The post, “What Pastors Shouldn’t Tell Their Wives” is now available for Czech readers.
Now in Czech: What Pastors Shouldn’t Tell Their Wives
April 2013 Archive
Narcissus Lives!
Narcissus is a mythological story about a young man who became so fascinated with his own reflection it cost him his life. Narcissism is a psychological disorder that confuses subjective experience for objective reality. In Recovering the Reformed Confession I described the . . . Continue reading →
Kass: Children Are Not Merely A Product Of The Will
Consider abortion. After years of calling for abortions that are “safe, legal and rare,” the Democratic Party in its 2012 platform dropped such language altogether in an attempt to appeal to its feminist base. But viewing childbearing solely as a matter of . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 17: Legalism and Antinomianism
An HB Classic
What’s the difference between legalism and antinomianism? The latter is the denial of the abiding validity of God’s moral law for the life of the believer. The church has been afflicted with antinomianism throughout its history. All the Gnostics of the 2nd . . . Continue reading →
American Evangelicalism: From David Joris to David Koresh
NPR has a story today reminding us that the Branch Davidian episode was twenty years ago (HT: Ann Althouse). The story is worth hearing. Ann Althouse raises the question whether NPR is turning our attention to the Branch Davidians in order to . . . Continue reading →
Ridderbos: The Kingdom Of God Is Not Brought By Human Action
[The] absolutely theocentric character of the kingdom of God in Jesus’ preaching…implies that its coming consists entirely in God’s own action and is perfectly dependent on his activity. The kingdom of God is not a state or condition, not a society created . . . Continue reading →
What Is The Article Of The Standing or Falling Of The Church?
Articulus iustificationis dicitur articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae (the article of justification is said to be the article of the standing or falling of the church)” —J. H. Alsted (1588–1638), Theologia scholastica didactica (Hanover, 1618), 711. For the sense and origins of . . . Continue reading →
From Taboo To Conformity
The conversation also reminded me of one of the supreme ironies of the contemporary politics of homosexuality. A movement originally built upon the idea of transgression, the breaking of taboos and the crossing of boundaries has become one of the most intolerant . . . Continue reading →
Boston and Free Choice
First, some cautions. Believers should be very careful about attempting to interpret providence just as we should be careful about seeking to know his hidden will. The truth is, according to Jesus (Luke 13), we don’t know why God permits evil in the . . . Continue reading →
Heidelscribe: Get the HB By Email
There are a variety of ways to get your daily dose of vitamin HB. You can subscribe to the RSS feed, you can try to remember to visit each day, or you can Heidelscribe by email. About three-quarters of the way down . . . Continue reading →
The Heidelberg Catechism Rocks Her World
An HB Classic
A correspondent to the HB writes: About 7 years ago during a study of Romans in BSF, God rocked my theological world! My thinking was turned upside down as I embraced the doctrines of grace and began to see God and myself . . . Continue reading →
Idolatry Isn’t Just An Ancient Superstition
The evolutionary tendency in modern thought has inclined the church to think of idolatry as a superstitious habit of primitive peoples which has no place in the scientifically sophisticated modern mind. A lack of technological development is often mistakenly equated with a . . . Continue reading →
Selective Skepticism
HB correspondent Dave writes with this quotation from someone else: “my parents taught me that the bible is up for interpretation, and it is not the spoken truth.” This is widely held as a truism and it is widely used as a . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: Hebrews 9 on the Covenant
Hebrews 9 is challenging because it speaks about Christ and his covenant in ways that are, at first glance anyway, unfamiliar to us. As we’ll see, if we read chapter 9 in light of all of the Scriptures and if we reflect . . . Continue reading →
Why Hebrews 9 Is Referring To A Covenant Not To A Testament
Most modern translations and commentators take diatheke as “will” or “testament” in vv. 16–17, but understand it as “covenant” in vv 15 and 18. As we have seen, the context of v. 15 seems to demand the sense of “covenant” because only . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 16: Being Relevant is Harder Than It Looks
An HB Classic
This episode of the Heidelcast, from January, 2010, takes a look at Chicago radio legend Steve Dahl’s reaction to being forced to go to church for Christmas. It’s useful to hear how silly Christians appear to unbelievers when we try to be . . . Continue reading →
ITEOTWAWKI (It’s The End Of The World As We Know It)
And I Don't Feel Fine
An eighth grader Union Grove elementary (Milwaukee, WI) brought home a politically-charged homework assignment recently. It was a crossword puzzle with obviously prejudiced characterization of a particular political position. When the assignment was publicized via social media the teacher, school, and school . . . Continue reading →
What Do Profs Do?
Darry Sragow is in the news and not in a good way. Watch the video of what Mediaite calls his his “greatest hits” below. What most of the media coverage has missed so far, is that he’s more than a political science prof, he’s . . . Continue reading →
Peter Lombard On The New Perspective On Paul
That the observances of the old law are better called signs than sacraments. For those things which were instituted only for the sake of signifying are merely signs, and not sacraments; such were the carnal sacrifices and the ceremonial observances of the . . . Continue reading →
When Is a Church Not a Church?
An HB Classic
I was searching for something the other day and ran across chapter 18 of the Scots Confession (1560) which speaks to the “Notes” (from the Latin, nota or “mark” or “indicator”) of the True Kirk (church). I’ll return to the Scots Confession . . . Continue reading →