Jeffrey Stivason has a helpful interaction with an August 2018 essay by Wesley Hill in which Hill seeks to justify the Revoice Conference, held last July (2018), and in which justifies his conclusion that he has an immutable same-sex attraction. Stivason notes that . . . Continue reading →
For much of the history of the church, from the reign of King David (1000 BC) until about 150 years ago, the Psalms were the songbook of the church. Under the old covenant God’s people sang Psalms in anticipation of the coming . . . Continue reading →
Romans is one of the greatest resources available to the Christian faith and life. Written in the mid-to late AD 50s to the congregation in Rome, Paul sent this pastoral letter to make clear the gospel, that salvation is from the Lord, . . . Continue reading →
There has always been a great temptation to append the adjective Christian to whatever one favors in order to justify it. Recently we have seen the phenomenon of so-called “Gay Christians” in an apparent attempt to synthesize homosexuality and Christianity. This attempt . . . Continue reading →
At the Heidelblog we are passionate in our commitment to the local church. We do not want listeners and readers to substitute the HB for the local, visible church. Unless you are in our congregation we are probably not going to be . . . Continue reading →
Someone once said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” Who first said it is disputed. It has been attributed to P. T. Barnum, to a banker, and to other possible sources. Whoever said it first, it captures the spirit of skepticism perfectly. . . . Continue reading →
Christians have often been tempted to fall into one of three great errors when it comes to the doctrine of conversion (or regeneration). Historically, the word regeneration has signified two related but distinct ideas: a) Sanctification, i.e., the progressive Spirit-wrought, graciously given . . . Continue reading →
I am a little late but here is your annual reminder about these valuable sites. The first, DailyConfession.wordpress.com, takes the reader through the Westminster Standards and the Three Forms (Belgic, Heidelberg, and Dort) in one year. The second, DailyWestminster.wordpress.com, takes the reader through the . . . Continue reading →
…one of the justifications for Protestants today revising and rejecting the classical theism of Nicaea and subsequent Nicene developments is the assertion that the Reformers did not subject the doctrine of God to the same rigorous examination in light of scripture as . . . Continue reading →
Recently, a well-meaning “New Calvinist” (more on this nomenclature in part 2) posted some very blunt language on Twitter about the relationship between divine sovereignty and various ways in which people suffer in this world. He wrote that if you experienced X . . . Continue reading →
Romans is one of the greatest resources available to the Christian faith and life. Written in the mid-to late AD 50s to the congregation in Rome, Paul sent this pastoral letter to make clear the gospel, that salvation is from the Lord, . . . Continue reading →
In Acts 21 we read a somewhat startling episode involving a New Testament prophet named Agabus: This is the same Agabus of whom we read earlier in Acts: Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. And one of . . . Continue reading →
Christians have long struggled to affirm the truth that God saves freely, sovereignly, unconditionally and the truth that he uses means to bring his elect to new life and true faith. During the Middle Ages particularly, the church came to think that . . . Continue reading →
There are about 60 million evangelicals in North America. A good percentage of them are part of a nineteenth-century movement known as Dispensationalism, which was founded by the English clergyman John Nelson Darby (1800–82), who was ordained in the Church of Ireland . . . Continue reading →
In 2018 an estimated 111 million people watched the Super Bowl. That is about 1/3 of all Americans. In our media-fragmented age, in our cord-cutting age, in our on-demand age, rarely do that many people watch the same thing at the same . . . Continue reading →
Romans is one of the greatest resources available to the Christian faith and life. Written in the mid-to late AD 50s to the congregation in Rome, Paul sent this pastoral letter to make clear the gospel, that salvation is from the Lord, . . . Continue reading →
Years ago I remember hearing a wise elder say to me 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 . . . Continue reading →
For at least 200 years, the doctrine of the spirituality of the church developed without any reference to slavery. To suggest that Southern Presbyterians invented the spirituality of the church to sidestep the issue of slavery is to ignore the presence of . . . Continue reading →
At the heart of the debates with the Remonstrants, as Gomarus said, between the Reformed and the Remonstrants was the gospel and its efficacy. Does the gospel announce that Christ has made salvation possible for those who do their part or does . . . Continue reading →
What is legalism? The charge of legalism is so carelessly flung around today that people have no idea what the term means. It’s become a catch phrase to write off any teaching of God’s moral law. There are three ways this term . . . Continue reading →