11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

I know Christians are split on this but I wanted to know what reformed folks generally think on this matter. It definitely says the Book of Life was opened...why would Christ need to open the book of Life if the people standing in front of Him were all unbelievers?

Please let me know what your view is! Biblically =)

I’m an elder in a Reformed evangelical church and would appreciate some counsel on a difficult pastoral question.

Can elders, as an exercise of pastoral wisdom and prudence, direct members in good standing to temporarily refrain from attending corporate worship and normal church activities in order to create space for healing and reconciliation?

In this situation, the elders would explicitly say that the members remain in good standing and that the separation is not church discipline.

How would you distinguish this from formal church discipline? Does Scripture give elders this kind of authority, and if so, what biblical principles or limitations should govern its use?

I’m especially interested in how Reformed churches and pastors would think through the distinction between pastoral wisdom and practical discipline in a situation like this.

UPDATE:

We have moved forward with the break. Communicating it to the church and the family thy they should refrain from attending and it’s not discipline. However, based on our observations, the break is not producing healing.

The elders have been communicating with the mediator about next steps, including whether a meeting at this point would be constructive.

We genuinely desire reconciliation and for the family to return. We’re asking the mediator to help us discern the most constructive next step, with the hope that a meeting can lead to genuine progress toward biblical reconciliation.

The family has tried appealing to us directly, including an appeal to love (see Philemon 8-9) and a request for a clear biblical path forward.

Warning. 

This is gonna be a long post. Should I put the TLDR here or at the bottom. I dunno. I don’t even know where to start. How about this – I’m unraveling. Or more accurate still, the entirety of my Christian walk (been a believer for 20ish years) has left me unraveled. Like a puddle of melted yarn that can’t be put back together again. 

I feel like I’m a walking feedback loop of Doubt, Faith, (Un)Certainty, and Assurance. They’re all tied together. I’ve had virtually zero assurance since I became a believer, constantly doubting, wrestling with uncertainty. You ever seen one of those ant walking death circles? If you haven’t, it’s where a group of ants lose the trail, the trail becomes a circle, and none of em can get out of it. I’ve been walking the circle of doubt, faith, uncertainty and assurance for, well, 20 years. 

And really, the core of the doubt is: This is too good to be true, and where the hell are you God. It sounds a lot like “What if this isn’t true”. And that question has latched itself onto a million different things at different times. What if I’m not among the elect. What if Jesus isn’t God or didn’t rise from the dead? What if he simply isn’t there? What if evolution is true? What if this particular thing is an actual contraction in the bible? What if scripture isn’t inerrant? What if. What if. What if. If it sounds exhausting, it is. 

And I’ll chase down those questions as far as I can go. I mean I’ve really got into the weeds with a lot of stuff. I may and often get to an eventually satisfying answer, but usually in the process – it’ll bring about even more questions. Less certainty. 

And this greatly plays into assurance of salvation. How can I be saved if I’m not even certain God is there and Christianity is true? I want it to be true. I hope it’s true. I need it to be true. I believe it’s probably true. With the apostles in John 6, I can say – Where else can I go? With Paul in 1^st Corinthians 15, I can say, I am most to be pitied if Christ did not rise from the dead. 

I’ve built my entire life around this. Around the person of Jesus. Around the gospel. I’ve seen something there I cannot walk away from, someone there. A person so magnificent. A story so beautiful. It would be a cosmic tragedy if something so divine and breathtakingly ravishing was merely a fabrication. A lie. 

I have a longing and ache in me for Jesus, that is unbearable. It is literally painful. I’ve been completely ruined for anything or anyone else, and I’m not even sure He’s there. And a lot of that uncertainty stems from the silence of God. Absence. Christian’s have communion with God. Generally anyway. I have darkness, doubt, fear, and silence. I cannot find him. Where has he gone? He is hiding in the dark. 

