…Since the Great Awakening, many American Protestants have allowed market forces to dictate how Christianity is presented to the watching world. That faith once delivered to the saints was repackaged for the Second Great Awakening, kicked up a notch for the great . . . Continue reading →
2013 Archive
Reformed Is A Confession More Than A Culture
These arguments often come down to definitions. If we define culture as the sum of a series of factors including language, a web of relationships (family, community), that shapes the way we think about food, clothing, and work then culture is one . . . Continue reading →
Sayers On The Disillusionment Of Our Time
Or—and this commonly happens in periods of disillusionment like our own, when philosophies are bankrupt and life appears without hope—men and women may turn to lust in sheer boredom and discontent, trying to find in it some stimulus which is not provided . . . Continue reading →
Are There Two Distinct Reformed Views Of The Sabbath?
Does The Continental View Really Exist?
On Twitter Anthony Bradley pointed us to a webpage by Ra McLaughlin on the Sabbath. There is good material there but there are also a couple of items that warrant discussion. The one on which I want to focus in this post . . . Continue reading →
1 Clement On Justification
CHAPTER 31: THE MEANS BY WHICH OBTAIN DIVINE BLESSING Let us cleave then to His blessing, and consider what are the means of possessing it. Let us think over the things which have taken place from the beginning. For what reason was . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 37: Around The Horn And The Globe With NAPARC
The Heidelcast answers a phone call asking about NAPARC and what distinguishes the various confessional Reformed denominations and federations from each other. Thanks to the Rev Dr David Hall, Sr Pastor of Midway Presbyterian Church, (PCA) in Powder Springs, GA, the Rev Mr . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 35: Zeke Takes Us Behind The Scenes As The World Ends (Updated)
If you’ve been following the HB, the Heidelcast has been in re-runs for several months. Today, however, the Heidelcast is back with a brand new episode. Earlier this week I talked with Zeke Piestrup about his new documentary, “Apocalypse Later: Harold Camping . . . Continue reading →
Not A Ladder But A Cross
“17. Why must he also be true God? That by the power of His Godhead He might bear in His manhood the burden of God’s wrath, and so obtain for and restore to us righteousness and life.” Almost from the beginning of . . . Continue reading →
On The Writing Of Essays
Revised 9 September 2020 It is the bane of every student that every professor has his idiosyncratic requirements. Here are mine. I. Essays: Clear, Concise, and Cogent To be successful, essays in this course must be clear, concise, and cogent.1 An essay is clear . . . Continue reading →
New Tool For The Study Of Reformed Orthodoxy
By David Systsma—Scholars now have a new tool for the early modern religious and philosophical history in its academic context. From the beginning of the Reformation at the University of Wittenberg to the establishment of the Academy of Geneva, schools were integral . . . Continue reading →
Introduction To The Heidelberg Catechism
In March I promised to post this and then promptly forgot. I was asked to write a brief introduction to the Heidelberg Catechism for a Danish translation of the catechism. Here it is. § Introduction Considering its principals, the Heidelberg Catechism (1563) . . . Continue reading →
Or We Could Catechize Them
I ask nothing of you in the way of a declared position on religion. Your mother may have demanded more of you here,—entreated more; I cannot. I ask but this: that you will give earnest, serious consideration to the fact that we . . . Continue reading →
One Reason Why Unbelievers Don’t Want to Talk to Us
Mark Vander Pol recently pointed us to a wiki page titled, “How to Avoid Uncomfortable Conversations About Religion.” This page is useful on a variety of levels. On the most common level, some people are pests and it offers some good advice for dealing . . . Continue reading →
Grammar Guerilla: Roll and Role
One of the more frequent mistakes I see in email and online is confusion between role and roll. These are homophones. They usually make the same sounds in English but they are different words with distinct meanings. One plays a role on . . . Continue reading →
Growing Confessional Reformed Congregations In Italy
Guest post by the Rev. Dr. Andrea Ferrari. § In writing to you I realize how fast time has passed and how many things have happened in the last few months. We have many reasons to be grateful for we have been . . . Continue reading →
Kicked To The Curb: Reformed Theology, Piety
Dad had been a staunch defender of a somewhat cramped version of Calvinism formed by his upbringing in the Gereformeerde Kerk in the Netherlands. Early on, his parents had put the kibosh on his aspirations to ministry; unless he had a distinct . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 34: Jesus On A Pizza
Alleged manifestations of our Lord have been claimed for a long time since the close of the apostolic period. It is even more common for artists to represent what they imagine his likeness to have been in paintings. So widely accepted are . . . Continue reading →
Justification and Vindication
One of the more disturbing aspects of the Federal Vision program is its doctrine of final justification. Let’s be clear here: Protestants have no such thing. We do not not equivocate (use the same word in two senses at the same time) . . . Continue reading →
Growing A New Reformed Congregation In Missoula
Guest post by the Rev. Mr. Jared Beaird. He took his B.A. from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and his MDiv from Westminster Seminary California. He’s a native of Montana. § Covenant Reformed Church of Missoula, Montana was provisionally accepted into membership . . . Continue reading →
Late Modern Paganism
In Acts 17 Luke tells the story of Paul’s encounter with the Athenian Philosophical Society. Luke mentions two philosophical schools, the Epicureans and the Stoics. The latter were looking for the universal rational principle, for the way to align themselves with the . . . Continue reading →