@@acortes7771 Evangelical and Sometimes Charismatic does not infer you are only one or the other. Just like you may say that the car is "brand new and sometimes warm." Or like a building is "beautiful and sometimes casts a shadow"
I love the picture of Wynn Kenyon in his classic “Now, class,” pose. I had the pleasure of studying under him in my undergraduate, and he was loved by all (though most of us didn’t know his role in church politics). He will be missed. Funnily enough, I introduced two good friends of mine to each other at his funeral, and they later were married. I’m not one for symbolism, but I do enjoy the thought that even in his death, he found significance in others’ lives.
When I became Presbyterian I ended up in the EPC as there is no PCA nearby. I went to a General Assembly and thought it was well done. Eventually however their softness on female ruling elders, "social justice", and the authority of the state caused me to become CREC.
@@thomasthellamas9886 Hardly. Back to Paul perhaps. Rome is not at all fond of Rome. Given the spectator sport that modern "evangelical" church services have become it seems it is they that have returned to Rome.
I'm Presbyterian (USA) but experimented with some more conservative branches: the PCA and the OPC. I also currently attend a PCUSA church which the denomination attempted to close down due to numbers. We survived because of how the building is owned. And now they want us to stay open. If they ever got our building, good luck: very rural, very far from a paved road, and no running water. But now they are trying to encourage rural congregations like this one. The EPC is interesting because it allows a lot more diversity in views on some viewpoints than other versions of Presbyterianism. I'll stick with my own version, but I think this shows that no denomination has it right. We view the sacred through an imperfect human lens.
It amazes me how aggressively liberal "the progressive element" in various institutions were/are. And even how early that agressive intolerance was present. This happened in the 1970s! I used to believe the slide began with a live and let live attitude. Clearly not.
@@bravefaithministries630 Well, I did it Matt, I am on tiktok now. Dumped 4 videos to start. Here's my channel: www.tiktok.com/@readytoharvest Looks like TikTok can use some more Christian creators. Thanks for what you're doing.
Joshua, you do a fantastic job at explaining various groups. I am having breakfast today with an EPC member and reviewing this video will help me to understand him if his doctrinal positions are discussed. From what I understand, his congregation is woke but he doesn't hold this position himself. He believes he can turn them around. Our breakfast discussion will mostly center around political activities within the community, though.
Several of the founding EPC congregations in metro Detroit had a UPCNA background. Flagship Ward EPC was the daughter of a non-instrumental Associate Kirk congregation (Scots/Scotch P.C.) that became Central PC PCUSA and not UPCNA as might have been expected ("John Monteith and Detroit Presbyterianism" by Dr. Fredsell).
So ruled by elders as per scripture but they can be women contradicting scripture. Women can be ministers of the congregation say so, utterly unscriptural approach. Either God says yes or God says no. They can't both be right, it's obvious from scripture that they can't be so yet more compromise. They aren't Reformed they are Conformed to the world.
Calvin on 1 Corinthians 14: "In the meantime, it is the part of the prudent reader to consider, that the things of which he here treats are intermediate and indifferent, in which there is nothing unlawful, but what is at variance with propriety and edification… But it may be asked here, how it is that Paul declares those things to be commandments of the Lord, as to which no statement is to be found in the Scriptures? Besides this, there is also another difficulty that presents itself -- that if they are the commandments of the Lord, they are necessary to be observed, and they bind the conscience, and yet they are rites connected with polity, as to the observance of which no such necessity exists. Paul, however, merely says, that he enjoins nothing, but what is in accordance with the will of God. Now God endowed him with wisdom, that he might recommend this order in external things at Corinth, and in other places -- not that it might be an inviolable law, like those that relate to the spiritual worship of God, but that it might be a useful directory to all the sons of God, and not by any means to be despised."
Dr. Bartlet Hess, senior pastor of Ward EPC and founder/leader of the EPC, supposedly had a mother who was a pastor in another denomination and found nothing wrong with women pastors. While I was in metro Detroit (initially attending Ward BTW) the EPC got to women could be ruling elders but not teaching elders. Move up in time to when Colonial PC of KC joined the EPC (i was living in the area at the time, initially attending Colonial), they could not join the local presbytery 'cause 1 of their pastors was a woman and women pastors were not allowed in that prebytery, so they were put in another presbytery out-of-territory. (And there was 1 other presbytery that also did not allow women pastors,) But today Colonial still has a woman pastor and is a member of the local presbytery, so things have changed. ☹
Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church (PCA) let a female elected official make a political speech during the Sunday morning service before the midterm elections.