Concern about dead formalism or ritualism is legitimate but we should not think that because a religious service is emotionally or psychologically satisfying or that because one has a certain kind of ecstasy that one has escaped dead formalism. There is a . . . Continue reading →
The church always exists in some culture, somewhere. Prior to the new heavens and the new earth, the church will never be free of the influence of the prevailing culture where it finds itself. Because we’re in the culture, because we are . . . Continue reading →
Seminary students and future seminary students frequently ask how to discover whether one is called to pastoral ministry. It’s a challenging discussion because there are two aspects to the call to ministry, internal and external, and both take time to discover and . . . Continue reading →
My impression is that, over the last few decades, the historic Reformed reading of Romans 7 has taken one on the chin, as it were. Perhaps that’s not so. I’ve not done a survey to see how pastors are reading and preaching . . . Continue reading →
Why is the redemption or reconciliation of humanity with God presented to us in the form of a covenant, indeed a covenant of grace? A: God compares the means of our salvation to a covenant, indeed an eternal covenant, so that we . . . Continue reading →
Steven writes to ask whether the Kingdom of God is synonymous with the visible church or whether it is broader than the visible church? These questions have been particularly a matter of discussion since the rise of the Dutch neo-Calvinist movement in . . . Continue reading →
Eugene Osterhaven called this “the most difficult and disputed” article in the confession.1 As will appear below, the desire to revise this article has existed in the Reformed churches in both the Netherlands and in the USA since the late 19th century . . . Continue reading →
V. This Doctrine Of Predestination Is Not In Harmony With The Confessions Of The Reformed Churches With a minimum of contention or even trivial objection, it may be appropriately doubted whether this doctrine agrees with either the Belgic confession or the Heidelberg . . . Continue reading →
For some time the Federal Visionists have been arguing that no one should criticize the Federal Vision until the church courts ruled on it. This is a strange argument since, on that basis Luther couldn’t have replied to Erasmus (the Augsburg wouldn’t . . . Continue reading →
Latin songs, as well as organs (first introduced into the churches by Pope Vitellianus about 665) are for the most part abolished in the churches of this land. Not that the use of the Latin language or of music is rejected of . . . Continue reading →
J. Gresham Machen (1881–1936) was a scholar of the New Testament who taught at Princeton Theological Seminary. He, along with several others, left Princeton in 1929 to found Westminster Seminary. He was driven out of what is today known as the Presbyterian . . . Continue reading →
Thanks to the good offices of Ken Myers at Mars Hill Audio (no connection to Mars Hill Church), several years I learned about the work of Thomas de Zengotita, whose book Mediated was instrumental in helping me to understand some important culture . . . Continue reading →
Kim Riddlebarger’s new commentary on 1Corinthians is out from Tolle Lege. He has all the ordering information on the RB.
Philosophers at San Jose St are speaking out about the problems associated with Distance Ed. Here are some excerpts from their open letter, published May 2, 2013, in The Chronicle of Higher Education (HT: Chris Chelpka). They are reacting to a move . . . Continue reading →
“The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.”—Ps 87:2 THAT we may apprehend the meaning of these words, and so thereupon raise some edifying observation, we must inquire into the reason why the Lord is said . . . Continue reading →
The Directory FOR The Publick Worship of God CHARLES I. Parl. 3. Sess. 5. An ACT of the PARLIAMENT of the KINGDOM of SCOTLAND, approving and establishing the DIRECTORY for Publick Worship. AT EDINBURGH, February 6, 1645. THE Estates of Parliament now . . . Continue reading →
Kermit Gosnell has been convicted of the murder of three infant human beings. If you haven’t been following this story, Gosnell, according to Reuters, was “accused of delivering live babies during late-term abortions and then deliberately severing their spinal cords.” The jury . . . Continue reading →
Harold Camping has done a lot of good. Many people, who might otherwise never have heard anything like Reformation Christianity, learned about the doctrines of grace and amillennialism (i.e., that the 1000 years of Revelation 20 are symbolic of the period between . . . Continue reading →
You know that Hebrews 11 is the “faith” chapter of Hebrews. Perhaps you’ve been told that you should have faith like Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. Well, you should perhaps but not in the way that you may have been told. WSC . . . Continue reading →
VI. The question is one of history, not of faith, the solution of which, therefore, is not necessary to salvation. It suffices for the private Christian to know and be persuaded that that assembly in whose connection he lives is the true . . . Continue reading →