About Harrison Perkins

Harrison Perkins (PhD, Queen’s University Belfast; MDiv, Westminster Seminary California) is pastor of Oakland Hills Community Church (OPC), a member of the of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, a Senior Research Fellow at the Craig Center for the Study of the Westminster Standards, associate online instructor in church history at Westminster Theological Seminary, a visiting lecturer in systematic theology at Edinburgh Theological Seminary, and author of Reformed Covenant Theology: A Systematic Introduction. Meet all the Heidelberg contributors»

The Cradle Of Christian Truth: Apostles’ Creed (Part 14)—I Believe in the Holy Spirit

I lived in New Zealand for a few months during college for a mission trip. We went to help a church start outreach efforts on the nearby university campus. One day, we attended an event where various organizations set up tables to . . . Continue reading →

The Cradle Of Christian Truth: Apostles’ Creed (Part 13)—From there he will come to judge the living and the dead

Casablanca is one of the most famous movies in cinematic history, leaving us with more than its fair share of artifacts ingrained in cultural memory even eighty years later. Humphrey Bogart alone left us with a stack of lines most of us . . . Continue reading →

It Was Christ All Along

The final layer is that Christ is the substance of the covenant of grace since He was always its Mediator….  Moreover, the New Testament explicitly designates Christ as the Savior who was active in the Old Testament. Harrison Perkins | Reformed Covenant . . . Continue reading →

The Cradle Of Christian Truth: Apostles’ Creed (Part 12)—He Ascended into Heaven and is Seated at the Right Hand of God the Father Almighty

It is a common bug of humanity that we do not like saying goodbye. We even have stock phrases like, “I’m bad at goodbyes,” or, “Let’s say ‘see you later’ rather than ‘goodbye.’” Even “Absence makes the heart grow fonder,” as true . . . Continue reading →

The Cradle Of Christian Truth: Apostles’ Creed (Part 11)—The third day he rose again from the dead

The Trojan Horse is the classic example of a bait and switch. Legend says that, for ten years, the Greeks waged war on the city of Troy. This war went so long because Troy was so well fortified. One morning, the Trojans . . . Continue reading →

The Cradle Of Christian Truth: Apostles’ Creed (Part 10)—He Descended into Hell

If I were speaking to an audience and asked them what the word reed means, from the sound of the word, the majority response would likely be something like “processing written words.” When I explain that the word in my notes is . . . Continue reading →

The Cradle Of Christian Truth: Apostles’ Creed (Part 9)—Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Crucified, Died, and Was Buried

One of the common questions that Christians face in conversations with unbelievers is, “How could a loving God send anyone to hell?” Although we certainly have to keep a clear focus on God’s love and how his mercy is truly available to . . . Continue reading →

Review: Beholding the Triune God: The Inseparable Work of Father, Son, and Spirit By Matthew Y. Emerson and Brandon D. Smith

The recent resurgence of classical Trinitarianism has borne tremendous fruit in bringing the reality of who God is to bear in the church’s ministry and proclamation. Even in confessionally Reformed circles where subscription vows have at least maintained a background fidelity to . . . Continue reading →

The Cradle Of Christian Truth: Apostles’ Creed (Part 8)—Conceived by the Holy Spirit, Born of the Virgin Mary

One of the flavors of the day in movies and television seems to be the reboot. You take an old story and retell it in a new way. Or you take an old character and reset the storyline, setting aside the previous . . . Continue reading →

Review: Proclaiming the Triune God: The Doctrine of the Trinity in the Life of the Church By Matthew Barrett, Ronni Kurtz, Samuel G. Parkison, and Joseph Lanier

The Trinity is the heartbeat of the Christian faith, as Herman Bavinck reminds us.1 If this doctrine is indeed about pumping blood through our spiritual veins, then it must not be blockaded only into the academy halls and books inaccessible to ordinary . . . Continue reading →

The Cradle Of Christian Truth: Apostles’ Creed (Part 7)—His only begotten Son, our Lord

The American posture is dominated by pragmatism—meaning that our biggest question for whether or not we should learn something is, “Does it work?” We need ideas to do something for us to think they are at all worthy of our attention. A . . . Continue reading →

Bates’s Recycled Errors

The gospel is central to Christianity. Protestants and Roman Catholics have been reflecting on and debating the gospel’s content for centuries. However, Matthew Bates argues that most of Western Christianity to date—Protestant and Roman Catholic—has completely misunderstood the gospel. In Beyond the Salvation . . . Continue reading →

The Cradle Of Christian Truth: Apostles’ Creed (Part 6)—I Believe In Jesus Christ

“What’s in a name?” A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. So, we might easily assume that what we name something is unimportant. And yet, there seems to be some sort of natural affinity in most ears for the . . . Continue reading →

The Cradle Of Christian Truth: The Apostles’ Creed (Part 4)—God . . . Almighty

One question meant to trap Christians in an unsolvable philosophical problem is, “If God is all powerful, can he make a rock so heavy that even he can’t pick it up?” Or as my philosophy professor from college, who was an atheist, . . . Continue reading →

Review Roundup: Covenant Theology (Part 1)

Antonio Coppola’s Faithful God: An Introduction to Covenant Theology Faithful God is a pastoral treatment of covenant theology meant to equip ordinary Christians to see the categories of law and gospel and to understand how Christ is at the center of redemptive history. Continue reading →