One of the hottest restaurants in my hometown of Chicago is Next. Chef Grant Achatz’s first restaurant, Alinea, has three Michelin stars and is regarded as one of the best restaurants in the world. Achatz wanted his second restaurant, Next, to be . . . Continue reading →
Chasing coolness won’t work. In my experience, churches that try to be cool end up with a pathetic facsimile of what was cool about 10 years ago. And if you’ve got a congregation of businessmen and soccer moms, donning a hip veneer . . . Continue reading →
For most of my conscious life I have listened to other Americans complain about having to drive across Nebraska on I-80. As soon I tell non-Nebraskans that I am a Cornhusker they have two comments: 1. Your football team isn’t what it . . . Continue reading →
29. He who shall eat unworthily, eateth judgment to himself. He had previously pointed out in express terms the heinousness of the crime, when he said that those who should eat unworthily would be guilty of the body and blood of the . . . Continue reading →
III. Ministers are fishers by office; they are catchers of the souls of men, sent “to open the eyes of the blind, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God,” Acts 26:18. Preachers of . . . Continue reading →
Synod affirms that Scripture teaches, as summarized by the Creeds and the Three Forms of Unity: The authority and perspicuity of Scripture (Belgic Confession V; Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day VII). Necessity and sufficiency of Scripture (Belgic Confession VII; Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day . . . Continue reading →
What happens to WSC students after they graduate? Most of them go on to become pastors in confessional Presbyterian and Reformed congregations. Most of them spend the rest of their lives in faithful service to Christ, preaching the gospel, administering the sacraments, . . . Continue reading →
You can see, reader, that the man is pulled both this way and that. He wants to appear to be opening a battle against the whole party of the Lutherans, not against any individual member of it. But he cannot attack us . . . Continue reading →
In our proper desire to see Christians grow in sanctity (holiness) Christians have often succombed to the temptation to encourage sanctity by making justification or deliverance from the judgment to come contingent upon our degree of sanctity. The great difficulty with this scheme, . . . Continue reading →
Two recent podcast episodes that I found helpful on two topics about which I’ve been giving some thought: millennials and niceness. The first is Theology You Should Know with my friends Jared Beaird and Dan Borvan. Both have written for the HB. . . . Continue reading →
…Strange as it may sound, it is true, that many—perhaps the majority—of those who feed their souls on this great declaration, seem to have trained themselves to think, when it falls upon their ears, in the first instance at least, not so . . . Continue reading →
Let us remember, on the other hand, that while life is promised universally to all who believe in Christ, still faith is not common to all. For Christ is made known and held out to the view of all, but the elect . . . Continue reading →
The issue before this week is this: The nomist (i.e., the legalist) will frequently deny that he is a legalist. We can even get the nomist to profess orthodox things about the doctrine of justification but here’s an acid test—by the way . . . Continue reading →
On Independence Day 2014 we should remember that one of the principal concerns of the founders of the Republic was the freedom not only to assemble for public worship but also to practice one’s religion. Since the so-called (and self-described) Enlightenment of . . . Continue reading →
16. For God so loved the world. Christ opens up the first cause, and, as it were, the source of our salvation, and he does so, that no doubt may remain; for our minds cannot find calm repose, until we arrive at . . . Continue reading →
—Academic Goals: By the end of the semester the student shall be able read Latin at an introductory level, i.e., shall recognize and analyze elementary vocabulary and forms and shall be able to recognize, analyze, and translate elementary Latin sentences. —Pastoral Goals: . . . Continue reading →
This is the second of a two-part series. In part 1 we considered the origins of Unitarianism. The Unitarian faction within the Congregational church continued to grow in the early nineteenth century. The apex of the internal movement was the 1819 “Baltimore . . . Continue reading →
There are many today who are tired of singing the Bible Psalms in the worship of God. This has various reasons, no doubt. Some are tired of singing the Psalms because they are not willing to bear the cross of being different . . . Continue reading →
Finally we turn to the perspicuity of nature which corresponds to the perspicuity of Scripture. We have stressed the fact that God’s revelation in nature was from the outset of history meant to be taken conjointly with God’s supernatural communication. This might . . . Continue reading →