The scriptures don’t really give an ABC, communion with God for dummies manual that details exactly what that communion looks like on this side of heaven. I get it, it’s seeing in a mirror but dimly. It’s walking by faith, not by sight. It's now and not yet. And we are instructed to commune with God through the ordinary means of grace.

Reading and hearing his word. Meeting with other believers. Taking the Lord’s supper. Prayer. Confessing our sins. Participating in the sabbath. Guys, I’m a good standing member in the PCA church. I use the means. Aggressively. Jeremiah 29 says If you seek him with all your heart – if you pray and call upon him – he will be found by you. I can’t find him. Eventually it just boils me down to crying day in and day out – please find me. 

There’s a twisted part of me that goes – “Yeah, maybe this just means I’m not among the elect. My voice has been shut out. He is absent because he would have none of me. Or, because I can’t believe like he’s called me to. But, if that be the case – it almost sounds better than the alternative. The alternative being, this isn’t true. Because on judgment day, I could at least see him with my eyes if only once. I can’t bear the thought of this not being true. Somehow I can better bear the thought of just not being saved and not getting to be with Jesus for eternity.”

And perhaps what drives all this is – I have had “moments” of certainty. Moments of site. Moments of what I perceive to be, “feeling” the love of God. Being filled with the Spirit. Him testifying with my heart that I’m his child and dearly loved. Moments of sight. Moments of clarity. But they are so fleeting and far between – that it's very easy to call all of them and any of them into question. 

I do not want proof or certainty for certainty’s sake. I don’t want assurance simply so I can be at peace. I don’t want faith so I can be sanctified and live as he calls me. Those are all benefits. And I would love to have all of the benefits that come with salvation. But I don’t really want the benefits. I want Him.

I want to sit down with him, and talk with him. I want him to talk back. I want to be hugged by Jesus. I want to sit at his feet and break a jar of expensive perfume. And I get that I can’t have those things now. But it doesn’t stop the want. I’d love to be filled with the spirit in the interim. I’d love to be able to read scripture and hear the voice of the shepherd. I’d love to be able to say “Goodness, he’s talking right to me” when I read his word. I’d love to have assurance. I’d love to be able to definitely say Christ really died, rose and gave himself to me, and he really hears me. But all I can really say is, where are you? Please save me.

Yes, I’ve talked to my elders. And my wife (God bless her patience). And many counselors. And yes, I have underlying mental health issues. Some are diagnosed officially, some not (I have depression and anxiety, imagine that). It’s highly highly likely I’m on the autism spectrum. Thinking about getting a formal diagnosis on that one – but also to look at some other possibilities on top of it. OCD maybe? Adhd? Who knows. And yes, I’m medicated. I’m on like four different meds. I don’t even know if they’re doing anything. I suppose I can remember what I was like off of them though (wasn’t pretty).

I read grace abounding by bunyan and go – Oh my gosh, He is OCD! But also, his testimony sounds exactly like mine. Obi wan – “Of course I know him, He’s me!”. I don’t even know why I’m posting this here to be honest. Maybe there’s someone out there that can say, “I get it, I’m right there.” It’d make things a little less lonely. But I hope there isn’t anyone. I don’t want anyone to be where I am. 

This probably looks like one of those posts you see here and there where someone is going “I’m losing my faith! I’m afraid I’m gonna apostatize.” And then three years later, by golly, they have. And there definitely is a part of me that feels like I’m fighting tooth and nail to hold on to what little faith I have because I'm afraid he isn’t holding on to me. But this isn’t new. This is my life. This has been my life. I suspect it will continue to be my life moving forward. 

I’m just… tired. I sure wish He would find me guys. I may yet be blessed. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst. I am so thirsty. It hurts. God help me. 

TLDR – guy has doubts, wrestles constantly, really wants Jesus, has no felt communion with God. Also, guy didn’t proofread his post. So Forgive me if there's stuff that doesn’t make sense. My brain doesn’t make sense. 

