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In 1987, who could have envisioned the two-year nadir of 2009‒10, when not only the Democrats, but indeed, the very caricatured and politically correct academia of Bloom’s nightmares, would come to control the entire government of the United States: both houses of . . . Continue reading →
I just renewed the contract with the web hosting company. This reminds me of three things: 1) Thank you to those of you who support the HB faithfully. I realize that it’s been a while since I’ve produced an episode of the Heidelcast. . . . Continue reading →
On one level it’s easy to tell the difference between idols and the God who is. We did not fabricate him and we cannot change or kill him. He just is (Gen 1:1; Exodus 3:14). Idols, on the other hand, are not necessarily. An idol might exist or it might not exist. Its existence, as such, is contingent upon the will of its human creator. Of course, we confess with the Apostle Paul that “an idol has no real existence” (1 Cor 8:4). Whether we fabricate them with our hands, in our minds, or in our hearts, idols change. They come and go. When they disappoint us, we chuck them and make another hoping for a better outcome. Continue reading →
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Healthy personal relationships need a foundation of common reality and common language through which people can communicate. Most of all, they need a common belief that there is inherent worth and dignity in all human beings, not just themselves. So as more . . . Continue reading →
In Exodus 34:27 Scripture says that Yahweh spoke directly to Moses to say, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel” (ESV). Thus, whatever follows was an essential part of the . . . Continue reading →
There is a way of life, i.e., there is a way that believers live. There is a way of salvation, a path that believers walk toward eternal life, in the grace of Christ, in union with Christ. It is essential to distinguish, however, between is and through or because. The moralist wants to turn is into through or because. We are not saved through obedience. That is Romanism. We are not saved because of our obedience. That is sheer Pelagianism. Nevertheless, it is the case that those to whom God has sovereignly given new life, to whom he has given the grace of faith and through it union with Christ, will and shall seek to live, sola gratia, sola fide according to God’s moral law. Continue reading →
The law was a covenant of works, not a covenant of grace. The “commandment of life” was “the day you eat thereof you shall surely die” (Gen 2:17). It was a commandment of life because, if Adam kept the commandment he would have entered into eternal life (see also Heidelberg 6, 9; Rev 22:14). The condition of the covenant was, to use the words of Christ, “do this and live” (Luke 10:28). His status before God was conditioned upon his obedience to God’s holy law. Continue reading →
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“We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not going to crush that part, I’m going to basically crush below, I’m going to crush above, and I’m going to see if I can get it . . . Continue reading →
God’s Word teaches us to have the highest, most reverent view of God’s law generally. The Psalmist declares “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day” (v. 97; ESV). To be sure, in Psalm 119 the noun . . . Continue reading →
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Same-sex marriage advocates insist that the court’s Obergefell ruling is not like Roe v. Wade, which engendered undying controversy, but like Loving v. Virginia, the universally accepted decision that struck down bans on interracial marriage—a decision now so uncontroversial that most Americans . . . Continue reading →
The source, fountain of good works is true faith. By using this expression, the catechism deliberately takes us back to Heidelberg 21, where true faith is defined and to Heidelberg 60 which are among the several places where true faith is said to be the sole instrument (sola fide) of justification and salvation. True faith is also the instrument of union and communion with Christ and it is the headwaters of the believer’s new, Spirit-wrought life in Christ. In other words, true faith is essential to good works. Continue reading →
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The presbyter is the same as the bishop, and before parties had been raised up in religion by the provocations of Satan, the churches were governed by the Senate of the presbyters. But as each one sought to appropriate to himself those . . . Continue reading →
Peter Berger has been an influential and important sociologist of religion for more than 50 years. He is presently Professor Emeritus of Religion, Sociology and Theology and Director of the Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs at Boston University. To review a . . . Continue reading →
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In a broader context what this means is the privatization (or, if you will, the domestication) of religion. There is an underlying, unspoken (perhaps unconscious) assumption: Religion is okay if engaged in by consenting adults in private, not so if it spills . . . Continue reading →
The alternative to the essential clarity and sufficiency of Scripture is, ironically, the Romanist doctrine of implicit faith (fides implicita) according to which we should trust not in Scripture principally as we wait confidently for difficulties to be resolved in future but rather, according to Romanist doctrine of implicit faith, we begin with doubt about the clarity of Scripture and we trust that the church knows. This turn to the old Romanist doctrine of implicit faith is attractive to skeptical millennials and others because it fits the prejudice of the age toward personal relationships over than fixed truths. Continue reading →
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Yet conventional wisdom is that sexual orientation is not based on choice. Again, the reason is philosophical, not scientific. The theories of biological determinism, social determinism, and social constructionism apply not only to sexual orientation, but to all aspects of sexuality and . . . Continue reading →
he objectively, clearly revealed moral law as the baseline for Christian ethics is essential to Christian living and Christian liberty. James calls it “the law of liberty” (James 1:25) because it frees us from the tyranny of human opinion. It does not answer every question (it does not intend or claim to answer every question) but it is an essential starting place. What must a Christian do in response to God’s grace and in union with Christ? Love God with all his faculties and his neighbor as himself. Continue reading →
n what is a corpse interested? In nothing. Corpses do what they do: nothing. They just decay. They have nothing to do with the living world. They are literally inanimate. Spiritually, before God made us alive, we were spiritually inanimate. We were dead. We had no interest in Christ nor had we interest in his moral will. Now, by his grace, having been made alive we do. That’s a miracle. We have a new stance, a new disposition toward Christ and his moral will for us because we have new life. It’s imperative that we not reverse that order. We are not sanctified and we are certainly not justified or saved because we have a new disposition. That is Romanism. We have a new disposition and we are developing new habits of godliness because we are alive, because we are no longer spiritual corpses dead to Christ, his gospel, and his law. Continue reading →
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When one judge asked whether an oil painter had to create a painting celebrating same-sex marriage, an ACLU lawyer replied yes, Tedesco noted. “And if they don’t want to have to do that, then they can close down their business and just . . . Continue reading →
