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Beauty Will Rise - Steven Curtis Chapman
Me
Why Am I Doing This?
As much as an amateur blogger and theologian can do this…I want to make you think. I want you to know what you believe and why you believe it. And I want you to believe what you do – not because Mommy and Daddy believed it – but because it is the truth as contained in the Scriptures. I pray that God will use this blog and the resources and links provided here to grow its readers (including me) in the grace and knowledge of Christ. I pray this knowledge will result in a life of obedience that flows – not from fear or a desire to gain God’s favor – but from a gratitude of knowing the truth about Who your Creator is, and what your Creator has done for you.
My purpose for doing this is not only to have a place to put forth my thoughts, but also to provide a central location for the lay person to have access to the doctrinally sound theologians and authors of our time and from the past, and to provide resources that are true and faithful to Scripture. Voice of the Sheep is a name that originated from John’s gospel, primarily from chapter 10. Jesus repeatedly states in John 10 the truth that He is the good shepherd, and He came to die for His sheep. As Jesus proclaims, the sheep hear His voice, follow Him, receive eternal life from Him, and will never perish. The truth is clear that all of those the Father has given to Jesus will come to Him. This site is simply the voice of His sheep proclaiming the true gospel and the absolute sovereignty of God Almighty. My prayer is that I will bring honor and glory to the name of Christ, and as Paul states in Eph. 1: 18-19a, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.” (NASB)
WHO AM I:
My name is Brian Thornton. I have been married since 1993 to my incredible wife, Pam. She is truly a helpmate for me and an example to me. Proverbs 31 must have been written just about her, “The heart of her husband trusts in her, And he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil All the days of her life.” (vv.11-12), and “Her children rise up and bless her; Her husband also, and he praises her, saying: ‘Many daughters have done nobly, But you excel them all.’” (vv.28-29)
Pam and I have been blessed with four incredible children: Rachel in ‘95, Joshua in ‘98, Caleb in ‘01, and Nikolas in ‘02. I think that’s about all we can handle. Our house is never without some sort of commotion going on. It is never quiet, and I actually like it that way (well, most of the time). Believe me, there is never a dull moment. Especially since all of us are pretty much always at home. Not only do Pam and I have our own business (we provide fun stuff for parties and events: you know, inflatable bounces, slides, etc. Check us out at yardpartyevents.com), but we also homeschool! I guess I should say that Pam homeschools.
Both Pam and I were born and raised Southern Baptist (please don’t hold that against us-big smile here). Of course, the doctrines we hold to now are a little more difficult to find in today’s SBC churches. I am talking about the doctrines of grace. I am ashamed to say that I was all but completely unfamiliar with them until about five or six years ago (around 2001). God, in His perfect providence, began to use His Word to show me the truth about His true nature. All the classes at our church were doing a verse by verse study through the book of Romans, one of which I was teaching. Let me tell you, if you don’t want to see the true truth of the sovereignty of God…DON’T do a verse by verse study through Romans! As we went through that incredible letter by Paul, I simply could no longer ignore what was screaming at me from the pages of my Bible.
God also used ministries such as Ligonier and 9Marks to reveal the incredible truth of His complete sovereignty over His creation and what the church was to be and to do. I began to really study matters of theology, and this after having already been an adult Sunday School teacher for a year or so (sad, huh). More and more of my free time was spent pouring over sites like Monergism, Stand to Reason, Spurgeon Archive, and Bible Bulletin Board.
I am so thankful that my Creator saw fit to reveal His truth to me about who He is.
WHAT I BELIEVE:
Here are some links that affirm the major tenets of what we believe:
The Goat Yard Declaration of Faith – John GIll, 1729
The Cambridge Declaration – Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals
God’s Monergistic Work of Regeneration
CONCLUSION:
It is my sincere hope and prayer that this site might help another brother or sister in the faith to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I am just a lay person. But, every true child of God – whether on staff and highly visible or a volunteer in the kitchen on Wednesday nights – has been called to be a theologian, a student of the things of God. I pray that I will always have the fortitude to remain faithful to my Lord, without regard or fear of any human ridicule or retribution. Remember the words of Paul, “For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.” – Gal. 1:10
I have been saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone, as revealed in the Scriptures alone.
MY TESTIMONY:
When was I saved?
I have been a Christian for as long as I can remember. I had pretty much been taught the things of God from birth, really. I was (am) blessed to have two parents who love the Lord and cared enough to be involved with my Christian development at almost every step of the way. I have no specific year and date and time in my past that I can point to and say, “Yep. It was then! That’s when the lightning bolt struck and at that moment I got saved!” I had no Damascus Road experience where I can recall a clear distinction from living a life of rebellion to being transformed to a life of following Christ. I can’t recall having prayed ‘the’ prayer. I can’t remember a time in my life before I had faith in Christ. And I must say that that used to bother me somewhat, as I thought that maybe I should be able to pinpoint a specific point in time, until I heard John MacArthur and Ligon Duncan talk about the same kind of thing concerning themselves. My whole life has been spent in the church…I do not know what it even means to live a life that is not centrally focused there. I have no reference for that. What I do know, is that somewhere prior to or right around the age of nine, something changed within me – I believe now it was the Holy Spirit – quickening my heart, and I became aware of my sin and need for the Savior. So…
The result of this, I believe, was that I began asking questions, & my Mom & Dad sent me to talk with my Pastor, Dr. Howard Cobble. I met privately with Dr. Cobble (I have no recollection of the specifics of that meeting), and as a result, he determined that I was saved. So, the following Sunday morning I walked down to the front (by myself) during the invitation to be presented by Dr. Cobble as one who had professed faith in Christ alone for salvation, and as a candidate for baptism and membership. I was baptized the following Sunday evening.
