Kate Shellnut posted a story yesterday at Christianity Today revealing that 39 elders from the former Mars Hill church, from which Mark Driscoll was removed because he abused the staff and members, have published a letter calling for him to resign from . . . Continue reading →
The Heidelcast is back and better than ever, well, as mediocre as ever anyway. As I’m recording this it’s late July and I’m trying to finish the commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism. Something had to give way so I put the Heidelcast . . . Continue reading →
I have been warning students for some years about the impending collapse of Western civilization. It used to be a joke. Now, the warnings are rueful. Another evidence that the end is closer than it might seem is the apparent loss of . . . Continue reading →
Someone from my part of town just reported that her gray cockatiel, “Nube,” just out the door toward the local high school. Continue reading
I am in the throes of trying to make real progress on the commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism. Today, I hope to finish the section on Heidelberg Catechism 92. Continue reading
A reader wrote to ask about the definition of orthodoxy. Continue reading
A remarkably durable anecdote about John Calvin, the great Protestant Reformer of Geneva, is often related by those critical of the Puritan view of the Sabbath…The goal seems to be to demonstrate that the Reformers were not tainted with that ‘pharisaical’ of . . . Continue reading →
These questions, however—important as they are—do not yet capture the essence of our disagreement. In our view, our disagreement lies not in the questions themselves, but in the starkly differing ways in which we respectively relate to them. Namely, while DeYoung appears . . . Continue reading →
It is difficult to know the details of Calvin’s family life and there remains some uncertainty about the number of Calvin’s biological children but it has been known for centuries that Calvin married the widow Idellete de Bure in 1540. She brought . . . Continue reading →
Today I am listening to episode 4 of the Christianity Today podcast series, “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.” Continue reading
The enduring image of Calvin as an unyielding, moralistic and stone-faced tyrant who rejected all the pleasures of life has been his opponents’ greatest victory. The iconography of the Frenchman has hardly helped matters, above all, the Reformation monument in Geneva, which . . . Continue reading →
I joked to a correspondent recently that there are so many HB posts on the PCA that I should make a resource page devoted to the PCA. Well, it is true and now there is one.
Dear pastors and elders. No matter how well intended, I'm rather afraid that your words are not always heard the way you think. Here, let me translate.(If you'd like to educate yourself, you can start here: https://t.co/U1lM9kfHTF) pic.twitter.com/AWoCL40zMi — Greg Johnson | . . . Continue reading →
Traditionalist Romanists are unhappy that Francis, the Bishop of Rome, has reversed yet another of Benedict XVI’s decisions. He has strictly limited the use and spread of the old Latin (Tridentine) Mass. Continue reading
We want to be seeker-sensitive, but we must identify the true seeker in worship. Scripture teaches that “no man seeks God,” certainly not the unregenerate, rather it is God who seeks us (Romans 3:11). Our Lord taught us that the Father seeks those who will worship in spirit and truth (John 4:23). Therefore the primary focus in Reformed worship is our living, holy, righteous, awesome Triune God. Thus when we gather before his face (Hebrews 12:18-20) we are in a sacred assembly where he has promised to give us an audience. Continue reading →
“[P]roceed to the reading of the Scriptures in this order:…read first the epistle of Paul to the Romans [and], after that, the Gospel of John (as being indeed the keys of the New Testament).” William Perkins (1558–1602) | The Art of Prophesying| . . . Continue reading →
"The taking of a leaf is the cutting of the root of clinging. When this root is finally cut, you are safe as the original body of all life appears to deluded minds." –@KosenGregSnyder Read more about the Ordination of the Cherry . . . Continue reading →
From the point of view of the covenant of grace, every command to baptize, is a command to baptize the children of believers. Because the promise of the covenant of grace, God is a God not only to adult believers, but also to their children. That is why, in 1 Corinthians 7:14, Paul said that children of believers are “holy.” Paul deliberately used Old Covenant, ceremonial, language to teach the Corinthians that their children shouldn’t be considered outside of the visible people of God. To use old covenant language, children of believers are “clean,” and therefore have a right to share in the blessings of being a part of the visible people of God, including baptism. Continue reading →
Since the early 2000s, the so-called Young, Restless, and Reformed or New Calvinist movement has been one of the more significant movements in American evangelicalism. Its scope and influence was chronicled by Collin Hansen’s, Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist’s Journey with the . . . Continue reading →