Ever since Hegel or maybe Plato, statists have been telling a story about government in which government itself is the hero in an epic struggle. —Jonah Goldberg
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Calvin’s Response To Being Forced To Observe Christmas
Now, I see here today more people that I am accustomed to having at the sermon. Why is that? It is Christmas day. And who told you this? You poor beasts. That is a fitting euphemism for all of you who have . . . Continue reading →
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Grace And Consequences
I consider myself a “grace boy.” That is, all the debates that have been on-going in Presbyterian and Reformed circles over sanctification over the past few years, I side with those who emphasize the indicative (who we are by virtue of our . . . Continue reading →
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Perkins On Churches And Sects
As for the assemblies of Anabaptists, Libertines, Antinomies, Tritheists, Arians, Samosatenians, they are no Churches of God, but conspiracies of monstrous heretics judicially condemned in the primitive Church, and again by the malice of Satan renewed and revived in this age. The . . . Continue reading →
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Tertullian: We Share Everything Except Our Wives
One in mind and soul, we do not hesitate to share our earthly goods with one another. All things are common among us but our wives. —Tertullian, “The Apology,” cap. 39 in Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, . . . Continue reading →
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Calvin On Deuteronomy 29:29: God’s Word Is Enough
To me there appears no doubt that, by antithesis, there is a comparison here made between the doctrine openly set forth in the Law, and the hidden and incomprehensible counsel of God, concerning which it is not lawful to inquire…. It is . . . Continue reading →
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Peter Martyr On Law And Gospel (Revised)
There be some which divide the holy Scriptures into four parts, and describe some books as well of the Old Testament as of the New to laws, some to histories, some to prophecies, and other some again to wisdom. But it is . . . Continue reading →
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In The Middle Of The Slippery Slope
…But lay all that aside for now. I introduce the case because it forces us to focus on the logical implications of abolishing the conjugal understanding of marriage in our law and replacing it with the revisionist idea of marriage as sexual-romantic . . . Continue reading →
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The Lord’s Day In Eclipse
The earliest reason given for celebrating Sunday is that it is the day of the resurrection (Ep. of Barnabas, 15.9), but in the Jewish understanding of the week the first day commemorated creation and this idea was taken over even by Gentile . . . Continue reading →
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Overturning The Reformation In 1617–18
The government of the Scottish Church was thus completely subverted in its external aspect. The crown was now determined to see whether with equal ease it was possible to introduce the ceremonies of the English Church. James ordered repairs to be made . . . Continue reading →
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The Difference Between What We Know And What We Think We Know
…much of what is commonly written on the history and development of the western liturgy is dependent upon reconstructions…. —D. M. Hope, “Liturgical Books” in Cheslyn Jones, Geoffrey Wainwright, and Edward Yarnold, ed. The Study of Liturgy (NY: OUP, 1978), 66.
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The Constantinian Turn Was Definitive
The conversion of Constantine marks a watershed in the patristic period. In the second and third centuries the Church was a relatively private community, suffering from time to time the threats and the actuality of imperial persecution and looking for the end . . . Continue reading →
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A Mortal Wound To Free Exercise?
The If nothing else, it’s comforting to know that Colorado can force an orthodox Islamic butcher to make sausages for a polyamorous bisexual bachelor/bachelorette party, so long as no one asks the butcher to outwardly promote swine and free love. Not only . . . Continue reading →
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Some Anglican Practices To Which The English Reformed Objected In 1603
In the Church service: that the cross in baptism, interrogatories ministered to infants, confirmation, as superfluous, may be taken away; baptism not to be ministered by women, and so explained; the cap and surplice not urged; that examination may go before the . . . Continue reading →
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Nazi Policy: Abort The Unwanted
The Slavs are to work for us. Insofar as we do not need them, they may die. Therefore, compulsory vaccination and German health service are superfluous. The fertility of the Slavs is undesirable. They may use contraceptives or practice abortion, the more . . . Continue reading →
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St Bartholomew’s Day 1572: An Orgy Of Popular Violence
Long-range prospects for the Reformed churches in France appeared almost hopeful in the summer of 1572. The Peace of St. Germain (1570) that concluded the third civil war had granted significant political, military, and religious concessions to the Huguenots. The Catholic Duke . . . Continue reading →
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Antinomianism Is The Fruit Of Over-Realized Eschatology
Those who do not see the Law as valid in the life of the Christian must also assert that this world has passed away and that the new world has already been inaugurated. This proposition must be firmly rejected because only at Christ’s . . . Continue reading →
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How We Lost The Psalms
In the course of time the constraint of Calvin’s ideals has gradually come to be less felt in the worship of the Reformed Churches. A modification of view as to the relations of art and worship has permitted the harmonization of congregational . . . Continue reading →
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Reformed Psalmody: Inspired Songs To The Exclusion Of Uninspired Songs
But the Calvinistic Psalm took its authority and its appropriateness from its divine inspiration. It must be Holy Scripture, first of all; and then it became metrical merely to facilitate its congregational rendering. Calvin had determined to make the Psalter the praise . . . Continue reading →
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Bone Of His Bone, Flesh Of His Flesh
And they two shall be one flesh. They shall be one man, or, to use a common phrase, they shall constitute one person; which certainly would not hold true with regard to any other kind of relationship. All depends on this, that . . . Continue reading →