A friend pointed me to an interesting video (the link is now dead) by a WSC alumnus, Lane Tipton. The video is meant to be a discussion of Calvin and his doctrine of justification. I was quite pleased to hear Tipton say, . . . Continue reading →
Paul Helm blogs monthly and substantively. A certain entry concerns the question of God’s so-called “middle knowledge” (media scientia). He writes, I’ve heard it said that many Calvinist writers currently favor some form of the doctrine of middle knowledge. I’ve also heard . . . Continue reading →
In the previous part, we looked at the first mark of a true school: genuine learning. We continue here with a discussion of the second mark: what makes a proper faculty. A second objective mark of the quality of a faculty is . . . Continue reading →
Americans are busy people who continue to conquer a big place which has, since the eighteenth century, offered wealth and great influence to those who work hard and who produce a product or service valued by others. Education, per se, has not . . . Continue reading →
For many the eighteenth century is regarded as the “century of mission,” or perhaps the century of the so-called First Great Awakening.1 But if fidelity to the Reformed Confession is a mark of the health of the church, there are many ways in . . . Continue reading →
The title is Latin for “Now is superior to then.” It is a shorthand way of getting at an attitude that is widespread among American Christians—that whatever we think and do, now is necessarily superior to anything that was thought and done in the past. Continue reading →
Caspar Olevianus, An Exposition of the Apostles’ Creed, trans. Lyle Bierma, Classic Reformed Theology Vol. 2 (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2010). Introduction by R. Scott Clark. Caspar Olevianus (1536–87) is most well known today for his role as one of the authors . . . Continue reading →
©R. Scott Clark. All Rights Reserved. RESOURCES Subscribe To The Heidelblog! The Heidelblog Resource Page Heidelmedia Resources The Ecumenical Creeds The Reformed Confessions The Heidelberg Catechism Recovering the Reformed Confession (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2008) Why I Am A Christian What Must A . . . Continue reading →
There is a popular view of church history that tells a story in which there was a pure, believing church during the apostolic age and then, for all intents and purposes, there was not a church (except for the Waldensians who alone . . . Continue reading →
A reader named David recently wrote to the Heidelblog to pass along a question that someone else asked of him: “What do the church fathers prior to Augustine believe about free will? I was told that all of the church fathers prior . . . Continue reading →
The Christian Nationalists are proposing an American Revolution. Some of them want, in place of free churches, voluntarily attended by free Americans, to institute a federal church, directly contrary to the First Amendment of the Constitution—”Congress shall make no law respecting an . . . Continue reading →
Reading online is great. It is fast. It is convenient. It is accessible. There is still, however, a lot of important information that you cannot get from the Web. I am not writing against e-books, even though they too have weaknesses (e.g., . . . Continue reading →
What should we do with Calvin on the sofa? The answer to that question depends on one’s job description. Continue reading →
Dr Clark gives a brief devotion on the first article of the Apostles’ Creed: I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. Continue reading →
Last time we answered the question: who should go to seminary? The answer was that anyone may go to seminary, but not everyone should go to seminary. Today we will focus on the second part of the answer: who should not go . . . Continue reading →
I was once asked a good and important question: who should go to seminary? The answer to this question is in two parts: anyone, but not everyone. First, anyone may go to seminary. Since I teach at a seminary (Westminster Seminary California), . . . Continue reading →
The Religion News Service (RNS) reports, “Whitworth University, a Christian school affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), has revised its policies to allow for the hiring of faculty who identify as LGBTQ and to add sexual orientation to its non-discrimination statement.” The . . . Continue reading →
The final aspect of Augustine’s hermeneutic that we will observe is this: Augustine believed biblical texts could have more than one meaning or interpretation. Scripture, for Augustine, was not a one-dimensional black-and-white text filled with brute facts of history and bare propositions.1 . . . Continue reading →
“Thou has pierced my heart with Thy Word, and I have loved Thee.”1 In the last article, we examined Augustine’s vigorous Christ-centered interpretation of Scripture. Another significant aspect of his biblical interpretation is love. For Augustine, the proper interpretation of Scripture leads . . . Continue reading →