I recently preached on the first miracle of our Lord in John 2:1-11. It was a fascinating and rewarding experience for me.  Commonly known as the miracle of the “water to wine”, we encounter our Lord, his mother and some disciples at a wedding feast in Cana.  Running out of wine at the wedding, our Lord turns the water contained in six large water pots into wine.  As I studied this passage, one thing in particular struck me with regard to John’s intention in gospel-writing.  He wants his reader to believe that “Jesus Christ is the Son of God and believing Him you may have life in His name” (John 20:31).  He demonstrates this point by a selective (20:30) record of Christ’s signs (and teachings).  John tells us (2:11) that Christ manifests his glory in His performance of signs and wonders.

Those within the Reformed church love to study doctrine.  We often gather together in one setting or another, open the Bible, and explore the wealth of wisdom that we find.  We also like to open some crusty old tome written long ago and let the breeze of ages past blow through our minds.  Whether we study Scripture or learn more about theology, we love to hone and tune our orthodoxy.  What is a problem is that we can make good discussion when it comes to doctrinal issues.  We often demonstrate, however, that we do not understand our doctrine as well as we might think in our every day life.  Let us consider the following doctrines.

Within the Reformed community there is always much discussion and sermonizing on the dominion mandate: "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth" (Gen. 1.28).  There are many Reformed pastors and theologians who appeal to this passage of Scripture and argue that the Church must carry out this command.  The Church must not only carry out the mandate through evangelism, they argue, but also through procreation.  After all, Christ reissued the mandate to the Church in the Great Commission (Matt. 28.18-20) and we are still obligated to God’s first command to Adam and Eve.  Hence, the bottom line of their argument is that through the accomplished work of Christ the Church fulfills the dominion mandate.  While this sounds true and scriptural, it misses the mark by a significant distance.  It might surprise us to discover that the Church does not fulfill the dominion mandate.  If the Church does not fulfill the mandate, then who does?  Christ fulfills the dominion mandate.

One of the hallmark doctrines of the Reformed faith is the sovereignty of God. We take great comfort in Gods providential control over whatsoever comes to past (Eph 1.11; Dan 4.35; Mat 10.29; Acts 17.26; Psa 139.16; Rom 8.28 et al). The pinnacle of Gods sovereignty is found in our electionGods sovereign decision to save those whom He desires from sin and death. The most familiar passage of Scripture that communicates this doctrine is, of course, the ninth chapter of Romans.

We often hear the word fundamentalism bandied about in the media.  We hear the phrase “right-wing Islamic fundamentalists” used in connection with terrorism.  What is disturbing is that sometimes the same adjective is used to describe Christians--“right wing Christian fundamentalists.”  The tactic is simple—try to identify Islamic terrorists with Christians to make people believe they will commit the same violence.  Yet, what we should ask is, What is fundamentalism?  Secondly, is the OPC a fundamentalist denomination?