…The lawyer, accustomed to the persuasion of law righteousness, blinded himself with confidence in works. Then he sought only what were works of righteousness whereby salvation is acquired. Therefore he is rightly sent back to the law wherein there is a perfect . . . Continue reading →
HeidelQuotes
A Flaw Inherent In The 1964 Civil Rights Act
When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, there were a few people like Barry Goldwater who opposed it on principled libertarian grounds. These were not southern rednecks or Dixiecrats, and they were glad to see the end of Jim Crow. . . . Continue reading →
Luther: Right Understanding Of Justification leads To True Sanctification
When I was a monk, I thought by and by that I was utterly cast away, if at any time I felt the lust of the flesh; that is to say, if I felt any evil motion, fleshly lust, wrath, hatred, or . . . Continue reading →
Your King Of Peace Has Come And Shall Come Again
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut . . . Continue reading →
Socinianism And The Denial Of Eternal Generation
Whereas our Savior is frequently, in Scripture, call’d the Son of God, the Socinians deny that he is so call’d with respect to his Eternal Generation, or being Begotten of his Father before all World’s; as also they deny that his Divinity . . . Continue reading →
Hodge: Salvation Is Entirely Of Grace
Vs. 8, 9. These verses confirm the preceding declaration. The manifestation of the grace of God is the great end of redemption. This is plain, for salvation is entirely of grace. Ye are saved by grace; ye are saved by faith and . . . Continue reading →
Witsius: Justification And Salvation Sola Fide Are Fundamental Doctrines
It must not be omitted, that if any article is stated as necessary to be known, which cannot be understood, unless some other article shall have been previously understood and believed; that other article must also rank among those which are necessary. . . . Continue reading →
Against Erosion Of The Doctrine Of Justification
Solus Christus: The Erosion of Christ-Centered Faith As evangelical faith becomes secularized, its interests have been blurred with those of the culture. The result is a loss of absolute values, permissive individualism, and a substitution of wholeness for holiness, recovery for repentance, . . . Continue reading →
It’s About Power And Conformity
The theory behind gay marriage, in short, was theory behind the entire secular left: society and the state are the all-powerful forces on which the life of the individual depends, and the most important political task—indeed, the most important task in life—is . . . Continue reading →
Dark Thoughts About The Future
Viewed objectively, these two recent controversies represent skirmishes rather than major invasions of religious freedom. But all of us view them with dark thoughts about the future. Our foreboding is justified. Progressives have long dominated an important American subculture: the university. It’s . . . Continue reading →
It All Comes Down To Aesthetics
It is interesting that the crisis finally came only when the aesthetics flipped the other way, when Driscoll and his antics became more distasteful than the words of his critics. It is important to notice that it was not the embrace of . . . Continue reading →
Daniel P. Fuller’s Doctrine Of Justification: Antithetical To The Reformation
Finally, a word needs to be said about the confessional implications of Fuller’s doctrine of Justification. Fuller claims that there are “several passages in Scripture which clearly indicate that the enjoyment of God’s gracious benefits depends on meeting certain conditions” (p. 108). . . . Continue reading →
Melville: Two Kings, Two Kingdoms
Sir, we will always humbly reverence your majesty in public; but since we have this occasion to be with your majesty in private, and since you are brought in extreme danger both of your life and crown, and along with you the . . . Continue reading →
Modernity: The Story Without Its Author
If there is little mystery about where the West got its faith in a narratable world, neither is there much mystery about how the West has lost this faith. The entire project of the Enlightenment was to maintain realist faith while declaring . . . Continue reading →
Circumstances And Indifferent Until We Say No
THAT OUR OPPOSITES DO URGE THE CEREMONIES AS THINGS NECESSARY. This I prove, 1. from their practice. 2. from their pleading. In their practice, who sees not, that they would tie the people of God to a necessity of submitting their necks . . . Continue reading →
Owen: We Are Endowed With Liberty By Christ And His Apostles
Thus far, then, is the liberty given by Christ unto his church preserved entire; and the request seems not immodest that is made for the continuance of it. When men cry to God for the liberty in his worship which was left . . . Continue reading →
There Is No Worship That Is Accidental
20. That is a most empty distinction which some people make to excuse their additions to worship: “Only corrupting and not conserving additions are forbidden.” For every addition as well as every subtraction is a departure from the observance and keeping of . . . Continue reading →
Ames: Redemption Is The Execution Of The Sentence
Redemption is a real deliverance from the evils of punishment, which is actually nothing but the carrying out of the sentence of justification. For in justification we are pronounced just and awarded the judgement of life. In glorification the life that results . . . Continue reading →
The Covenant Of Works: Perfect Personal Obedience
God originally made everything from nothing, perfect. He made our first parents, Adam and Eve, the root of mankind, both upright and able to keep the law written in their hearts. This law they were naturally bound to obey upon penalty of . . . Continue reading →
Sectarians: Socinians, Arminians, And Pietists
By the end of the seventeenth century, there was a sense that sectarian groups – a list that included Socinians and Arminians, as well as Pietists — were increasingly establishing themselves throughout Europe to the detriment of true Christianity. As Elisée Géraud . . . Continue reading →