We treat the physical results of capitalism as though they were an inevitability. In 1955, no captain of industry, prince, or potentate could buy a car as good as a Toyota Camry, to say nothing of a 2014 Mustang, the quintessential American . . . Continue reading →
HeidelQuotes
Murray To Azusa Pacific Students: Think For Yourself
The task of the scholar is to present a case for his or her position based on evidence and logic. Another task of the scholar is to do so in a way that invites everybody into the discussion rather than demonize those . . . Continue reading →
An Elitist Mob Tells The Unwashed Masses
As with all such discussions, an elitist few take it upon themselves to tell the unwashed masses what they may and may not say — or by logical extension, what they may or may not think. These self-appointed arbiters of speech and . . . Continue reading →
Calvin Didn’t Say Ecclesia Reformata, Semper Reformanda
These participles, reformata and reformanda, were not constantly on Calvin’s tongue. However, it is clear enough that his pattern was to use reformata as an adjective to describe a church that is more or less free of liturgical and theological abuses, and . . . Continue reading →
Mollie Is Ok With Being A Woman
I love being female, and I’m actually quite confident about being a woman, but the only time I even come close to feeling bad about myself is when major media outlets and elite feminists use their power to tell me there’s some . . . Continue reading →
Dislocation, Fear, and Dependency
In her 1995 book Cults in our Midst, Margaret Thaler Singer (d. 2003) explores in detail the methods and processes of coercive persuasion. These methods are used not just by cult leaders, but by anyone who manipulates the behavior of others in . . . Continue reading →
Not Your Opa’s GR
Most think of Grand Rapids as a bastion of Dutch Reformed identity. Again, the reality is somewhat different than the image. Right now, about 20% of the population is of Dutch ancestry, 80% is not. Sadly, while the Dutch (my own heritage, . . . Continue reading →
Uncreated, Immense, Eternal
But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit. The Father uncreated, the . . . Continue reading →
Samuel Miller Contra The Peculiar Institution
Pride, indeed, may contend, that these unhappy subjects of our oppression are an inferior race of beings; and are therefore assigned by the strictest justice to a depressed and servile station in society. But in what does this inferiority consist? In a . . . Continue reading →
Perkins: God Is In Perpetual Action
Hitherto we have spoken of the perfection of Gods nature: Now followeth the life of GOD, by which the Divine Nature is in perpetual action, living, and moving in it self. Psal. 42. 2. My soule thirsteth for God, even for the . . . Continue reading →
Implicit Faith In Holy Scripture
Therefore, as regards the primary points or articles of faith, man is bound to believe them, just as he is bound to have faith; but as to other points of faith, man is not bound to believe them explicitly, but only implicitly, . . . Continue reading →
Calvin Against Images Of Christ
God has forbidden two things [ cf. Exodus 20:4-5]. First, the making of any picture of Him…. The other is, that no image may be worshipped…. The setting up of images in churches, is a defiling . . . By and by, . . . Continue reading →
Calvin: God’s Accommodation No License For Images
God, indeed, from time to time showed the presence of his divine majesty by definite signs, so that he might be said to be looked upon face to face. But all the signs that he ever gave forth aptly conformed to his . . . Continue reading →
By The Seat Of His Celestial Pants
If an angel comes in here and says, “Wait a minute. You can’t get to heaven by trusting Christ and Christ alone, and having the imputation of His merit. And the angel came here and said, “For you to really be justified . . . Continue reading →
Morabito: Soft Show Trials
There’s a more “civilized and softer” side to the idea of show trials, which was brought to us this week by Mozilla. It means that when someone carries a belief in his heart that doesn’t meet the approval of the preachers of . . . Continue reading →
Calvin: Who Is Faithful To The Church Fathers?
Moreover, they unjustly set the ancient fathers against us (I mean the ancient writers of a better age of the church) as if in them they had supporters of their own impiety. If the contest were to be determined by patristic authority, . . . Continue reading →
Luther’s Judgment On Images
With regard to Luther’s judgment on images, we are not in the dark. In his report to his confidant Nikolaus Hausmann on the situation he found in Wittenberg, he was unambiguous: “Damno imagines.” The elimination of images, however, should be brought about . . . Continue reading →
Helm Critiques Frame’s Perspectival Theism
In The Doctrine of God (2002) we find Frame discussing God’s relationship to time and space. (The sections are reproduced almost verbatim in Frame’s recently published doorstopper, his one volume Systematic Theology. (On God and time compare pages 557f. of The Doctrine . . . Continue reading →
Rauschenbusch, The Lost Gospel, Outrage, And The Mob
In Bottum’s revisionist account, Protestant preacher Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918) looms as the figure who most succinctly defined the spiritual mission of 20th-century Mainline Protestantism and its heirs. He put “social sins” at the front of the Mainline imagination. “The six social sins, . . . Continue reading →
Young, Restless, And New School
All of this is to say that the New Calvinism looks a lot like the old New School Presbyterianism with a Baptist and charismatic flair to it. Piper chose not to deal with this issue between the Old and the New just . . . Continue reading →