Because what God so severely punished must have been no light sin but a detestable crime, we must consider what kind of sin there was in Adam’s desertion that enkindled God’s fearful vengeance against the whole of mankind. To regard Adam’s sin . . . Continue reading →
Covenant Theology
With Calvinist Batman On Covenant Theology And Reformed Identity
There are a number of evangelical people who are questioning the broadly evangelical theology, piety, and practice (whether Dispensational or Pentecostal or both) they inherited. For them covenant is a new category and they are working through the implications of the history of redemption . . . Continue reading →
Owen: No Mystery Of Grace In The Covenant Of Works
We can never state our thoughts aright in this matter, unless we have a clear apprehension of, and satisfaction in, the introduction of grace by Jesus Christ into the whole of our relation unto God, with its respect unto all parts of . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: The Trinity And The Covenant Of Redemption (Part 2)
There are passages in Scripture such as Psalm 110, Hebrews 7, and John chapter 17 that reflect something of the eternal relationship between the persons of the Trinity and especially between the Father and the Son. In the Reformation some of our . . . Continue reading →
The Covenant Of Works In Late-17th Century English Reformed Theology
QUESTION II. What ground we have to speak of “God’s covenant with Adam,” and to call it “a covenant;” there being no mention of it here in the text, nor elsewhere in scripture do we read of “God’s covenant with Adam.” ANSWER. . . . Continue reading →
Ball: The Covenant Of Works Conditioned Upon Perfect Obedience In His Own Person
The Covenant of Works, wherein God covenanted with man to give him eternal life upon condition of perfect obedience in his own person. The Covenant of Grace, which God made with man promising eternal life upon condition of believing…This Covenant [of works] . . . Continue reading →
Polanus On The Covenant Of Works With Adam And Israel
God’s covenant is a bargain which God hath made with men, in which God promises to men some good, and requires of them again, that they perform those things which he commands. And that covenant is either eternal or temporal. The eternal . . . Continue reading →
William Perkins On The Covenant Of Works
God’s covenant, is his contract with man, concerning the obtaining of life eternal, upon a certain condition. This covenant consists of two parts: God’s promise to man, Man’s promise to God. God’s promise to man, is that, whereby he binds himself to . . . Continue reading →
Olevianus On The Covenant Of Works
This obedience of the Son was superior to all the justice of the Law. For Adam also, if he willed, could have remained in the righteousness of the Law. And to the degree that the curse was owed for every sin of . . . Continue reading →
Calvin: Adam Was In A Trial Of Obedience
We must, therefore, look deeper than sensual intemperance. The prohibition to touch the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil was a trial of obedience (obedientiae examen), that Adam, by observing it, might prove his willing submission to the command of God. . . . Continue reading →
Luther On The Covenant Of Works
Before Adam’s fall it was not necessary for him to have Christ, because he was righteous and without sin, just as the angels have no need of Christ. If Adam had not fallen, it would not have been necessary for Christ to . . . Continue reading →
The Logic Of Fruit As Evidence
The Patristic Period One of the earliest concerns of the Christian church, beginning with the apostles and intensifying through the patristic and medieval periods, was that those who profess the Christian faith should live in a way befitting their profession of faith. . . . Continue reading →
A Curriculum For Those Wrestling Through Covenant Theology And Infant Baptism
Office Hours: The Trinity And The Covenant Of Redemption (Part 1)
There are passages in Scripture such as Psalm 110, Hebrews 7, and John chapter 17 that reflect something of the eternal relationship between the persons of the Trinity and especially between the Father and the Son. In the Reformation some of our . . . Continue reading →
Abraham, Moses, And Circumcision
Introduction Since the early to mid-19th century, American evangelical Christianity has been largely dominated by a set of assumptions about the nature of redemptive history and the progress of revelation that may be called Baptistic. Not everyone who holds these assumptions or . . . Continue reading →
Witsius On What “I Will Be Your God” Means
That expression, to be God to any, in its full import, includes life eternal, For, when God becomes the sinner’s God, he then becomes to him what he is to himself. But, what is he to himself? Doubtless, the fountain of eternal . . . Continue reading →
The Abrahamic Covenant Unifies Redemptive History
During our senior year of high school (1978–79) three of us went to lunch. Our public high school had an open campus, meaning that we were permitted to come and go so long as we attended classes. We piled into a friend’s . . . Continue reading →
Theological Error Seeps In
Years ago, in the second house in which Mrs Heidelblog and I lived, water seeped into the basement every time it rained and it rained frequently. As the ground became soaked water would push in and up through the basement. We had . . . Continue reading →
Burying The Lead On Baxter
There is a phrase in journalism called “burying the lead” (or, since about 1979, the cloying variant lede). The lead (lede) is the paragraph in which the most important, salient facts are contained. In the old days (c. 1975), the writer was . . . Continue reading →
Owen Contra Amyraut On Covenant Theology
A learned man of late, out of hatred unto the Spirit of prayer, or prayer as his gift, hath endeavoured to deprive the church of God of the whole benefit and comfort of this promise (Amyrald. Præfat. in Psal.) for he contends . . . Continue reading →






