January 3, 2017 Show with Dr. James M. Renihan

Live from the historic parsonage of 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania it's iron sharpens iron a radio platform on which pastors Christian scholars and theologians Address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.

Proverbs 27 verse 17 tells us iron sharpens iron. So one man sharpens another. Matthew Henry said that in this passage quote we are cautioned to take heed when we converse with and directed to have in view in Conversation to make one another wiser and better.

It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next hour. And we hope to hear from you the listener with your own questions. Now, here's our host Chris.

Good afternoon, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania and the rest of humanity who are living on the planet Earth. Listening via live streaming. This is Chris Arns and your host of iron sharpens iron wishing you all a happy Tuesday on this third day of January 2017 the second broadcast of iron sharpens iron in 2017.

Upcoming Pastors Luncheon and Great Debate in Carlisle

And Before I introduce my guest and our topic today I want to remind you about a couple of exciting events that we are having next week. First of all on Thursday January 12th from 11 a .m. To 2 p .m. We are having the iron sharpens iron pastors luncheon at the beautiful Carlisle vault in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

And if you're wondering why it has the name Vault it is because it is a historic bank from the early 20th century that has been transformed into a gorgeous catering hall and This venue is actually being provided to me Free of charge with the exception of the fact that I have to pay the cleaning crew.

This is an absolutely amazing blessing from God that this is being Done through the generosity of the new owners of the Carlisle vault. This is for men in ministry leadership only. We apologize that we cannot accommodate the wives at this event.

So if you or a man in ministry leadership, whether you are a pastor deacon Perhaps you run a parachurch organization something of that effect. We would love to hear from you and we would love to have you register for this free event Thursday January 12th 11 a .m. To 2 p .m.

At the Carlisle vault our keynote speaker will be dr Tony Costa professor of apologetics and Islam at Toronto Baptist Seminary in Canada and Major Christian books to a book publishers from all over the United States and the United Kingdom.

Nearly every prominent one is donating free books to Every man that attends this. They have been doing this going back to the 1990s when my late wife came up with the idea to start these luncheons and I am just overwhelmed by the generosity of these Christian publishers from all over the United States and the UK who donate a hundred copies of a title That I select so every man there can get a copy of the book.

From that I select from each of these publishers. So these are brand new books. These are. These are not used or damaged books. And so this is quite a remarkable act of generosity on their part that they do annually.

The the you're gonna have a gourmet meal provided by chef exclusive here in Carlisle and Great time of fun and fellowship. The dessert is even being provided Free of charge by Carlisle bakery, and that's the first time they are involved in this event.

So There is nothing that you have to pay for by going to this event and that we are not selling anything. There's no hidden agenda other than to bless all the men that attend for more details. Email me at Chris Arnzen at gmail .com.

Chris Arnzen at gmail .com and put pastors luncheon in the subject line. You can also email me at pastors luncheon Carlisle at gmail .com pastors luncheon Carlisle at gmail .com and Carlisle spelled C-A-R-L-I-S-L-E.

Then the following night Friday the 13th of January at 7 p .m. Dr. Costa who I just mentioned Dr. Tony Costa is debating Robert St. Genes of Catholic Apologetics International on the theme Mary sinless Queen of Heaven or sinner saved by grace this it requires a $5 ticket purchase to cover the cost of the Carlisle theater and To cover travel expenses and other things involved with this.

If you'd like more information on that, please email me also at Chris Arnzen at gmail .com or the great debate Carlisle at gmail .com the great debate Carlisle C-A-R-L-I-S-L-E. At gmail .com we hope to see as many of you as possible at these events.

I already know that we have people coming as far away as Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland and New York To attend these events. So wherever you are, we hope to see you if you can possibly make it out here.

Dr. Renahan's Background and Conversion

Well, my guest today is dr. James M Renahan Dean and professor of historical theology at the Institute of Reform Baptist Studies and we are going to be discussing this project that he is involved in not only the school as it is now, but the Exciting things that are going on with the Institute for Reform Baptist Studies or should I say Institute of Reform Baptist Studies and We'll also be opening up the the program for questions even those who are basically just asking general questions on Reform theology or more specifically Reform Baptist theology soteriology ecclesiology.

We would love to hear from you at Chris Arnzen at gmail .com. Chris Arnzen at gmail .com with your question, but it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to iron sharpens iron. Dr. James Renahan.

Yeah, it's good to have you back and the last time we attempted to do a program with dr Renahan we were experiencing technical difficulties and we just thank God that Those technical difficulties seem to be gone forever.

