About Gentle King
What This Is
Gentle King is a layman’s work. It is a place to put sound doctrine and a Bible study tool where anyone can reach them without paying for them.
The books are not posted yet. Sojourner, the study tool, is out and free to download, though it is early and still growing. What is here now is the writing, and the rest follows as it is ready.
The name comes from the King himself. He rode into Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey. Isaiah said of him that he will not break a bruised reed or quench the smoking flax. He calls tired people to come to him, and he gives them rest.
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
Matthew 11:28-29 (KJV)
He is gentle, and his authority is real. Those two things are not at odds. The throne is what makes the kindness worth anything.
This site is not a church, and it is no substitute for one. A website cannot preach to you, baptize you, feed you at the Lord’s Table, or watch over your soul. Christ gave those things to his church. Nothing here binds your conscience either. Scripture does that.
The supreme Judge, by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture.
Westminster Confession of Faith 1.10
So read with your Bible open. If something written here does not agree with it, throw that thing out and keep the Bible.
Who writes this
Who I Am
My name is Colt. I am a husband and a father of two. I work as a custodian, and I study and write and build software in the hours around that work.
I am not a pastor. I am not an elder. I hold no office and have no credentials to put in front of you. I am a layman in the Reformed Presbyterian tradition who was given more mercy than he had coming, and who wants to hand some of it on.
This site is not a platform for me. I am not looking for a following.
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.
2 Corinthians 4:5 (KJV)
If anything here helps you see Christ more clearly, that is his doing. If anything here is wrong, it is mine, and I would rather know than be flattered.
Statement of faith
What I Believe
A short summary, put plainly. Not a new confession, only an honest account of the faith everything here is written from.
- The Scriptures
- The sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God, breathed out by him, true in all they teach, and the only infallible rule of faith and life. All of it points to Christ.
- God and the Trinity
- One living and true God, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. In the one divine being there are three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. The Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Spirit, yet there is one God and not three.
- Man and Sin
- God made man upright and in his own image. In Adam we fell. We come into the world guilty, corrupt at the root, and justly under the wrath of God. Sin is no weakness to manage. It earns death.
- The Person of Christ
- The eternal Son of God took a true human nature into union with his divine person and will never lay it down. Two natures, one person, forever. He is the one mediator between God and men.
- The Work of Christ
- He kept the law we broke. He died in the place of his people, bearing the wrath our sins deserved. He rose bodily, ascended, and reigns now at the Father’s right hand, praying for all the Father gave him. Not one will be lost.
- Salvation
- By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. God justifies the ungodly by crediting to them the perfect righteousness of Christ, which faith simply receives. Good works follow that verdict gladly. They never purchase it. And Christ is held out freely to everyone who hears, so that no one who comes to him is turned away.
- The Holy Spirit
- He convicts of sin, gives new birth to a dead heart, unites the sinner to Christ, works faith and repentance, and finishes what he starts. A dead man does not believe and then come alive. The Spirit gives life first, and faith is what that new life does.
- The Church and the Sacraments
- Christ has one church, gathered under his Word, led by officers he appointed, fed by the ordinary means of grace, which are the Word, the sacraments, and prayer. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are signs and seals of the covenant of grace, not empty ceremony.
- The Christian Life
- The law is no ladder to climb for life. It is the rule a freed son gladly walks by. The believer puts sin to death by the Spirit and grows slowly and really. Sanctification always follows justification and never grounds it.
- Last Things
- Jesus Christ will return bodily, visibly, and in glory. The dead will be raised. He will judge the living and the dead, send the impenitent into everlasting punishment, and make all things new. Those are certainties. On the millennium I have not settled, and this site takes no position, since faithful Reformed men land in different places there.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9 (KJV)
The fuller statement is not mine. It is the Westminster Confession of Faith with the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, which I hold as a faithful summary of what the Bible teaches. Read the Confession in full at The Westminster Standard, and see the doctrine page for more.
Reaching out
How to Get in Touch
Write to me at colt at gentleking.org. That reaches me for anything on this site, the writing or the doctrine. Sojourner has an address of its own, so bug reports are better sent there.
Corrections are especially welcome. If I have quoted something wrong or taught something wrong, I want to hear it and fix it. I would far rather be corrected than flattered.
Before you go
A Word to You
Do not settle here. A page can hand you a book, a definition, a place to start. It cannot sit with you when your marriage is breaking, or bury your father, or put bread and wine in your hands and tell you Christ was broken for you.
So find a church where the Word is preached without flinching, the sacraments are given as Christ gave them, and sinners are loved and corrected. Sit under men who will answer for your soul.
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Hebrews 10:24-25 (KJV)
And if you are afraid he will not have you, hear him say it himself.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
John 6:37 (KJV)
The King is gentle, and he is worth more than everything you would leave behind to come to him.
If you are not sure where you stand with him, start with the gospel.