Christ and Culture

Heidelcast 99: The Noah Paradigm

by on February 6, 2016
Heidelcast

Christians in the USA live in an increasingly confused, confusing time. Hostility to the faith seems to be increasing. We seem to be witnessing a growing hostility even to the very idea that there is such a thing as nature with fixed . . . Continue reading →

SAET Interviews In Politics And Theology #10: R. Scott Clark

by on January 22, 2016

With regard to political action:  American Christians (particularly evangelicals) must get over the microwave mentality. We need to think more in terms of camp fires and cook outs. It takes a long time to make a decent meal outdoors and it might . . . Continue reading →

Strangers And Aliens (13c): Living Among The Pagans (1 Peter 3:1–6)

by on January 19, 2016 | 2 Comments

1Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, 2when they see your respectful and pure conduct. 3Do not let . . . Continue reading →

Strangers And Aliens (13b): Living Among The Pagans (1 Peter 3:1–6)

by on January 7, 2016

1Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, 2when they see your respectful and pure conduct. 3Do not let . . . Continue reading →

Strangers And Aliens (13a): Living Among The Pagans (1 Peter 3:1–6)

by on January 3, 2016 | 1 Comment

1Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, 2when they see your respectful and pure conduct. 3Do not let . . . Continue reading →

Presbyterian And Reformed Ambivalence About Christmas

by on December 23, 2015 | 13 Comments

The Christmas season is nearing its climax. As the shopping ebbs and the work schedule slows a bit (for some anyway—remember in your prayers your local police and firefighters as this can be a difficult time for them) it gives us opportunity . . . Continue reading →

Of Christian Plumbers, Unions, Meat Offered To Idols, And Tent-Making

by on November 28, 2015 | 32 Comments

Darryl Hart raises an interesting question about the adjectival use of “Christian” as applied to pursuits shared by Christians and non-Christians. This has been one of the most persistent and widespread questions facing believing Christians for the last century: how do Christians relate to . . . Continue reading →

Strangers And Aliens (11): Silencing Critics Through Submission (1 Peter 2:13–17)

by on November 23, 2015 | 6 Comments

When, c. 64–66 AD, the Apostle Peter wrote to the churches in Asia Minor (the areas named cover most of modern Turkey) Christians were a small, minority religion in the Greco-Roman world. Nero was Caesar and his reign was shortly coming to . . . Continue reading →

Strangers And Aliens (10): Sojourners And Exiles Before The Gentiles (1 Peter 2:11–12)

by on November 18, 2015

It is not often that the news coincides with a sermon or biblical commentary so as to provide abundant illustration but it is so in this case. A Christian minority are among those who are fleeing the chaos and violence in Syria. . . . Continue reading →

Refugees And The Twofold Kingdom

Or Worrying About The Theonomy Of The Christian Left

by on November 17, 2015 | 40 Comments

From the early 4th century, when Christianity was declared a legal religion and properties were returned to Christians and persecution of Christians was forbidden, the Christian church gradually become intertwined with the empire. Gradually, paganism was marginalized and then eventually made illegal. . . . Continue reading →

Heidelcast 97: A Secular Faith With Darryl Hart

by on September 29, 2015
Heidelcast

Evangelical involvement in politics has perhaps never been more intense. The George W. Bush administration had an office of faith-based initiatives. The Obama administration continues to hold prayer breakfasts and regularly invokes the Christian faith when it serves favored policy goals. The . . . Continue reading →

Heidelberg 123: The Second Petition—Your Kingdom Come (1)

by on September 3, 2015 | 2 Comments

What this all means is that how one understands the kingdom is very closely related to one’s eschatology. This is the often unspoken assumption behind the too-often heated debate over the kingdom in confessional Reformed circles. Most everyone in the contemporary intra-Reformed agrees that Christ is reigning now, that he is sovereign now, but the disagreement comes over the implications of that reign. We all agree that the kingdom has been inaugurated and that it has earthly manifestations but where we disagree is where to look for those manifestations. Since the late 19th century, those who have been influenced by what has come to be called “neo-Calvinism” (neo is Greek for new) have sometimes argued that Christ’s reign is such that the kingdom is manifested in everything than any Christian does for the sake of Christ. This is a more expansive way of speaking of the implications of the kingdom of God than was traditionally used. Those who take the narrower view, tend to associate the manifestation of the kingdom of God on the earth with the visible institutional church. Continue reading →