Thesis: No confessional presbyterian church will long remain confessional or presbyterian if it loses Reformed worship. First, some definitions: Confessional: orthodox soteriology and doctrine (doctrine of God, Christology, covenant) according to the Reformed confessions Presbyterian: government by ordained male (per scripture) elders . . . Continue reading →
HeidelQuotes
Eusebius To The Emperor’s Sister: No Images Of Christ
You also wrote me concerning some supposed image of Christ, which image you wished me to send you. Now what kind of thing is this that you call the image of Christ? I do not know what impelled you to request that . . . Continue reading →
Luther: Christ Is Our Comfort In The Struggle With Sin
With these words, then, Paul wants to indicate the weakness there still is in the pious, as in Rom. 8:26: “The Spirit helps us in our weakness.” For because the awareness of the opposite is so strong in us, that is, because . . . Continue reading →
Is Christian Busy-ness A Form Of Legalism?
There is a trend I have been observing over the last ten years or so in our Reformed circles, and now I have been hearing various voices from “the pew” expressing concern in this particular area. That is of a call for . . . Continue reading →
Murray: We Don’t Peek Behind The Curtain
God has mercy on whom he wills and whom he wills he hardens. Some are vessels for wrath, others for mercy. And ultimate destiny is envisioned in destruction and glory. But this differentiation is God’s action and prerogative, not man’s. And, because . . . Continue reading →
A Review Of J. H. Heidegger, Concise Marrow of Theology
“These are the guys in your footnotes.” That is a good way to describe “Classic Reformed Theology.” If one peruses a manual Heppe or reads Richard Muller, he will come across names such as Heidegger, Cocceius, and Olevianus. If he then tries . . . Continue reading →
Trueman: May Christians Attend Gay Weddings?
It is not hard to guess what reasons a Christian might give for attending a gay wedding: a desire to indicate to the couple that one does not hate them, or a wish to avoid causing offense or hurt. But if either . . . Continue reading →
Chariots Of Hire
WE ARE RELIABLY INFORMED that this is “Super Bowl Week,” a promotional publicity-fest that is something like Advent for the USA’s greatest holy day. That this holy day falls on the first day of next week—the Lord’s Day if you are a confessional presbyterian—may . . . Continue reading →
Lawsuits Are An Alternative To Christian Nationalism
Virginia state officials agreed to settle a lawsuit with a Christian wedding photographer after he refused to use his business to celebrate same-sex marriage, according to a press release. Bob Updegrove filed a lawsuit against then-Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring in September 2020 after a . . . Continue reading →
Trueman: Protestants Need To Get Back To Basics
Recent scholarship in both the ancient church and sixteenth-and seventeenth-century Protestantism have exposed an unfortunate problem with large swathes of the conservative, and especially evangelical, Protestant world. Much good work was done over the last century in both articulating a high view . . . Continue reading →
Riddlebarger On The Rapture
Many Protestants have historically seen this event [i.e., “the rapture”] as one aspect of the general resurrection at the end of the age (1 Cor. 15:50–55; 1 Thess. 4:13–5:11). The rapture, therefore, refers to the catching away of believers who are living . . . Continue reading →
Johnson: Hebrews On What God Does For His People
. . Hebrews speaks of Jesus’ fulfillment of the Servant’s side of the covenant in three specific ways: (1) He maintains flawless loyalty to the Lord and fulfills every command and requirement, thereby achieving the blessedness promised by the Lord for himself . . . Continue reading →
Luther: We Must Strive To Think Of Jesus As Paul Does (Not As Rome Does)
We adults, who are imbued with the noxious doctrine of the papists, which we absorbed into our very bones and marrow, acquired an opinion of Christ altogether different from the one that Paul sets forth here. No matter how much we declared . . . Continue reading →
Riddlebarger: Jesus Is The True Israel
Israel’s possession of the land of promise, therefore, was part of a national covenant and was conditioned upon national obedience. The New Testament writers are clear (much to the dispensationalist’s dismay) that the everlasting land promise God made to Abraham is now . . . Continue reading →
Johnson: How The Apostles Applied The Scriptures
Apostolic application displays the texture of renewal in the image of God. We will also be helped in relating any text to the Scripture’s central purpose as we sensitize ourselves to the categories of truth (knowledge), authority (righteousness) and relationship (holiness)—themes that . . . Continue reading →
Perkins: Christ Is The Ground And Fountain
If Christ be the ground of the promise, then is He the ground and fountain of all the blessings of God. And for this cause, the right way to obtain any blessing of God is first to receive the promise, and in . . . Continue reading →
Muller On The Distinction Between Scholasticism And Orthodoxy
The term scholasticism has a narrower reference than the term orthodoxy: it well describes the technical and academic side of this process of the institutionalization and professionalization of Protestant doctrine in the universities of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. If the . . . Continue reading →
Riddlebarger: The Promises Are Yes And Amen In Christ
Amillenarians hold that the promises made to Israel, David, and Abraham in the Old Testament are fulfilled by Jesus Christ and his church during this present age . . . The millennium is the period of time between the two advents of . . . Continue reading →
Johnson On How To Preach The Imperatives
Since the grace of the exodus set the context for the stipulations that Israel was to observe as the Lord’s servant, how much more should Christian preachers expound those many biblical texts that shine the spotlight on the responsibilities of God’s covenant . . . Continue reading →
Our Standing Before God Is Not Contingent On Our Obedience
Jesus, the God-man, obeyed God perfectly and was the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf, and his completed work on our behalf means that his righteousness is counted to us and his atoning death has paid for our sins in full. . . . Continue reading →