EchoZoe Interview On The Trinity

R. Scott Clark

on January 1, 2016

Each new year Andy Olson does an episode of EchoZoe on an essential Christian doctrine and the doctrine of the Trinity certainly fits. The Athanasian Creed begins with these words: “Whosoever will be saved: before all things it is necessary that he . . . Continue reading →

Nicole On Phase Two: Opposition To Amyraut Builds

R. Scott Clark

on November 14, 2015 | 1 Comment

In 1641, Amyraut took the pen to defend Calvin’s view of reprobation, which had been severely criticized in an anonymous work. In this volume, titled Doctrinae J. Calvini de Absoluto Reprobationis Decreto Defensio, Amyraut took occasion to reassert covertly his main positions . . . Continue reading →

Office Hours: Calvin And Voltaire

R. Scott Clark

on July 27, 2015

When most of us think about the history of Reformed theology, if we think about it at all, we tend to think first of Calvin and then we typically jump to Jonathan Edwards, then perhaps to Princeton and thence to our own . . . Continue reading →

Jerome On Monepiscopacy: The Triumph Of Pragmatism Not Principle

R. Scott Clark

on July 16, 2015 | 2 Comments

The presbyter is the same as the bishop, and before parties had been raised up in religion by the provocations of Satan, the churches were governed by the Senate of the presbyters. But as each one sought to appropriate to himself those . . . Continue reading →

Identity Markers: Why Some Axioms Persist

R. Scott Clark

on July 15, 2015 | 1 Comment

Peter Berger has been an influential and important sociologist of religion for more than 50 years. He is presently Professor Emeritus of Religion, Sociology and Theology and Director of the Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs at Boston University. To review a . . . Continue reading →

Augustine On Justification, Salvation, And Assurance

R. Scott Clark

on May 19, 2015

Our predestination is not wrought in ourselves, but in secret with Him, in His foreknowledge. But we are called by the preaching of repentance. We are justified in the calling of mercy and fear of judgment. He feareth not judgment, who hath . . . Continue reading →

Owen: The Least Dram Of Holiness Never Flowed Except From Christ Through The Gospel

R. Scott Clark

on February 22, 2015 | 2 Comments

1. This whole matter of sanctification and holiness is peculiarly joined with and limited unto the doctrine, truth, and grace of the gospel; for holiness is nothing but the implanting, writing, and realizing of the gospel in our souls. Hence it is . . . Continue reading →

Godfrey On The Crusades

R. Scott Clark

on February 12, 2015 | 9 Comments

Hodge: Justification At The Center

R. Scott Clark

on January 14, 2015

The Reformed churches have ever considered Christ and justification by faith in his merits, as the great centre of the Christian system. The Oxford Tract writers make the church the main point; the church as an ordinance for conveying life to all . . . Continue reading →

Davenant Not As Deviant?

R. Scott Clark

on January 4, 2015 | 4 Comments

Some of what Davenant writes is clearer than other parts. But it seems that a primary thought is that Christ died for the world in a universal sense, from which flows what are nowadays called the gifts of common grace, and warrant . . . Continue reading →

A Seventh-Century Opinion On Every-Member Ministry

R. Scott Clark

on January 2, 2015 | 17 Comments

It does not befit a layman to dispute or teach publicly, thus claiming for himself authority to teach, but he should yield to the order appointed by the Lord, and to open his ears to those who have received the grace to . . . Continue reading →

William Perkins Is Back!

R. Scott Clark

on December 3, 2014 | 1 Comment

William Perkins (1558–1602) is among one of the most important English Reformed theologians. Arguably, he and John Owen (1616–1683) are the two most important English Reformed theologians. Remarkably, his works have been out of print and largely inaccessible for the centuries. Now, . . . Continue reading →

Junius: There Are Two Kinds Of Theology

R. Scott Clark

on November 15, 2014 | 2 Comments

Now indeed these two kinds of theology are so different that they cannot truthfully be related to some one, definite head and shared genus. Of course the first kind of theology, which we have named divine and a prototype, does not belong . . . Continue reading →

Forthcoming: Lion Of Princeton. Riddlebarger On Warfield

R. Scott Clark

on November 11, 2014 | 2 Comments

Congratulations to my friend and colleague Kim Riddlebarger on the forthcoming publication of his excellent work on B. B. Warfield. I read this as a PhD diss. written under Richard Muller. It’s one of the best things I’ve read on Warfield. Anyone . . . Continue reading →

The Reformed Are Catholic

R. Scott Clark

on November 6, 2014 | 6 Comments

THE CREEDS OF FOUR COUNCILS RECEIVED. And, to say many things with a few words, with a sincere heart we believe, and freely confess with open mouth, whatever things are defined from the Holy Scriptures concerning the mystery of the incarnation of . . . Continue reading →

Calvin: The Lutherans Belong To The Church And We Are Their Members

R. Scott Clark

on November 1, 2014 | 4 Comments

It cannot be too strongly emphasized at the outset that Calvin did not think of himself as “Reformed” in the sense of inner-Protestant polemics. Calvin was not a Calvinist but an Evangelical, and what he thought about Luther can only be understood . . . Continue reading →

Socinianism And The Denial Of Eternal Generation

R. Scott Clark

on October 25, 2014

Whereas our Savior is frequently, in Scripture, call’d the Son of God, the Socinians deny that he is so call’d with respect to his Eternal Generation, or being Begotten of his Father before all World’s; as also they deny that his Divinity . . . Continue reading →

Sectarians: Socinians, Arminians, And Pietists

R. Scott Clark

on October 9, 2014

By the end of the seventeenth century, there was a sense that sectarian groups – a list that included Socinians and Arminians, as well as Pietists — were increasingly establishing themselves throughout Europe to the detriment of true Christianity. As Elisée Géraud . . . Continue reading →

Chiliasm And Soul Sleep

R. Scott Clark

on October 7, 2014 | 14 Comments

Our study began with Irenaeus’ contention that the belief in an immediate removal of the soul to the presence of God and Christ at death was a stumbling block to orthodox acceptance of chiliasm, and with his counter proposal that the chiliastic . . . Continue reading →

Aquinas: The Use Of Instruments In Public Worship Is Judaizing

R. Scott Clark

on September 16, 2014 | 21 Comments

Obj. 4. Further, In the Old Law God was praised with musical instruments and human song, according to Ps. 32:2, 3: “Give praise to the Lord on the harp, sing to Him with the psaltery, the instrument of ten strings. Sing to . . . Continue reading →

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Historical Theology