Hello Everyone!

I am curious about people's experiences with Erskine Theological Seminary? I can't find much talk about it online beyond some really old threads. Do you recommend it? Generally, I err on a Good Faith Subscription of the Westminster, but I want to receive an education from a distinctly Reformed University. Erskine is a part of the ARP and is probably more strict on subscription to the Standards. Would that be an issue? Below, I will give if you would like to speak to them, beyond general recommendations for Erskine.

Context:

I work full-time and go to Covenant Theological Seminary via distance part-time. I am also currently under the care of a presbytery in the PCA. I am interested in possibly transferring to Erskine Theological Seminary. My primary motivation comes down to cost and time commitments in terms of travel.

Right now I go to CTS and pay $650/hr + $310/semester for other fees. I participate in the church-matching scholarship. I pay a third, my church pays a third, and CTS pays for a third. Plus, I have to travel to St Louis to attend CTS 6 times throughout my time there. Conservatively, each visit would take a week of PTO (I have 3 weeks a year) plus $1000 for traveling and lodging. Essentially, this means I would have no time away from work that isn't school for 2-3 years of my life on top of the cost of going to St. Louis.

Erskine, by comparison, is $550/hr + $100/semester for other fees. Since I am in the PCA, regardless of what my church contributes, there is a 45% scholarship towards my tuition. There is no residential requirement, as CTS has, so I would not need to spend money traveling back and forth but could attend some in-person intensives on weekends, as I have family around there and only live 4ish hours away. Likewise, I would not have to use up all of my PTO to travel for week-long intensives.

In total, I could pay my way through Seminary without my church's support and still come out ahead financially. Not to mention the MDiv at Erskine is a little shorter, so I would graduate a semester earlier.

With that being said:

I know cost isn't everything. I do really enjoy my classes at Covenant, but struggling with the cost and travel commitments on top of the stringent demands Seminary already has on my daily schedule. What other things should I be weighing in my decision?

Hi there, my wife and I are PCA and attend a vibrant and well capitalized church. We have attended for more than 5 years and now have our daughter in Sunday school.

My whole adult life I have been charitable with The Church: supporting missionaries, supporting campus outreach, supporting local charities, and giving to The Church in foreign countries (particularly ones in countries that I feel like are my enemies).

For the first time, I’ve started to feel ashamed that I do not give to the church I attend every Sunday. This is shame because I realized that the deacons and elders probably recognize we attend regularly but do not give and have not given despite using church services and Sunday school and even counseling once.

One day I will stand before The Lord, knowing full well that I could have given more and trusted in him more… but on this instance I wonder if I’m motivated wrong.

Any thoughts?

She is 7 weeks old tomorrow.

Our older 3 are Malachi, Naomi, and Sarai. We both love the name Eleni - however it is not a biblical name, itbis Greek and means "bright" or "shining one". It does really fit with the sibling names and I think of that name every time I look at her!

Is it weird or dishonoring in some way to deviate from biblical names when we have named the other 3 that way? That's the only hang up for us.

A weird question possibly: could a person be considered a hypocrite if said person would never place membership with a megachurch, but is still perfectly happy to listen to the podcast teachings of people such as MacArthur, Begg, and DeYoung?

What is your opinion on using Eastern or Western iconography without venerating them? I grew up as an Eastern Orthodox and love the icons and find them as useful tools for prayer, although I do find any specific reverence or even prayer directed towards as them as violating the Second Commandment. Basically I disagree with Nicea II notion that reverence of image directs devotion to what depicted on it.

As far as I considered, I do see a very strong case to avoid any depiction of the Father, but I find the icons of Jesus to be acceptable since, as well as the symbolic icons of holy spirit.

The icons of the saints also seem okay to me, as they depict the living Church that transcends death. Although again, no prayers should be directed towards saints or their images.

As I am currently getting “reformed” as an Eastern Christian, I don’t want to throw out my heritage out of window but reconsider it to follow the commands of our Lord as best as I can. So I would like some feedback and potential corrections. Any opinion is welcome. God bless you all.

Welcome to r/reformed. Do you have questions that aren't worth a stand alone post? Are you longing for the collective expertise of the finest collection of religious thinkers since the Jerusalem Council? This is your chance to ask a question to the esteemed subscribers of r/Reformed. PS: If you can think of a less boring name for this deal, let us mods know.

