Josh

Husband, father, pastor. Living life in the Midwest.

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Last Notes

2026-07-25 22:37:59 CEST

Caught a nice smallmouth yesterday. He put up a good fight.15 in. Into the breading he goes.
#angling
https://blossom.primal.net/689a3431886b33ae9d62ab09c712d7d6408bf561f478eb9f1066679230770cae.jpg

2026-06-30 22:21:57 CEST

Spent some time on a boat last week. Leveling up the angling know-how for the sake of posterity.
#angling #fishstr #getoutside
https://blossom.primal.net/52b0a90d914f5cafe473a0eece2b32015b9280d245a5b960a7ff0261645cf46e.jpg
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2026-06-05 23:02:59 CEST

Trying out a popper with a trailing worm. Beautiful day on the lake.
#fishstr #angling
https://blossom.primal.net/5337eea8289de7dc32c7108f3d31f4f5998b425f69cda8075a4813aabfe77033.jpg

2026-06-02 15:20:44 CEST

"I think therefore I am"?
#biblestr #christianostr #reason
https://blossom.primal.net/91d08f21e005c35610457f3ef1286a381f412d6969c04d163ed0ca6755ec5cad.mp4

2026-05-27 19:52:25 CEST

We might see less of a groundswell in favor of female pastors if the men in that office didn't act quite so much like women.
https://blossom.primal.net/01fec94b9d2927dc9eb966869bafe602e257f93499db1ebf6df89b31fd43cc8f.png
#semperreformanda

2026-05-19 18:19:25 CEST

All of the goodness of God is promised us in the gospel. If it is promised of God, then it depends not on us and our cooperation, but on God who raises the dead. (Rom. 9:16)
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2026-05-11 21:49:42 CEST

- reply

I think if you read the quote in context carefully, Augustine is not talking about "losing grace" as in finding oneself outside the New Covenant, after once being in Christ. Even if you look at the title to the chapter, it contains, "the grace of obedience." You may reject that particular grace for a season at your own fault, and yet not such that you are severed from Christ. The context is about restoring an erring believer by rebuke. He even intimates that if the believer rebuked is a "child of promise" it ought be effective.
Hence, he says later (again in ch. 23), "they who for a season wander from the way return, that they may continue unto the end what they had begun to be in good."

2026-05-11 01:59:29 CEST

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I said that with reference to your view that a justified person can lose their justification.
I'm saying a person is justified by faith alone and not by works. If this is true, then nothing can separate a person once justified from the love of God in Christ (Rom.8:38-39). Not even disobedience. And that should move a person to far greater obedience than Rome's carnal theology ever could. That is the biblical gospel, and there is no other.
Faith is a grace, the work of God, not of man. The grace of faith *rests* on Christ for perfect righteousness and full payment of sin as the only ground of justification.
So yes, anything a person does for justification is not faith but rather a dead work (Gal.2:16).
According to your theology, that would include your whole life as a Roman. I hope it isn't true, but it seems very likely. You should repent.

2026-05-10 03:28:15 CEST

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So you're saved unless you rebel and then you're not saved anymore? Sounds like you begin by grace and end with works. I'm a much weaker and more sinful man than you. I need better assurances. I would certainly rebel given such fickle promises, under such a rigorous law. Fortunately the new covenant has granted me better ones (Heb. 8:6).

2026-05-09 18:57:25 CEST

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Of course.

2026-05-08 04:17:28 CEST

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"The church is always 100% reliable when it says it is 100% reliable."
If the "true church" says it, then it is true.
Vs.
The church which says what is true is the true church.
I know which I prefer.
Also, it sounds like you're saying it's sinful for a person to think they're right.
But you seem to think you're right.

