December 2006 Ordained Servant

From the Editor. The so-called "image culture" is a great concern to the church. The Second Commandment forbids the use of certain images (or should I say a certain use of images, i.e., as means of worship, as idols) unless they are commanded by the express warrant of scripture. Yet the visible world, including creation and culture, is God's gift to those made in his image, who have eyes to behold his manifest excellence in what he has crafted, and enabled us to craft.

But, of course, it is what we have crafted, and what we think about what we have crafted, that becomes problematic. When we add original sin and total depravity to the mix, we can identify certain obvious corruptions of culture such as Internet pornography. Pastor Bill Shishko explores this problem in detail in the republication of his two part article "The Peril of Pornography." I will look more broadly at the benefits and liabilities of the image culture in my editorial "The Seductive Image."

Beginning next month you will be reading articles you have never seen before. It will be fresh from the authors' pens, or should I say keyboards. I will still be republishing a select few choice articles from the archives.

Many officers have contacted me with two kinds of questions. First they ask, What happened to Ordained Servant? In a related question men want to know how to get on the mailing list. The answers to these questions are on the website. Our new subscription policy is posted under that heading at the bottom of the OS page. Be sure to read it.

Blessings in the Lamb,
Gregory Edward Reynolds

Ordained Servant exists to help encourage, inform, and equip church officers for faithful, effective, and God glorifying ministry in the visible church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Its primary audience is ministers, elders and deacons of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, as well as interested officers from other Presbyterian and Reformed churches. Through high quality editorials, articles, and book reviews we will endeavor to stimulate clear thinking and the consistent practice of historic Presbyterianism.