We cannot take direct hold of Christ himself in a physical sense because he is bodily in heaven. We are not directly surrounded by his physical kingdom in the new creation yet, even though he reigns in heaven. So, his promises must . . . Continue reading →
HeidelQuotes
Westminster Divine Thomas Ford Against Continuationism
I suppose no sober man will now pretend to any such extraordinary gift, which ceased in the church long since, as the gift of tongues, and other effects of the Spirit extraordinary. Continue reading →
Trueman: It’s Not Big Eva Now But Gig Eva
Many years ago, I coined the term “Big Eva.” While today the term is used as a quick and lazy smear for any well-known figures of a previous generation that a particular X-man happens to dislike, at the time I intended it . . . Continue reading →
Young Men Seduced Online To Murderous Nihilism
Early on January 1, 2025, as everyone else in Los Angeles was still ringing in the new year, Jonathan Rinderknecht hiked into the Santa Monica Mountains and, with his cigarette lighter, allegedly set some paper or brush or both alight. The flames . . . Continue reading →
The Sweet Exchange
We exist in a vacuous epoch of lies where the most hardened hearts are eclipsed by reality due to their sin. The ability to press objective truth with a subjective lens has taken over and caused a stir on true morality from . . . Continue reading →
The Root Of Wokeness: Feminization
In 2019, I read an article about Larry Summers and Harvard that changed the way I look at the world. The author, writing under the pseudonym “J. Stone,” argued that the day Larry Summers resigned as president of Harvard University marked a turning point . . . Continue reading →
Trueman: The British Government Was Making A Point
Back in the U.K., the arrest of Linehan for his tweets was another shocking escalation of the culture war. To those unfamiliar with his work, he was the writer of Father Ted, a cleverly absurd Irish comedy that brought the tradition of dark Gaelic humor, . . . Continue reading →
Our Greatest Affinity Is Not Blood And Soil But Grace And Truth
Not only is the Church the catholic (meaning universal) communion of saints, but we are called specifically a distinct race and kingdom. Peter writes to the churches in the diaspora: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, . . . Continue reading →
Stott On Leaving The Pulpit With A Sense Of Failure
I confess that in the pulpit I am often seized with ‘communication frustration,’ for a message burns within me, but I am unable to convey to others what I am thinking, let along feeling. And seldom if ever do I leave the . . . Continue reading →
Dueling Jubilees: How The Calvinists And Lutherans First Celebrated The Reformation
Interestingly, it was Calvinists, not Lutherans, who in 1617 first proposed a centennial marking Luther’s attack on indulgences. Alarmed by an increasingly assertive Tridentine Catholic Church and lacking legal status in the Holy Roman Empire, early in that year church and royal . . . Continue reading →
Trueman: The Recovery Of The Ten Commandments Starts In Church And Home
But how can Christians champion the Ten Commandments as a moral standard if they themselves do not obey them? Yes, the Incarnation transforms the Decalogue. All Christian churches agree on that in principle. But most Christians disregard the Commandments without reflection and . . . Continue reading →
From The Reading Revolution To The Counter-Reading Revolution
It was one of the most important revolutions in modern history—and yet no blood was spilled, no bombs were thrown, and no monarch was beheaded. What happened was this: In the middle of the 18th century, huge numbers of ordinary people began . . . Continue reading →
5 Reformation Doctrines That Still Transform The Church
By most accounts, the Reformation began when a young monk challenged ecclesiastical and academic authorities to debate a controversial practice that had developed in the late-medieval period. Why do we continue to remember it roughly five hundred years later? Waving off Martin . . . Continue reading →
Honesty Is The Best Policy
I don’t like writing about this, but I like ecclesial lawlessness even less. And I don’t seek this stuff—it is thrust upon me. Is there any reason unordained persons should lay hands on ruling elders being ordained in a PCA church? Is . . . Continue reading →
Trueman: Rehumanizing Humanity
“What is man?” So urgent is the question of man that the question of God has re-emerged among our intellectual and cultural leaders. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Niall Ferguson, Paul Kingsnorth, and Russell Brand have all recently professed faith. Tom Holland and Elon . . . Continue reading →
What The Loincloths Signalled
While the problems of the evangelical Purity Movement have been well documented, one of its biggest errors was promoting a non-theological account of modesty focused almost exclusively on behaviors. With few exceptions, modesty was largely cast as the responsibility of women to . . . Continue reading →
Gathercole: Did Paul Really Expect Christ To Return In His Lifetime?
The mystery in 1 Corinthians 15.51–52 has long been a standard prooftext for the idea that Paul envisaged the parousia happening in his lifetime.1 On this view of the passage, Paul assumes his survival and that of a portion of his generation until . . . Continue reading →
Vos On The Startling Character Of What Happened On The First Christian Sabbath
Our text takes us to the tomb of the risen Lord, on the first Sabbath-morning of the New Covenant. It is impossible for us to imagine a spot more radiant with light and joy than was this immediately after the resurrection. Even . . . Continue reading →
The Principles Of Reformed Covenant Theology Unify The Bible’s Story
The principles of covenant theology unify the Bible’s story about God redeeming a people for himself. Even though we have to read our Bibles well to discern the doctrines of covenant theology, in return covenant theology helps us to read our Bibles . . . Continue reading →
What John Owen Actually Said About Biblicism
And the same is objected against them by Maimonides in Pirke Aboth: as though it were not known that the greatest part of their Talmud, the sacred treasury of their oral law, is taken up with differences and disputes of their masters . . . Continue reading →