We are interrupting the Heidelcast series on the Doctrine of God, I AM that I AM to talk with the Rev Dr Harrison Perkins, (PhD, Queen’s University Belfast) about his new book on Archbishop James Ussher (1581–1656). He was primate of the . . . Continue reading →
Beginning in 1528 and 1529, Luther developed his primary defense of infant baptism. Without repudiating his earlier position on infant faith, Luther appealed instead to infant baptism as grounded on God’s gracious promised attached to the sign and God’s command to baptism . . . Continue reading →
IV. IN WHAT DO THE OLD AND THE NEW COVENANT AGREE, AND IN WHAT DO THEY DIFFER? Since there is but one covenant, and the Scriptures speak of it as though it were two, we must consider in what particulars the old . . . Continue reading →
The Covenant of Grace Identical in both Old and New Testaments Question #1: When was this covenant of grace initiated? Answer: Due to a misunderstanding concerning the nature of the covenant of grace, the Socinians and Arminians, who are in this respect . . . Continue reading →
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Although the Protestant movement gained political legitimacy with the Religious Peace of Augsburg in 1555, Luther’s reformation had not yet been won. Rome still sought to regain the Palatinate and, by the middle of the 16th century, controversies had already divided the . . . Continue reading →
Introduction: What Sola Scriptura Is and Is Not Recently, in a couple of places (online and in print) I have run across the claims, which, in different ways question the Reformation bona fides of the slogan and doctrine, sola scriptura. In one place an . . . Continue reading →
Since the arrival of the capital M Modern world, beginning in the mid-17th century, one of the persistent points of friction between orthodox Christianity and Modernity has been the Christian doctrine that Jesus is the only way to heaven and eternal life. . . . Continue reading →
Caspar Olevianus (1536–87) was an influential figure in the development of Reformed (as distinct from other versions of) covenant theology. He was a student of John Calvin (1509–64) and Theodore Beza (1519–1605). Like them, he was a Roman Catholic humanist scholar who . . . Continue reading →
There are other collections of ecumenical creeds. There are other collections of the Reformed confessions (e.g., Reformed Confessions in the 16th and 17th Centuries). There are other surveys (e.g. Pelikan and Hotchkiss, Credo) but there is still nothing that does just what Philip . . . Continue reading →
“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 →
Q: How is he accepted righteous before God? A: By the righteousness of Christ imputed to him [2 Col 5:21]. Q: What profit comes by being thus justified? A: Hereby and by no other means in the world, the believer shall be . . . Continue reading →
Obs. I. Believers under the new testament have lost nothing, no privilege that was enjoyed by them under the old. Many things they have gained, and those of unspeakable excellency, but they have lost nothing at all. Whatever they had of privilege . . . Continue reading →
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 →
Henry Ford (1863–1947), founder of the Ford Motor Company, famously said, “History is bunk.” That may be sometimes true. Historians do make mistakes. This is why all histories must be read with a critical eye. Not all theories of history are equally . . . Continue reading →
One of the themes that emerged from yesterday’s discussion of Machen’s ugly letter is the problem of anachronism. It has probably three senses and the one most relevant to this discussion is the expectation that earlier figures in history should know what . . . Continue reading →
Yesterday (August 13) was the 477th anniversary of a small but symbolic event in Reformation history. On that date in 1541 John Calvin returned to Geneva from Strasbourg, where he had been a happy exile for about three years. On his first . . . Continue reading →
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 →
In October of 1545, Heinrich von Wolfenbüttel (1489–1568), the Romanist Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneberg-Wolfenbüttel, in the process of a attempting to recover lands taken from him by the Protestant Schmalkald League (in 1542), was taken captive along with his sons. The Lutheran territories . . . Continue reading →