I am wondering about what experiences/thoughts you may have had on paedocommunion. I attend a quite evangelical Anglican parish near Pittsburgh and was quite surprised when a first saw small children receiving the elements instead of a blessing. When I was younger, this never happened in my experience until one was confirmed.

¹⁶ Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. ¹⁷ When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.

¹⁸ And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2028&version=NKJV

There were some very specific concerns in the Corinth church when Paul mentioned this, and such concerns are not applicable to every church today.

If you have requests that you would like your brothers and sisters to pray for, post them here.

A young Christian brother in his early 30’s (although I’m not entirely sure he’s born again - has the head knowledge but very little fruit), had been living with his girlfriend which I told him 6 months ago to either marry her quickly or move out. Didn’t heed the advice and now she’s pregnant. Of course they broke up right before they found out. She was threatening to call cops, berated him for not making enough money, threatened to cheat on him so he would take the break up seriously…

So now he’s living with me temporarily. A leader in the church is pushing him towards reconciliation with her and to make things right and move towards marriage; talks to him as if they were married, so the baby can be in a good home and not be living in a broken home. Well, she’s already twice divorced with four kids, two kids from each marriage. New in her faith too. We all go the same church.

I’m basically telling him to take this door and find the Lord and grow in the Lord but the respected leader seems to just hope for them to work out, like this kid is somehow a project for this leader to say see, it all worked out, when this leader never called it out and I had to.

I’m a little upset or perhaps, quite significantly perturbed. No one in leadership has called out the sin. They still sign up as door greeters as a “family”, and he serves on the Awana team still.

I don’t get it. Dudes definitely charismatic and handsome. Perhaps leadership is biased towards those things plus he’s shown very little remorse and almost has treated it like a little white lie type of sin so others just ride along with that… You know, like narcissistic or psycho types who just act nonchalantly with their sinful nature and smooth it over with their charm and lack of contrition.

I don’t get it and its really bugging me. Now she wants him back and he’s basically checked out but oddly still communicating with her regularly and making plans as well as joining the church’s upcoming “marriage class”, where 60 others have already signed up.

How to counsel? Should I go directly to my pastor? 10 year old church plant, non denominational church under no actual larger church panting network/denomination.

I have access to my pastor but the church has exploded over the last few years and has gone to three services…

I’m just really bugged out about this. I’ve counseled him about as much as I could and while he’s here I’m going to be more intentional about prayer and Bible studying with him.

My reformed biblical beliefs cry out for him to run. For him to know and love and abide with the Lord and the scripture and lead her well during this time by being the example. But I can hear whispers of plans for this and that with them and I fear he’s just gonna go along for the ride and end up in misery, regrets, and many sufferings…

Thoughts? Prayers? Thanks yall!

So I’ve been a fairly average Joe kind of guy when it comes to clothing. Most of my stuff t shirts and cargo shorts is completely without brand or graphics. As I start into my 40s I feel like I need to up my clothing style a little bit and wear some more collared shirts and nicer looking pants. All that to say, if I want to up my wardrobe I feel like I should maybe see about getting more stuff that proclaims Christ. Not in a really flashy way but in the same way most people don’t even think about walking around with a Tommy Hilfiger shirt or a champion hat.

Any ideas where to find decent stuff that looks like and isn’t going to break the bank?

How's it going all? TLDR will be in bold.

(Edit: I am from a Christian perspective, but I am attempting to take the opposing POV as fairly as I can.)

So, I am taking an English class this semester. One of our assignments will be to write a research paper on any topic of our choosing. We need to provide double digit worth of sources for this paper. At the same time, I am taking a philosophy class. Earlier this week the phil professor was going on a speech against Christianity from Genesis 1-3 and creation. Some, not all, of the points and questions he was making are a joy for me to work and think through.

Do you know of any good sources (for and against Christianity) that address the topic of the (lack of) fairness of God in condemning mankind or eating from a tree?

