Office Hours: Zack Eswine On Pastoral Ministry According To Ecclesiastes

by R. Scott Clark on June 26, 2017 | Comment

Any honest graduate of law school, med school, or seminary will tell you two things a) that he wishes he had paid attention in school and b) there is a lot about life as a physician, lawyer, or minister that you cannot . . . Continue reading →

Pan-Protestant Rejection Of An Earthly Golden Age Before Christ Returns

by R. Scott Clark on June 25, 2017 | 3 Comments

They condemn also others who are now spreading certain Jewish opinions, that before the resurrection of the dead the godly shall take possession of the kingdom of the world, the ungodly being everywhere suppressed. Augsburg Confession (1530) art. 17 We further condemn . . . Continue reading →

Bavinck: Prayers For The Dead Undermine Christ’s Intercession

by R. Scott Clark on June 24, 2017 | 1 Comment

If the doctrine of purgatory is untenable, all offerings and prayers for the dead automatically fall with it. Veneration of the dead by sacrifices and prayers was common among pagans. Intercession for the dead became a practice among the Jews later (2 . . . Continue reading →

Our Secular Life Is A Covenant Of Works

by R. Scott Clark on June 22, 2017 | 3 Comments

It is vital for Christians to understand that, for their standing with God (justification) and their gracious and gradual conformity to Christ (sanctification), i.e., for their salvation from the wrath to come and their deliverance from the bondage of sin, they are . . . Continue reading →

Olevianus On The Distinction Between Law And Gospel

by R. Scott Clark on June 20, 2017 | Comment

10 Q. What is the difference between the law and the gospel? A. The law is a doctrine that God has implanted in human nature and has repeated and renewed in His commandments. In it He holds before us, as if in . . . Continue reading →

Believer, You Are Being Graciously Sanctified

by R. Scott Clark on June 20, 2017 | 2 Comments

An HB reader writes to ask “in what senses are we under the covenant of works?” I reply Christians are in no sense under the covenant of works for our standing with God or for our salvation. Our justification and our sanctification . . . Continue reading →

Caspar Olevianus Defines The Gospel

by R. Scott Clark on June 18, 2017 | 5 Comments

9 Q. Could you give a more definitive explanation of what the gospel is? A. The gospel, or the good news that delights the heart of the poor condemned sinner, is a revelation of the fatherly and immutable will of God, in . . . Continue reading →

Lesbian Atheist: Nature, Science, And Facts Matter

by R. Scott Clark on June 16, 2017 | 5 Comments

Although I describe myself as transgender (I was donning flamboyant male costumes from early childhood on), I am highly skeptical about the current transgender wave, which I think has been produced by far more complicated psychological and sociological factors than current gender . . . Continue reading →

Missing Mandate And Better Metrics: Understanding the 2017 PCA General Assembly

by R. Scott Clark on June 15, 2017 | 20 Comments

By TE David W. Hall Midway Presbyterian Church, Powder Springs, Georgia If broad churchmen were looking for a mandate to increase female ordination in the PCA, based on a concessive study, that didn’t happen on this issue at this PCA Assembly. The . . . Continue reading →

Synod of Herbon (1586): Weekly Communion Most Corresponds To Christ’s Ordinance

by R. Scott Clark on June 15, 2017 | Comment

45. The Lord’s Supper shall be celebrated at least every month, and everyone at their location should strive that if the whole congregation cannot participate every Sunday (which most corresponds to Christ’s ordinance and to apostolic custom and is greatly desired), at . . . Continue reading →

Did The Covenant Of Grace Begin In The New Covenant?

by R. Scott Clark on June 14, 2017 | 14 Comments

One frequently reads that the only real differences between Particular Baptists and the Reformed is over baptism. That claim, however, misses some fundamental differences. Baptists withhold the rite of covenant initiation from the children of believers on the ground that the New . . . Continue reading →

Machen: The Regulative Principle Governs The Church

by R. Scott Clark on June 14, 2017 | 1 Comment

Machen’s reasoning here was an extension of the Regulative Principle. In the Presbyterian and Reformed tradition this principle has typically been applied to public worship. It teaches that we may only worship God as he has commanded us to worship him in . . . Continue reading →