2026-05-05 16:58:18 CEST

Anxious?
#semperreformanda
https://blossom.primal.net/df21d6d73b6b82ae6b6f5742384973074eb03c6165e1e986bd38eccf7f2f3941.mp4

2026-04-07 19:34:33 CEST

If God declares you righteous, your own good works will form no part of the basis on which He does so.
#semperreformanda #thelawandthegospel
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2026-03-19 21:20:32 CET

It's official. We're tapping.
#provideandprotect #sappingseason
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2026-03-19 15:03:35 CET

If you are working for justification, it implies that you are not yet justified in any meaningful sense. But the Christian is inseparably joined to Christ by a genuine faith—Christ who is Himself death to sin, resurrection, and spotless righteousness (Eph. 1; Col. 3:3-4). Therefore, if you are working for justification, you remain a stranger and alien to Christ, cut off from Him, and dead in your sins.
https://blossom.primal.net/6aeabd432c628de78be3d90a7189b160a69b5752442c0df12fe1e5daddd8865e.jpg
#thelawandthegospel #thewholechrist #christianostr #biblestr

2026-03-19 03:33:23 CET

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Ceremonial laws like circumcision are fulfilled in Christ. They are shadows. Christ is the substance. You can do what you like with them, but they are obsolete.

2026-03-17 15:58:03 CET

"The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed, depends not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God (who is truth itself), the author thereof; therefore it is to be received because it is the Word of God."
https://www.the1689confession.com/1689/chapter-1
The church doesn't make Scripture God's word. It recognizes that it is God's word. It is what it is. 2+2=4 even if the whole world says otherwise.

2026-03-16 14:05:52 CET

"It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing." -John 6:63
"Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?" - Gal. 3:3
#biblestr #christianostr

2026-03-15 02:09:57 CET

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A lot of religions make a lot of remarkable claims. It doesn't mean they're true.
Scripture is the Protestant's magisterial authority. It is the law and the gospel of Christ our king. He wrote it to reveal things to us in a way we could understand. Have you ever noticed how many times in the gospels Jesus asks the question: "Have you not read?"
We have no magisterium. Christ rules His church from heaven by His Word and Spirit. This does not mean we do not have ministerial authorities. We have living teachers, pastors, scholars who have the Spirit of Christ living and working in them. We also have great regard for creeds and confessions. It just means we do not consider them authorities in themselves. (Don't trust, verify.) They are subject to the word of God. Members of churches are also subject to the authority of the church, and if they teach or live in such a way that is contrary to the church's belief, they may be put under discipline. We have no popes in Protestantism: we believe it is right for each of us to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. That includes submitting our interpretation to another and being willing to accept correction, especially from a faithful pastor or other church leader.
What is baffling to me about other traditions is that they seem to doubt their ability to interpret the Scriptures accurately themselves, but at the same time they seem very confident in their ability to interpret the church fathers' interpretation of Scripture. Claiming these church leaders had extra-biblical revelation (hidden knowledge) via spoken word, regarding the fundamentals of the faith, not included in Scripture, and asserted after the time of the death of eyewitnesses to the risen Christ, is quite a problematic, and, in my view, very cult-like claim.
There is no getting around using your own individual rational mind to come to a conclusion. The way to determine the truth of any matter is not to ask who the person (or group) is who is saying it--it is to determine whether it conforms to reality or not.
A well-informed Protestant will not argue that it is Protestants who made the hard fork. The Reformers sought to retrieve the teaching and practice of the ancient church. The claim is that Rome veered off. The claim is that we are more catholic and apostolic than you are, and you got into novelty regarding the substance and essence of the faith, particularly regarding the authority of Scripture and the way of salvation.
To paraphrase the apostle Paul, "...even if we, or an angel from heaven, or a bishop or bishopric that claims direct succession from the apostles by the laying on of hands, or a pope who is the supposed head of the church and direct successor to Peter, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed." As I understand it then, Trent is the hard fork. Apostolic succession is irrelevant if it has failed to preserve the true gospel as handed down by Paul in his written letters (which certainly would not contradict his spoken word).

2026-03-13 13:47:51 CET

"...a Christian man has in his faith all that he needs, and needs no works to justify him ... they who imagine that they are fulfilling the law by doing the works of chastity and mercy required by the law (the civil and human virtues), might not be confident that they will ... be saved; they are included under the sin of unbelief, and must either seek mercy or be justly condemned." —Luther, On the Freedom of a Christian
#gm #grace #thelawandthegospel #wedistinguish
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2026-03-13 02:46:55 CET

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Oh man. We had one crawl under the truck and up under the hood into the engine area. Could not get it out. Trying to be proactive and keep them from getting a foothold this year. But they got a duck already one night. And the coyotes heard it and came and picked off a chicken later. Too many varmints.

