The question has been raised as to just what the divines might have meant by the noun “psalms” in the Westminster Confession of Faith (1648).1 WCF 21.5 says, 5. The reading of the Scriptures with godly fear, the sound preaching and conscionable . . . Continue reading →
This essay was my response to an 2007 article by Nancy Morganthaler on the failure of the church growth movement (HT: Justin Taylor). It is necessarily somewhat autobiographical. My criticisms of the church growth movement are partly theoretical and partly practical, to borrow an . . . Continue reading →
The value of church history is not always immediately obvious to everyone. In particular, Americans seem generally allergic to history. This is true of American Christians who are influenced by the American prejudice against history. Look at the History Channel (but only . . . Continue reading →
I wrote this and “How Not To Train Pastors (Part 1)” and “How Not To Train Pastors (Part 2)” near the very beginning of the Heidelblog in 2007. This portion of the essay began as a response to a correspondent on the . . . Continue reading →
I wrote this and How Not To Train Pastors (Part 1) near the very beginning of the Heidelblog in 2007. As high-speed internet service was becoming more widespread, online education was beginning to catch on and many seminaries were beginning to adopt it. . . . Continue reading →
I wrote this near the very beginning of the Heidelblog in 2007. As high-speed internet service was becoming more widespread, online education was beginning to catch on and many seminaries were beginning to adopt it. The world has changed since then. The . . . Continue reading →
This is the Heidelblog and we are all about the Heidelberg Catechism (1563). On this day, in 1563, the Catechism was published in German. If you are unfamiliar with the Catechism or catechisms generally you should know that a catechism is a . . . Continue reading →
To my friends, no I am not, as far as I know, in imminent danger of death. My enemies shall have to wait a bit longer. My reflections this morning are inspired by a series of posts at TGC including “The Song Scott . . . Continue reading →
Americans know in their heart of hearts they are going to die, but they do not like to admit it. It is a mark of our post-Christianity that this culture is so obsessed with youth and beauty. Most folk do not die . . . Continue reading →
Because the Baptist tradition(s) operate from a set of assumptions that are, in certain important ways, distinct from those with which the Reformation churches operate regarding the history of redemption it can be a challenge for those of us within the Reformed . . . Continue reading →
More than twenty years ago, in the summer of 2001, Mike Horton and I were sitting beside a hotel swimming pool one evening during Synod Escondido, along with several ministers from our federation (denomination) of churches (the United Reformed Churches in North . . . Continue reading →
John MacArthur is the old lion of modified Dispensationalism, which has been a gateway for many into the Reformation, but which has also been an obstacle to the Reformation. State Of The Controversy One way in which that has been true is . . . Continue reading →
Happy New Year from the Heidelblog! This is the 15th year of the Heidelblog (including its progenitor) and the top posts of the year reflect the happenings in the P&R world and beyond. The virus has subsided, but the spiritual effects continue to . . . Continue reading →
American evangelical religion, whether one traces it to Edwards, Whitefield, and Wesley or to the nineteenth-century revivalists (e.g., Charles Finney), has always been oriented around personalities. Reasonably, American evangelical Christians nurtured in the personality-oriented tradition assume that pattern as the norm when . . . Continue reading →
Matt Chandler is the lead pastor of The Village Church, a megachurch of about 14,000 members in Flower Mound, TX, which is a northern suburb in the Dallas-Ft Worth metroplex (it is the top of the triangle of the three). After the . . . Continue reading →
Just a quick note before the end of the year from your friends at the Heidelberg Reformation Association. The HRA is now a 501(c)(3) organization. This means that your gifts to the HRA are tax-deductible. As we come to the end of . . . Continue reading →
Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the . . . Continue reading →
In 2008, Mike Horton called attention to the phenomenon of a radically subjective turn in American evangelicalism, in Christless Christianity. Unfortunately, a single book diagnosing the deep sickness of American evangelical Christianity was not enough to turn the tide. In that volume, Mike . . . Continue reading →
Since the literal sense is that which the author intends, and since the author of Holy Writ is God, Who by one act comprehends all things by His intellect, it is not unfitting, as Augustine says (Confess. xii), if, even according to . . . Continue reading →
When many Christians think about the Reformation, they do not think about the distinction between law and gospel. Indeed, it is a truism for not a few modern Reformed folk that the distinction between law and gospel is solely a Lutheran conviction. . . . Continue reading →