(HT: ChortlesWeakly)
Machen Day 2018: So Thankful For The Active Obedience Of Christ
Author Archives: R. Scott Clark
Olevianus: The First Benefit Of The Resurrection Is The Certainty Of Our Justification
The resurrection of Christ is a sure testimony to us that God considers us to be as just and righteous in His eyes as the body of Christ was when He arose from the dead out of all of our sins. Continue reading →
With Janet Mefferd On What Scripture Says About Private Property
The eighth and tenth commandments, “You shall not steal” (Ex 20:15) and “You shall not covet” (Ex 20:17) are basic to biblical ethics. They are part of the natural law that God revealed to Adam in the garden, known by image bearers . . . Continue reading →
A Perfect Church? Not In This Life
In a recent book, church growth guru George Barna seems to suggest the end or irrelevance of the local congregation.1 He speaks for a significant number of people who find their congregation unsatisfying or who cannot find a church at all. It . . . Continue reading →
Orwell On The Value Of Good Writing
Now, it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes: it is not due simply to the bad influence of this or that individual writer. But an effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: Journeys With Jesus
Millions of Christians gather every week to hear sermons preached, we trust, from God’s Word. Believers read and study it. Pastors and elders study it but we do not always agree about how to understand it. How often have you heard someone . . . Continue reading →
Of Nice And Men
In a recent foreword to a book advocating Norman Shepherd’s peculiar brand of covenant theology, John Frame attacks some of Shepherd’s critics as “stupid, irresponsible and divisive.” Apparently, someone complained about Frame’s lack of civility so he issued an apology that the . . . Continue reading →
Clark Contra Shepherd (2001)
One of the gravest problems raised by Rev. Shepherd’s book, The Call of Grace is its refusal to honor the Biblical, confessional and Reformed theological distinction between Law and Gospel as expressed in the two covenants in the historia salutis. The covenant . . . Continue reading →
Cyprian: Baptize Infants (253 AD)
2. But in respect of the case of the infants, which you say ought not to be baptized within the second or third day after their birth, and that the law of ancient circumcision should be regarded, so that you think that . . . Continue reading →
Hippolytus (c. 215 AD): Baptize Infants
3. And they shall put off their clothes. 4. And they shall baptize the little children first. And if they can answer for themselves, let them answer. But if they cannot, let their parents or someone from their family answer for them. . . . Continue reading →
New In Print: Advice To Young Preachers
“Advice to Young Preachers” appears in the Summer issue of Expositor, a publication of Steve Lawson’s OnePassion Ministries.
On Congregational Elections
A HB reader writes to ask about to think about and vote in a congregational election for elders when one does not know the nominees. This is a difficult question for a couple of reasons. First, we have little to no evidence . . . Continue reading →
Jesus: Baptism Is Death
In Luke 12:50, as part of a wide-ranging discourse with strong eschatological overtones, our Lord Jesus characterizes his coming death in a striking way. He said, “But I have a baptism with which to be baptized and how I constrained until it . . . Continue reading →
Confessions Of A Former Online Social Justice Warrior
Within the world created by the various apps I used, I got plenty of shares and retweets. But this masked how ineffective I had become outside, in the real world. The only causes I was actually contributing to were the causes of . . . Continue reading →
Augustine: Infant Baptism Is The Apostolic And Universal Practice Of The Church
And this is the firm tradition of the universal Church, in respect of the baptism of infants, who certainly are as yet unable “with the heart to believe unto righteousness, and with the mouth to make confession unto salvation,” as the thief . . . Continue reading →
Kuyper: The Introduction Of Hymns To Dutch Reformed Worship Was Done Unlawfully
Here we come to the issue of psalms versus hymns. Our fathers ruled that, with a few exceptions, only the singing of psalms was permitted in the assembly of believers. When hymns were introduced in 1807 (by unlawful ecclesiastical might) many people . . . Continue reading →
Olevianus: The Gospel Is That Salvation Is Freely Given and Received Through Faith Alone
8 Q. Just as there is only one way to salvation, the crucified Christ, there is also only one doctrine of salvation that freely and graciously offers us Christ and all His benefits for our possession. What is this doctrine? A.* The . . . Continue reading →
Not For Others Only But For Me Also
Therefore read these words “me” and “for me” with great emphasis, and accustom yourself to accepting this “me” with a sure faith and applying it to yourself. Do not doubt that you belong to the number of those who speak this “me.” . . . Continue reading →
May The Paedobaptist Fairly Appeal To Matthew 19:13–15?
It was a wonderful day yesterday at Escondido URC. In the morning we had two baptisms, one of an adult convert who had never been baptized. So, like the adult baptisms we see in Acts, he received the sacrament, sign, and seal of baptism as a sign of his admission to the Christ-confessing covenant community. My Baptist friends rejoice with us. We also, however, baptized the infant of professing believers. We did so because we are convinced from God’s Word that is what God commands. The pattern begins in Genesis 17 and continues to the book of Acts (2:38–39; ch. 16 [all]). In his sermon our pastor, Chris Gordon, argued for the propriety of infant baptism on the basis of Matthew 19:13–15. Was he right to do so? Continue reading →
What Do We Mean By Sacrament, Sign, And Seal?
The Reformed churches and Reformed theologians (i.e., those who confess and teach within the bounds of the Reformed confessions, e.g., the French Confession (1559), the Scots Confession (1560), the Belgic Confession (1561), the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), the Second Helvetic Confession (1566), the . . . Continue reading →