Happy New Year from the Heidelblog! This is the 15th year of the Heidelblog (including its progenitor) and the top posts of the year reflect the happenings in the P&R world and beyond. The virus has subsided, but the spiritual effects continue to linger in the churches as the cultural divisions in North America manifest themselves in the churches. The effects of the sexual revolution are also reflected in that two of the most downloaded articles had to do with pedophilia. When the Heidelblog began there was no intent to write about such topics, but here we are. Another aspect of the sexual revolution also manifested itself as the NAPARC world found itself discussing the propriety of females in the pulpit and Greg Johnson’s articulation and defense of the so-called “Side-B” approach to homosexuality.
Tony Phelps’ outstanding essay, offering comfort to grieving parents of wandering children, was so well received that we included it in our first-ever print publication, Heirs of the Promise: Reforming Theology, Piety, and Practice (Escondido: Heidelberg Reformation Association, 2022). We distributed this booklet at the summer conference, which the HRA co-sponsored with Abounding Grace Radio, Rosaria Butterfield On Five Lies Of Our Antichristian Age. The booklet also features the perennial HB favorite, Covenant Theology Is Not Replacement Theology, and Wendell Talley’s outstanding essay, “You’re A Presbyterian? How Did That Happen?” We are sending our copies (as long as they last) of this this booklet to those who donate to the HRA as a way of saying thank you.
Mike Abendroth’s series on his movement from the so-called “Lordship Salvation” theology to the Reformation distinction between law and gospel drew a lot of attention. It is one thing to publish criticism of the Lordship Salvation paradigm from within the confessional P&R churches, but readers were obviously interested in the perspective of a writer who is well known in circles much attracted to the Lordship Salvation model. The series struck a nerve as it articulated what other ex-Dispensationalists are finding, and it introduced open-minded Dispensationalists to a window on the Reformation way of speaking about these issues.
One of the threads that developed through the year was the confessional Reformed engagement with the confessional Baptist world. That appeared in the the series contrasting the Second London Confession (1677/89) with the Westminster Confession, which began with an essay contrasting the actual Heidelberg Catechism with Hercules Collins’ Baptist adaptation of it.
Two of the top posts addressed the persistent and unhappy influence of the theonomic and federal vision theology and associated cases of pastoral abuse (as judged by CREC and others) emanating from Moscow, ID. Both posts were essentially catalogues of the evidence, for which open-minded people should be willing to account. The number 8 post for the year was some advice from the Reformed sideline to a group leaving the liberal mainline.
We began publishing a wider array of authors on the Heidelblog last year, but this year the roster of Heidelblog Contributors grew to over 70. This year we also published Tricia Howerzyl’s MA (Historical Theology) thesis on an important, if neglected, figure contemporary to the First Great Awakening, John Thomson. We also published essays by Hywel Jones, Harrison Perkins, T. David Gordon, Fedor Minakov (from Ukraine), and many others including W. Robert Godfrey’s outstanding chapter on justification sola fide first published in Covenant, Justification and Pastoral Ministry: Essays by the Faculty of Westminster Seminary California. In 2022 the Heidelblog became a magazine, offering well-written, meaty content. As I keep going back to our Contributors page, I am reminded of so many excellent contributions this year that I wish I could list each one. I am truly grateful to all our contributors for their outstanding work.
Who says that Reformed confessionalists don’t have a sense of humor? In 2022, we began a Reformed comic strip, The Canons of Dork, wonderfully drawn by Sarah Perkins. We also began publishing a regular series of book reviews (one of which led to a fascinating discussion with theologian Adonis Vidu), and now a series on the Psalms running each Saturday. When I look back over the year, the breadth, quality, and quantity of material published by the HRA is, well, remarkable.
The global reach of the HRA is evidence that God uses small things to do big things. In 2022 we had listeners and readers from the:
- USA
- United Kingdom
- Canada
- Australia
- Brazil
- New Zealand
- Philippines
- South Africa
- India
- Germany
These are only the ten countries with the most visitors to the HB. Readers from 223 nations visited the HB and listened to the Heidelcast in 2022. Please pray that the Lord continues to use the HRA to help the Reformed to recover the Reformed confession and to help others to discover it.
Heidelcast News
Thanks to the more than four-hundred-fifty thousand Heidelblog readers in 2022, to the growing number of subscribers, and to the thousands who subscribed and listened to the Heidelcast. You downloaded posts, pages, and podcasts more than 1.4 million times this year. Since 2012 the Heidelblog has had more than 8.4 million views. The Heidelcast is among the .5% of podcasts worldwide.