2026-03-12 15:51:55 CET

Raccoon warfare season 2 is underway. #provideandprotect #homestead
https://blossom.ditto.pub/60a2d29394b2d6b8d640902e3314127e6b420dab2f4e0f3037a15df9d7e527bc.jpeg

2026-03-12 13:39:22 CET

Jesus said, "My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (Matt. 11:30).
You lose this the minute you make your own works part of the basis on which God declares you righteous in His sight.
It doesn't matter if you claim they are works carried out by God's grace.
The entire weight of God's perfect law is hung around your neck like a millstone.
You must accomplish it to gain eternal life.
That is not good news.
https://blossom.ditto.pub/d5ae628ea6a0531bb1076521f8b750a168060f368a749d9f53a228d8e15ce2a2.jpeg
#christianostr #biblestr #gm

2026-03-11 14:47:41 CET

- reply

Understood. That sounds a lot more like probation than sonship. So much of the NT appeal to obedience is an appeal from identity: you are sons, therefore act like sons. You have been crucified with Christ, therefore die to sin and live to righteousness. It seems your view would completely undercut any motive to obedience from identity. The effect of Rome's teaching (no matter their supposed objection) is that I might be a son, but I have to choose to keep obeying to really find out. This makes sonship much more of an achievement than a gift of God's grace. As you say, you must choose. It's a relationship that can end. Therefore, I conclude, it is a relation based on works rather than grace. I don't see how in your view the NT is in any way essentially different from the OT. "If you obey, then you'll live."
Roman Catholicism has no appeal to me. I think I understand it pretty well. I was taught some of its distinctives by teachers who thought they were teaching Protestant theology. It is very easy to slip into the Galatian heresy. It is far easier for the mind of of the flesh to comprehend. The god of Rome is far too fickle and his medicine far too weak to save my soul. I have been far too acquainted with the depths of my sin. I agree with Charles Spurgeon: if I could lose my salvation, I would.
My interest in RC is merely speculative and experimental, for the purposes of evangelism and defending the truth. (I do not recognize a genuine Roman Catholic as a brother, because Rome clearly teaches a different gospel; indeed, a different religion when it comes to the substance of it, though there is agreement with Christianity in important areas).
It is amazing to me that someone could say that a person who is in limbo between a state of righteousness and sin (grace and flesh) could enjoy the blessing of being seated in the heavenly places in Christ. That is the Holy of Holies. You must be covered in blood and washed to enter there. Some provisional or temporary covering could never suffice in light of God's holiness. On the other hand, I don't see how it could be an encouragement if Paul is talking about something that a person believing now might never reach in the future.
We also believe in an ongoing, lifelong process of purification for the Christian and for the church. We call it sanctification, and we distinguish it from justification. Justification leads to sanctification. Faith is not a good work (it is the work of God), but it produces good works. A person already made righteous in Christ begins to live righteously. This process of sanctification is evidence of justification, not the grounds of it. If you love the RC Church because they have a catechism, that is no reason to favor it over Protestantism. The Reformed churches have catechisms and confessions of faith as well.
The design of RC seems to be to deny people assurance and keep them debtors to the law and slaves. I don't see any way the gospel according to Rome leaves it open to the charge of antinomianism. You seem to think that is one of the principle virtues of Romanism, and the vice of Protestantism. Curiously, Paul's preaching did leave him open to the charge of antinomianism (Rom. 6:1). If your gospel could not possibly be misunderstood in such a way, do you think it may be possible you're not teaching the same gospel? Think about it.

2026-03-11 01:03:03 CET

Good news: Christ is crucified for you. Believe and you have life.
Not good news: Christ is crucified for you. You have a chance to reach eternal life if you keep the rules.

2023-07-07 13:57:14 CEST

“All flesh is like grass,
And all the glory of man like the flower of the grass.
The grass withers,
And its flower falls away,
But the word of the Lord endures forever.” -1 Peter 1:24-25
#eternity #grownostr #life #jesus #faith
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