He wanted above all . . . to shove a marshmallow on a stick in the furnace, while the flapping pigeon-winged books died on the porch and lawn of the house. While the books went up in sparkling whirls and blew away on a wind . . . Continue reading →
HeidelQuotes
A Tale Of Two Trees
Even Christ’s death and resurrection inform the last Adam motif. Whereas the first Adam faced probation with a tree, so Christ’s suffering obedience culminated with a tree “by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8). . . . Continue reading →
Charnock: A Lamb Is Both Clothes And Meat
A lamb is both clothes and meat; Christ is clothing to us by his righteousness to cover our nakedness, and food to us by his body and blood to satisfy our appetite, a sacrifice and a feast for us. Stephen Charnock | . . . Continue reading →
Turretin: Adam Might Have Had It By His Own Obedience
Christ alone gives us promises of eternal life in the state of sin. Yet in the state of nature, Adam might have had them by his own obedience, according to God’s pact. Francis Turretin | Institutes of Elenctic Theology (P&R Publishing, 1992–97, . . . Continue reading →
Calvin: Christ Does Not Call His Ministers To Conquer The Church
For as he who marries a wife does not call and invite his friends to the marriage, in order to prostitute the bride to them, or, by giving up his own rights, to allow them to partake with him of the nuptial . . . Continue reading →
The Mere Fact That A Westminster Divine Said Something…
The mere fact that a particular doctrine was held by an individual Westminster divine during the assembly’s debates does not automatically mean that doctrine was considered within the bounds of confessional orthodoxy by the assembly. Not everything in the WCF is a . . . Continue reading →
Ursinus: It’s Christ’s Satisfaction For Us
The righteousness with which we are here justified before God, is not our conformity with the law, nor our good works, nor our faith; but it is the satisfaction which Christ rendered to the law in our stead; or the punishment which . . . Continue reading →
Ridderbos: Postmillennial Christian Nationalism Incompatible With The New Testament
After reading hundreds of pages of PCN writing, I submit that PCN’s “this world conquest” version of eschatology 1) minimizes or ignores the NT teaching of suffering, 2) downplays the strong NT emphasis on longing for Christ’s end of time return, and . . . Continue reading →
Calvin On The Spirituality Of The Kingdom Of God
My kingdom is not of this world. By these words he acknowledges that he is a king, but, so far as was necessary to prove his innocence, he clears himself of the calumny; for he declares, that there is no disagreement between . . . Continue reading →
Lewis On Theology For Devotion
The present book is something of an experiment. The translation is intended for the world at large, not only for theological students. If it succeeds, other translations of other great Christian Books will presumably follow. In one sense, of course, it is . . . Continue reading →
Motherhood Is Not A Woman’s “Highest Calling”
Could it be that the way we speak about motherhood betrays a pharisaical tendency to self-aggrandize the ordinary, good, and faithful work that mothers do, while minimizing the ordinary, good, and faithful work of everyone else? And this mindset doesn’t only minimize . . . Continue reading →
Only Blood Can Do It
Every sin leaves a stain. Hasty words, undone duties, secret thoughts that rot in the corners of conscience. Water cannot reach them. Resolve’s solvent cannot lift them. Only one blood has power to cleanse what lies beneath the surface of the soul. . . . Continue reading →
Calvin Contra Selfishness
In a season where we are obsessed about inconveniences stemming from government shutdowns and market fears, a longer historical perspective with clearer vision is needed. Then, again, since the shutdown began, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is flat and the NASDAQ is . . . Continue reading →
Bavinck: The English Delegates To Dort Agreed In Substance With Amyraut And So Did Baxter
At the Synod of Dort, the foreign delegates spoke as broadly as possible about the worth and sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice. The English theologians even stated that Christ, in a sense, had died for all: “Christ so died for all that all . . . Continue reading →
Berkhof: Hypothetical Universalism Is Universalism
The Compromise of the School of Saumur. The School of Saumur represents an attempt to tone down the rigorous Calvinism of the Synod of Dort, and to avoid at the same time the error of Arminianism. This is seen especially in the . . . Continue reading →
John Owen Versus John Davenant On Hypothetical Universalism
Since not only the complete finishing of this treatise under my hand, which is now about five months ago, but also the printing of some part of it, the two dissertations of Dr Davenant, of the Death of Christ, and of Predestination . . . Continue reading →
Presbyterian Polity Does Not Assume The Normative Principle
To begin with, the most popular argument I have heard for non-ordained commissioned deaconesses is that the constitution of the PCA BCO does not forbid it. This statement is correct, but I also believe it is not helpful. Liberals use this argument to express that Jesus . . . Continue reading →
The Allure Of The Hidden And The So-Called Lost Gospels
Two years ago—in fall 2023—the internet was abuzz over the publication of an ancient manuscript that seemed to contain material from one of the most famous gospels outside our New Testament: the Gospel of Thomas. The online chatter was immense, which was . . . Continue reading →
Jacob’s Wrestling Is Not A Metaphor
According to [Dennis Prager and Jordan Peterson], the ultimate point of Genesis 32 is that all of us are called to wrestle with God. When, for example, we wrestle with the implications of his existence on our lives, and on ultimate issues . . . Continue reading →
Sometimes A Table Is Just A Table
Psalm 23 is so well-loved and so familiar. We might think we know what it means. But then someone might come along and bring something new from it that we didn’t see before. In 1970, Phillip Keller published his book A Shepherd . . . Continue reading →