With regard to the covenant itself, we must observe, what was the duty required by God; what was the promise made to the performance of that duty; what was the threat denounced against the neglect of it. Now the duty consisted in . . . Continue reading →
2016 Archive
Presbytopia: What It Means To Be Presbyterian
A confessional Presbyterian congregation is a place, it’s like a city. Ken Golden calls it Presbytopia. If it is a city, it’s unlike that town from which many visitors come. Guests and new members need a map to their new home. Golden . . . Continue reading →
The Islamist Agenda For America
The process of settlement is a “Civilization-Jihadist Proecess” with all the word means. The Ikhwan must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and “sabotaging” its miserable house . . . Continue reading →
Strangers And Aliens (16a): Defending The Faith (1 Peter 3:13–17)
13Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15but in your hearts honor Christ . . . Continue reading →
The Stone Had Been Rolled Back
When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to . . . Continue reading →
Stabat Populus
And the people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One (Luke 23:35; NASB) On Good Friday when we see . . . Continue reading →
Strangers And Aliens (15c): Turning The Other Cheek (1 Peter 3:8–12)
8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that . . . Continue reading →
Calvin On Acts 20:28
…to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. But because the speech which Paul uses seems to be somewhat hard, we must see in what sense he says that God purchased the Church with his blood. For . . . Continue reading →
The Reformed Churches: We Distinguish But Do Not Separate The Two Natures Of Christ
Question 17. Why must he in one person be also very God? That he might, by the power of his Godhead, sustain, in his human nature, the burden of God’s wrath; and might obtain for and restore to us, righteousness and life. . . . Continue reading →
A. A. Hodge: Adam Was Clearly In A Covenant Of Works
As to his legal relations, the Scriptures clearly teach that, at his creation, he was put under the equitable Covenant of Works for a certain probationary period. This just constitution provided (a) everlasting well-being on condition of perfect obedience, and (b) everlasting . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 100: Recovering The Covenant Of Works (1)
In contemporary Reformed Christianity, even in confessional churches, i.e., those churches where they not only formally hold the historic confessions but where they still profess to believe and seek to practice what we confess, two of the most disposable doctrines seem to . . . Continue reading →
Muller On The History Of The Exegesis Of Hosea 6:7
Adam in Hosea 6:7: generic or specific? An example of a different order is the exegesis of Hosea 6:7, where the medieval tradition had rested unquestioningly on the Vulgate rendering, “ipsi autem sicut Adam transgressi sunt pactum.” The text indicated, as virtually . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: Stephen Nichols On Christian Education In The Late Modern Age
One might not know it to look at them now but it was orthodox Christians who built some of the greatest educational institutions in the world. The universities in Paris and Oxford were founded by Christians who believed the historic Christian faith. . . . Continue reading →
Turretin Defended The Covenant Of Works Using Hosea 6:7
VI. Episcopius, and with him the Remonstrants, deny that a covenant of nature was made with Adam (“Institutiones theologica,” 2.1 in Opera theologica [1678], p. 23); but it can be proved. (1) There are granted the essential parties of a covenant, God . . . Continue reading →
Berkhof: Hosea 6:7 Teaches A Covenant Of Works
…In Hos. 6:7 we read: “But they like Adam have transgressed the covenant.” Attempts have been made to discredit this reading. Some have suggested the reading “at Adam,” which would imply that some well-known transgression occurred at a place called Adam. But . . . Continue reading →
Is Infant Baptism A Roman Catholic Leftover?
Like a growing number of people in the Reformed churches I did not begin my Christian life there. I began my Christian life in an evangelical (Southern) Baptist setting. As part of my initiation into that culture I was given an explanation . . . Continue reading →
Tracing The Paradigm Shift: Two Ways Of Being In The Covenant Of Grace
In like manner, the participation (communio) of the covenant of grace is two-fold. The one includes merely symbolical and common benefits (beneficia), which have no certain connection with salvation, and to which infants are admitted by their relation to parents that are . . . Continue reading →
Van Til: The Covenant Of Works Was Not A Covenant Of Grace
According to the Westminster Confession of Faith, Scripture thinks of man as a covenant being. It tells us that man was originally placed on earth under the terms of the covenant of works. It informs us further that man broke this covenant . . . Continue reading →
Hodge On That “Gloomy Doctrine” Versus The Good News
Whether good or bad. That is, whether he did good or evil. Each person will receive according to his deeds, whether good or bad. It is from passages such as this that some American theologians have inferred that the only benefit the . . . Continue reading →
Socialism: The Utopia That Ends In Misery
No doubt the stated intentions are oh-so-pure and oh-so-good, like “liberte, egalite, fraternite.” It’s the sort of compassion Flannery O’Connor wrote of when she noted that “tenderness leads to the gas chamber.” That’s because, at the end of the day, socialism is . . . Continue reading →