Anthony Bradley postou um ensaio provocativo argumentando que a plantação de igrejas é insuficiente para a mudança social. Ele apela à sua própria experiência e à história da educação e da Cristandade. O seu texto levanta algumas questões e faz outras. Primeiro, . . . Continue reading →
Author Archives: R. Scott Clark
Os Cânones de Dordt
Todo mundo conhece o acróstico TULIP, mas nem todos sabem de onde vem essa sigla. Os Cânones de Dordt estão entre os mais famosos, mas não lidos, veredito de qualquer Sínodo Reformado. Os cânones são mais de cinco letras. Os cânones ensinam . . . Continue reading →
Reformado & Pentecostal?
James K. A. Smith tem uma interessante postagem na Christianity Today: Teaching a Calvinist to Dance.[1] Neste texto ele diz que anseia por um “tipo de espiritualidade reformada ‘pentecostalizada’”. Ele continua a vincular a sua busca com a de Edwards. Isso pode . . . Continue reading →
Having Babies, Malthus, And Confidence In The Lord
The baby cried with hunger and Maria unwrapped her swaddled newborn (a girl!) in order to nurse. In the next room Giovanni beamed with pride. He could not stop smiling. It had been a while since he or anyone in the village . . . Continue reading →
Review: Concise Systematic Theology: An Introduction To Christian Belief. A Revised and Enhanced Edition of Salvation Belongs To The Lord By John M. Frame (Part 1)
This volume was originally published under another title in 2006. It began as a series of lectures given in 2004, and it carries a number of strong endorsements from Reformed and evangelical luminaries, not the least of which is the foreword by . . . Continue reading →
Christian Tribalism And Loyalties In A Super-Heated Culture War
The noun tribe has no fewer than six senses in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).1 The first is the literal sense of a biological lineage—that is, a “group of people forming a community and claiming descent from a common ancestor; spec. each of . . . Continue reading →
As It Was In The Days Of Noah (32): 2 Peter 1:16–21 (Part 3)
Last time, we saw from verse 19 that God has given us his sure prophetic Word as we wait for the rising of the morning star—the objective return of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Continue reading →
Ping-Pong Evangelicals And Middle Knowledge
Paul Helm blogs monthly and substantively. A certain entry concerns the question of God’s so-called “middle knowledge” (media scientia). He writes, I’ve heard it said that many Calvinist writers currently favor some form of the doctrine of middle knowledge. I’ve also heard . . . Continue reading →
As It Was In The Days Of Noah (31): 2 Peter 1:16–21 (Part 2)
In considering the origins of idolatry, Calvin considers some theories by some pagan writers (profanos scriptores—unhappily translated in the Battles edition as “secular writers”) and the pervasiveness of idolatry even among the covenant people under the types and shadows and he concludes, “hence we may gather that human nature is a perpetual workshop of idols.” Continue reading →
To The Evangelical Nicodemites (Part Four)
The question, for Calvin and for us, is “whether the Christian man, being rightly instructed in the truth of the gospel, offends God or not, by doing as the others do when he is among Papists, by going to Mass and other . . . Continue reading →
Blood In The Seine: French Christian Nationalism And The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre: Part 2
Some of what took place in Paris beginning on August 24 can be explained by sociology and social history. There were real religious and social tensions in Paris and in Roman Catholic dominated towns in 1572. Paris itself was not yet spread out. There were about 210,000 people crowded together. Continue reading →
Blood In The Seine: French Christian Nationalism And The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre: Part 1
On August 22, 1572, Gaspard Comte de Coligny (1519–72), Admiral of France, bent to adjust his shoe or perhaps to open a letter. That unexpected movement saved his life. The bullet, fired by Charles de Louviers (d. 1583) from an upstairs window . . . Continue reading →
Review: David Clarkson’s Prizing Public Worship Edited by Jonathan Landry Cruse
Unless one is a reader of the works of Peter Martyr Vermigli (1499–1562) or a student of modern Canadian Presbyterian history one might not know of Mariano DiGangi (1923–2008). One reason for his relative obscurity is because as minister of Tenth Presbyterian . . . Continue reading →
On The Question Of The Validity Of Lay Baptism
The laboring mother gave one last push and the baby emerged into the capable, experienced hands of the midwife. Infant mortality was high and the midwife knew it. She had seen too many babies that looked like this one die before they . . . Continue reading →
To The Evangelical Nicodemites (Part Three)
Calvin was well aware of what he was about to ask of the crypto-Calvinists or secret Calvinists. He wrote letters of comfort to some of them as they languished in dark, rat-infested prisons, awaiting a sham trial and a bloody, fiery death. He also understood that what he was saying was controversial. Continue reading →
Review: Children At The Lord’s Table? By Cornelis P. Venema (Part Three)
According to Venema, the “most important and compelling piece of New Testament evidence that bears on the question of paedocommunion is undeniably 1 Corinthians 11:17–34” (101). This is because this passage is “the most extensive and comprehensive New Testament passage on the . . . Continue reading →
Fencing The Table Or The Scandal Of The Church
Perhaps nothing so scandalizes the contemporary (i.e., modern) church as the attempt by the visible church to obey the teaching of Jesus and the teaching of the Apostles concerning the Lord’s Table. I say this for three reasons: 1) recently I have . . . Continue reading →
Featley: The Sweet Dipper (Part 6)
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 could do; nay, who even, by crying and moaning when the mystery is performed upon them, raise their voices in opposition to the mysterious words, and yet no Christian will say that they are baptized to no purpose.—Augustine. Continue reading →
To The Evangelical Nicodemites (Part Two)
Calvin was well aware of what he was about to ask of the crypto-Calvinists or secret Calvinists. He wrote letters of comfort to some of them as they languished in dark, rat-infested prisons, awaiting a sham trial and a bloody, fiery death. He also understood that what he was saying was controversial. Continue reading →
Review: Children At The Lord’s Table? By Cornelis P. Venema (Part Two)
Venema observes that the Reformed churches are committed to the principle of sola Scriptura which means that the Scriptures are to be “regarded as the supreme standard for their faith and life,” but that principle does not mean that we read the Scriptures in isolation from the church or from church history (27). Continue reading →