English professors often assume that students can read the novels and poetry assigned for their courses. However, like many of our colleagues, we have come to question that assumption. To gain some insight, we conducted a reading test from January to April . . . Continue reading →
HeidelQuotes
How Recovering Traditional Reformed Categories Helps Us Understand What Civil Law Is
Few Christians today doubt that our relationship to our civil governments has gotten at least more complicated, if not outright harder, in recent years. Still, we often do not know how to navigate that challenge very effectively. We can be left thinking . . . Continue reading →
Turretin On Not Mixing Water In Communion Wine
Common “wine” is instituted, of indifferent color, undiluted with water because it is called simply the “fruit of the vine” (Mt. 26:29; Mk. 14:25). Thus the Romanists here without reason urge the mixture of water with the wine, which although according to . . . Continue reading →
Turretin On Unleavened Bread In Communion
V. Christ used bread because with the divine blessing it is of all the elements the most efficacious for nourishing and strengthening the body; the most common, the most familiar and to be found everywhere, easily prepared and the most pleasant. However, . . . Continue reading →
Warfield Contra Biblicism
It must be observed, however, that the teachings and prescriptions of Scripture are not confined by the Confession to what is “expressly set down in Scripture.” Men are required to believe and to obey not only what is “expressly set down in . . . Continue reading →
Owen Contra Baptismal Regeneration
Thus, some would have baptism to be regeneration itself, and that there is no other evangelical regeneration but that alone, with the profession which is made thereon. Every one who is baptized is thereby regenerated. The sign and figure of grace, they . . . Continue reading →
Owen On Worship
In general, it is certain that God intended to declare hereby that the work which Moses had to do, —the tabernacle he was to erect, and the worship thereof, —was not, either in the whole, or in any part of it, or . . . Continue reading →
Brad Was Wrong Until He Was Right
Mr. Moderator, Brad Isbell, ruling elder, Tennessee Valley Presbytery. At the risk of sounding like a politician—or Mel Duncan, for that matter—I was against the study committee before I was for the study committee, but this is a speech in favor. Last . . . Continue reading →
What Meekness Is
We tend to misunderstand what it means to be meek as the Bible uses that word. Perhaps you’ve heard of the group founded by J. Upton Dickson called DOORMATS. That stands for “Dependent Organization Of Really Meek And Timid Souls.” Their motto . . . Continue reading →
What Good Is A Neglected Tool?
Taking a step back and considering trends more broadly perhaps suggests missional pragmatism is behind some of the disuse or change. In a desire to be relevant or more easily understood, the catechism used and taught is changed to something newer, or . . . Continue reading →
Growing Reformed Churches: First Impressions Matter
It got me thinking about church. How many times does it happen that a visitor has a really unfriendly experience their first-time at church? You could have the best “meal” on offer in the city, the best preaching of God’s Word, but . . . Continue reading →
It’s Not Hopeless
On the other hand, believers often feel powerless over the lust that arises from within. This shameful experience often leads many Christians to bear the problem alone, with a rather hopeless outlook that maybe this deep struggle indicates that they are not . . . Continue reading →
Only Son Or Only Begotten Son?
The translation of the Greek word μονογενής in the New Testament is a subject of debate. The term appears nine times, with four occurrences referring to ordinary “only children,” and the other five occurrences in Christological contexts, all in the Johannine literature. These Christological . . . Continue reading →
PCA GA 2025: Quiet Interrupted By Power Struggles
As the GA adjourned, similar to other denominations, the power struggle between high-level leaders and many other presbyters would continue. Both of those stake-holders felt significant ownership, and the clashes were not always pretty, much less resolved well. However, some leadership changes . . . Continue reading →
God’s Love Is Not Reckless
Wafting over the airwaves of the local Christian radio station came the predictable chord progressions of every modern worship song known to humanity. I had turned on the radio to quell the boys’ incessant bickering currently testing my patience, and after a . . . Continue reading →
Round Up Of New Commentaries On The Nicene Creed
First, I am happy to recommend Crossway’s recent release of Kevin DeYoung’s The Nicene Creed: What You Need to Know about the Most Important Creed Ever Written. It is succinct and can be read quickly. Typical of KDY, he is mainstream, wonderfully averse . . . Continue reading →
John Owen Contra The Limbus Patrum (4)
Want of a due apprehension of the truth herein hath caused many, especially those of the Church of Rome, to follow after vain imaginations about the state of the souls of the faithful, departed under the Old Testament. Generally, they shut them . . . Continue reading →
John Owen Contra The Limbus Patrum (3)
Those of the church of Rome do hence fancy a limbus, a subterraneous receptacle of souls, wherein they say the spirits of believers under the old testament were detained until after the resurrection of Christ, so as that they without us were . . . Continue reading →
John Owen Contra The Limbus Patrum (2)
It is generally supposed by expositors that it is heaven itself which is hereby intended. Hence some of the ancients, the schoolmen, and sundry expositors of the Roman church, have concluded that no believers under the old testament, none of the ancient . . . Continue reading →
John Owen Contra The Limbus Patrum (1)
And he was their forerunner also. For although I have no apprehension of the “limbus patrum” fancied by the Papists, yet I think the fathers that died under the old testament had a nearer admission into the presence of God upon the . . . Continue reading →