Now take both Laws, the Ceremonial Law and the Moral Law or the Decalog. Imagine that by the merit of congruity you have made so much progress that the Spirit has been granted to you and that you have love. Of course, . . . Continue reading →
2017 Archive
Turretin On The Fundamental Articles Of The Faith
I. The question concerning fundamental articles is difficult and important. It has been discussed by many who have erred both in defect and in excess. The Socinians err in defect who admit very few fundamentals (and those only practical, the theoretical being . . . Continue reading →
Are The Remonstrants Heretics?
This question comes over the transom regularly. I think most confessional Reformed pastors would probably say that, though they disagree strongly with Arminianism, it is not heresy. Somewhere I read (or heard) that William Ames (1576–1633), who served as an advisor . . . Continue reading →
Differences Between The Reformed And Remonstrants On The Trinity
3. The practical use of the doctrine of the Trinity. Thus the orthodox not only state the doctrine of the Trinity as the ground of all other Christian doctrine—they also state it as an eminently practical doctrine, as illustrated by the practical . . . Continue reading →
John Dewey’s Plan For Your Children
[John Dewey] doesn’t want the school any longer to be in the handmaiden role, aiding parents in their goal of passing literacy and tradition and deferred gratification on to the their progeny. . . [H]is schools now have the socially transforming purpose . . . Continue reading →
Sneaky Squids And Sola Scriptura
When I saw Chris Rosebrough tweet something about a “sneaky squid spirit doctrine” I thought it must be something from The Onion or the Babylon Bee. It is not. It is the latest thing from the world of charismatic continuing prophecy. The . . . Continue reading →
The Dramatic Story Of Peter Martyr Vermigli
Pope Paul III, however, was not sitting idle in this rapidly changing climate. In 1542, after a failed attempt to conciliate Roman Catholics and Protestants at the Diet of Regensburg, he agreed on renewing the earlier practice of the Roman Inquisition under . . . Continue reading →
Campus Rage Is A Sacrament Of A New Religion
when a mob at Vermont’s Middlebury College shut down a speech by social scientist Charles Murray a few weeks ago, most of us saw it as a another instance of campus illiberalism. Jonathan Haidt saw something more – a ritual carried out . . . Continue reading →
What Pastors Shouldn’t Tell Their Wives: The Danger Of Too Transparency
Megan Hill, a Presbyterian pastor’s wife, has been writing about what pastors tell their wives and what they should tell them. I can answer that question in one word: nothing. By nothing, I mean “no confidential information.” A pastor may tell his . . . Continue reading →
Thomas Müntzer’s Doctrine Of Scripture And Revelation
Müntzer stretched Karlstadt’s distinction between the Spirit and the flesh still further by discarding baptism altogether and by setting aside the Scriptures as in themselves constituting no more than a dead letter. ‘Bible, Babel, bubble!’ was his slogan. A. Skevington Wood, “The . . . Continue reading →
Inclusion And Exclusion: Getting It Right
Perhaps the most intense and difficult part about growing up is learning how to fit in, when to try, and when it does not matter. I suppose, we probably never really outgrow those questions but perhaps, as we mature, it matters less . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours—Steve Baugh On The Majesty On High: The Kingdom Of God In The New Testament
Right at its beginning the Gospel of Mark characterizes the gospel as a message of good news about the Kingdom of God (Mark 1:15). According to Scripture, Jesus’ gospel maybe summarized this way: “The time is fulfilled and the and the Kingdom . . . Continue reading →
Augustine’s Retractations, Perfectionism, And Fakespectations (2)
Secular institutions and even extra-ecclesiastical Christian institutions have always been, in their essence, law. The civil magistrate may exercise mercy—Calvin’s first published work was a commentary on Seneca’s De Clementia (On Clemency), Seneca’s defense of the virtue of mercy to Nero. When . . . Continue reading →
Augustine’s Retractations, Perfectionism, And Fakespectations (1)
For a long time I have been thinking about and planning to do something which I, with God’s assistance, I am now undertaking because I do not think it should be postponed: with a kind of judicial severity I am reviewing my . . . Continue reading →
Tertullian On The Apologetic Power Of Sola Scriptura
Take away, indeed, from the heretics the wisdom which they share with the heathen, and let them support their inquiries from the Scriptures alone: they will then be unable to keep their ground. Tertullian, De res. 3. On the Resurrection of the . . . Continue reading →
Two New Popular Biographies Of Zwingli
Since this is the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses (October 31, 1517) this has been understandably designated the “Luther Year.” There were, however, other figures in the Reformation, who made their own contribution. Huldrych (or Ulrich) Zwingli (1484–1531) is among . . . Continue reading →
Vos On The Role Of Works In Salvation
Works will come into consideration as a manifestation of genuine saving faith. Work in the scriptural sense also means not just an external display but the expression of one’s life that flows out of the depth of the heart…. Scripture also speaks . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 127: I Am That I Am (5)—The Trinity
There strong indications in the Hebrew Scriptures that the God of the Bible is not only personal, but that he is multi-personal. In Genesis 1:1, Scripture says that Elohim (God) created the heavens and the earth. In the very next verse, however, . . . Continue reading →
It Is Our Fault
British comedian Stephen Fry is in a bit of trouble in Ireland because of his answer to a question about what he would say to God at the gates of heaven. He replied, “How dare you create a world in which there . . . Continue reading →
Christ Is Our Red Sea
This does not happen by the physical water but by the sprinkling of the precious blood of the Son of God, who is our Red Sea, through which we must pass to escape the tyranny of Pharaoh, who is the devil, and . . . Continue reading →