And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their . . . Continue reading →
The publication of this new research, completed only in the last month, may surprise some readers, disappoint others, and delight still others but it is important research that changes what we know about the origins and development of the controversy over the . . . Continue reading →
Two days ago (Monday, 21 June 2010) was the summer solstice (from Latin sol [sun] + sistere [to stand]). The AP reports that “Thousands of New Agers and neo-pagans danced and whooped in delight Monday as a bright early morning sun rose . . . Continue reading →
What follows is intended to reflect the liturgies of Geneva (1542), Strasbourg (1545), and Heidelberg (1563) but I have borrowed language from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and the Forms and Prayers of the United Reformed Churches in North America. Continue reading →
In 1520 Martin Luther published one of his most influential treatises, On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church. In it he attempted to set the church free from bondage to human opinion by unleashing again, as it were, God’s Word as the . . . Continue reading →
“Because of the angels . . .” (1 Cor 11:10). Paul uses this profound and striking phrase in the eleventh chapter of 1 Corinthians, but because of all the issues Paul was addressing in the Corinthian congregation, many of which continued to . . . Continue reading →
Most college students are taught that, in the pre-Enlightenment world, religious zealots persecuted enlightened astronomers for daring to challenge deeply held but ignorant religious beliefs on the basis of early modern science. Whether that story is true as told is immaterial. That . . . Continue reading →
Richard Nixon (1913–94) was President of the United States from 1968–74. He resigned from office in disgrace because of his part in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal. By today’s standards, the Watergate scandal might be considered small potatoes. Nixon himself, who . . . Continue reading →
Collin Hansen has a fascinating series of interviews on the Gospel Coalition asking a variety of pastors whether they allow those who make no Christian profession, who regard themselves as non-Christians, non-believers, those we used to call “heathen” or “pagans,” to lead . . . Continue reading →
The great Cappadocian theologian Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 329–c. 90) had addressed the same concerns expressed by the Nestorians decades before proclaiming: If anyone does not believe that holy Mary is Theotokos, he is severed from the Godhead. If any one should . . . Continue reading →
So said my homiletics (preaching) professor, Derke Bergsma. I do not know if that aphorism was original to Derke (he often quoted R. B. Kuiper to us in class, e.g., “Men, there are three points to every sermon, the text, the text, . . . Continue reading →
We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Deity and also perfect in humanity; truly God and truly man, of a rational soul . . . Continue reading →
It is trite, but just in case you have not heard the story: During the Vietnam War, a Marine Corps colonel is reported to have said, “We had to destroy the village in order to save it.”1 An analogy to this approach . . . Continue reading →
We must read the injunctions to “sing a new song” in light of what the New Testament teaches us about types, (fore)shadows, and copies. Continue reading →
Introduction When in 1618 the Reformed theologian J. H. Alsted (1588–1638) declared that the Protestant doctrine of justification is that “article of faith by which the church stands or falls” (articulus stantis et candentis ecclesiae), he was only repeating what all Protestants . . . Continue reading →
In 1580, when the Lutherans and the Reformed met at Montbeilard, when the topic turned to predestination, Theodore Beza (1519–1605) rose, lifted his copy of Luther’s Concerning Bound Choice (De servo arbitrio), and said, “We stand with Luther.”1 The Lutheran representatives suggested . . . Continue reading →
One of the turning points of my early Christian life was reading J. I. Packer’s Knowing God.1 That book did what better books should do: it helped me understand Scripture and thereby to know God in a true and more profound way. . . . Continue reading →
Regular readers of this space are aware that there is something of a confessional renaissance within the Christian Reformed Church in North America. For example, in 2023, Synod rejected decisively an appeal by a prominent progressive CRC congregation against Synod’s decision upholding . . . Continue reading →
The first part of the fourth article of our “undoubted Christian faith” (Heidelberg Catechism 22), which we confess in the Apostles’ Creed, says Christ “suffered under Pontius Pilate” (passus sub Pontio Pilato). This is a remarkable thing to say. After all, we . . . Continue reading →
Justin Taylor has posted material from Tom Schreiner’s 40 Questions About Christians and Biblical Law, which argues, “I do not believe the Sabbath is required for believers now that the new covenant has arrived in the person of Jesus Christ.”1 Schreiner considers the . . . Continue reading →