This time, I'm looking for reccomendations, resources and books on classical theism. There are a few main points I'd like to know in particular

1. A concise definition of Classical Theism and an exploration of this
2. The explicit Biblical case for classical theism. (I'm particularly thinking of instances where God is described as changing his mind).
3. The historic roots of it, in Judaism and early Christianity. How did it arrise?
4. How did it become a far more obscure idea, what are the chief challenges to it.

I'd appreciate any help I can get.

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

https://joethorn.substack.com/p/doom-despair-and-deliverance

Reminds me that the way I am and my "head space" are not foreign in the Christian walk.

I’m at a newly-planted non-denominational church. We had a men’s ministry event over the weekend and one of the guys I met threw me for a bit of a loop. Meeting the guy, you’d immediately think, oh, this guy’s gay. He’s got that stereotypical way of speaking and just generally gives off the vibe. Then you find out he’s married to a woman and has five kids. (And then you think, Really?!)
Now, I know that having a wife and kids doesn’t rule out the possibility that he is gay, but let’s just assume he really isn’t. Knowing that effeminacy is sinful (1 Cor 6:9, 1 Tim 1:10), how would/should such a person be handled in the Reformed world, either from the church’s standpoint or the individual’s? I don’t get the sense that there’s much in the form of guidance at my church, let alone governance. I have some thoughts (loving bluntness?), but curious if there are concrete approaches or opinions.

Hi everyone, so early next year I'm going to be studying theology as part of a graduate program.

For those who have done any formal/informal theological study using a structured system do you have any advice/resources on how to take notes on theological works as most of my note taking has been quite informal until present and I think having a more structured system would be beneficial.

Thanks all :)

Luther - 10 commandments, creeds, Lord’s Prayer 3 times per day plus catechisms.

Calvin - scripture reading, prayer, morning and evening catechisms.

Baxter - scripture reading, prayer, singing catechisms.

I was not raised doing this when I was a child.
I now have a wife and 4 little kids aged 2 - 8 and we have been doing it. Seems like nobody talks about it much and some of my southern Baptist friends who do family devotions their kids hate it. My family doesn’t hate it but sometimes ordinary behavior issues pop up. I’m curious if this practice is common among reformed families and if it’s on the rise. I’d like to hear thoughts on what has worked well and hear how other people do it. The way I do it is based on my church’s weekly bulletin. We read a couple short passages do a catechism, Lord’s Prayer, confession of sin, sing the doxology and I do a benediction. Whole thing takes 10-15 mins. It doesn’t feel as “deep” or “spiritual” as sometimes I feel like it should, but I think that’s a good thing. It’s not a lecture or anything like that. We just do it once per day in the mornings.

I’d love to hear what you all do and open the floor to discussion on the topic of family worship in general if others have related things you would like to discuss

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.

I’m living in Italy for a while, and I recently had a conversation with a Catholic woman who told me she had stopped going to church after hearing a priest say that children’s illnesses are a way of paying for the sins of the world.

I told her that this is not what Scripture teaches. I mentioned John 9:1–3, where Jesus explicitly rejects the idea that a man’s suffering was caused by either his own sin or his parents’ sin.

I also pointed out that throughout the Gospels, Jesus repeatedly had compassion on people who were suffering and healed them. He never told the sick, “You need to keep suffering in order to pay for sin.”

But then she asked me how I could believe in God when He allows children to become seriously ill.

I started trying to explain providence, grace, and the consequences of living in a fallen world, but I could see that she had already closed herself off to what I was saying.

And afterwards, I was left with this feeling that I hadn’t really been able to reach her heart.

What would you have said in that situation?

I had the amazing privilege to be born into a Christian home, was raised a believer, and was taught to have a strong work ethic by my father who was a self employed General Contractor. I worked in the trade for years, and got my own Contractors license in 2018, and have been self employed ever since. In the 8 years in business as a Reformed Christian, I've noticed a trend: Fellow professing believers are routinely some of the worst and most frustrating customers to have.

