The Brideposting will continue until morale improves.

It has been a true pleasure, as well as a blessing, watching this channel grow over the last couple years. Posting here has been, in its own way, an artistic release for me, and a source of welcomed obligation. After some consideration however, I’ve concluded it would be best for me to step away from telegram and focus my attention on all that the Lord has put before me in my day to day life. Being a loving husband to my wife, an attentive father to my children, an active brother in my church, and most of all, an obedient servant to Jesus Christ. I pray I’ve left enough material here that you would all be well served to visit it from time to time as you wish, and that it would inspire you to dig into the beautiful depths of God’s Word yourselves. Thank you all for being here, and for offering me, though you may not have been aware of it, great motivation to further my own studies/growth in my life in Christ. Good bless you all.

“Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.”

1 Peter 4:19

Every Saturday part of a reformation confession or catechism is posted. This week we have Lord's day 3 from the Heidelberg catechism.

Lord’s Day 3
6.Q. Did God create man so wicked and perverse?
A. No. God created man good and in his own image, that is, in true righteousness and holiness, so that he might truly know God his creator, love him with all his heart, and live with him in eternal happiness for His praise and glory.
Genesis 1:26,27,31; Psalm 8; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10.

7.Q. Then where does man’s corrupt nature come from?
A. From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise. This fall has so poisoned our nature that we are born sinners - corrupt from conception on.
Genesis 3; Psalm 51:5; Romans 5:12,18,19.

8.Q. But are we so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good and inclined toward all evil?
A. Yes, unless we are born again, by the Spirit of God.
Genesis 6:5; Genesis 8:21; Job 14:4; Isaiah 53:6; John 3:3-5.

Please go to Church tomorrow.

“Against both Aquinas and Hodge, the Bible alone is the source from which Christians are called to draw their epistemology. Scripture is adequate for every good work, including defending the faith (2 Tim. 3:16-17). In Christ are all the treasures of wisdom stored (Col. 2:3). The Christian is called to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:3–5). The only biblically acceptable apologetic is therefore one which is drawn from the Bible and acknowledges the epistemic lordship of Christ. Any position other than this is merely knowledge falsely so called (1 Tim. 6:20).

Not only are epistemologies derived from sources other than Scripture dishonoring to Christ, but they lead to an abortive defense of the faith. Whether one’s theory of knowledge is grounded in demonstrative reasoning, common sense or something else, this, and not Scripture becomes the ultimate authority of the one who adheres to it. It becomes surer than the sure word of God. But Scripture teaches us that Scripture itself is to be our final authority (2 Pet. 1:19, 21; 2 Tim. 3:16, 17; 1 John 5:9; 1 Thess. 2:13). If Scripture is the final authority, and if one proves the authority of Scripture on the basis of something else other than Scripture, then one proves that Scripture is not the final authority. In other words, to prove the authority of Scripture on something other than Scripture is to disprove Scripture.

Christian apologists are morally and logically compelled to defend the faith with an epistemological outlook that accords with the faith. Not only is it wrong to defend the faith with an autonomous epistemology—Christianity must be understood on its own terms—but, in the nature of the case, blending Christian theology with non-Christian epistemology always serves to undermine the Christian’s ability to defend the faith. As Christians we need to be much more epistemologically self-conscious; we need to develop a truly Reformed epistemology.

Quoting again from Greg Bahnsen's forthcoming book:

Our Christian epistemology (or theory of knowledge) should thus be elaborated and worked out in a way which is consistent with its own fundamental principles (or presuppositions), lest it be incoherent and ineffective. Our "method" of knowing is determined by our "message" as a whole—thus being influenced by, even as it influences, our convictions about reality . . . We ought not to espouse one thing theologically, then practice something else in our scholarship. One way to say this is to say that Christian scholars and apologists must be thoroughly "self-conscious" about the character of their own epistemological position, letting its standards regiment and regulate every detail of their system of beliefs and its application. They need always to form opinions and develop reasoning in light of their fundamental Christian commitments.”

http://web.archive.org/web/19991001065058/http://www.scccs.org/may97.html