Heidelcast 179: As It Was In The Days Of Noah (22): How Eschatology Helps Us With Christ And Culture

Heidelcast

on April 25, 2021 | 6 Comments

In this series we have been considering Christian eschatology, i.e., what should we think about the last days, about the relations between heaven and earth, and how that informs how we think about and live the Christian life between the ascension and . . . Continue reading →

Cultural Transformation Is Not The Article Of The Standing Or Falling Of The Church (But Justification Is)

by R. Scott Clark on April 24, 2021

Within the last two weeks or so it has been asserted by some, in a letter to a congregation, that the doctrine of cultural transformation is a matter of Reformed orthodoxy and that anyone who dissents from what this letter describes as the “Kuyperian” tradition, which is a little over a century old, is “outside” of Reformed orthodoxy. Continue reading →

Another Way The Reformed Confessions Can Help Us If We Let Them

by R. Scott Clark on April 19, 2021 2 Comments

I am in the studio today to work on an Office Hours podcast for May so there is just time for a quick thought about another way the Reformed confessions can help the churches be more faithful. Continue reading →

Swim Upstream Or Else

by R. Scott Clark on March 19, 2021 2 Comments

If you are not paddling upstream Continue reading →

Riddlebarger: 2 Chronicles 7:14 Is Not A Promise To The USA

R. Scott Clark

on March 6, 2021 | 10 Comments

The claim that “God is on our side” usually surfaces when politically active American evangelicals see themselves in another skirmish in the ongoing culture war–contending with secular-progressives for the soul of the nation in a Manichean struggle between good and evil. In . . . Continue reading →

With Presbycast In The Cantina On Common Grace, Nature And Grace, Eschatology, And Christian Liberty

R. Scott Clark

on February 17, 2021

The Presbycast guys are at it again, this time they have set up an online Star Wars Cantina. It is a rough neighborhood but they took good care of me and I escaped unhurt. I cannot speak for all the other guests . . . Continue reading →

Heidelcast 172: With D. G. Hart On American Catholic: The Politics Of Faith During The Cold War (Updated)

Heidelcast

on January 25, 2021 | 11 Comments

What can confessional Presbyterian and Reformed folk learn from the history of Roman Catholicism in America? Quite a lot as it turns out. We are continuing our brief hiatus from the series, As It Was In The Days of Noah to talk with . . . Continue reading →

What If The Roman Communion Had No State Or Bank?

R. Scott Clark

on January 22, 2021 | 4 Comments

This past Thursday, senior figures associated with what Rome calls the “Institute for Religious Works” (known to the rest of the world as the Vatican Bank) were convicted, in a scheme worthy of the Mafia, of money laundering and embezzlement. Remarkably, they . . . Continue reading →

Heidelcast 171: What American Christians Can Learn From Black History

Heidelcast

on January 18, 2021 | 2 Comments

For much of the history of North America, Christianity has been the dominant religious group and a major culture-shaping force. In the USA it, as I have noted regularly here, until quite recently people spoke of the USA as a “Christian nation” . . . Continue reading →

The Reformed Rejected Both World-flight And Earthly Golden Ages

R. Scott Clark

on December 24, 2020 | 5 Comments

The Swiss Brethren, who signed the Schleitheim, confessed (in article 6) that a Christian may not serve as a magistrate and the magistrate may not enforce religious orthodoxy and (in article 7) that Christians may not swear oaths for any purpose.60 The . . . Continue reading →

Did Abraham Kuyper Become An Anabaptist? Updated With A Postscript

R. Scott Clark

on December 23, 2020 | 12 Comments

Is theocracy, i.e., an state-established religion and the state enforcement of religious orthodoxy essential to Reformed theology, piety, and practice? That is the question asked and answered recently by Craig Carter, a former Anabaptist turned Particular Baptist theologian in response a recent . . . Continue reading →

New Resource Page: Christ And Culture

R. Scott Clark

on December 23, 2020 | 6 Comments

Apart from getting the gospel right and getting the gospel out, there is perhaps no problem more pressing upon the church than that of how to relate Christ to culture. H. Richard Niebuhr identified three approaches: Christ against culture (e.g., Tertullian), Christ . . . Continue reading →

Douthat: America Needs St Paul More Than St Benedict Or Constantine

R. Scott Clark

on December 5, 2020

And to the extent that conservative arguments about the culture war seem polarized between Saint Benedict and Constantine, between the monastery and the crusade, perhaps the synthesis, the change of fortune, will arrive when God sends America a Saint Paul. Read more» . . . Continue reading →

What Christ Expects Of His Church During Times Of Opposition (Updated)

R. Scott Clark

on November 28, 2020 | 6 Comments

This morning I am thinking of younger American Christians, especially of those who have come of age during the Trump administration. A young person who was 16 when the Trump administration began is now approaching 20 and is perhaps becoming more politically . . . Continue reading →

Doubts About Political Theology And The Church As A Lever Of Cultural Influence

R. Scott Clark

on November 3, 2020 | 1 Comment

Tish Harrison Warren, a priest in the ACNA (a denomination in the Anglican tradition), writes in Christianity Today, We have an impoverished and inadequate political theology. It took us generations to get here, and this one election, regardless of the results, will . . . Continue reading →

Why Not Stick To History? Short Answer: The Twofold Kingdom (Duplex Regimen)

R. Scott Clark

on October 17, 2020 | 12 Comments

A popular political commentator published a book a few years ago titled Shut Up And Sing, in which she argued that famous athletes and other entertainers should keep their political and cultural opinions to themselves and not seek to use their fame to . . . Continue reading →

QAnon, Evangelical Gnosticsm, Manichaeism, And The Kingdom Of The Cults

R. Scott Clark

on September 2, 2020 | 8 Comments

In the early 2nd century one of the gravest threats faced by the early Christians was a movement that we know as Gnosticism. It thrived by radically revising Christianity. According to the Gnostics, the material world is evil, the Creator God of the . . . Continue reading →

The New York Times, Sioux Center, And Calvinism

R. Scott Clark

on August 17, 2020 | 21 Comments

I guess that Dutch Calvinists in Orange City and Sioux Center, IA do not often feature prominently in the New York Times but they did in an August 9, 2020 story by Elizabeth Dias. The dateline is Sioux Center, IA, one of . . . Continue reading →

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 →

Heidelcast 151: Christ, Culture, And Covid-19

Heidelcast

on May 10, 2020 | 3 Comments

The Covid-19 Shutdown of 2020 has begun to produce a reaction, at least in the USA. Recently we have seen demonstrations large and small in several states and particularly here in California. The various orders issued by governors, mayors, and county executives . . . Continue reading →

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