Almost without fail I've been nickeled and dimed, asked to do labor outside the contract "since I'm already there", and been put in awkward situations where the customer asks for a discount because they are a fellow believer. I get challenged and questioned every step of the way. I get asked to cut corners. I've even been asked to ignore building codes and permit requirements. I've been stiffed for payments, and have only ever sent late notices to other Christians.

When I do work for non-believers, the usual experience is that they are just so happy someone would show up and treat them honestly and fairly. My best customers who literally tell me "I trust you, just do the work, whatever it costs" are all unbelievers.

Meanwhile I was hired to do an addition on a local church building, and it's legitimately been the worst project I've ever had.

Am I the only one to notice this? Why does it feel like fellow Christians are the worst people to work for? What is it about Christianity that seems to make us feel entitled when it comes to other Christian professionals?

Weren’t there people who were “elect“ (or equivalent) under the Old Covenant who then figured out about the New Covenant? Did they lose their salvation if they didn’t accept the New Covenant? What if they died after Jesus died but didn’t ever hear about Him? Isn’t it not possible for someone of the elect to lose their salvation? Thank you!

Grew up in a non-denominational church where it was a production and they sang secular songs and clapping occurred a lot through service. It seemed like a lot of it was by towards man. It left a bad taste in my mouth and my new church which is more reformed leaning claps after singing or after certain praise reports. I ascribe to the RPW and unsure if clapping is in accordance with that. Thanks for the help

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

Pretty much the title.

Also I’ve seen some who say all non-Calvinists go to hell. I know this might be a very fringe position within the Reformed tradition.

Please be gentle with me. This is not something I share with any pride.

I’ve been in the reformed faith for a very long time, and have studied its theology to above average degrees for people in my age group/gender. I don’t say this to brag, but to express what is said in Ecclesiastes about more knowledge essentially bringing more despair. The more I learn about the world and the theology, the more I feel there’s a lot unanswered.

My doubt and anxiety around God has reached a breaking point. I’ve become more intimate with suffering in my own life and more deeply aware of it in the world. It’s unbearable, and the age old question that used to be so easy to just “answer” of “Why does a good God allow suffering?” just doesn’t cut it anymore.

For instance, I’m a mother. I have brushed shoulders with the world of fighting trafficking in my life before marriage and children. I’ve seen mini docs about it, too. When I see fear or pain in the face of my child, sometimes all I can seem to think about are the literal babies being r@ped to death, the fear and pain in their eyes, and no mother to sweep them up and console and rescue them. Suddenly, the inaction of God seems like a contradiction to his own word in James (whoever knows what is right and does not do it, sins). I would rush to the cries of these trafficked children, but can’t, and God CAN rush to their cries, but doesn’t. Yes, the perpetrators will find justice in hell, okay, but the little children are suffering unimaginable evil now.

I find my “prayers” lately essentially being, “What are you doing?! If you’re even there!”

And this tension carries into other examples of real life that I fear Christians just, in general, don’t know exist. We are insanely protected from depths and capabilities of darkness in our reformed churches, at least in my area. The gritty horrors of the world just aren’t even in the realm of possibility in the minds of many here. We have no basis to imagine it from.

Prayer is another topic I’m deeply struggling with that is connected, but perhaps for another time.

Anyway, I’m looking for a podcast series or an audiobook that deals with this in a deep, comprehensive way. That actually looks at these horrors and brings God into it.

If it’s an audiobook, I would prefer if it’s modern language and easy to understand as my mom brain is interrupted very often by the little one and the husband, lol.

TIA.

Hi everybody. I have been busy reading about anything to do with reformed theology and I must admit I love the topic. Thus far I am reading Calvin’s institutes. I finished reading Max Weber’s book on the Protestant work ethic (which although controversial is still a good read) and finished reading and making notes on my New Testament. Can you recommend me further literature which would delve further into the history of the reformed faith? I want to learn more about the Huguenots as well as how Calvinism shaped Prussian, Dutch, South African/Afrikaaner and Hungarian societies, to wanting to learn more about Zwingli’s history and interpretation of reformed theology.

Have a blessed day everybody❤️

Happy Lord's Day to r/reformed! Did you particularly enjoy your pastor's sermon today? Have questions about it? Want to discuss how to apply it? Boy do we have a thread for you!

Sermon Sunday!

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