Mike writes to ask what resources I use or that have influenced me regarding grammar and style. Here is a quick list of some of the books that have influenced me over the years. Let me say, however, that this list is . . . Continue reading →
2014 Archive
An Ogre Minding Long Term Developments
Because of this emphasis on mentalités, Le Goff preferred to speak of birth and genesis rather than origins, decline, or decadence. Hence he wrote The Birth of Purgatory (1981) and The Birth of Europe (2003) (the French title posed a question: L’Europe . . . Continue reading →
Christ’s Intercession As Our Surety
This intercession consists of various acts. (1) The appearing of Christ for us by which he places himself before God the father as the only satisfier for our sins, representing the blood once shall (i.e., The merit of his death) and asking . . . Continue reading →
Audio: What Moses And Zipporah Mean For Baptism
Back in 2002 I gave a chapel talk on Exodus 4:24–26. It’s a difficult but not an impossible text. “At a lodging place on the way the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. Then Zipporah took a flint . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 29: No Other Name (2): Do We Need Salvation?
In part 1 we looked at the problem created by Jesus’ declaration and the Apostolic teaching that the is the only way to the Father. In this part we need to consider another problem: salvation itself. In the Modern(ist) world it is . . . Continue reading →
Turretin: Christ Has Saved Us And Is Keeping Us
The method of our salvation; it was not sufficient to obtain salvation once, unless it could be perpetually preserved and applied. Christ obtained the former by his satisfaction, but the ladder he should procure by his intercession. By the former, he obtained . . . Continue reading →
What’s The Use Of Infant Baptism?
Rob writes to say that one a loved one is emerging from one of the Baptist traditions into a Reformed/Presbyterian church setting.1 In addition they are expecting a covenant child and are, of course, thinking through infant baptism. As he’s tried to . . . Continue reading →
But Is It Biblical?
Anthony Bradley has posted a provocative essay arguing that church planting is insufficient for social change. He appeals to his own experience and to the history of education and Christendom. His post begs some questions and raises others. As to the former, . . . Continue reading →
Christ Is And Is Not A Legislator
VII. To question (wont to be agitated here) whether Christ is and can be called a legislator. We answer in a few words that Christ can be viewed in two ways: either absolutely and theologically (inasmuch as he is the Word [Logos] . . . Continue reading →
My Hometown In 3:34
Heidelberg 29: No Other Name
Jesus is an intentionally troublesome figure. He said “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). This was an outrageous claim when it made it and remains so today. . . . Continue reading →
Macchiatos Real And False
But, in modern America, a culture not known for its sensitivity to history and precedent, “Reformed” has started to refer to “a different drink”. As Starbucks re-discovered espresso and popularized it, people have re-discovered Augustinianism (i.e., predestination) and are now marketing it . . . Continue reading →
Graphic Calvin
I get books in my mailbox regularly and it’s usually because someone wants me to say something about it on the HB. Today I received this in my mailbox and thought that you would want to know about it. It’s an illustrated life of . . . Continue reading →
R. C. Sproul On Infant Baptism, Sin, And Patience
I believe that people who reject infant baptism, for example,—I think they’re wrong—but I believe they’re zealous about it because they want to practice the sacraments the way they believe God intended them to be practiced. And they believe it would be . . . Continue reading →
What Do We Really Know About Global Warming?
Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream
Beyond Bishops And Isolation
Americans are an independent lot. The original colonists left the old world for the new. Their revolutionary successors in the 18th century formalized that independence with a war and constitutional documents. The American desire for independence helped to propel us west beyond . . . Continue reading →
The Chaos Of The Present
But more and more there is a tendency to brand as illiberal, medieval and narrow any man who differs from the current of popular religious thought, and declares it to be non-Christian in its tendencies. There is a great discussion in the . . . Continue reading →
God’s Word Is Transcultural
The Psalms (or any of the rest of God’s Word) are not sung in Reformed worship as often as they once were. In some places neither the Psalms nor any other part of Scripture are sung at all but it is still done . . . Continue reading →
Christianity Is Not Private But A Bakery Is
When a candidate is elected to the United States Senate he or she takes the following oath: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that . . . Continue reading →
Invincible Ignorance
Recently I’ve received a few wrong numbers each looking for the same person. I’m reasonably sure that a couple of the calls are from the same person. He doesn’t seem to be convinced that Jaunito is not at this number. I’m not . . . Continue reading →