There is a great lot of talk in the evangelical and Reformed world(s) about sola Scriptura but one has the growing sense that not only is the Reformation scripture principle not well understood (e.g., it is often misconstrued as an endorsement of . . . Continue reading →
But above all else, I beg the sincere reader, and I beg for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ himself, to read those things judiciously, yes, with great commiseration. May he be mindful of the fact that I was once a . . . Continue reading →
It seems proper, in the mean time, to remark that, amongst the various acts of faith which we are about to describe, there is one which holds the principal place, and in which, as it unites us to Christ and justifies us, . . . Continue reading →
Thomas Aquinas (c.1224–74) was one of the most important Christian teachers in the period and though he was eclipsed in the centuries after, his work returned to prominence in the 16th–19th centuries particularly among Roman theologians, for whom Thomas became the theologian . . . Continue reading →
The history of modern German theology is dominated by two figures, Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834) and G. F. W. Hegel (1770–1831) but there is more to the story. If Schleiermacher and Hegel formed the skeleton, a series of lesser-known figures and institutions formed . . . Continue reading →
In the United States, Memorial Day is day for remembering those who died in the service of the US military. It began as Decoration Day in 1868, on which day 5,000 people decorated the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington . . . Continue reading →
I. The question concerning fundamental articles is difficult and important. It has been discussed by many who have erred both in defect and in excess. The Socinians err in defect who admit very few fundamentals (and those only practical, theoretical being almost . . . Continue reading →
This question comes over the transom regularly. I think most confessional Reformed pastors would probably say that, though they disagree strongly with Arminianism, it is not heresy. Somewhere I read (or heard) that William Ames (1576–1633), who served as an advisor . . . Continue reading →
Pope Paul III, however, was not sitting idle in this rapidly changing climate. In 1542, after a failed attempt to conciliate Roman Catholics and Protestants at the Diet of Regensburg, he agreed on renewing the earlier practice of the Roman Inquisition under . . . Continue reading →
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 →
For a long time I have been thinking about and planning to do something which I, with God’s assistance, I am now undertaking because I do not think it should be postponed: with a kind of judicial severity I am reviewing my . . . Continue reading →
In our age of screens (phones, tablets, computers, watches etc) it is counter-intuitive but nonetheless true to say that books are more important than they have been for a long time. They are more important precisely because our culture is drifting away . . . Continue reading →
One of the privileges of editing the Classic Reformed Theology series for Reformation Heritage Books is that I get to work closely with significant Reformed texts and shepherd them through the process from translation (e.g., from Latin to English) to publication. Currently . . . Continue reading →
“Now Faith.” Faith in the word of God is specially of three sorts: historical, miraculous, [and] justifying or saving faith. First, historical faith is not only a knowledge of the word, but an assent of the heart to the truth of it. . . . Continue reading →
This idea of history having a ‘side’, which is liberal, enlightened and so on, harks back to the enlightenment of the 18th century, to the emergence of what David Hume called ‘these enlightened ages’, in sharp contrast to the side of the . . . Continue reading →
My dear colleague, Your recent article in The Baptist Standard of Texas has come to my attention. I am grieved that you should have such a low opinion of Calvin and of Calvinistic Baptists. Although you hold that “most of the ardent . . . Continue reading →
Josiah writes to the HB: Often when we think of the reformation we think back to 1517 when Martin Luther nailed the 95 Thesis on the church door in Wittenberg Germany but we describe it in such a way that it’s almost . . . Continue reading →
William Miller (1782–1849), a lay Bible student (later a Baptist preacher), predicted that Christ would return to earth some time between 21 March 1843 and 21 March 1844. One of Miller’s followers postponed the date to 22 October 1844. When Christ did . . . Continue reading →
For much of the 20th century it was a datum, a given, for many students of Calvin and the Reformed tradition that many of the English Reformed (especially the Westminster Assembly) abandoned Calvin and the Reformation doctrine of the faith and assurance. . . . Continue reading →
Are the writings of the fathers the rule of truth in doctrines of faith and in the interpretation of the Scriptures? We deny against the papists I. Although from the preceding question we are already satisfied that the fathers cannot sit as . . . Continue reading →