Heidelcast 152: Calls On Church History, Theocracy, Biblical Languages, Final Salvation Through Works, Jesus’ Faith, And Civil Disobedience

Heidelcast

on May 14, 2020 | 3 Comments

It is time for the monthly Heidelcast call-in show and, as always, we have thoughtful and interesting questions on how to learn church history (and what to read), whether I agree with the 1646 edition of the Westminster Confession of Faith or . . . Continue reading →

Cyprian Appealed To Colossians 2:11-12 In His Explanation Of Infant Baptism

R. Scott Clark

on May 5, 2020

For in respect of the observance of the eighth day in the Jewish circumcision of the flesh, a sacrament was given beforehand in shadow and in usage; but when Christ came, it was fulfilled in truth. For because the eighth day, that . . . Continue reading →

There Is Another Way: A Response To Francis Chan

R. Scott Clark

on January 8, 2020 | 16 Comments

“Again, I’m not making like any grand statements. I’m just saying that some of this stuff I didn’t know. I didn’t know that for the first 1500 years of church history, everyone saw it as the literal body and blood of Christ. . . . Continue reading →

Augustine: The Rule Of Faith Is The Apostles’ Creed

R. Scott Clark

on May 4, 2019 | 25 Comments

1. Receive, my children, the Rule of Faith, which is called the Symbol (or Creed). And when ye have received it, write it in your heart, and be daily saying it to yourselves; before ye sleep, before ye go forth, arm you . . . Continue reading →

Is The Doctrine Of Penal Substitutionary Atonement A Late, Western Doctrine?

R. Scott Clark

on December 16, 2018 | 10 Comments

Recently on Twitter, Tim Keller wrote, The gospel is neither religion nor irreligion it is something else altogether. Religion makes law and moral obedience a means of salvation, while irreligion makes the individual a law to self. The gospel is that Jesus . . . Continue reading →

Cyprian: Baptize Infants (253 AD)

R. Scott Clark

on July 21, 2018 | 35 Comments

2. But in respect of the case of the infants, which you say ought not to be baptized within the second or third day after their birth, and that the law of ancient circumcision should be regarded, so that you think that . . . Continue reading →

Hippolytus (c. 215 AD): Baptize Infants

R. Scott Clark

on July 20, 2018 | 22 Comments

3. And they shall put off their clothes. 4. And they shall baptize the little children first. And if they can answer for themselves, let them answer. But if they cannot, let their parents or someone from their family answer for them. . . . Continue reading →

Augustine: Infant Baptism Is The Apostolic And Universal Practice Of The Church

R. Scott Clark

on July 13, 2018 | 17 Comments

And this is the firm tradition of the universal Church, in respect of the baptism of infants, who certainly are as yet unable “with the heart to believe unto righteousness, and with the mouth to make confession unto salvation,” as the thief . . . Continue reading →

When A Cake Is More Than A Cake

R. Scott Clark

on June 8, 2018 | 10 Comments

Erik Erickson makes a point this morning that I try to make to my Ancient Church students each year. Words mean things. Some words, spoken in some contexts, mean so much that Christians have been willing to die and have been murdered . . . Continue reading →

AGR: With Chris Gordon On Unhitching The Faith From The Holy Old Testament God

R. Scott Clark

on May 30, 2018

Recently Atlanta pastor Andy Stanley argued that Christians should “unhitch” their faith from the Old Testament. He was trying to respond to concerns that people have about difficult episodes in the history of redemption but in so doing he fell into an . . . Continue reading →

Justification In The Earliest Christian Fathers

R. Scott Clark

on May 10, 2018 | 7 Comments

Perhaps the first post-Apostolic use of the New Testament verb “to justify” (δικαιόω) occurs in 1 Clement, written just after 100 AD to the same Corinthian congregation to whom Paul had written half a century earlier. There is no claim of authorship . . . Continue reading →

Office Hours: Simon Gathercole On Gnosticsm, Canon, and Competing Gospels

R. Scott Clark

on January 8, 2018 | 1 Comment

If I say to you the word “gospel” or “the gospels” you probably think of the canonical gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. There are scholars, however, who do not accept the canonical gospels as “the gospels.” Rather, since the 1930s an . . . Continue reading →

In Defense Of Creedalism

R. Scott Clark

on January 4, 2018 | 10 Comments

Thanks to Gary Johnson for forwarding to me a recent essay by Roger Olson, who is Foy Valentine Professor of Christian Theology of Ethics at George W. Truett Theological Seminary of Baylor University. In that essay, “Against Creedalism: Why I Am A . . . Continue reading →

Heidelcast 129: I Am That I Am (7)—The Trinity In The New Testament

Heidelcast

on December 10, 2017 | 1 Comment

Augustine of Hippo used to say that what was concealed in the Old Testament is revealed in the New Testament and that is certainly true in case of the biblical doctrine of the Trinity. As we have discussed so far in the . . . Continue reading →

Justification In The Earliest Christian Fathers: 1 Clement

R. Scott Clark

on September 28, 2017 | 3 Comments

Perhaps the first post-Apostolic use of the New Testament verb “to justify” (δικαιόω) occurs in 1 Clement, written just after 100 AD to the same Corinthian congregation to whom Paul had written half a century earlier. There is no claim of authorship . . . Continue reading →

Niceta Of Serbia Contra Instruments In Worship Circa 370 AD

R. Scott Clark

on September 27, 2017 | 3 Comments

it would be tedious, dearly beloved, were I to recount every episode from the history of the Psalms, especially since it is necessary now to offer something from the New Testament and confirmation of the Old, lest one think the ministry of . . . Continue reading →

William Perkins On The Rule Of Worship And 1 Corinthians 14 Contra Good Intentions

R. Scott Clark

on September 27, 2017

V. Will worship, when God is worshiped with a naked and bare good intention, not warranted by the word of God. (Colossians 2:23) “Which things have indeed a shew o wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not . . . Continue reading →

Jerome On Silence And Piety

R. Scott Clark

on August 28, 2017

Where there is the beating of drums, the noise and clatter of pipe and lute, the clanging of cymbals, can any of fear God be found? Jerome, The Perpetual Virginity of the Blessed Virgin, §22.

The Earliest Christians Had A Rural Mission Too

R. Scott Clark

on July 22, 2017

To be clear, Robinson’s point is not that early Christians prioritized rural over urban. Rather his point is that the rural dimension of early Christianity has been routinely overlooked due to a reigning paradigm that has insisted Christians were predominantly urban. In . . . Continue reading →

Augustine’s Retractations, Perfectionism, And Fakespectations (2)

R. Scott Clark

on May 13, 2017

Secular institutions and even extra-ecclesiastical Christian institutions have always been, in their essence, law. The civil magistrate may exercise mercy—Calvin’s first published work was a commentary on Seneca’s De Clementia (On Clemency), Seneca’s defense of the virtue of mercy to Nero. When . . . Continue reading →