I didn’t know much at the age of nine, and I understood even less…to be sure. But what I did know and understand was that I was a sinner, and there was no salvation without Jesus. I knew that He had lived a sinless life and died in my place, and that without trusting in Him there was no hope of heaven.
As I look back over my 39 years, I see the providential hand of a sovereign God, saving me at an early age, and giving me, even way back then, an awareness of and hatred for my sin. I thank God for granting in me what He commanded of me.
My Reformed Progression:
Around ’99, I began teaching an adult SS class at a big SBC church in Henry County that was/is non-reformed/seeker-sensitive/church-growth obsessed. We soon thereafter switched from using Lifeway quarterlies to going verse-by-verse through various books of the Bible. Everything was going fine until we hit a certain book. Before that, I was a happy, synergistic Arminian who was proud of his decision to accept Jesus and cooperate with God in his salvation. Until, that is…we started covering the letter of Paul to the Romans…and it was like scales falling off of my eyes! God used that study to teach a teacher…and I am so thankful that He did!
Then we covered the Gospel of John…and I could hardly contain myself as I taught through this incredible account of the God/man, Jesus Christ. Romans was good, and it was that study God used to open my eyes to seeing His true nature…but the study we did in John was a special one for me, as I began to really see the amazing truths of Christ’s deity, and even more of the sovereignty of God in salvation. By the end of the study in John I could hardly sit still or be quiet when it came to the Doctrines of Grace. You know how someone is when they have discovered something new and wonderful…you just gotta share it with everybody! Well, that didn’t go over too well considering the church we were in.
We then went from a study in John to a study in 1 Timothy…God’s blueprint for the church…of which ours was not following! It was like He had orchestrated this whole progression of specific verse-by-verse book studies just for us…first Romans, then John’s gospel, and then 1st Timothy! I knew by the end of the study in 1 Timothy that we were not only not where we needed to be, but that we were not where God wanted us to be. That was confirmed in March of ’05 when Pam and I went to the Ligonier National Conference and I had the chance to meet Mark Dever and try to justify to him our staying where we were. I tried to justify to Dever that we were okay where we were, because we were being salt and light within that church. Dr. Dever looked at me in the eyes and asked me if I had a family, and then asked me what I thought I should be doing in light of what kind of example I was being to them with respect to staying at a church that was in the state ours was in. That was all it took, and when we returned home we knew that our time there was short. So, we left our big, comfortable place that we had made for ourselves over the previous 7 years, and we began looking for a church with which we could identify…one that was not afraid to proclaim the truths of Scripture.
Looking back over the course of my life, I can see God’s providence at every step: blessing me with my Mom & Dad, bringing me to saving faith at an early age, opening my eyes to the truth of who He really is…and also in one other area…
Conclusion:
Pam and I had met in college down at Georgia State, but it was 6 years after that first meeting that God brought us together in a ‘chance’ meeting, and the rest, as they say, is history. God is most certainly a God of second chances, and He has definitely proven that with me in my life, and especially in blessing me with my incredible wife and four amazing children. I thank Him everyday for bringing me together with such a wonderful helpmate & friend who loves her Lord and desires to bring honor and glory to Him.
The more I grow spiritually as a disciple of Christ, the more aware I become of how unworthy I am to be in this place of worship. I often ask why. Why, Lord, have you chosen to bless me…why have you prepared me to be a vessel of mercy, and not a vessel of wrath? Why have you chosen to reveal to me the wonders of your glorious grace? All I can say is…Thanks be to God, that He has chosen to enlighten the eyes of my heart, so that I may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe!
bob said
pink s book sov of god is most influential book ive read.
ive been reading it for 4 years now over and over…
lettters from spartanburg is good one too…written at same tiem as SOG
Bradley said
Hey! Love your website, its a blessing! I saw your list of churches and saw Ivy Creek PCA- I’m currently looking for a church and was wondering why you had this one on there…is it one you would recommend? It’s fairly close to me, so I figure I will visit.
In Christ,
Bradley
PS- I couldn’t find any other way to contact you.
Jason Robertson said
I thoroughly enjoyed our radio time together!
Brian Thornton said
Me too, Jason! I am so glad you called in. I thought it went really well.
johnMark said
Brian,
Are you going to the FIRE conference next month, May 14-16, in Sharpsburg?
Check out the firefellowship.org website if you need more info. They have a great line-up of folks.
I will most likely be there with some friends.
Thanks,
Mark
Brian Thornton said
Hi Mark,
Thanks for the info on the FIRE conference. I’ll check it out.