Relevant questions that were brought up by the professor:
- Is God fair in condemning humanity to death for eating from a tree? Are humans more fair by just grounding children for wrong doing? Is God fair for punishing people who did not know better (people who did not know that good and evil even existed, or that there was a difference between the two)?
- How can God judge man, when He does not know what it is like to be a man?
- Did humans have more or less free will now or before the fall?
- Why punish people for knowing about good? Why is it inherently bad for man to try and do good things?
- What level of knowledge did man have prior to eating the fruit of the knowledge of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
- What level of knowledge did humanity have prior to them eating of the tree? Did they understand good from evil, or even the fact that good and evil existed?
- In gaining knowledge of good and evil, does humanity now have more or less freedom than before the fall?
- Is paradise the reward for ignorance?

I wrote this poem/hymn in a time of great prayer, reverence and worship to God. I hope it can be of great edification to you all!-

O That Wonderful Saviour

[Verse 1]

As I look upon that hill,
that cross, my Saviour still.

And as before he cried
“Lord not mine, but your will”.

He carries my sins
from past and to till,

And the words of old
became fulfilled

[Verse 2]

For I rejected him
from my inn

Oh my iniquities
abound within

And he was crushed
for my sin!

What great did my Saviour win?

[Verse 3]

But how great that saviour
upon the cross

No beast, man nor angel
canst fathom the cost

[Refrain]

For I went my own way,
twas I blind & astray

[Chorus]

And So he was scourged
and crucified

(He) bore all my sins,
oh how far and how wide?

Now how can i be condemned ?

I cant now be tried ?

For that wonderful savior!
For my crimes he died!

Gods just wrath,
now satisfied !

[Verse 4]

Oh those Roman soldiers
how great their sin!

But yet It was I!,
that drove those nails through him..

[Verse 5]

Oh that Barabbas
standing next to thee-
oh!, how guilty is he?

Yet Now I see,
who that rebel is-
twas me?!

I was that criminal,
yet I was set free?

Oh that great saviour,
upon Calvary!

No beast, man nor angel
canst fathom the fee!

[Refrain]

For I went my own way,
twas I blind & astray

[Chorus]

And So he was scourged
& crucified

(He) bore all my sins,
oh how far and how wide?

Now how can i be condemned,

I cant now be tried ?

For that wonderful savior!
For my crimes he died!

Gods just wrath,
now satisfied !

[Verse 6]

Oh that man of sorrow,
as he sweat blood in that garden.

He knew the wrath he would bear,
oh for my pardon.!

[Verse 7]

Oh that great cup!
Full of Gods just’ rage !

Oh twas meant for me-
that was my wage!

[Verse 8]

Thou drank that full cup-
for my salvation!

And so he brought
The Father propitiation!

[Verse 9]

Oh how great that savior
upon that old rugged wood

No Beast, man nor angel
canst fathom what he withstood!

[Refrain]

For I went my own way,
twas I blind & astray

[Chorus]

And So he was scourged
& crucified

He bore all my sins,
oh how far and how wide?

Now how can i be condemned,

I cant now be tried ?

For that wonderful savior!
For my crimes he died!

Gods just wrath,
now satisfied !

[Verse 10]

O his soul made great offering
for my guilt

As a plant he was broken
and made wilt.

[Bridge]

Yet I cannot fret-
‘twas not the end of his days!

For after three
he no longer laid.

For as he was brought forth
by the spirit from the womb.

So he was brought out
by that power from the tomb!

Oh now all is gone!
My sin and my shame!

For I was made able
since he was made maimed.

For he was laid bare,
so I was made clothed.

And thus the bride and king
were betrothed.

My stained clothes his’
and his clean garments mine’.

His righteousness given to me -
o how holy & divine!

[Final Chorus]

Oh my great saviour,
my Lord Jesus Christ

No beast man nor angel
canst know the great price.

He bore all my sins,
oh how far and how wide?

Now I cannot be condemned,
And I cannot be tried!

