In a recent episode of her podcast the Chicago-based journalist Julie Roys interviewed two people, Jim and Theresa, who have a long history with the Willow Creek movement. It is a fascinating but troubling interview. The reader should listen to the interview . . . Continue reading →
This essay comes from the heart as a passionate plea to parents out of our shared concern for our covenant children. It is difficult to pastor a flock in a conservative church today, but not for the reasons that you might think. It . . . Continue reading →
Like a lot of American evangelicals, the faith I was taught as a teen-aged convert was a sort of Dispensationalism. There were no charts that I recall but I did learn that Jews are God’s earthly people and that the church is . . . Continue reading →
It is exciting to discover what are sometimes called “the doctrines of grace,” i.e., the teaching that even though by nature we are dead in sins and trespasses, we came to faith because God loved us in Christ from all eternity and . . . Continue reading →
In Matthew 16:18 he promised to build “his church” and that the gates of hell would not prevail against his church. He gave the “keys of the kingdom” (16:19) to Peter as a Christ-confessor an anticipation of his office as apostle. In . . . Continue reading →
On July 26, 2019 AGR and the Escondido United Reformed Church were pleased to co-host the first-ever Abounding Grace Radio conference. Our speaker this year was Dr Rosaria Butterfield. She is a former tenured professor of English and women’s studies at Syracuse . . . Continue reading →
For many American evangelicals, faithfulness to the Bible means believing in a view of end times (eschatology) that teaches that says something like this: The book of the Revelation is to be read literally (including chapter 20) The formation of the nation . . . Continue reading →
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Since he published his “Federal Vision No Mas” post in January, 2017 several correspondents have written to ask whether he is still a Federal Visionist or to assert that he is not. This is the intended effect of his post: to create . . . Continue reading →
If you are an adult you know about mediators. It is not uncommon now, when one signs a contract, to agree to “binding arbitration” or to “mediation” either in lieuof going to court or before going to court. A mediator, then, . . . Continue reading →
2018–2019 was the 400th anniversary of the Synod of Dort so it has been a kind of Dortpalooza on the Heidelblog. Recently I talked with Andy Olson about the basics of the Synod and the Canons of Dort. If you are new . . . Continue reading →
The Reformation gospel of salvation by grace alone (sola gratia), through faith alone (sola fide), as defined and confessed by the Reformed churches and as rejected by the Remonstrants (Arminians) was intended to produce and had the effect of giving comfort to . . . Continue reading →
Romans is one of the greatest resources available to the Christian faith and life. Written in the mid-to late AD 50s to the congregation in Rome, Paul sent this pastoral letter to make clear the gospel, that salvation is from the Lord, . . . Continue reading →
Abounding grace to sinners (Rom 5:20), i.e., God’s free favor to the undeserving, leads to Christian freedom but not to licentiousness (living without norms). Liberty is not libertinism. This doctrine is at the heart of the Reformed doctrine of the Christian life. . . . Continue reading →
Romans is one of the greatest resources available to the Christian faith and life. Written in the mid-to late AD 50s to the congregation in Rome, Paul sent this pastoral letter to make clear the gospel, that salvation is from the Lord, . . . Continue reading →
The Remonstrants (Arminians) charged the orthodox Reformed, i.e., those who confessed the Belgic Confession (1561) and the Heidelberg Catechism (1563) sincerely (without crossed fingers) with being unconcerned about sanctification. The Remonstrants were convinced that the Reformed faith did not produce sufficient godliness. . . . Continue reading →
A reader writes with a question about biblical interpretation and baptism: I was going through Colossians 2 when I read the footnote from the Reformation Study Bible… which sent me to page 41 for a more in-depth explanation. Infant baptism seems to make . . . Continue reading →
(HT: Presbycast)
If you are, as I am, bewildered at the sight of biological males competing in female athletic events (e.g., track, wrestling, and weight lifting) or by the sight of wealthy, privileged Yale undergrads screaming at faculty members (for writing a memo asking for toleration for diversity in Halloween costumes), or by the prospect of a leading scholar and physician of gender dysphoria being banned from social media platforms for daring to suggest that minors should be required to wait until age 21 before undergoing permanent sex-reassignment surgery), or by rhetoric that implies that the social and economic conditions of ethnic minorities in the USA is virtually unchanged since the 1860s, there are two words that provide at least a partial explanation: subjectivism and oppression. Continue reading →
The single most frequent way to corrupt the doctrine of perseverance has been to turn it into a covenant of works. This happens regularly outside the Reformed churches. E.g., the Romanists teach that, in baptism, sins are graciously washed away, initial justification . . . Continue reading →