Although we never know what's coming around the corner. Just like I watch major television networks like Fox News and they're always having technical difficulties but I just thank the Lord that he has been gracious to us and has for the time being alleviated these problems for the past few months and We hope that that will be the case for a long time to come Before I even go into the subject at hand.

About the Institute of Reform Baptist Studies. Dr. Renahan. I'd like to know something about you personally. I'd like to know something about your your childhood as far as the religion of your youth if any and what Providential circumstances came about in your life by our Lord Sovereign hand that Drew you to himself and saved you.

I'm I'm from Massachusetts. I was born in 40 miles west of Boston.

My.

Parents a mixed religious and my mother Swedish Protestant due to circumstances. I was raised in And it was the church acted but I would say that the gospel was not preached. In that I can never remember being told as a child that you must believe in Christ and be born again.

Um when I was about 50 in the neighborhood where I lived I attended a Baptist Church in town and there Heard the gospel and believed it. Was baptized there and interestingly, I think in 1972. Before we were an item.

Thanks to God. We were able to get married in the faith and sent off to Christian College I together In 78 and she to me I had a man in that church through 1984 1998 with my family to begin the program of the Institute of has been a great Opportunity.

Reformed Baptist Identity, Particular Redemption, and Sola Scriptura

Well, how did you come to embrace what we know as the Reformed faith. It has been nicknamed Calvinism. It has been nicknamed the doctrines of sovereign grace or just simply the doctrines of grace. It has been nicknamed even the doctrines of free grace.

But if you could tell us about how that came about in your life.

As a result of things in Geneva, and of course, I didn't really struggle at all with if God is God If he he's the creator if he sustains the world if he is what the Bible says He is then this must be the right way.

And that set reading some really fine literature back then. This is the early 1970s the reprints and books that were coming out from the banner of truth trust and So I began to be a Reprint back then and I began to buy any study work with the scriptures.

Read them listen think.

That helped me to grow in my faith. Well, praise God if you could also because Not all of my listeners are theologically reformed. I have new listeners every day and some of them would be Over an Arminian persuasion, even if they don't call themselves that some would not even be Christian.

I do have Muslims who from time to time Listen and email me Questions or people who just don't have any faith that they claim. Sometimes I have Roman Catholics that listen. Oh, if you could in summary define what it means to be reformed and then what it means to be a reformed Baptist.

And we would have people come to Contact with us. We had a variety of programs in the community that opened. We would go and visit them and all things will be great in him and and he is directly involved.

We have a big God and then it's a big book and of course by that we mean the Bible. And It'd be recognized that from the beginning of the book of Genesis to the end of the book of Revelation. And all of the rest in between Old Testament and New Testament.

We believe that these these words are inspired by the Holy Spirit. Different individual are the very words of their bread to us. That that's the way that I would reduce in the smallest and we have a big.

Now we come to.

Specifically what a reformed Baptist is because as you know, there are some of our greatly beloved Presbyterian brethren and reformed brethren who are Pato Baptist to baptize infants who believe that that phrase reformed Baptist is oxymoronic.

Not that all of them say that and then you also have even some of our many of our Baptist Brethren who will same say the same thing and they will not use that That label to identify themselves. Some of them even when they are Thoroughgoing Calvinists or five-point Calvinist or Sovereign Grace believers will not use that term reformed Connected with Baptists.

So if you could explain What is that that more specifically? What is a reformed Baptist and why do you use that title?

Like. Yes, and they would probably historically prior to the 20th century been more commonly referred to as.

Particular Baptists Being hinged on the doctrine of particular Redemption. Am I correct?

Yeah, yeah, when in this 19th century and all of the Baptists.

Yes, and today the denominational affiliation. Known as the regular Baptists. They are now a mixed group of both Calvinist and Arminian. Although they probably would never refer to themselves as Arminian They were not all consistently Calvinistic today.

That seems to be the case, yeah.

Yeah, in fact I've met I've met very strong thoroughgoing Calvinists in that group and I've also met vehemently anti Calvinist pastors in that group. Yeah, so just like the Southern Baptists which began Nearly exclusively if not completely exclusively as a Calvinistic Organization the Southern Baptist Convention today.

They the Calvinists as you know are a minority in that that denomination.

Really good book that just came out at the end of last year that By Brandon Smith and Kurt Smith on the history of Georgia Baptist. Yeah, the salt grand Christian books, right?

