Malthus or Althusius? An Introduction To A Pioneering Reformed Social Theorist (Part 2)

According to John Witte Jr., Althusius did consider the question of religious liberty, whether a private person has the right to “alter amend, or even abandon” the duties prescribed under the first table (the first four commandments) of the Decalogue. Continue reading →

Malthus or Althusius? An Introduction To A Pioneering Reformed Social Theorist (Part 1)

We seem to live in a Malthusian age—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 of expanding . . . Continue reading →

New Resources Pages On Common Grace And The Sacred/Secular Distinction

These are contentious issues but the popular discussion of them, including some ecclesiastical publications, is not always well-informed by the history of Christian thought. These two resource pages are composed partly out of the HB archives and partly of bibliography. Both sets . . . Continue reading →

When The Culture War Trumps The Gospel

The German expression, Der Kulturkampf (The Culture War), originally referred to the attempt by Otto von Bismarck (1815–98), the German politician who created the modern, unified Germany, to suppress the Roman Catholic Church in Germany because he feared that Romanism in Germany . . . Continue reading →

What Changed?

At my suburban public school, fistfights were not uncommon. Blood flowed on school playgrounds when pick-up basketball games got out of hand. For those a bit older, there were bar fights and alleyway rumbles. I was born in 1959, and a vast . . . Continue reading →

Our Secular Life Is A Covenant Of Works

It is vital for Christians to understand that, for their standing with God (justification) and their gracious and gradual conformity to Christ (sanctification), i.e., for their salvation from the wrath to come and their deliverance from the bondage of sin, they are . . . Continue reading →

On Self-Defense

A correspondent asked the other day for a brief account of the biblical doctrine of self-defense. Let us establish some fundamental truths. First, God is sovereign over all things. He is Creator and Redeemer but he administers creation under the sphere of . . . Continue reading →

Bavinck: Antithesis And Common Grace

In the Middle Ages Thomas not only asserted that as rational beings human beings can—without supernatural grace—know natural truths but also testifies that it is impossible for there to be “some knowledge which is totally false without any admixture of some truth” . . . Continue reading →

Of Common Grace, Nature, And Bathrooms

On a quick trip to and from Washington D.C. I read P. J. O’Rourke, The Baby Boom And How It Got That Way…. As always O’Rourke is funny, insightful, and often right on the mark. I’m not sure that I’m convinced that . . . Continue reading →

The LGBT War On Free Thought And Speech

The vitriolic reaction of the LGBT lobby to honesty from Americans about their consciences, religious beliefs, scientific knowledge, and political stances shows that their agenda boils down to shutting down free speech. This sounds counter-intuitive. After all, the media and Hollywood conditioned . . . Continue reading →

The Making Of Lawrence Phillips

There must be many ex-football players or ex-athletes and at least a few famous athletes who have ended their athletic careers by committing crimes. Most of those cases simply fall into obscurity but not that of Lawrence Phillips (1975–2016), who was a . . . Continue reading →