Dr Paul Allen

English: The Apostle Paul (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) What General Revelation Is In order to understand the doctrine of general revelation, it is necessary first to have a clear grasp of what we mean by the term "revelation." The word "revelation" simply refers to "revealing" or "unveiling." It can refer to God 's act of communication to man or to the content of that communication. Article 2 of the Belgic Confession states the distinction in the following words: We know Him [God] by two means: First, by the creation, preservation, and government of the universe; which is before our eyes as a most elegant book, wherein all creatures, great and small, are as so many characters leading us to see clearly the invisible things of God, even his everlasting power and divinity, as the apostle Paul says in Romans 1:20 .  All which things are sufficient to convince men and leave them without excuse. Second, He makes Himself more clearly and full...

English: Icon of Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Church discipline, has a largely negative connotation in our culture, but the biblical idea is both positive and negative. A person is brought into the church by baptism and is nourished, or disciplined, by the preaching of the gospel and the administration of the Lord's Supper . All true believers need to be disciplined by these means until the Lord comes again; therefore, they should receive the preaching of the Word from their pastors and partake of the Lord's Supper when it is served by the church elders .  By these means, church leaders carry out the positive form of church discipline . It is positive in the sense that members are encouraged, built up, and strengthened through God 's appointed means and appointed messengers. Scripture exhorts believers to "obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this wit...

English: Roman Catholic church, Târgovişte, Romania (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The two sacraments that Christ Himself instituted are baptism ( Matt. 28:18–20) and the Lord's Supper (Matt. 26:26–29). Because of our continuing struggle with sin, the visible Word of the sacraments supplements the audible Word of the gospel preached, for God "hath joined [the sacraments] to the word of the gospel, the better to present to our senses, both that which he signifies to us by his Word, and that which he works inwardly in our hearts" ( Belgic Confession , Art. 33). As the preaching of the gospel creates faith, the sacraments confirm that faith within us ( Heidelberg Catechism , Q&A 65), just as circumcision did for Abraham, being "a seal (confirmation) of the righteousness that he had by faith" (Rom. 4:11). To purely administer the sacraments, a church must do so "as instituted by Christ" (Belgic Confession, Art. 29). This means, first, that it re...