Crown & Sword

By Rev. Doug Barnes One doesn’t make friends by always being negative. And for good reason! It can be helpful to point out flaws – but such criticism leaves us empty and hopeless unless we also hear about the alternative! Today, it’s time for the alternative. For four issues, I have highlighted some of the…

Guest post by Rev. Dr. David Smith, Covenant Fellowship ARP Church, Summerfield, NC; Adjunct Professor of Church History, Erskine Seminary The Duty to Civil Authority Of course, then, this raises some rather serious questions as to just what the Christian’s Duty is to Civil Authority, or the various authorities that comprise it. Obviously, as verses…

Guest post by Rev. Dr. David Smith, Covenant Fellowship ARP Church, Summerfield, NC; Adjunct Professor of Church History, Erskine Seminary The Ideal for Civil Authority Paul stressed not only the Relationship of All People to Civil Authority and the Origin of All Authority, but The Ideal for Civil Authority. That Paul is describing the Ideal…

Guest post by Rev. Dr. David Smith, Covenant Fellowship ARP Church, Summerfield, NC; Adjunct Professor of Church History, Erskine Seminary The Origin of Civil Authority The origin of civil authority is the origin of all earthly authority—God. Thus, to resist or not be subject to the governing authorities in that realm or sphere in which…

Guest post by Rev. Dr. David Smith, Covenant Fellowship ARP Church, Summerfield, NC; Adjunct Professor of Church History, Erskine Seminary The history of the relationship between the church, as an institution, and the civil government has been a complicated one in Western culture ever since Constantine declared Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire…

Rev. Doug Barnes Imagine, if you will, a Reformed minister publicly criticizing someone for openly confessing the sovereign reign of Christ. Hard to imagine, isn’t it? Yet it happened recently – as a logical expression of the Radical Two Kingdoms (R2K) view that we’ve been critiquing in these pages. As explained previously, the R2K view…

December 7, 2022 by Mark Van Der Molen We live in a time when the very nature of male of female is denied, laws are passed that codify the denial, and any talk of biblical principles governing society will soon be viewed as punishable hate speech. One would think that such basic realities found in…

November 30, 2022 by Mark Van Der Molen Dr. R. Scott Clark of Westminster Seminary California recently linked to an older piece of his which contains the following section: “Through the history of the church there have been two great errors on this question. One is to identify the common realm with the kingdom of…

By Rev. Doug Barnes It should be a simple question for any Reformed believer to answer: How accurately will an unbeliever interpret the “natural revelation” with which God has filled the creation? Because of sin, man – although unable to ignore natural revelation – invariably will reject the message that it brings. He will deny…

By Rev. Doug Barnes Of necessity, most ministers develop a fairly thick skin. Any minister who preaches the truth of God’s Word is sure to offend people at times. And at least some who are offended will attack the messenger. Receiving criticism is never easy; but any minister who would faithfully fulfill his calling must…