One of the great pleasures of being at Westminster Seminary California is that we get to hear Bob Godfrey in chapel twice every semester. The president opens the semester and he closes. Chapel is always well attended because the students know that . . . Continue reading →
2010 Archive
"Sectarians" v "Relevants" in the PCA and the Strategic Plan
“Nowhere has the disagreements between the “sectarians” and the “relevants” been more evident than in the discussions regarding the Regulative Principle of Worship, women in diaconal ministry, and the cultural mandate of the Church. The Metro New York Presbytery of the PCA, . . . Continue reading →
To Change the World: James Davison Hunter Challenges Transformationalism
Hunter develops an alternative view of culture, one that assigns roles not only to ideas and artifacts but also to “elites, networks, technology, and new institutions.” American Christians—mainline Protestant, Catholic, and evangelical—will not and cannot change the world through evangelism, political action, . . . Continue reading →
Union with Christ In Caspar Olevianus’ Exposition of the Apostles’ Creed
Since, then, in the Articles of the Faith, which contain a summary of the gospel, Christ the King Himself offers to us that kingdom of His; and since He effectually confederates us to Himself through faith by the power of His Spirit . . . Continue reading →
Is the Strategic Plan Presbyterian?
“There are some attributes of a thing that can be altered without compromising its basic character. You could remove the stone cladding of Buckingham Palace to reveal the red brick underneath and it would still be Buckingham Palace. Yet if you painted the White . . . Continue reading →
New PCA Congregation Planted in Gillette, WY
“Church planting in the Western Plains is generally not a high-profile, money attracting endeavor.Why would someone in a city of three million, for example, be concerned about a town of around twenty thousand, let alone one of two or three thousand? That’s . . . Continue reading →
Don’t Miss the Next Heidelcast
Darryl G. Hart is the guest on the next Heidelcast. Don’t miss it. Subscribe in iTunes.
Who Says the Evangelicals Don't Have a Liturgy?
Who says Charles Finney is dead? Thanks to Brad Kelley for the link.
John Owen on Constantinianism, Baptismal Regeneration, And Apostasy
From this influx, it is not surprising that the doctrines of faith and, most especially, that of the new birth became so rapidly corrupted in the churches. With separation from the world spurned, there is no wonder that the sanctity and glory . . . Continue reading →
Meet a Grad: Tom Wenger (MA ’03)
This month we introduce Tom Wenger, pastor of discipleship at the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Annapolis (PCA) in Annapolis, MD. He graduated from WSC with an MA Historical Theology degree in 2003. Prior to working in Annapolis he served at Fourth Presbyterian Church . . . Continue reading →
Resources on Reformed Scholasticism
From the middle of the 19th century until the late 1970s the dominant story about Protestant scholasticism generally and Reformed scholasticism in particular was that it marked a departure from the warmly biblical spirit of the Reformation, that it marked a turn . . . Continue reading →
Cracking the Apocalypse Code
Pre-mill? Post-mill? Or A-mill? The subject of the millennium, often portrayed as a period of unprecedented peace, ironically has been a theological battlefield for millennia. Missions agencies have refused missionaries, churches have rejected pastors, and seminaries have dismissed professors for lacking proper . . . Continue reading →
New Bavinck Institute Website
Thanks to Laurence O’Donnell (Calvin Seminary PhD student in systematics) for the heads up regarding the new Bavinck Institute website. They are featuring Ron Gleason’s to-be-released bio of Bavinck himself and an online journal, The Bavinck Review. Well done!
Second and Third Thoughts on Edwards
Few figures are as electrifying and divisive in the study of American religious history as Jonathan Edwards. To many he is and can be only St Jonathan, the paradigm of theology, piety, and practice. To others the story is more complicated. It . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours Talks to Dennis Johnson
Office Hours this month talks with Dr Dennis Johnson, Professor of Practical Theology at Westminster Seminary California. Dennis is one of the original faculty members at WSC and has taught New Testament as well Practical Theology and served as Academic Dean for . . . Continue reading →
Putting Existential Union with Christ into Perspective
Darryl does it nicely. John Owen is very helpful here in his Greater Catechism (1645) where he makes (existential) union with Christ one of the benefits of faith.
Traditionalists and Willow Creekers: Really the Same Thing
Zrim gets it. The regulative principle (=the second commandment + sola scriptura) is neither “progressive” nor “conservative” but radical.
Paul Helm on Owen Contra Biblicism
Good stuff here—as expected.
Using the Common to Advance the Sacred or Using the Sacred to Advance the Common?
One need not be a Christian to observe truths about the way organizations work. Those true observations are what I mean by “common” (not neutral). They are true because they are observations about the nature of God’s general process, even if they . . . Continue reading →
An Alternative to the PCA's Strategic Plan (Updated and Expanded)
The Rev. Dr. Jon D. Payne is pastor of Grace PCA in the Atlanta metro and author of John Owen on the Lord’s Supper and In the Splendor of Holiness: Rediscovering the Beauty of Reformed Worship. He is also deeply committed to . . . Continue reading →