Individual monomania is rarely a social problem. One person who is obsessed with butterflies or with a particular celebrity, or who sees everything in sexual, economic, or religious terms, is just an eccentric, although sometimes a tiresome one. The monomaniac may suffer . . . Continue reading →
Author Archives: R. Scott Clark
Now In One Volume: Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics
For those of us who love Reformed theology and are interested in its modern development, Geerhardus Vos (1862–1949) is a significant figure. He spent most of his career, at Princeton Seminary, reforming and developing what had come to be known in the . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: Planting A Confessional Reformed Congregation In Ventura To Reach The Lost
This episode (#274) begins the 13th season of Office Hours. This semester Westminster Seminary California began its 41st year and the original primary purpose is still the primary purpose: to prepare men for pastoral ministry. It is the seminary’s conviction that it . . . Continue reading →
You Are Not A Canonical Actor Or How To Avoid Nightmare Alley
Episode 8 of the Christianity Today podcast, “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill,” illustrates the degree to which the restless, feather-swallowing (according to Luther) anti-canonical spirit has influenced modern evangelical theology, piety, and practice. The Reformation principle (if not always its practice) . . . Continue reading →
How Christians May Avoid Panic In The Midst Of A Cultural Revolution
Christianity offers the best news in the world. The gospel declares that through faith in Jesus Christ, we receive the forgiveness of our sins. With this assurance of God’s love, comes the promise that we receive a citizenship in heaven, a home . . . Continue reading →
Good Guys, Bad Guys, And A Missing Category
The largest NAPARC denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) is in the throes of an identity crisis. Founded by Southern Presbyterians and emerging out of the old PCUS (the Southern version of the Presbyterian mainline) it has always been more more broadly . . . Continue reading →
It Can Be Difficult But We Need To Open Our Eyes And Pay Attention To The Facts
I am not going to quote this article on the Heidelblog because some of the language in it is not fit for a family publication.
Mark Driscoll And The Danger Of “God Told Me”
I am catching up Christianity Today’s podcast series, “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill. The August 30, 2021 episode, “Questioning the Origin Myth: A Rise and Fall Short Story,” centered around what, in Reformed theology, piety, and practice, we call the internal call to ministry. In our understanding of Scripture and its outworking in the life of the church there are two aspects to the call to ministry, the internal and the external. Continue reading →
A Little More In The Public Interest
Obviously we all have an interest in Covid, the vaccine, and treatments. It is beyond difficult for most of us to sort through the welter of information, to determine what is genuine and what is propaganda. Continue reading
Some Reformed Churches Rejected American Slavery From The Beginning
The question before the Civil War, and even today for Americans as we consider our past and deal with contemporary racial issues is, “What does the Bible teach about American slavery?” Long before the Civil War, Reformed Presbyterians answered that both the custom of Christendom and the Bible condemned American Negro slavery as fundamentally wrong and immoral. It was based on manstealing, a sin against the eighth commandment and a capital crime under Mosaic Law. It rested on a racial line of separation that denied the Bible’s teaching that God made all men of “one blood.” Continue reading →
J. C. Ryle With A Message To The Twenty-first Century Church
Of course, we are all apt to exaggerate the importance of our own times. But I venture to think that the present position of the Church… is more critical and perilous than it has been at any period during the last two . . . Continue reading →
In The Public Interest
We the physicians of the world, united and loyal to the Hippocratic Oath, recognizing the profession of medicine as we know it is at a crossroad, are compelled to declare the following; WHEREAS, it is our utmost responsibility and duty to uphold . . . Continue reading →
Covid Accelerated The Homeschooling Revolution
By May, at the risk of violating state truancy laws, Wrobel had stopped fighting and let her kids log on (or not) whenever they felt like it. It was, she said, “the darkest hour before dawn.” That September, she started homeschooling. She . . . Continue reading →
Polycarp: A Model For Ministry In The Post-Christian West
Polycarp (Πολύκαρπος), whose name might be translated as fruitful was the leading pastor (ἐπίσκοπος) of Smyrna (today, Izmir, Turkey) on the Agean coast of Asia Minor. We do not know a great deal about his life. He was friends with Ignatius, the pastor of Antioch, who was (presumably) martyred about AD 115. Continue reading →
Valentinus, Marcion, And Contemporary Christianity
In our ancient church course we have been working through the basic ideas and foundational figures in the Gnostic movement of the second century AD.
Another Salvo (This One From The Left) Against The 1619 Project
On a hot, drowsy August Saturday, a copy of the New York Times Magazine devoted entirely to something called The 1619 Project landed on my doorstep, and immediately grabbed my attention. It took me little time to comprehend the project’s purpose, or . . . Continue reading →
A Meditation On The Virtue Of Truthfulness (And Against Deconstructionism)
A meditation on truthfulness from Galatians 4:16, Ephesians 4:15; John 18:38; and 1 John 2:21–24. Continue reading →
Is Missing Church A Sin?
Joe writes, “Is missing church a sin? Like if my child has a game, if I’m on vacation, or have to work?” Over the years many people have asked me some version of this question. It is an important question, one faced by the New Testament church and by the church in the twenty-first century. Continue reading →
Proof Of The Pauline-Augustinian Doctrine Of Human Depravity And Why Apologists Should Stay In Their Lane
Debra J. Saunders is an old-school journalist who, like other writers who are escaping the corrupt and corrupting media structure, has fled to Substack to publish. Continue reading
Were The Protestant Reformers Missionary Failures? Challenging The Nineteenth-Century Narrative
One of the stories told about the Reformation in missiological circles is that the reformers weren’t interested in seeing the gospel go to the ends of the earth.
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