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 →
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 →
Book Review
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
Book Review
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 →
The economy is hard for everyone right now. Even prepositions have fallen on hard times. In popular media, in news media, and particularly in social media, one regularly sees the expression, “prayers to so and so.” This usage reveals two errors, one . . . Continue reading →
Over the last few years there have been a few laments about “Reformed rocks stars.” Carl Trueman has rightly warned against the cult of personality.1 Now, I would like to turn the tables. If we should be concerned about rock stars and . . . Continue reading →
Book Review
In this volume Cornelis Venema tackles a serious problem in the Reformed world that needs to be addressed, and he has done so in a thoughtful, thorough, biblical, and confessionally Reformed manner. Background to the Review Before we begin the review, it . . . Continue reading →
The opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris was four hours long. Part of the ceremony featured the return of Celine Dion, the procession of competitors, and other highlights. The most controversial aspect, however, was the introduction into the ceremony . . . Continue reading →
Kevin DeYoung offers several practical reasons why church membership matters.1 At least one of the comments on his article called for biblical proof for the idea of church membership. I offer these biblical considerations.2 There is a widespread notion that a truly . . . Continue reading →
All my reading material was on my computer, so on the way into the air and on the way down I read the American Airlines American Way magazine.1 It is not often that one finds stories about churches in the in-flight mag, but . . . Continue reading →
In the previous part, we looked at the first mark of a true school: genuine learning. We continue here with a discussion of the second mark: what makes a proper faculty. A second objective mark of the quality of a faculty is . . . Continue reading →
Americans are busy people who continue to conquer a big place which has, since the eighteenth century, offered wealth and great influence to those who work hard and who produce a product or service valued by others. Education, per se, has not . . . Continue reading →
There is a risk in writing about fast-changing news. As of this writing, we do not know why a disturbed young man tried to murder the former president of the United States. He appears to have been a loner, bullied, who lashed . . . Continue reading →
Book Review
McGraw’s advice about how to learn Latin has some useful and interesting aspects, but he seems to endorse a sort of inductive approach and uses the words “very little effort” (37). He seems to discourage memorization. Continue reading →
He was meant to dig his running spikes into the cinders, find his balance, wait for the sound of the starter’s gun, and sprint 100 meters to Olympic glory. After all, this was one of the races for which he had trained, . . . Continue reading →
For many the eighteenth century is regarded as the “century of mission,” or perhaps the century of the so-called First Great Awakening.1 But if fidelity to the Reformed Confession is a mark of the health of the church, there are many ways in . . . Continue reading →
Book Review
Commendations In the wake of Richard Muller’s revolutionary work (he overturned a consensus of more than a century, grounded in the work of Alexander Schweizer [1808–1888] and Heinrich Heppe [1820–1879]), there are questions that remain to be addressed in the study and . . . Continue reading →