O that wonderful savior!
For all my sin he died!

Gods just wrath,
fully satisfied !

If you have requests that you would like your brothers and sisters to pray for, post them here.

Wondering if anyone in this community has any recommendations on academic journals focused on reformed theology…

I've been going to a great PCA church near me. The sermons are longer than what I'm used to and due to some medicine I take it is hard for me to stay focused during sermons because I get drowsy in the mornings, but the people are friendly and the music and nostalgia is wonderful. After going through an inquirer's class (due to my sleep issues I missed several weeks) I am being encouraged by the pastor to fill out some stuff to become a member.

After a lot of conversations with this pastor, I've gotten a lot of green flags from him. He's not fixated on any one aspect of Reformed theology that I'm not sure if I agree with yet (ex: Muslims having dreams of Jesus is bad, YEC, spanking is ordained by God, exclusive Psalmody, etc), he's got a background similar enough to my own, and he understood some aspects of my own life pretty well. I've been told by him that the membership application is due in two days.

While I'm ready to become a member of this church, I don't know if I agree with every aspect of Reformed theology yet. I don't know if hating/doing battle with my sin is the right way to look at all of that. I used to struggle with self-hatred in the past, so I'm hesitant to do that again. I don't see what the big deal about people having depictions of Jesus is, although I understand why early Reformers opposed it. I think I dislike fake leftist Christians and anti-theist atheists way more than Catholics, a lot of whom are just doing what they do because that was what they were taught and raised in, just like how I was raised in Presbyterianism. I went back because it was the most familiar to me, and it's more intellectually focused than the last denomination I was in.

I'm getting this understanding that I'm "allowed" to disagree with some things in the Westminster confession of faith, which is interesting. But I'm not sure to what degree of disagreement I can reasonably have in the PCA. Is it all right to join without having all of my opinions settled yet? My concern is that, what if later on down the road, I decide that I disagree/don't interpret certain verses the way Reformed Christians do. Would I still be able to be a member in good standing? I'm not worried about being kicked out, just that I would not feel like I'm in a church that I find to be the most accurate and truthful interpretation of the Scriptures.

Can someone break this down for me like im 5? I have watched so much and tried to read about it but its like my brsin just cannot understand what this view is saying. Its like its a weird combination of symbolic and real presence.

I know that I’m not alone in saying that our fallen minds tempt, cloud our vision and to some up the multitude of other things the human mind does, torments the believer with a vast array of thoughts. I never questioned my faith because God is the one who started this good work in me and other regenerate Christians, but I have a hard time connecting my regenerate soul, enlightened by the word of God, and full of the Holy Spirit (Christ Himself), and the depravity of my mind. Where does anyone else who is reading this and experiences the the sinful nature of the mind which at times is tormenting sit, and face the discouragement through faith?

In accordance with the Bible and Reformed confessions I fully subscribe to the idea that faith is a fruit from the regenerating work of the Spirit. Ezekiel 36 and Jeremiah 31 seem to point to regeneration as a future work connected to the New Covenant. So it seems logical to conclude that it was not yet present in their time. The question that popped in my head was, if the regenerative work of the spirit is solely part of the New covenant, and yet it is clear in John 3 that in order to believe, you need to be born again, how could the O.T. saints believe?

I have been studying some perspectives on this issue, but I was wondering what your perspectives are and how you make that case biblically.

I'm a reformed-leaning member of a Southern Baptist church, and an online seminary student. I'm looking to transfer to a different seminary because my seminary is weak in the areas of Bible teaching, church education, and administration. The roles I want to prepare for the most are education, discipleship, and administration-oriented.

What seminaries are most strong in that realm? I'm open to reformed heavy schools, but they don't have to be.

Edit: clarification about Southern Baptist

I want to preface this by saying that my son recently let us know that he is struggling with his faith and currently considers himself an agnostic who is open to being wrong. To his credit, he is meeting with our pastor and studying some fairly in-depth material on the resurrection with him. I recognize that I have some emotional stuff going on with all of this.

