Almost three years ago there was a controversy over the disclosure and publication of Machen’s hitherto unpublished letter to his mother in which he mentioned his objection to B. B. Warfield over the latter’s plan to integrate the seminary’s dormitory. Predictably, Machen was denounced by social progressives. They might have spoken too soon, however, since apparently PTS has come to agree with Machen in principle and practice. Continue reading
August 2021 Archive
On The Reception Of The Revelation Into The Canon
The story of the New Testament canon is a fascinating one, with many twists and turns. There are books that were accepted very quickly, almost from the start (e.g., the four gospels), and there are other books that struggled to find a . . . Continue reading →
A Small Thing That Is Really A Big Thing
Getting caught up this morning with some of my favorite resources. Matt Mullininx, a friend and former student has a brief note at Beautiful Christian Life about the importance of greeting people, especially guests, at church. Continue reading
A Useful Test For Evaluating Sermons And Ministry: If A Sermon May Be Preached In A Mosque Or Synagogue It is Not A Christian Message
Years ago I remember hearing an elder say that if my sermon could be accepted in a Jewish synagogue then it is not a distinctively Christian sermon. I’ve thought a lot about that over the years. What makes Christian sermons distinctively Christian? . . . Continue reading →
Afghanistan, A Twofold Kingdom, Serpents, And Doves
The disastrous American withdrawal from Afghanistan has created a multifaceted crisis. A savage regime has retaken control of Afghanistan and bodies of innocent civilians and American allies are already strewn across the streets. This is the Taliban is showing a modicum of restraint as they wait for the world’s television cameras to lose interest and they can begin executing their reprisals in earnest. Doubtless they are quaking in their new boots (courtesy of the Afghan National Army and the US taxpayer) at the finger wagging coming from the US State Department. Most Americans seem to want America out of Afghanistan but few Americans want what has transpired over the last few days across Afghanistan. Continue reading →
Yes, A Pope Will Occasionally Speak About Justification By Grace And Faith
The Bishop of Rome apparently made noises about justification by grace through faith and some evangelicals are excited as if this marks a change in Roman doctrine or in the bishop’s thinking. It does not. Continue reading
Tyler The Ex-Evangelical Quits Swimming
(HT: Brian Brindis De Salas) Resources How To Subscribe To Heidelmedia The Heidelblog Resource Page How to support Heidelmedia: use the donate button below this post. Heidelmedia Resources The Ecumenical Creeds The Reformed Confessions The Heidelberg Catechism Recovering the Reformed Confession (Phillipsburg: P&R . . . Continue reading →
Stop Saying It Please
Reformed people need to stop saying that the distinction between law and gospel is “Lutheran” and that the Reformed did not (and do not) make that distinction. Continue reading
Ministry Is Not Mastery
For all that I learned and tried one aspect of the church-growth movement, perhaps the most fundamental aspect, always made me uneasy and makes me uneasy to this day: the church-growth model was a theology of glory and it turned ministers, who should be theologians of the cross, into theologians of glory. The selling point of the various methods and mentalities was numerical success: look at this congregation. Their pastor and leadership adopted this model and look how many people came. Congregation after congregation was shown to be growing and exciting and influential. Why could we not do the same thing? The possibility was very attractive and it was easily clothed in the pious language of “reaching the lost.” I did want to reach the lost but I also wanted to be “successful.” Continue reading →
Heidelcast 189: What Must A Christian Believe? (7): Against Deism, Gambling, Pentecostalism, And Biblicism
Lots of evangelical Christians take it for granted that God and humans are co-equals. I know because I once thought that way. That is a profoundly Modern and Modernist way of thinking. It is not a biblical way of thinking nor is . . . Continue reading →
New Resource Page: On The Assurance Of Salvation
One of the animating forces that drove the Reformation was problem and doctrine of assurance. In the medieval church (as in the Roman communion and in some Protestant quarters today) it was ordinarily impossible for a Christian to have confidence that he had been saved and was accepted by God. Tragically, one finds this sort of approach among some evangelicals and even among some ostensibly Reformed writers. Continue reading →
Calvin As Theologian Of Comfort
Wikipedia, that ubiquitous source of unimpeachable scholarship, defines “consolation” as “something of value, when one fails to get something of higher value….” That is precisely the opposite of what John Calvin (1509–64) meant by “consolation.”For Calvin, the consolation that Christ gives to his people, by the gospel, through the Spirit, is not second prize but to be valued above that which we lost. When we consider Calvin, “consolation” might not be the thing we first associate with him. The dominant perception of Calvin in our culture is that of a tyrannical, dyspeptic fellow, who delighted in nothing more than to dispatch a few heretics to the flames before breakfast. That caricature, however, was one drawn by his enemies during his lifetime and sadly, despite the facts, it has stuck for a variety of reasons. Continue reading →
Until August 19, 2021: Get On Being Reformed For $24.99 In Hardcover
This is the best price at which they have offered this volume for some time.
The AMA Loses Its Mind (Or How Expressive Individualism Spreads Like A Cancer)
The American Medical Association, once a respect college of physicians, has recommended that biological sex be removed from birth certificates. Continue reading
Getting Around The Censors: Host Your Own Content
The days of orthodox Christians and other cultural conservatives being able to rely on social media to get out their message are over. According to a Wall Street Journal story (behind a paywall) yesterday: Continue reading
Evangelicalism’s Backstreet Boy Is Now Ex-Evangelicalism’s Backstreet Boy
Joshua Harris is back in the limelight. He made his name as the young author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye, and was thereby a key inspiration for the purity movement in American evangelicalism. Then, after a stint as pastor of an evangelical . . . Continue reading →
Piper’s Doctrine Of Final Salvation Through Works: The Reformed Brotherhood Understands Your Pain
Does John Piper teach a two-stage doctrine of salvation wherein the initial stage is said to be justification by grace alone (sola gratia), through faith alone (sola fide), on the basis of the imputed righteousness of Christ but in which final salvation . . . Continue reading →
Wilfred McClay: The 1619 Project Is Historically False And Morally Corrosive
The 400th anniversary of the first landing of enslaved Africans at Jamestown could have been a great and unifying moment for America. It could have reinforced the assertion of African American scholar W.E.B. DuBois that “before the Pilgrims landed we were here,” . . . Continue reading →
When An Entire Medical Association Loses Its Collective Mind (But We Must “Trust The Science”)
Is it safe for adolescents to undergo gender “transition”? Is it wise for children to take hormones that block puberty? The American Academy of Pediatrics not only has answered these questions in the affirmative but is determined to stifle any debate. On . . . Continue reading →
Olivia’s Story