Yes, and Then one of the reasons I think that reform Baptist is actually an appropriate term is because I believe That those Baptists who are from the stream that believe in the doctrines of Sovereign Grace or the gospel of the Reformation I believe that they took Reformation to a more logical conclusion in that they especially in regard to Sola Scriptura.

Which led them to abandon or not embrace to begin with? Infant baptism.

I.

Yes, I know that.

People who care deeply about theology and truth, who are meticulous about that, very often can perhaps have knee-jerk reactions in a wrong way when they hear somebody disagree with them. So that's one of the things that people who are sinners, like you and I and everybody that lives on this planet, even if we are in a positive way being meticulous about truth or trying to be, there can be that negative baggage that comes with it when we are less than kind on occasion.

I've even heard, perhaps you have as well and I'm assuming you have, that Luther and perhaps even Zwingli were very close to becoming persuaded by Anabaptists that credo or believers only baptism was the biblical mode, but then they backed off of that.

Have you heard those stories?

Yeah, I think that's an exaggeration, to be honest with you. Luther, so far as I know, was never persuaded by any Anabaptist. That nature of the Anabaptist views that drove him away from any kind of credo-baptist views.

Yeah, by then, yeah, but by that time, right.

He may have been that much more than an idealist. Once again, as you know, that's around 1525, where the leaders of that movement really were the young men who were, and he is very well working through the process of Reformation, how to bring Reformation to the church.

It does seem pretty clear that Zwingli gave to...

Technical Difficulties and Return After Break

We're going to a break right now, and by the way, Dr. Renahan, I can understand you completely, but there is a bit of a static on occasion with your phone connection. I don't know if you have another phone line you could use, but I can hear everything you're saying, but if there was another option that you could use, you might want to use it when we go to the break, but that's up to you.

I can understand everything you're saying. Just let me know what you're doing, so I know if I have to hang up and let you call back.

I will, okay, yeah.

Okay, you're going to do that?

I'm going to move my phone and try to take it away from what might be the source of the noise.

Okay, that's great, and I want to let everybody know that if you'd like to join us on the air with a question of your own, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com. ChrisArnson at gmail .com. Please give us your first name at least, the city and state of residence that you live in, and also the country that you live in if you are outside of the good old USA, and once again, that's chrisarnson at gmail .com.

C-H-R-I-S-A-R-N-Z-E-N at gmail .com. Don't go away. We will be right back after these messages with Dr. James M. Renahan. Chris Arnson here, and I can't wait to head down to Atlanta, Georgia, and here's my friend Dr. James White to tell you why.

Hi, I'm James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries. I hope you join me at the G3 Conference hosted by Pastor Josh Bice and Praise Mill Baptist Church at the Georgia International Convention Center in Atlanta, January 19th through the 21st, in celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

I'll be joined by Paul Washer, Steve Lawson, D .A. Carson, Vody Balcom, Conrad M. Bayway, Phil Johnson, Rosaria Butterfield, Todd Friel, and a host of other speakers who are dedicated to the pillars of what G3 stands for, gospel, grace, and glory.

For more details, go to g3conference .com. That's g3conference .com.

Thanks, James. Make sure you greet me at the Iron Sharpens Iron exhibit booth while you're there.

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We are a Reformed Baptist Church and we hold to the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689. We are in Norfolk, Massachusetts. We strive to reflect Paul's mindset to be much more concerned with how God views what we say and what we do than how men view these things.

That's not the best recipe for popularity, but since that wasn't the Apostles' priority, it must not be ours either. We believe, by God's grace, that we are called to demonstrate love and compassion to our fellow man, and to be vessels of Christ's mercy to a lost and hurting community around us, and to build up the Body of Christ in truth and love.

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Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies and Seminary Preparation

Welcome back, this is Chris Arns, and if you just tuned us in, our guest today for the full two hours, with about 90 minutes to go, is Dr. James M. Renahan, and he is the Dean and Professor of Historical Theology at the Institute of Reform Baptist Studies, and we are discussing what it means to be a Reform Baptist, and also we are going to be discussing more about this Institute of Reform Baptist Studies, and if you'd like to join us, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com, chrisarnsen at gmail .com, and we already have several people waiting for their questions to be asked, but I'd like you to now, before we go to them, tell us about the Institute of Reform Baptist Studies in more detail.

Hello, Dr. Renahan? It seems that Dr. Renahan is not on the air with us for some reason, so I am going to hang up. I'm going to go to a station break, and I don't understand. Dr. Renahan? Okay, Dr. Renahan is not with us, so we're going to go to another station break, and hopefully he will be by the time we get back, so don't go away.