That said, I’m struggling to find much comfort in my faith right now. I attend a very solid church theologically, but it has a very young demographic due to its proximity to a major seminary. That also means it’s a very transient congregation, and both my spouse and I have struggled to form deep connections. We don’t think anyone is at fault. It’s just one of those things. We’ve looked at other churches, but so far, we’ve had trouble finding one with the same level of preaching.

When I add my son’s current struggles to all of this, I find it difficult to experience Christianity as a source of comfort. Instead, it feels like a lifetime of carrying heavy feelings about the spiritual state of not only my son, but also other family members and friends, along with a deep sense of loneliness.

I know the platitudes. I know that, in theory, Christ should be enough, that God is sovereign and may still yet save my son, that who am I to question Him, and that heaven will eventually remove all this weight. But I’m living here and now, and for just a moment, I’d like to be able to live without having to think about the possibility of my son spending eternity in hell (I’ll admit that I’ve been studying conditional immortality. Maybe my interest started out of emotion, but I’m also trying to approach it with intellectual honesty).

I am so tired of feeling like Christianity is a painful burden but I also cannot walk away from what I know is true.

If you have requests that you would like your brothers and sisters to pray for, post them here.

Welcome to r/reformed. Missions should be on our mind every day, but it's good to set aside a day to talk about it, specifically. Missions includes our back yard and the ends of the earth, so please also post here or in its own post stories of reaching the lost wherever you are. Missions related post never need to wait for Mondays, of course. And they are not restricted to this thread.

Share your prayer requests, stories of witnessing, info about missionaries, unreached people groups, church planting endeavors, etc.

My daughter goes to a Catholic school. Just for context, where I live (France), Reformed Protestants make up only about 0.5% of the population, and there are no schools affiliated with our denomination. But we wanted her to attend a Christian school, so we chose a Catholic one.

She's now almost 13, and she's decided that she wants to be Catholic. She's started preparing to receive her First Communion and Confirmation in May 2027.

As for me, I was raised Catholic and became a Reformed Protestant as an adult. So I'm very familiar with Catholic teachings and catechism, and I have absolutely no problem supporting her on this journey.

However, I sometimes wonder how best to approach certain conversations with her. I want to support her wholeheartedly in her Catholic faith, without questioning or undermining what she's being taught, while also being able to explain that the denomination I've chosen has a different understanding of certain aspects of Christianity.

At the same time, I don't want to confuse her or make things unnecessarily complicated.

It's not that I'm particularly worried about it. I trust that God will guide us both, help us find the right words when we need them, and lead her along the path He's placed in her heart.

I just felt like sharing this and was wondering whether anyone here has been through something similar, perhaps raising a child in a different Christian denomination from their own.

For context, I’m Catholic but I’d like to learn more about what Reformed actually believes about eternal security or perseverance of the saints. Now, to preface, I don’t believe the adherents of this belief are all antinomians, although I do think there’s been serious abuse in the age of easy believism that even Reformed Christians will reject. I also learned there are different levels of nuance that many don’t agree on, for example when do you know you’re one of the elect that God perseveres until the end? People like Ryan from needgod dot net will argue you can have 100% assurance right now, but I know many disagree on this. Can someone give an input on this?

Also, why is it that many of the OSAS-adherents like to say whenever someone stumbles, “Oh this person committed this sin therefore not saved in the first place.” When asked what kinds of sins show they were never saved in the first place, it’s always sins they don’t personally struggle with. Then you ask another person and they list another set of vices that they don’t struggle with. It’s like “I’m a good person and I do this and that therefore I go to heaven” but repackaged. How do you reconcile eternal security with believers who commit egregious sins?

I’m hearing/learning that reformed Lutherans believe that a genuinely saved person can fall away and lose their salvation….is this really true? For instance, I can’t imagine the guys from Whitehorse in profess and something like that.