In his Sacred Supper he bids me take, eat, and drink his body and blood under the symbols of bread and wine. I do not doubt that he himself truly presents them, and that I receive them. John Calvin | Institutes of . . . Continue reading →
HeidelQuotes
The Great Commission Is Greater Than The Nationalists Think
This commission is as great as the one in Matthew 28, if not greater, given its glorious setting. We learn: 1. All the success of the spiritual mission will be dependent on the power and activity of the Holy Spirit. 2. The . . . Continue reading →
Baillie Versus Tombes (3): How The Particular Baptists Appeared To Early Presbyterians
This great execution upon them together with the diligence of Luther and other Divines to inform their minds did for some time much compesce [to restrain] that evil spirit and so much fright him out of all the bounds of upper Germany, . . . Continue reading →
Church Architecture Matters
What a church looks like on the outside—what we usually mean when we say architecture—is relatively unimportant. The primary work of the church, and the primary way a church is worked on and built up, is through the means of grace, its worship, which generally . . . Continue reading →
Tennessee Valley Overture On Christian Nationalism
Whereas, the duties of Christian citizenship are often disputed and prove perennially difficult for both elders and church members to discern; and Whereas, confusion exists about the proper relation between church and state; and Whereas, due to recent movements, publications, popular teachings, . . . Continue reading →
Machen Was Right
The old mother kirk of American Presbyterianism holds treasures of the mind and heart that few have ever seen. She has lived through a Revolution with England; divided over Black slavery only to be united again; welcomed seceding (Associate and United) Presbyterians . . . Continue reading →
Dear Pastor, Do Not Be Surprised By Troublemakers In The Congregation
The pastor need not be surprised if he finds troublers in his church. The discovery of such persons among the professed people of God sometimes shocks ministers, especially inexperienced ones, and discourages them, and sometimes leads them unwisely to give up their . . . Continue reading →
Baillie Versus Tombes (2): How The Particular Baptists Appeared To Early Presbyterians
When the light of the Gospel from the Lamp of Luther did begin to shine in all the corners of Germany high and low, the aforementioned unhappy men Stock and Müntzer, did begin also to breath out a pestiferous vapor for to . . . Continue reading →
Defenders Of Orthodoxy Are Always Castigated As Mean
As early as 1925, Machenism was a codeword for BIG FAT CHURCH MEANIE-PANTS EXTRORDINAIRE . . . only two years after Christianity and Liberalism was published. It would seem that purveyors of clear and punchy polemic have never gone unpunished in the parlors of the . . . Continue reading →
Baillie Versus Tombes (1): How The Particular Baptists Appeared To Early Presbyterians
The late patrons of Anabaptism among us would make the world believe that this Sect had for its Author the famous Berengarius, and for its fomenters four hundred years ago, the old predecessors of Protestants, commonly called Albigenses: but who will be . . . Continue reading →
A Son Remembers His Spiritual Father
Dr. Rod Rosenbladt died in Christ today after a brief illness. There was no one else like him. J. I. Packer once told him, “Rod, you not only possess Luther’s theology, you embody the man.” No one has influenced my course in . . . Continue reading →
Must We Forgive The Impenitent?
Forgiveness is one of the most difficult things required of us. You might almost say it goes against human nature. “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” That was Alexander Pope’s conclusion in “An Essay on Criticism.” [1] Christians generally know they . . . Continue reading →
This Is What Intellectual Honesty Looks Like
It’s time to come clean. I was gullible. I took someone else’s word for it and didn’t do the research for myself. I should have searched the Scriptures “see whether these things were really so,” but instead I took the word of . . . Continue reading →
We Live Between The Now And Not Yet: Meilaender’s Critique Of Retrospective Romanticism
In Book IV of Paradise Lost, John Milton introduces “our first father” and “our general mother,” ancestors of the human race: “Adam, the goodliest man of men since born / His sons, the fairest of her daughters Eve” (Milton 2000, 86, 83). Together . . . Continue reading →
Paul Wooley And Meredith Kline On The Spiritual Mission Of The Visible Church
The undersigned dissent from the decisions of the Committee on Foreign Missions to appoint medical specialists as members of the staff of the Eritrean Mission and from its decision to establish a hospital as part of that Mission. Our dissent is necessitated by the following convictions: 1. There is no . . . Continue reading →
The Red Scarf Girl And The Natural Rights Of Parents
In her celebrated book “Red Scarf Girl,” author Ji-li Jiang recounts growing up during the Cultural Revolution in China. She and millions of others had to choose between obeying the country’s communist government or obeying her parents. “’Now, you have to choose . . . Continue reading →
NW Georgia Overtures PCA GA to Create Committee to Revise Directory For Worship For Authoritative Use
Whereas even prior to the establishment of constitutional documents in American Presbyterianism, American Presbyterians utilized the Westminster Form of Government and Directory for Public Worship, as adopted by the Synod of Philadelphia in 1729, thereby affirming the historic practice of ordering worship according . . . Continue reading →
Religious Freedom Watch: U.S. District Court Rules In Favor Of Church In Zoning Dispute
In November 2023, Defendant Santa Ana City Council adopted a resolution denying the application of Plaintiff Anchor Stone Christian Church for permission to use its property, located at 2398 Daimler Street, Santa Ana, California (the “Property”), for religious assembly. Following the denial . . . Continue reading →
Machen Opposed Fosdick’s Christian Nationalism
Harry Emerson Fosdick’s provocative sermon, “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?,” delivered on May 21, 1922, is as good a date as any to locate the start of the controversy between conservatives and liberals in the Presbyterian Church. It did prompt conservative reactions and . . . Continue reading →
Christians Love Their Enemies
One of the distinctives of Christianity is the call to behave otherworldly. Revenge is a human instinct and something most people would say is a natural right. Christ tells Christians to turn the other cheek and let God take care of vengeance . . . Continue reading →