We'll be right back after these messages, God willing.

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Dr. Renahan, are you back with us?

I am, Chris, yes.

And by the way, you sound a lot better now.

Okay, that's good.

Yes, I'm not sure how that happened, but you sound a lot better.

Okay.

I would like you to now go into more detail about exactly what the Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies is all about.

In 1990, when we were invited by Westminster Seminary to prepare men for God, we put together a program that we called the Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies. And we teach five classes that apply towards the Westminster Seminary Master of Divinity degree with the goal of—it has been a great—Westminster is a first-rate theological school.

I have received a really fine education. Many of them are out serving in churches now and are doing very well. We're seeing the Lord bless both established churches and some of the nicely-seeing—. So we're a graduate school, or we work with a graduate school, to prepare men for gospel ministry.

Praise God for that. And so you have some exciting things that are developing that are new in regard to this Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies. Tell us about that.

Yeah. A couple of years ago, we began the process through the—because of the interest of some folks, we began the possibility of IRBS, our institute, into a full-blown stand-alone. So men wanted to look into the possibility of seeing what we could do.

We've been involved for a couple of years in a process in the Bible that tells us we're trying to be prudent and wise. General revelation. So we've been involved for a couple of years in this process.

What would we need to do in order to be able to move forward? Where should we go if we decide to move forward? Who would be involved with us? Who would be our professors? Who would be our administration members?

And all of this—the next General Assembly of our Association of Churches—build a credited field for the training to gauge the level of interest, to see what kind of participation would people—we're trying to put all of that together and be very wise.

Okay.

We have Richard in Palmdale, California, who asks, at the IRBS website, it says, a confessional Reformed Baptist seminary, nothing of this kind now exists anywhere in the world. Could you elaborate on these words, nothing of this kind now exists anywhere in the world?

Yeah. There's a credited degree for a couple of schools. You know, for some men, distance education is a helpful means to—. But there is no, in the world, there's no degree-granting school where men can come and spend three years or can come and spend that time in a community being involved in the churches in the vicinity and get their training.

And that's what we're trying to build. We want to put together something that doesn't repeat what others are doing, that in a sense, You know, you could argue, well, there's a sense, because of your relationship with Westminster Seminary, and the guys who come through earn a Master of Divinity degree that's an accredited degree, and they do come here and they spend three years.

That's the closest thing. Our hope, all of the faculty members are Reformed Baptists and where that community can be built. So that's—.

Well, thank you, Richard, in Palmdale, California. We also have CJ from Lindenhurst, Long Island, New York, who says, I have Baptist friends who say that they militate against any Baptist group that is in a denomination, because Baptists historically have always believed in the autonomy of local congregations without a denominational headquarters or denominational hierarchy, as the Presbyterians and others have.

Is the Reformed Baptist group a denomination, or are your congregations independent and autonomous?

We are not a denomination in the tradition as it would be used, the correspondent said. Even Southern Baptists, we do believe in the autonomy of the local church. We don't believe in any organization that can rule over or intrude into the local church.

From the beginning, in the 17th century, the Baptists have been committed to the Prince. So we have organized ourselves according to the historical— cooperate together, but there is no body that is greater than the local church.

Nothing can be enforced upon them.

Well, I guess the only thing that could be enforced upon them is expulsion from the group if they wind up disagreeing on doctrinal issues or other matters.

Right, yeah. I mean, every group has the right to maintain commendation towards those who are within its group. Generally, morally, churches do that. Or if that church deviates doctrinally, then the association has the right to say, you no longer meet the standards of our church—I mean, of our association.

But the association can't tell that church, you must change, you must remove your elders and deacons, you must replace them, you must accept these men that we send to you. That's what a denomination does.

I am as strongly opposed to that as anyone else.

We have Tyler in Mastic Beach, Long Island, New York, who asks,.

Would you read that again for me?

He asks, than that of traditional confessing Presbyterians. In other words, I think what he is saying is since Baptists, in his opinion, or in the opinion of Presbyterians who have spoken with him, Baptists arrived on the scene later than the Reformation, and since they're not identical to the Anabaptists, I'm assuming that it would put them in a totally different category other than Reformed.

I'm assuming that's what he's asking.

Yeah, mixing up two things. Yes, it's true that some Presbyterians don't like when Baptists use the word Reformed to define themselves, but I've never run into myself the argument that it's based upon a later period of time, which is not really, only a couple of decades later, and even at the time.

More. I've heard the argument that infant baptism is an essential part of the Reformed system. To reject infant baptism is to disqualify yourself from the adjective Reformed.

