Entrance into the pundit class is highly restricted. It requires having the right credentials and knowing the right words. To get those, you have to spend your early life weaving through a series of ever more selective institutions where you learn how . . . Continue reading →
Author Archives: R. Scott Clark
An Outline Of A Moral Objection To Vaccine Mandates
I am not arguing that those who have been or will be vaccinated are sinning but I am trying to sketch the outlines of a case for asserting good-faith moral objections to vaccine mandates. What should we conclude? Do Christians have a right to reject the vaccine on the grounds that it implicates them in the voluntary abortion of humans and the harvesting of biological material for medical use? Continue reading →
Paul, Philippi, And Mask Mandates
The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them . . . Continue reading →
New: Companion Guide For S. M. Baugh, The Majesty On High
In the Gospel of Mark, the first words we hear from Jesus are about the Kingdom of God: “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of . . . Continue reading →
PCA Concerned Presbyterians To Meet September 25, 2021 In Greenville, SC
All PCA Teaching and Ruling elders are warmly invited to attend the meeting of concerned Presbyterians. While the Gospel Reformation Network (GRN) meetings, events, and communications continue to be public and transparent, due to space limitations we must restrict the meeting to . . . Continue reading →
Indy Reformed Has A Building
Indy Reformed is a church plant of the United Reformed Churches in North America meeting in the Indianapolis metro. Continue reading →
Audio: Two Episodes With Saints And Sinners Unplugged On The Heidelberg Catechism
Saints and Sinners Unplugged is a podcast hosted by Ken Jones, whom you know from the White Horse Inn radio show, Aldo Leon, Jose Prado, and David Menendez. Each of these men is a pastor of a congregation in the Miami metro . . . Continue reading →
Video: What Is Baptism?
The Rev Mr Scott McDermand is a graduate of Westminster Seminary California (MA, MDiv). He is pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Bad Axe, Michigan. A native of San Diego and a former baseball player, Scott served as full-time pulpit supply at Alpine . . . Continue reading →
A Classical Reformed Alternative To The New Calvinist Language On God And Evil
The Reformed churches confess that the relationship between God and evil is a mystery. We reject any attempt to resolve the mystery. We are not rationalists. We refuse to go beyond what Scripture says. We affirm both that God is sovereign and . . . Continue reading →
Princeton Seminary Catches Up With Machen On Segregation?
Almost three years ago there was a controversy over the disclosure and publication of Machen’s hitherto unpublished letter to his mother in which he mentioned his objection to B. B. Warfield over the latter’s plan to integrate the seminary’s dormitory. Predictably, Machen was denounced by social progressives. They might have spoken too soon, however, since apparently PTS has come to agree with Machen in principle and practice. Continue reading
On The Reception Of The Revelation Into The Canon
The story of the New Testament canon is a fascinating one, with many twists and turns. There are books that were accepted very quickly, almost from the start (e.g., the four gospels), and there are other books that struggled to find a . . . Continue reading →
A Small Thing That Is Really A Big Thing
Getting caught up this morning with some of my favorite resources. Matt Mullininx, a friend and former student has a brief note at Beautiful Christian Life about the importance of greeting people, especially guests, at church. Continue reading
A Useful Test For Evaluating Sermons And Ministry: If A Sermon May Be Preached In A Mosque Or Synagogue It is Not A Christian Message
Years ago I remember hearing an elder say that if my sermon could be accepted in a Jewish synagogue then it is not a distinctively Christian sermon. I’ve thought a lot about that over the years. What makes Christian sermons distinctively Christian? . . . Continue reading →
Afghanistan, A Twofold Kingdom, Serpents, And Doves
The disastrous American withdrawal from Afghanistan has created a multifaceted crisis. A savage regime has retaken control of Afghanistan and bodies of innocent civilians and American allies are already strewn across the streets. This is the Taliban is showing a modicum of restraint as they wait for the world’s television cameras to lose interest and they can begin executing their reprisals in earnest. Doubtless they are quaking in their new boots (courtesy of the Afghan National Army and the US taxpayer) at the finger wagging coming from the US State Department. Most Americans seem to want America out of Afghanistan but few Americans want what has transpired over the last few days across Afghanistan. Continue reading →
Yes, A Pope Will Occasionally Speak About Justification By Grace And Faith
The Bishop of Rome apparently made noises about justification by grace through faith and some evangelicals are excited as if this marks a change in Roman doctrine or in the bishop’s thinking. It does not. Continue reading
Tyler The Ex-Evangelical Quits Swimming
(HT: Brian Brindis De Salas) Resources How To Subscribe To Heidelmedia The Heidelblog Resource Page How to support Heidelmedia: use the donate button below this post. Heidelmedia Resources The Ecumenical Creeds The Reformed Confessions The Heidelberg Catechism Recovering the Reformed Confession (Phillipsburg: P&R . . . Continue reading →
Stop Saying It Please
Reformed people need to stop saying that the distinction between law and gospel is “Lutheran” and that the Reformed did not (and do not) make that distinction. Continue reading
Ministry Is Not Mastery
For all that I learned and tried one aspect of the church-growth movement, perhaps the most fundamental aspect, always made me uneasy and makes me uneasy to this day: the church-growth model was a theology of glory and it turned ministers, who should be theologians of the cross, into theologians of glory. The selling point of the various methods and mentalities was numerical success: look at this congregation. Their pastor and leadership adopted this model and look how many people came. Congregation after congregation was shown to be growing and exciting and influential. Why could we not do the same thing? The possibility was very attractive and it was easily clothed in the pious language of “reaching the lost.” I did want to reach the lost but I also wanted to be “successful.” Continue reading →
New Resource Page: On The Assurance Of Salvation
One of the animating forces that drove the Reformation was problem and doctrine of assurance. In the medieval church (as in the Roman communion and in some Protestant quarters today) it was ordinarily impossible for a Christian to have confidence that he had been saved and was accepted by God. Tragically, one finds this sort of approach among some evangelicals and even among some ostensibly Reformed writers. Continue reading →
Calvin As Theologian Of Comfort
Wikipedia, that ubiquitous source of unimpeachable scholarship, defines “consolation” as “something of value, when one fails to get something of higher value….” That is precisely the opposite of what John Calvin (1509–64) meant by “consolation.”For Calvin, the consolation that Christ gives to his people, by the gospel, through the Spirit, is not second prize but to be valued above that which we lost. When we consider Calvin, “consolation” might not be the thing we first associate with him. The dominant perception of Calvin our culture is that of a tyrannical, dyspeptic fellow, who delighted in nothing more than to dispatch a few heretics to the flames before breakfast. That caricature, however, was one drawn by his enemies during his lifetime and sadly, despite the facts, it has stuck for a variety of reasons. Continue reading →