Being that I’m black, I often get asked: “Wendell, you’re a Presbyterian? How did that happen?” I’ll tell it this way: It was late summer in 2006 and I was not sure where I was going. It was a bright Sunday morning . . . Continue reading →
Do you ever feel like other people are better Christians than you are? Maybe they read their Bibles more, give more money to the church, pray more for others, are involved in church ministry, do more good deeds, or never seem to . . . Continue reading →
All of us have a story, but not all have a “Reformation” story. Here’s mine: I was baptized as an infant and was raised in the American Lutheran Church, which later became a part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). . . . Continue reading →
Though the mode of baptism is not the primary argument that moved me away it was the starting point that caused me to re-examine Reformed covenant theology as a whole and Jeremiah 31 in particular. Continue reading →
I was born and brought up in London, England and my family were faithful members of the Open Brethren churches, who count as part of their history the great George Müller and the martyr, Jim Elliot; firmly premillennial, dispensational, ‘no creed but the Bible’ and credobaptist with many other idiosyncrasies thrown in! I moved to Coventry in the Midlands of England for college and stayed in that area afterwards, involved in a variety of evangelistic efforts and youth work. I even remember one summer teaching faithfully at a Bible class with all the charts and without any doubt, the end times according to Hal Lindsey! Continue reading →
In our ancient church course we have been working through the basic ideas and foundational figures in the Gnostic movement of the second century AD.
There are, therefore, more than five points and — as far as the confessions and the Reformed dogmaticians from Calvin to Kuyper are concerned — there cannot be such a thing as a “five-point Calvinist” or “five-point Reformed Christian” who owns just . . . Continue reading →
The breaking point, for me, came during a weeklong music festival known as Vortex I. Funded jointly by the Portland counterculture and the Oregon government, it was meant to divert attention from an appearance by President Nixon and put a peaceful face . . . Continue reading →
The HB receives email and comments from across the globe on a regular basis. Two comments came in yesterday that were particularly poignant. Continue reading
Let’s admit, however, that sometimes, upon first becoming Reformed, some folk become jerks. Sometimes this phase is temporary. Mike Horton calls this the “cage phase,” when a new convert to Reformed Christianity needs to be put in a cage until he matures. . . . Continue reading →
The June 2021 issue of Table Talk magazine (from Ligonier Ministries) is devoted to the importance and use of confessions. Here is the table of contents: “Why We’re Confessional” | Burk Parsons “The Confessing Church In History” | John Muether “Confessions and . . . Continue reading →
I have added a revised resource page with good translations of some of the major Reformed confessions Continue reading
Introduction Christians regularly ask for book recommendations and of those, “which systematic theology should I read?” is among the more frequent. The assumption of the question, however, should be doubted: that the best place to begin to learn Christian theology is with . . . Continue reading →
A number of Baptists some Presbyterian and Reformed folk have announced in the last year or so that they have become Anglican. Continue reading
A correspondent to the Heidelblog writes: …I have been living in the Heidelblog lately, and have been challenged to rethink so many previous convictions. Thank you for this resource! I especially have been edified by the QIRC/QIRE idea, but thinking through it . . . Continue reading →
The New Calvinist movement is probably about 20 years old or so. Collin Hanson’s Young, Restless, and Reformed appeared in 2008, just before Recovering the Reformed Confession. Whether it is Reformed is a matter to be debated. In recent years, however, the movement has certainly shown itself to be restless. One prominent figure in the movement has publicly abandoned the Christian faith. Three prominent figures, James MacDonald, C. J. Mahaney, and Mark Driscoll, have been either been removed from their churches or resigned amidst scandals. One might think of them as elephants in the YRR/New Calvinist room. Continue reading →
Imagine going to a supermarket where none of the groceries was labeled and where none of the aisles was marked. For that matter, imagine trying to figure out which of the buildings in the strip mall is the grocery or telling one . . . Continue reading →
This interview is part of an occasional series of interviews on the HB with those who have recently discovered the Reformed confession. Here are all the posts in this series. In this installment we meet Brandon Burks, who has served in the . . . Continue reading →
I had recently had a conversation where the discussion turned to my experience transitioning from a Baptist minister to a Teaching Elder in the PCA. Part of it was reflection on what I learned, good decisions, regrets, etc. It would likely require a book to go through all the ins and outs of the process, but for now I would like to offer 13 takeaways and/or thoughts that would be good steps and measures as you consider entering into the Reformed tradition. Continue reading →
The following essay is written by Chris Smith, (B.A. History, Thomas Edison University; MDiv, Westminster Seminary California). He is a candidate for the Master of Arts in Historical Theology at WSC. He’s a native of Nebraska (Go Big Red!) and hopes to . . . Continue reading →