We have Matt in Spring, Texas, who asks,. Eternal functional subordination in many circles has become the accepted norm. Can you explain why the Church needs a confessional Reformed Baptist seminary? Well, this is a totally different question here.

I'll tell you what, why don't you answer his first question, and then we'll go on to his second question.

Okay, yeah. Confessions of faith, when they're well done, when they're real, tie us to, I mean, universal. You know, when we think about who we are as Christians, we must not fall into the trap of thinking that our day and age is the final, the best, that we have all of the answers, that everything has been leading up to us.

We want to be identified with Christians and what Christians have believed ever since the days of the Apostles, and even before that, in terms of their understanding of who God was in the Old Testament.

And a good confession of faith will pick up on the language of the Christian Creed or the Chalcedonian, and express in its confessional statement the same doctrines that have been believed by Christians.

And that protects us from modern movements, and if we're living in the 18th century, that would be a modern movement, if something came along, or here in the 21st century, or maybe in the 24th century, if the Lord doesn't return.

It protects Christians from new ideas coming in, and brings us back, and worked out, and faith is really from the winds of doctrine.

Right, and obviously the Church, in order to actually prevent those things from happening, those aberrant views from raising up, they actually have to remain faithful to the confession, because there are denominations who on paper believe, or at least on paper they state, that that is the official creed or confession of their denomination.

But since they've long abandoned it in practical matters, it doesn't even mean anything. Like there are some Anglican churches that say that the official statement of faith of their denomination are the 39 articles of religion, and yet there is probably a very tiny minority of Anglicans and Episcopalians who actually believe in the 39 articles today.

Yeah, yeah, you're exactly right. And it becomes a matter of integrity, you know. You take an oath when you're ordained. Whatever denomination you happen to be in, an independent-type group like Baptists are, you know, when you take that oath that says, I am committed to the doctrine of my Church, you're saying something publicly, but also before God.

And if you don't live up to what you just said, there's a real question about your integrity. Why are you saying this? Why are you committing yourself? Why did you take this oath if you don't intend to live up to it?

And that has been the problem in the Church, certainly for the last 300 years, is men who have not been ordained to the ministry.

So Matt follows up with, can you explain why a Church, or should I say, can you explain why the Church needs a confessional Reformed Baptist seminary?

Yeah, that's a good question. Over the last couple of years, I've had the opportunity to talk to several men that I've become friends with, and one of them, in speaking to me, said that we will fill a niche that no one else is filling right now.

There isn't a place for men to come to and to be trained in the doctrine. There are good schools. I'm part of one here. You know, I think Westminster Seminary in California is a great school. Two of my sons are graduates.

I'm really thankful for everything that they learned, and I think the blessing of God in their ministries now is the result of what the faculty here has done for them. So wanting to do this is not meant to be a criticism of anyone else.

It's to say, this needs to be done. And one of the things that I have been especially encouraged by is the response that comes both here in the United States and around the world from people who say, yes, we appreciate very much what our men could get if they went to XYZ school, but XYZ school does not exactly represent what we believe the Bible teaches.

What you guys want to do is what we believe needs to be done, because you're going to teach them the things that we believe they need to be taught. So I think that we can fill that is not being filled right now, and really move forward.

There are many, many opportunities to us, church planting opportunities, churches that need pastors. My generation is getting near to the age of retirement. Some of my friends are already at the age of retirement.

They'll need to be replaced. There are many opportunities, and with the blessing of God, we can prepare men to go into those opportunities and see this movement go forward. You know, one of the things that really blesses me a lot is as I look to the 30s and early 40s.

We have a lot of them now. If the Lord were to take all of my generation home right now, this thing would still be left in really good hands, because they're godly men, they understand the Scriptures, they're committed wholeheartedly to serving Christ and to helping His people and to seeing the Gospel go out to the world.

I think that the opportunities that are in front of us in a couple of decades, and we need to now lay down the foundation to meet the opportunities.

In fact, could you tell the story right when we come back from the break?

I'd be glad to.

Yeah, just don't forget. Remember where you left off.

All righty.

Sponsorship Breaks and Reformed Baptist Distinctives

And we're going to be going to a break right now, and if anybody else would like to join us, we do have a number of people already waiting to have their questions asked and answered. But if you'd like to join them by asking a question of your own, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com.

C-H-R-I-S-A-R-N-Z-E-N at gmail .com. Please include your first name, city and state, and country of residence. And we will be right back after these messages with Dr. Jim Renahan, so don't go away.