Josiah Cook

Jesus Christ is Lord | Patriarch of the Cook Family | Reformed Presbyterian | Ancient Languages Teacher | BA Bible | MA Theology | MDiv Student

[Josiah Cook @josiahacook]

@Joseph_Spurgeon @RealTimHarris Our church of about 100 sits at a table together. I know of churches larger than ours that have done it.

[Josiah Cook @josiahacook]

@Joseph_Spurgeon @yo_rocky @TexasPreacher Matthew Henry 1 Chr 15: "...this way of praising God by musical instruments had not hitherto been in use...The New Testament keeps up singing of psalms, but has not appointed church-music."

[Josiah Cook @josiahacook]

@Joseph_Spurgeon @yo_rocky @TexasPreacher I'm aware of Zwingli's position. Whether God permits instruments in worship is a second commandment issue. It is not stupid. If I remember correctly, most of the patristics, Calvin, Knox, and even Spurgeon believed acapella worship is what God requires.

[Josiah Cook @josiahacook]

@Joseph_Spurgeon @yo_rocky @TexasPreacher Chrysostom Ps 149: ..."they were once led by these instruments on account of the dullness of their natural character...So in the same way that He allowed the use of sacrifices, accommodating Himself to their natural character, so He also permitted the use of these instruments."

[Josiah Cook @josiahacook]

@Joseph_Spurgeon @yo_rocky @TexasPreacher Surprisingly Aquinas: "Our church does not use musical instruments, as harps and psalteries, to praise God withal, that she may not seem to Judaize."

[Josiah Cook @josiahacook]

@Joseph_Spurgeon @yo_rocky @TexasPreacher Surprisingly Luther: "The organ in the worship service is a sign of Baal."

[Josiah Cook @josiahacook]

@Joseph_Spurgeon @yo_rocky @TexasPreacher Calvin on Psalm 33: "...musical instruments in celebrating the praises of God would be no more suitable than the burning of incense, the lighting up of lamps, and the restoration of the other shadows of the law."

[Josiah Cook @josiahacook]

@Joseph_Spurgeon @yo_rocky @TexasPreacher Eph 5:19 says, "...singing and making melody in your heart..." The conjunction between "singing" and "making" makes it clear these are two distinct actions. We are commanded to sing with the mouth and the heart. Also, you're collapsing elements and circumstances of worship.

[Josiah Cook @josiahacook]

@yo_rocky @TexasPreacher @Joseph_Spurgeon Instruments are commanded in relation to OT ceremonial temple worship, which has been abrogated. They are not commanded in New Covenant worship. We shouldn't use instruments for the same reason we don't use incense and clerical vestments.

[Josiah Cook @josiahacook]

@ColinSamul @TexasPreacher Gyan Books has so many out-of-print works if you're cool with reading facsimiles. They have this one:

https://t.co/x8DbdvdXs2

[Josiah Cook @josiahacook]

"Gentlemen, twice a week preaching is very dangerous, but I have found five or six times healthy, and even twelve or fourteen not excessive." -Spurgeon

[Ryan Denton @TexasPreacher]

45 sermons a year is lamentable. Our forefathers were doing 150 a year, at least. No wonder there's declension in the land. In general, preachers need to be preaching much more than they do.

WSC 89 - A. The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching of the word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort, through faith, unto salvation.

[Josiah Cook @josiahacook]

@TexasPreacher "Gentlemen, twice a week preaching is very dangerous, but I have found five or six times healthy, and even twelve or fourteen not excessive." -Spurgeon in Lectures to My Students

[Ryan Denton @TexasPreacher]

The glory of Presbyterian worship is simplicity, not ornamentation. Historic Presbyterianism never felt the need to manufacture an atmosphere. The preaching, singing of psalms, prayer, sacraments, and readings of the OT and NT is the atmosphere.

[Josiah Cook @josiahacook]

"The denial of one primarily fundamental article, when malice is added, renders that assembly which materially is a church, not one formally...The only church that is a true catholic church and cannot fail is the one that believes all the fundamentals." -Works of Rutherford V. 1

[Josiah Cook @josiahacook]

A beautiful afternoon preaching the Gospel in Detroit.

[Ryan Denton @TexasPreacher]

Q. Did the Westminster confession go too far in their chapter on the Sabbath?

A. We deny. We are just a worldly and grossly undisciplined people.

[Josiah Cook @josiahacook]

@AJKocman I’ve really benefited from Beeke lately on experiential preaching. We have lots of exposition lacking the experiential aspect of biblical preaching.

[Josiah Cook @josiahacook]

@ostrachan This is antinomian. God judges nations for Sabbath-breaking.

[Josiah Cook @josiahacook]

From the Ancient Hippocratic Oath:

"I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asks for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Likewise, I will not give an abortive remedy to a woman."

The pagan physicians of Ancient Greece understood abortion to be barbaric.

[Josiah Cook @josiahacook]

@SolaDogmatika @AndyNaselli has an excellent section on this in his book "How to Read a Book." It's basically organizing alphabetically, then entering the bibliographic material from the books into Zotero.