One of the books I loved most as a boy was my uncle’s copy of the Boy Scout, Handbook for Boys (1948). I loved it because it connected me with my Dad, to my uncle (a lifeguard and a marine), and to . . . Continue reading →
According to the western church calendar this is the Lenten season (the 40 days from “Shrove Tuesday” to Easter) and it is being more widely observed within NAPARC. This is worth noting since, historically, most Reformed churches have not observed Lent and have . . . Continue reading →
Long ago, in a galaxy far away, Recovering the Reformed Confession was published and there I argued that confessional Reformed theology, piety, and practice has two competitors, unwelcome guests, if you will: the Quest for Illegitimate Religious Certainty (QIRC) and the Quest . . . Continue reading →
HB reader Mike asks whether this language requires Reformed believers to confess that baptism necessarily regenerates, i.e., is new life necessarily conferred at the moment of administration. It is widely claimed that “the ancient church taught baptismal regeneration.” In this context “regeneration” . . . Continue reading →
Late in 1521, Karlstadt and Zwilling started to drive the Wittenberg reformation in a radical direction. Stirring up iconoclasm and riots, Karlstadt took to walking around Wittenberg dressed as a peasant and officiating at mass in a plain robe. Then three individuals . . . Continue reading →
Shawn Anderson, Kyle Borg, Nathan Eshelman, and Joel Wood are Reformed ministers in the RPCNA. They have a new podcast, The Jerusalem Chamber. The name is a reference to the room in which much of the work was done to draft the . . . Continue reading →
In April 1521, when Martin Luther stood before the powers of this world at the Diet of Worms, he did so on the basis of the sole, unique, and final authority of God’s Word. Luther confessed that his conscience was bound by . . . Continue reading →
When, therefore, we saw very evidently that the chief men in the Church beyond the authority of Scripture assumed this authority so to enjoin fasts as to bind men’s consciences, we allowed consciences to be freed from these snares, but by the . . . Continue reading →
This is season 8 of Office Hours and we are celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. In confessional Protestant circles we use some short hand Latin phrases that we might not all understand, even though we use them frequently. Sola fide . . . Continue reading →
Article XI Concerning Things Commanded and Not Commanded Of self law (Autonomia) or power in the conscience, Relinquished to Christ alone in the church We confess that no one ought to command in any manner that which Christ has not commanded; also, . . . Continue reading →
THERE is no day commanded in scripture to be kept holy under the gospel but the Lord’s day, which is the Christian Sabbath. Festival days, vulgarly called Holy-days, having no warrant in the word of God, are not to be continued. Nevertheless, . . . Continue reading →
…The belief of the disciples in the resurrection, according to the New Testament, was due simply to the fact of the resurrection. Those disciples came to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead for the simple reason that Jesus had risen . . . Continue reading →
In the Western church calendar Lent began yesterday on “Ash Wednesday.” Lent did not exist in any form in church law until 325 where the word appears in Canon 5 of the canons of Nicea. Even then there is no detailed prescription . . . Continue reading →
HB reader David wrote to ask about a social program in which his congregation is involved and his question is one that I get regularly. My reading and experience with Millennials, i.e., those born between 1982 and 2004, tells me that there . . . Continue reading →
They [the Gnostics] possess paintings—some, moreover, have images made of gold, silver and other materials—and say that such things are portraits in relief of Jesus, and made by Pontius Pilate! That is, the reliefs are portraits of the actual Jesus during his . . . Continue reading →
The Christian meaning of the term “deity of Christ” is fairly clear. The Christian believes that there is a personal God, Creator and Ruler of the universe, the God who is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. So when the Christian says that Jesus . . . Continue reading →
(Now these heretics) have themselves been sent forth by Satan, for the purpose of slandering before the Gentiles the divine name of the Church. (And the devil’s object is,) that men hearing, now after one fashion and now after another, the doctrines . . . Continue reading →
It is a general, if unstated, assumption among moderns that whatever the causes of the Reformation might have been, they must be long past. Often, however, that assumption is ill-founded. In fact, the fundamental causes for the Reformation (e.g., the Roman denial . . . Continue reading →
