It is always fun and edifying to talk with the Presbycast Guys, whom some have called the voice of confessionalist dissent in America. Last night we were discussing the question: What is the gospel? The answer to this question might seem obvious but we learn anything from the news and social media it is that we cannot take anything for granted. It is not universally accepted any longer, even in confessionally Reformed circles, that the gospel refers to free justification with God, by divine favor alone, through faith (resting and receiving) alone, on the basis of Christ’s righteousness imputed alone. For many, even in relative conservative NAPARC quarters. For an apparently significant number of people, particularly those under 35 years of age, the gospel has just as much reference to social and economic inequity, as to salvation from the wrath to come and righteousness with God. Indeed, from some folk in NAPARC (and beyond) the traditional pan-Protestant understanding of the gospel is considered a remnant of Pietism—which is amusing since it was Pietism and not Protestant orthodoxy that gave us the Social Gospel—and is nothing but a form of monastic, quietistic, world-flight.
Here is the episode.
Here is the HB media archive.
R. Scott Clark
R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.
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