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The Heidelblog has been in publication since 2007. It is devoted to recovering the Reformed confession and to helping others discover Reformed theology, piety, and practice. Meet all the HB contributors»

Video: Double Trouble, Double Cure: Psalm 51 | Dr. Craig Troxel

Heidelblog

on November 22, 2024

David has two problems. There is David’s sin and there is David’s self. He faces his guilt as well as his guilty feelings. His repentance finds its voice, as does his faith, in the hope that God’s grace is sufficient for both his problems. Continue reading →

Tertullian On The Natural Knowledge Of God

Heidelblog

on November 21, 2024

For indeed, as the Creator of all things, He was from the beginning discovered equally with them, they having been themselves manifested that He might become known as God. For although Moses, some long while afterwards, seems to have been the first . . . Continue reading →

Augustine On The Hermeneutics Of Love

Heidelblog

on November 20, 2024 | 2 Comments

While Augustine argues that ‘there are two things on which all interpretation of Scripture depends: the mode of ascertaining the proper meaning and the mode of making known the meaning when it is ascertained,’ it should be evident that the first step . . . Continue reading →

New: Resources On The Doctrine Of The Church (Ecclesiology)

Heidelblog

on November 20, 2024

When one talks about the church what is at stake is the way in which the Christian life is organized. I believe that the Bible teaches us that believers should be united to the visible community of the redeemed meeting for worship, . . . Continue reading →

New: Resources On The Internal/External Distinction In The Covenant Of Grace

Heidelblog

on November 19, 2024

Baptism, Election & the Covenant of Grace

When God said to Abraham, “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your children after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your children after you” (Genesis 17:7) and “As . . . Continue reading →

New: Resource Page On Weddings And Funerals

Heidelblog

on November 18, 2024

How should Reformed Christians conduct weddings and funerals in an age when everything, even ancient rituals, has deconstructed? The American impulse is to start from scratch, as though no one has ever thought about these things before. Scholars describe this way of . . . Continue reading →

The Covenant of Works in Moses and Paul

Bryan D. Estelle

on November 18, 2024 | 1 Comment

In the controversy between Protestants and Roman Catholics there has been no question whether Jesus obeyed God’s law, but only to what effect. Did Jesus obey the law so as to make it possible for us to cooperate with grace toward future justification, or did he obey God’s law for us (pro nobis) to accomplish our justification once for all? The Protestants affirmed the latter and denied the former. Nevertheless, despite the unity among confessional Protestants on justification, questions have persistently arisen among them concerning the nature, intent, and effect of Jesus’s law keeping and its relation to the justification of sinners. Continue reading →

New: Resources On Confessional Subscription

Heidelblog

on November 17, 2024

The Christian church has always had a confession or a creed. There are creeds in Scripture itself, e.g., Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear O Israel, Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one.” This was recited in the synagogue as a confession of faith and it . . . Continue reading →

Let Them Laugh Now

Heidelblog

on November 15, 2024

Suppose some persons laugh. You weep on the other hand for their transgression! Many also once laughed at Noah while he was preparing the ark; but when the flood came, he laughed at them; or rather, the righteous man never laughed at . . . Continue reading →

Video: Was the Council of Nicaea About Power?

Heidelblog

on November 15, 2024

Is orthodox doctrine simply an oppressive monopoly? Did early Christianity include gnosticism? Renowned scholar Elaine Pagels has made this case for many years. In this episode, theologian Michael Horton responds to Pagels’s claims as she appears on the Within Reason Podcast with . . . Continue reading →

Augustine On Christ’s Present Reign

Heidelblog

on November 13, 2024

Today is St Augustine’s birthday (354 AD). In honor of his birthday, today’s Heidelquote is by St Augustine. 3. Therefore let the Church of Christ, the city of the great King, full of grace, prolific offspring, let her say what the prophecy . . . Continue reading →

Tertullian Anticipated Anselm On The Ontological Argument

Heidelblog

on November 11, 2024 | 2 Comments

The principal, and indeed the whole, contention lies in the point of number: whether two Gods may be admitted, by poetic license (if they must be), or pictorial fancy, or by the third process, as we must now add, of heretical depravity. . . . Continue reading →

What Tertullian Really Said About Jerusalem And Athens

Heidelblog

on November 9, 2024 | 1 Comment

These are “the doctrines” of men and “of demons” produced for itching ears of the spirit of this world’s wisdom: this the Lord called “foolishness,” and “chose the foolish things of the world” to confound even philosophy itself. For (philosophy) it is . . . Continue reading →

Video: Did the Reformation Cause Secularization?

Heidelblog

on November 8, 2024

Professor and Reformed theologian Michael Horton responds to Tom Holland’s analysis and tries to answer the question of whether the Protestant Reformation did indeed lead to the secularization of the West. Continue reading →

Vos Against An Earthly Glory Age Before Christ Returns

Heidelblog

on November 8, 2024

The idea of the Antichrist in general and that of the apostasy in particular reminds us that we may not expect an uninterrupted progress of the Christianization of the world until the parousia. As the reign of truth will be extended, so . . . Continue reading →

The Church Turned To Social Issues When It Should Have Turned To Doctrinal Issues

Heidelblog

on November 7, 2024

This discrepancy points to the prevailing interests of our Protestant churches in the twentieth century. At that time, much more attention was given to Christianity’s relationship with social issues than with doctrinal matters, and Philemon seems to touch more on social issues—specifically, . . . Continue reading →

On The Cowardice Of Philosophers

Heidelblog

on November 6, 2024

Debates on sex and gender have suffered from a want of moral and intellectual toughness. More detailed, less question-begging diagnoses are possible of why so many smart people shy away from publicly acknowledging that a woman is an adult human female. But . . . Continue reading →

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