This year the Heidelcast expanded its offerings considerably. In addition to the weekly full podcast we began posting daily, brief episodes (2–5 minutes), including a series against postmillennialism drawn from a series of well-regarded Reformed amillennial writers articulating the relations between postmillennialism, chiliasm, and the golden age theology. The weekly podcast finished a series on eschatology, including a commentary on 1 Peter, the series on the Canons of Dort, and began a new series on the book of Romans.
HRA News
There was a significant development in the Heidelverse this year. The Heidelberg Reformation Association was recently recognized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. This means that your donations to the HRA are tax-deductible.
Thank you to the HRA board members who oversee the HB and Heidelcast:
- Chairman, Dan Borvan
- Vice-Chairman, Tom Wenger
- Treasurer, Brad Isbel
- Secretary, Scott McDermand
- Member, Chris Gordon
To those who donated to help keep the Heidelblog and Heidelcast going, thank you. Our readership and listenership grew considerably this year. Reader and listeners are voting with their clicks, downloads, and subscriptions but we also need your help to keep it going. Readers will sometimes ask, “how do you do it all?” To publish all this content we have, since 2021, hired a small part-time staff, increased our technical expenses (e.g., we have hired a webmaster and we will anticipate new expenses to host the Heidelblog and Heidelcast).
Thanks to our hardworking, skilled, and dedicated staff: our Heideleditor and administrative assistant, our copyeditor, Mary, our social media director, Chris, our audio editor, Brian, our development assistant, Ben, and our director of business operations, Barbara. As always, a heartfelt thanks to the Wonderful Wizard of Web who built the Heidelblog and maintained gratis it from 2009 to 2020, and to Joe, who succeeded him, who also served the HRA gratis. We have hired a web designer and we will be making some changes in the new year to adapt to our growing readership and listenership.
Currently we all work from home, but we would like to find office space where we can have an actual studio and a small workspace. We are very thankful for our two sponsors this year, Reformation Heritage Books and Westminster Seminary California. Their support has helped, but even with these two sponsorships and the gifts of our loyal supporters we are only meeting about a third of our modest budget. If everyone who visited the HB or listened to a podcast daily gave just $5.00 per month we would become financially stable. If the HRA has helped you, won’t you help us? Click on the PayPal donate button or send a check to:
Heidelberg Reformation Association
1637 E. Valley Parkway #391
Escondido CA 92027
Thank you.
The Most Downloaded Posts Of 2022 (Published in 2022)
- R. Scott Clark, What Happens When A Bloke Looks At The Facts About Wilson
- R. Scott Clark, Actually, We Do Care: A Response To Greg Johnson’s Still Time To Care
- R. Scott Clark, On Leaving The Mainline: Some Friendly Advice To The Alliance Of Reformed Churches
- Mike Abendroth, “My Pilgrimage From ‘Lordship’ to Law/Gospel” (part 2): Test Case—The Rich Young Ruler
- R. Scott Clark, There Is No Credo Baptist Heidelberg Catechism or Why Hercules Collins Was Not Reformed
- Tony Phelps, Grace for Parents Of Prodigals
- R. Scott Clark, The Normalizing Of Pedophilia Continues
- R. Scott Clark, Removing The Stigma From “Minor Attracted People”?
- R. Scott Clark, She Is Not A Pastor
- Mike Abendroth, “My Pilgrimage From ‘Lordship’ to Law/Gospel” (part 1)”
OTHER POPULAR POSTS & PAGES IN 2022
- The Heidelcast
- It Can Be Difficult But We Need To Open Our Eyes And Pay Attention To The Facts
- Notes From The Didache On The Early Christian View Of Abortion
- Trueman: What “Big Eva” Is And Why It Matters To Reformed Churches
- Covenant Theology Is Not Replacement Theology
Resources
- How To Subscribe To Heidelmedia
- The Heidelblog Resource Page
- Top Ten HB Posts Through The Years
- How to support the Heidelblog: use the donate button below this post or send a check to:
Heidelberg Reformation Association
1637 E. Valley Parkway #391
Escondido CA 92027
The HRA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. - How To Subscribe To Heidelmedia
- The Heidelblog Resource Page
- Heidelmedia Resources
- The Ecumenical Creeds
- The Reformed Confessions
- The Heidelberg Catechism
- Heidelblog Contributors
- Recovering the Reformed Confession (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2008).