombshell on the lay theologian's playground, I am happy to announce a forthcoming new book I wrote that I hope serves the body of Christ! (https://urbanpuritano.com/new-book-preview).

CHRIST'S SCOPE AND SCEPTER: HIS WORD, HIS WORLD scratches several layers below the surface to show the continuity between a Christocentric interpretation of the Word and a Christocentric interpretation of the world, the trinitarian contours of which all believers should be familiar with.

In this episode, I give a little bit of the back stories of how this work came together and how the fusion of hermeneutics, Biblical Theology, and worldview thinking can benefit the Church for such a time as this. Part 1 lays the groundwork for interpreting the Word. Part 2 is a rubber meets the road extending reading and test case from the Old Testament. Part 3 concludes with a Christocentric vision of the world.

In unabashedly confessional Calvinist fashion, the book shows how the rays of Christocentrism shine forth in the midst of the endarkenment of medieval interpretive sensibilities such as found in the Quadriga. Finding the Bible's meaning involves not an ascent to higher realms of spiritual meanings, but a sometimes arduous descent and digging into the text of Scripture. No dualism exists in the Word. The Bible's meaning is at once nothing more than literal and nothing less than spiritual. This same posture is taken in order to rightly "see" the world. In His light, we see light. In the pursuit of faith seeking understanding, God's truth is all truth!

Readers will be able to use this book as a resource at Church, in small groups, at home, Bible College, Seminary, and of course, by yourself with your Bible under a tree! 

Take up and read a free preview!
 

What's on the menu for today's discussion? Topical? Textual? Verse by verse?

No! It's the other white meat: Redemptive Historical Preaching!

I would actually liken it to red meat since Redemptive Historical Preaching is a form of Expository Preaching. 

From the vaults of the "Cross-Eyed" Podcast with Bryant Rueda, we are serving up much food for thought concerning the Redemptive Historical approach to preaching. 

* Why is Redemptive Historical Preaching Important?
* What is its relation to Christ-centered hermeneutics?
* Is there a Redemptive Historical formula or algorithm to follow?
* Do we set aside a Literal-Grammatical Hermeneutic?
* Is it Scriptural?
* and more!

In today's environment, the Redemptive Historical approach to preaching may seem alien. Is Redemptive Historical preaching from Mars and Expository Preaching from Venus?

Gird your loins as we scratch the surface on the theory and nuts and bolts of Redemptive Historical Preaching!

"For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.

But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." Hebrews 5:12-14 (KJV).

Resources:

https://urbanpuritano.com/podcast/cross-eye-biblicism-a-back-to-basics-conversation-featuring-bryant-rueda

https://urbanpuritano.com/podcast/biblical-interpretation-according-to-calvinism

https://urbanpuritano.com/podcast/a-christocentric-alley-oop

https://urbanpuritano.com/podcast/jerusalem-and-jesus-the-shadow-of-christ-in-the-conquest-of-zion

FROM THE VAULTS! This episode was recorded at the end of 2023. Better late than never!

I was like a fly on the wall to the weekly Pastoral Prayer and Care Meeting where the Pastor and two Pastoral Assistants, Matt and Stephen, conduct a Lord's Day Service review, pray for each other and the church, and plan ahead for ministry.

Little did we know how much on the verge of WW3 2024 would be! Regardless of the chaos, however, I was encouraged to hear how committed to faithfully proclaiming God's Word these men were. Among the topics we scratched the surface of were:

* Confessionalism
* Seminary
* Church Life
* Egalitarianism
* Christendom
* Christian Nationalism
* Moscow Mood
* Political Theology
* Reformed 2K
* A Republic if you can keep it
* Two Tables of the Law
* The Church's Purpose
* Discerning the Times
* and more!

I greatly appreciate the wide range of issues that are on their pastoral radar and the desire to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. These gifted brethren bleed Bibline!
 

There once was a pastor from Scotland
Whose name was Begg, not McLachlan
Out of no where one day
To old ladies he’d say
Bring gifts and attend that transgender function.

Well, despite my attempt at capturing one particular example of doctrinal and pastoral decay in American Evangelicalism, am I really that far off? Poetically, yes. Actually, no.

Allow me to extend podcast hospitality to two guests in discussing their article and their mention of the now infamous case of Alistair Begg's advice to a troubled soul concerning participation in a transgender wedding mirage ceremony. Pastor Brandon Myers and Scott Polender.

What can be assessed based on the known facts? Is theological triage applicable here? Should ministers circle the wagons around Begg's ministry and counsel? Has Scripture been faithfully interpreted and applied? Is repentance by those who disagree with Begg in order or does Begg need to repent for the way he handled Scripture and this counsel to a troubled conscience?   

Read the article that first shined the light on this and other symptoms of doctrinal decay:
The Desperate Decay of Doctrine in American Evangelicalism - American Reformer

Un Devocional Expositivo de Romanos 1:16-17 | El Evangelio de la Reforma es el Evangelio de las Escrituras