Moreover, although the sacraments are (given) to us for a pledge (arrabon), through which we are reassured of the promises of God, nevertheless I acknowledge that they will be useless to us unless the Holy Spirit should render them efficacious in us, . . . Continue reading →
HeidelQuotes
Zwingli Against The “War Engines Of The Anabaptists” In 1530
Hence I believe that there is one Church of those who have the same Spirit, through whom they are made certain that they are the true children of the family of God; and this is the first fruits of the Church. I . . . Continue reading →
Reformed Church Of Basel (1534): The Denial Of Infant Baptism A “Damnable And Depraved Opinion”
We clearly protest those strange and erroneous doctrines, which turbulent spirits have invented [so as] to reject and condemn, among other damnable and depraved opinions, as when they say infants are too small to be baptized (whom we baptize according to the . . . Continue reading →
Colquhoun: You Won’t Get Away With It. Flee To Christ
Can you imagine that the omniscient and righteous Judge of all the earth will take no notice of you or that He who is “of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity” (Hab. 1:13) but with infinite . . . Continue reading →
Clarifying Issues In Schreiner’s Soteriology
The rest of the book focuses mostly on aspects of Paul’s explanation of salvation in Galatians. Schreiner defends the traditional Protestant view that the Galatian error involved legalistic tendencies to require some kind of work—namely, circumcision—as a condition of law keeping for . . . Continue reading →
The Reformed Churches Detest The Error Of Those Who Refuse To Baptize The Children Of Believers
For that reason we detest the error of the Anabaptists who are not content with a single baptism once received and also condemn the baptism of the children of believers. We believe our children ought to be baptized and sealed with the . . . Continue reading →
20 Federal Vision Errors
1. Pitting Scripture and Confession against each other. 2. Regarding the enterprise of systematic theology as inherently rationalistic. 3. A mono-covenantalism that sees one covenant, originating in the intra-Trinitarian fellowship, into which man is invited, thus flattening the concept of covenant and . . . Continue reading →
It Is Not That Complicated
One of the reasons terminology matters is because the BCO is not just for professional presbyterians. Imagine the confusion of a member (maybe one under discipline or appointed or nominated for some office or role) who opened a PDF of the BCO . . . Continue reading →
Shut It Down
Since its creation in 1979, the Department of Education has sent well more than $1 trillion to schools with the express purpose of closing the gaps between the highest and lowest performers. Today, those gaps are as wide as they have ever been, . . . Continue reading →
Colquhoun: The Law Doesn’t Say “Try” But “Do”
Many flatter themselves that their state is good and their salvation sure because they do not live securely in a course of sin but, on the contrary, endeavor to keep the commandments as well as they can and because God is so . . . Continue reading →
Some Kentucky Presbyterians Opposed Slavery
John Rankin (1793–1886) was another towering figure among Southern Presbyterian abolitionists, whose work in both Kentucky and Ohio had a profound impact on the movement to end slavery. Born in Tennessee, Rankin was raised in a devout Presbyterian family that instilled in . . . Continue reading →
Bavinck: Pelagius Scatters Flowers On Graves
The difference between Augustine and Pelagius, Calvin or Castellio, Gomarus and Arminius is not that the latter were that much more gentle, loving, and tenderhearted than the former. On the contrary, it arises from the fact that the former accepted Scripture in . . . Continue reading →
What Is Love?
The book begins with one question: “What is love?” Our culture has its answers, but what does the Bible say? Borg then proceeds to answer many other questions we might ask. These include: does God love everyone? What about the love we . . . Continue reading →
Chrysostom: We Are Pilgrims
The first virtue, yea the whole of virtue, is to be a stranger to this world, and a sojourner, and to have nothing in common with things here, but to hang loose from them, as from things strange to us; As those . . . Continue reading →
The Church Of The Nones
Twenty minutes outside downtown Atlanta, Vinings Lake sits along a humming thoroughfare connecting Veterans Memorial Highway to the affluent suburbs north of the city. With its white steeple and brick exterior, it could easily be mistaken for another Southern Baptist church adorning . . . Continue reading →
Colquhoun: The Proper Preaching Of The Law Is Not Legalistic
…a minister of the gospel may often preach the law to his hearers and yet not deserve to be called a legal preacher. He cannot preach the gospel faithfully and successfully unless he preaches the law in subservience to it. If he . . . Continue reading →
Machen Rejected Sunday Football But Not On Theocratic Grounds
Machen wrote a letter to a notable politician on April 20, 1933. Just as he saw what was coming with fascism in the 1930s in Europe, so Machen saw the encroaching menace of the National Football League, which held its first championship . . . Continue reading →
Machen: Prophet Of School Choice
While Machen’s achievements are chiefly theological, he wrote and spoke extensively about education, where he observed some of the deteriorating effects of liberalism. One hundred years of policy and research have proven Machen prescient in his views on education policy, which can . . . Continue reading →
Does Being Faithful Mean Being Busy?
There is a trend I have been observing over the last ten years or so in our Reformed circles, and now I have been hearing various voices from “the pew” expressing concern in this particular area. That is of a call for . . . Continue reading →
Counting To One And The Trinity
Western culture today parades its rebellion against nature and our Creator, against the goodness of bearing God’s image as men and women. Christians must defend the Bible’s teaching on God’s design for both sexes and how each complements the other. Many, however, . . . Continue reading →