Theological Treatises

  The Absoluteness of Prayer in the Minister's Life   Dedicated to my dear brother and fellow-minister Bob Smart   The reason I use the language  "absoluteness"  of prayer in the minister's life, is because prayer is not merely to be considered a "requirement," or a "need"; and it would not be fitting to even enjoin something like, "The  importance  of prayer in the minister's life."   Every truly-called minister of the gospel, serving in Christ's faithful church,  is  a praying man.  There are  no  exceptions to this rule.  Any man who does not have an earnest and heartfelt desire to be in the presence of God is  not  an undershepherd of Christ and His church.  Prayer, for the true saints, is not something that has to be "wrenched" out of us.  It is not simply a duty, a responsibility, and/or something expected of us.  Every regenerated Christian churchman sincerely...

  CHRIST: THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE   Dedicated to all the church's great pastors/theologians/philosophers who have blessed my life so much   Most of us are probably familiar with what is called, "The Copernican Revolution"--where it was finally accepted that the earth revolved around the sun (and not the other way around).   In this little paper, I would like to remind us of the Holy Scripture's universal and constant insistence (Old Testament and New) that Christ, the  Eternally -Begotten Son of the Father, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, is not only  at  the very heart of God's created universe, He  is  the epicenter of it.   The reason this is so, is because, even  before  the creation of the world, the blessed Trinity had, in the counsels of Their decrees, determined that it would be the Christ, the  eternally -begotten Son of the Father,  Who  would be the One  through  Whom the world woul...

A Very Short Essay On Church Leadership Dedicated to the faithful Officers with whom I have served in Christ's Church Books and articles on leadership sometimes make me a bit uncomfortable--because the spirit which seems to me to drive some of them appears quite counter to the supernatural and miraculous qualities required of those people called to serve the beautiful body (church) of Christ. As per the danger in the spirit mentioned above, I am not claiming to be an "expert" on this subject; and indeed, I have made enough mistakes in church leadership to write a textbook on what   not   to be and do. Still, by God's grace, I have learned a few things over the expanse of 36 years as the pastor of one (very special) church.  In this short essay, I will try to give some encouragement to my brothers (who serve in the church's formal offices); and to my brothers and sisters who minister for Christ faithfully in their callings in the church and in the world. It seems t...

A BRIEF SUMMARY HISTORY OF THE TRIUNE GOD   A Treatise By Rev. Mark J. Henninger, honorably retired/PNI (PCA); and lately pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church (PCA)/Peoria IL   Dedicated to my dear wife Lesley   Introduction:   Some may find it preposterous, that any mortal would attempt any kind of "history" of the one, true, and absolute Divine Being.  It might even be thought a bit disrespectful; or even virtually impossible.  But, because our loving Triune God has condescended to reveal Himself to us in creation and (even more so) in Holy Scripture, we are actually given a warrant (by Him) to embark on this project.   Language will be a constant and interesting challenge for us in this study--since, at once, it is inescapably-employed, and yet never totally capable of explaining the nature and ways of the one God who exists (necessarily) apart from the whole matrix of His creation.  We intend to deal with the wonder of the Inc...