It’s a strange thing that even though the Heidelberg Catechism is one of our confessions, so little has been written on it. Sure, we hear sermons on it each Sunday, but where are the commentaries digging deeper into some of the theological . . . Continue reading →
HeidelQuotes
One Of The Greatest Temptations Of AI
This is one of the greatest temptations of artificial intelligence—it can craft itself into whatever image we desire, and in fact it is designed to do so while minimizing our active participation. The underlying technology of predictive large language models utilizes weighted . . . Continue reading →
Ninth Circuit Defends Religious Liberty Against Alaska Airlines
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in favor of two flight attendants, Lacey Smith and Marli Brown, who claim they were wrongfully terminated from their positions at Alaska Airlines, and discriminated against by the flight attendants’ union, because . . . Continue reading →
What Is The “Woke Right”?
The phrase “woke right” has been around for several years. In a 2022 interview, U.S. representative Dan Crenshaw (R) criticized the “woke right,” which he described as a mostly “online phenomenon.” According to Crenshaw, people on the woke right portray themselves as . . . Continue reading →
The Nazi Books Did Not Drop Out Of The Blue In Ogden
In 1935, U.S. Ambassador To Germany William Dodd warned the State Department of the “virtually dictatorial powers over Protestant Church matters” the new Nazi Minister of Church Affairs possessed. Describing the ecclesiastical resistance to Adolf Hitler’s desperate grasp for the keys to . . . Continue reading →
We Would Have Done It Too
On September 27, 1933, the national synod of the German Evangelical Church met in Wittenberg, Germany. A parade of clerics in dark robes processed along the town’s main street, passing the Stadtkirche where Martin Luther used to preach. The metal crosses hanging . . . Continue reading →
Trueman: Murder Is What It Is
What is it that haunts the nightmares of parents of children with disabilities—with cerebral palsy, let’s say, or, given our psychologized times, perhaps even a propensity towards depression? I discovered the answer in a recent conversation with a friend who has a . . . Continue reading →
Eighteenth Century Virginia Presbyterians Were Politically American
In The Case for Christian Nationalism, widely considered the strongest argument for this position, Stephen Wolfe contends that the “classical Protestant position is that the civil magistrate can punish external religion—e.g., heretical teaching, false rites, blasphemy, and Sabbath-breaking—because such actions can cause . . . Continue reading →
Turretin Versus “Pure Nature”
V. However, we maintain that man was never created in a state of pure nature so called, nor do we think he could have been so created. The reasons are: (1) because man was made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26) . . . Continue reading →
The Confessing Church Opposed National Socialism
The Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche) constitutes a movement (from September 1933 onward) mainly within the German Protestant Church, whose very existence helped discredit the doctrinally liberal, extremely nationalistic, and racist anti-Semitic efforts of the “German Christians” (with roots in Prussia and Thuringia) . . . Continue reading →
Carl F. H. Henry Against The Nazis
What is widely overlooked today is that a worldview based on naturalistic evolution can provide no reasonable foundation for either the universality or the permanence of human rights; it was precisely such naturalistic theory that underlay the Nazi repudiation of the inherited . . . Continue reading →
Trueman’s Questions About Christian Counseling
Over the last decade, one of the growth industries within the church has been that of counseling. Various models of counseling are on offer out there in the theological marketplace, some obviously laced through with secular psychology, others more self-consciously based upon . . . Continue reading →
Hart On American Presbyterianism After Disestablishment
Early indications of the difference that a constitutional republic made for Presbyterianism came when in 1789 The Presbyterian Church in the United States of America revised the Westminster confession and catechisms’ clauses on the civil magistrate. The original version’s conception of the . . . Continue reading →
Christian Nationalism Is A Sign Of Decline, Not Renewal
If one is hapless enough to watch television or listen to conservative or religious (or conservative religious) radio, one hears endless rhetorical prefaces that assert the decline of Christianity in the industrialized West (or any of its sub-parts). In almost every case, . . . Continue reading →
The United Reformed Churches In North America Condemn Racism, Kinism
In response to an overture, Synod adopted the following statement: That the 14th Synod of the United Reformed Churches in North America join with the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, the Presbyterian Church in America, the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, and . . . Continue reading →
J. D. Hall Is Wrong Again
Tucker Carlson is at it again—platforming pro-Islamic claims that clash with reality. During a recent episode, Carlson interviewed JD Hall about Christian Zionism… At one point, Hall made the following assertion: The Ottomans didn’t charge churches tax. And so when the Ottomans . . . Continue reading →
EPC Votes To Allow Ordination Of Celibate “Same-Sex Attracted” Pastors
The Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) voted last week at its General Assembly to approve a “pastoral letter” to churches that opens the door to ordaining celibate, same-sex attracted individuals—a decision that has drawn sharp criticism from within the denomination. The measure passed . . . Continue reading →
Six Concrete Historical Reasons For Dating The Revelation c. AD 95
(1) Rev. 3.17 has been connected with Laodicea’s unaided recovery from the earthquake of Nero’s reign (Ramsay, SC, p. 428)/ The eivdence here might be variously read, but I argue the strong probability that the reference is to a later stage of . . . Continue reading →
Why Christians Need Confessions
Despite claims to the contrary, the Christian world is not divided between those who have creeds and confessions and those who just have the Bible. It is actually divided between those who have creeds and confessions and write them down in a . . . Continue reading →
Waters On Ordination
Many in the church know that ordination is important, but they may struggle to articulate why that is the case. Ordination is one of the hidden gems of the Bible’s teaching on the church and church office. To appreciate its significance, we . . . Continue reading →