D. C. McAllister’s excellent essay in The Federalist and a question from regular HB reader Clinton suggests that a resource post on prayer might be helpful: Audio Audio: The Role of Prayer in Sanctification Audio: The Pilgrim’s Prayer (1) Audio: The Pilgrim’s Prayer . . . Continue reading →
If you are a regular listener to Office Hours then you are probably a regular listener to sermons. If not, perhaps we should talk about that. You might be a preacher of sermons. Either way, at least 52 times a year, for . . . Continue reading →
The radicalization of the vulnerable is a sobering reality. Guilt, shame, and the longing for lost innocence can make people do the most terrible things—as long as salvation awaits on the other side. Whether it’s drinking Kool-Aid or strapping on a suicide . . . Continue reading →
Darryl Hart raises an interesting question about the adjectival use of “Christian” as applied to pursuits shared by Christians and non-Christians. This has been one of the most persistent and widespread questions facing believing Christians for the last century: how do Christians relate to . . . Continue reading →
In the early 1930s, more than 60 years before Seinfeld, there was Jack Benny. His was the first show about nothing. He had wacky neighbors who showed up randomly. He had a a group of eccentric friends. He played a comedian but . . . Continue reading →
Let us, then, lay weight on every effect of the Holy Ghost in any of the particulars before mentioned, on this account, that they are acts of his love and power towards us. This faith will do, that takes notice of his . . . Continue reading →
Years ago, in the second house in which Mrs Heidelblog and I lived, water seeped into the basement every time it rained and it rained frequently. As the ground became soaked water would push in and up through the basement. We had . . . Continue reading →
The promise of a liberal arts education is to provide challenging, unpredictable, and even uncomfortable intellectual and interpersonal encounters in order to produce the capacity for critical thinking, open-mindedness, and critical self-examination in graduates who are less dogmatic and prejudiced than when . . . Continue reading →
J. I. Packer is a significant figure in a variety of circles. He is one of the last voices representing that generation of British evangelicalism that had roots in the Reformation, that was articulate, warm, and evangelical in the best sense of . . . Continue reading →
When, c. 64–66 AD, the Apostle Peter wrote to the churches in Asia Minor (the areas named cover most of modern Turkey) Christians were a small, minority religion in the Greco-Roman world. Nero was Caesar and his reign was shortly coming to . . . Continue reading →
The Kingdom of God is primarily an eschatological concept. The fundamental idea of the Kingdom in Scripture is not that of a restored theocratic kingdom of God in Christ—which is essentially a kingdom of Israel—, as the Premillenarians claim; neither is it . . . Continue reading →
Perhaps Yale, traditionally, has engendered something of the spirit of the forty-niners. But if the recent Yale graduate, who exposed himself to Yale economics during his undergraduate years, exhibits enterprise, self-reliance, and independence, it is only because he has turned his back . . . Continue reading →
France. As may be gathered from the above account, the influence of Amyraut was constantly on the increase between 1637 and 1659. At first, only a few provinces and the Church of Paris supported him, and there was resolute opposition in many . . . Continue reading →
It is not often that the news coincides with a sermon or biblical commentary so as to provide abundant illustration but it is so in this case. A Christian minority are among those who are fleeing the chaos and violence in Syria. . . . Continue reading →
From the early 4th century, when Christianity was declared a legal religion and properties were returned to Christians and persecution of Christians was forbidden, the Christian church gradually become intertwined with the empire. Gradually, paganism was marginalized and then eventually made illegal. . . . Continue reading →
One of the most frequently recurring set of search terms that brings readers to the HB is “pastors” and “wives.” They get here from this January, 2013 post on What Pastors Shouldn’t Tell Their Wives. The combination of the terms “pastors” and . . . Continue reading →
In 1655 two works appeared in print in Amsterdam from the pen of Parisian pastors who had supported Amyraut from the start: David Blondel (1590–1655) produced a very partisan account of the course of events in the controversy, with supporting documents subjoined, . . . Continue reading →
When one enters the Reformed world one find that we still use Latin phrases from time to time. Particularly we will hear or read people using a few Reformation slogans frequently. We call them the Solas: Sola gratia (by grace alone), sola . . . Continue reading →
In 1641, Amyraut took the pen to defend Calvin’s view of reprobation, which had been severely criticized in an anonymous work. In this volume, titled Doctrinae J. Calvini de Absoluto Reprobationis Decreto Defensio, Amyraut took occasion to reassert covertly his main positions . . . Continue reading →
We understandably think of the Heidelberg Catechism (1563) as a German-language catechism. Its first translation, however, was into Latin as the Catechesis Palatinae. This was important because, when the catechism was published relatively few people in the world spoke or read German. . . . Continue reading →