The metrical psalm was the perfect vehicle for turning the Protestant message into a mass movement capable of embracing the illiterate alongside the literate. What better than the very words of the Bible as sung by the hero-King David? The psalms were . . . Continue reading →
2022 Archive
Law, Gospel, Abortion, And Adoption
The morning of June 25, 2022 was a morning unlike any I had ever experienced. On that morning, like everyone reading this article, I awoke to a post-Roe v. Wade-America. Born the same year as the original Roe decision, I had never . . . Continue reading →
Baugh: Living In The “Last Hour”
Given the abundant parallels to the construction in 1 John 2:8—with just a few of the ones I found given above—we can make two preliminary conclusions on its syntax that then impact the overall interpretation of the verse. First, the conjunction ὅτι . . . Continue reading →
Paul Was A Gospel-Man
Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart unto the Good News of God (Rom 1:1)* Paul Was A Gospel Man Gospel means good news and Paul was a “gospel man.” I am uncertain where I first . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast For July 10, 2022: Every Tribe, Tongue, And Nation (7): First Head Of Doctrine (4)
In this episode Dr Clark continues his series on the Canons of Dort where we are looking at the First Head of Doctrine of the Canons of Dort starting with Canons of Dort 1.8. They confessed what they did because the Remonstrants . . . Continue reading →
Critical Race Theory And “Our Desperate Need For The Word Of God”
Rhetoric related to critical theory is everywhere we turn. Watch the news, read social media, or listen to the radio. It would be hard to miss the nearly endless references to racism, sexism, and the economic and legal disparities between those who . . . Continue reading →
Words And Things (Part 3)
When working with foreign words, we should be aware of a very important distinction: the distinction between meaning and gloss. For our purposes, a gloss is an English word substitute for a Greek word. In simple cases, a gloss is perfectly satisfactory . . . Continue reading →
Psalmody And The Sexual Revolution: Or Yet Another Reason Why We Should Only Sing God’s Word
It was only a matter of time. There is a story on CNN about the 2019 publication of a LGBTQ hymnal, Songs For The Holy Other: Hymns Affirming the LGBTQIA2S+ Community. This collection is published by the Hymn Society, which is a . . . Continue reading →
Kuyper: The “Real Gold” Of Psalms And Idolization Of Hymns
When you compare the poetic and religious quality of the hymnal with our Psalter, the former looks like a child’s play. Gilded tin and real gold have nothing in common. And yet the inferior hymnal was quickly given such prominence by persons . . . Continue reading →
Reconciling the Divine Processions-Missions Relationship with Confessional Reformed Theology: An Engagement with Adonis Vidu’s The Divine Missions: An Introduction (Part 3)
This series of essays reflects upon Adonis Vidu’s new book about the divine missions to see how we who hold specifically to confessionally Reformed theology can think about and appropriate his arguments. The first post surveyed the book’s contents, and the second . . . Continue reading →
Murray: Because He Suffered, We Enter Glory
“If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him” is the condition upon which the attainment of the inheritance is contingent (cf. vs. 9). There is no sharing in Christ’s glory unless there is sharing . . . Continue reading →
Rosaria Butterfield In Conference Friday July 29, 2022: Five Lies Of Our Antichristian Age
Rosaria Butterfield will be in conference Friday evening, July 29, 2022 at the Escondido United Reformed Church (located at 1864 N. Broadway, Escondido CA, 92026) at 7:00 PM. Raised and educated in liberal Roman Catholic settings, Rosaria Champagne Butterfield earned her PhD from the . . . Continue reading →
Two Years Is Not Enough
A considerable percentage of church planting in the USA is done under the influence of a model that is likely to lead to congregations that are not Reformed in their practice and perhaps not in their theology and piety. That model says, . . . Continue reading →
More On The Quest For Illegitimate Religious Experience (QIRE)
In case you have ever wondered what QIRE means. Continue reading →
Identity After Abortion
I was 16 when I had my abortion, and in that moment, it felt like my identity was permanently altered. Convinced no one could truly know me if they didn’t know my shameful past, I became a reckless oversharer. New friends, first . . . Continue reading →
Charles Stover Discovers The Reformed Confession
It was my first staff meeting serving as a youth intern in my hometown church. My pastor, who had graciously allowed me to test my gifts in the pulpit before I went off to Bible college, wanted to know where I stood . . . Continue reading →
Imprisoned And Faithful: A Letter From Marie Durand
[Marie Durand] would be born in 1711 in Bouchet-de-Pranles into a community with a hoary past of linguistic, cultural, political, and religious autonomy. She was born into a church whose beliefs and practices were deeply rooted in the sixteenth-century Reformation and the . . . Continue reading →
Heidelminicast: Heidelberg Catechism 109—The Seventh Commandment Is About Chastity
The Heidelberg Catechism is one of the most beloved and well used catechisms to emerge from the sixteenth and seventeenth century Reformation. Published in its final form in 1563, the catechism has been used by millions of Christians to teach the faith . . . Continue reading →
A Debtor’s Ethic
John Piper has complained that the historic Reformed understanding of the Christian faith and life produces what he calls a “debtor’s ethic.” The assumption is that a “debtor’s ethic” is something that we are supposed to reject out of hand. I have . . . Continue reading →
Lewis: When Being “Humanitarian” Is Inhuman
…My subject is not Capital Punishment in particular but that theory of punishment in general which the controversy showed to be almost universal among my fellow-countrymen. It may be called the Humanitarian theory. Those who hold it think that it is mild . . . Continue reading →