The Orthodox Presbyterian Church has called for a day of prayer for Sgt Bowe Bergdahl. He has been a POW since 2009. Yesterday, June 11, 2013, the 80th General Assembly of the OPC, meeting in Moraga, California, called for a day of . . . Continue reading →
Civil Life
Surrounded By Constantinians
There is some excitement in some quarters over the question of whether the United Reformed Churches confess the revised or unrevised version of the Belgic Confession. There is no evidence from the minutes of the URCs, of which I’m aware, that speaks . . . Continue reading →
In Order for Leviathan to Flourish He Must First Kill Natural Law
An HB Classic
Stanley Fish proposes to go back to Thomas Hobbes. The Leviathan (Whale)-like civil authority is precisely why our founders said: “We hold these truths to be self-evident…” and appealed to “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” and to the “the . . . Continue reading →
Why Equality is the Wrong Category By Which to Analyze Homosexual Marriage
One of the most most rhetorically successful and popular ways to defend homosexual (gay) marriage is the appeal to “marriage equality.” The argument is, in short: if heterosexuals may marry and enjoy the social and civil benefits of the institution then homosexuals, . . . Continue reading →
Dr Benjamin Carson’s Address to the Prayer Breakfast
Dr Benjamin Carson’s biography is the stuff of legend and films. Born into terrible poverty, Carson is now the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital and the founder of the Carson Scholars Fund. A Seventh-Day Adventist, his views on creation . . . Continue reading →
R. Scott Clark Opposes Homosexual Marriage
There was a time when I would not have posted this. There was a time when I would have assumed that people can easily search the Heidelblog to find out what I’ve actually written. Now, however, I have the impression that, for . . . Continue reading →
Of Hotels and 2 Kingdoms
An HB Classic
In view of the Oregon case in which a baker faces prosecution for refusing to make a wedding cake for a homosexual couple, it seemed like a good idea to re-post this. The original context was the challenge that there’s no good . . . Continue reading →
William Perkins On Common Grace
First, that we may put a difference between Christian and heathen virtues. For, howbeit the same virtues in kind and name are and may be found both in those that profess Christ and those also that are ignorant of the true God. . . . Continue reading →
All Nature, As it Is Nature, Is Good Because God Created It
Christians Are Not Gnostics
Creation is a work of God, by which he has brought forth all creatures of nothing (Gen 1.2) A creature is whatsoever has been made by God of nothing. Now all the creatures of God were created very good. Therefore all nature, . . . Continue reading →
So We Still Believe in Reality
Like everyone else in America it’s been hard to turn away from the story of Manti Teo. Was he the victim of or the victimizer in an elaborate hoax? Time may tell. One aspect of this episode that interests me is the . . . Continue reading →
Bernard Lewis: Political Secularism Is A Christian Idea
Secularism in the modern political meaning – the idea that religion and political authority, church and state are different, and can or should be separated – is, in a profound sense, Christian. Its origins may be traced in the teaching of Christ, . . . Continue reading →
If It’s News Is it Still A Slippery Slope?
Given that, under the American constitution, we do not have a state religion, the types of arguments Christians can realistically expect to make in the civil sphere as it actually exists are limited. We have American history, our Constitution, the Declaration, Supreme Court . . . Continue reading →
The Forgotten Second Point
In a controversial decision, at synod Kalamazoo (1924), the Christian Reformed Church adopted “Three Points” on “Common Grace” (Gemeene Gratie). They are: Concerning the favorable attitude of God toward mankind in general and not only toward the elect, the Synod declares that . . . Continue reading →
S-T-O-P Means Stop (or Does it?)
In 25 years of ministry one of the most profound changes I’ve seen is the growing inability and/or unwillingness of Americans to read texts according to the intent of the author. One of the major reasons for this change was the mutation . . . Continue reading →
Malthus or Althusius? An Introduction To A Pioneering Reformed Social Theorist
We seem to live in a Malthusian age, i.e., an age of increasing scarcity or perhaps fear of scarcity, where concern over how to divide an economic (and environmental) pie of limited size (called a “zero sum game”) has replaced the idea . . . Continue reading →
We're Talking About Practice; Not a Game, Not A Game, Not a Game
CNN has the story (HT: RNS). The ban still must pass the French Senate before it becomes law. This is a complicated issue. On the one hand the burqa (full body covering) and the niqab (partial face covering) are religious and political . . . Continue reading →
Religious Freedom Watch: Rancho Cucamonga, CA Demands CUP (Updated)
Update: Rancho Cucamonga has dropped the action against the Bible Study. Original Post 27 Mar 2010 First it was San Diego, then Gilbert, AZ and now Rancho Cucamonga.
Darryl Hart on the Manhattan Declaration
At the Front Porch Republic. RELATED POST Here’s Mike Horton’s critique.
The Return of Eugenics
In 7 July interview published in the NY Times, Justice Ginsburg makes a stunning admission: JUSTICE GINSBURG: Yes, the ruling about that surprised me. [Harris v. McRae — in 1980 the court upheld the Hyde Amendment, which forbids the use of Medicaid . . . Continue reading →
Civil Liberties Watch: Arab Christians Muzzled in Dearborn?
So Jihad Watch claims.









