It was 1975 and our family was living in Regina, Saskatchewan. In this prairie city my Dad had his first posting as a pilot for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He’d been serving as an RCMP officer for a few years already, . . . Continue reading →
HeidelQuotes
Forty Years Earlier . . . The 1984 (12th) GA: Unity Frays
The PCA General Assembly convened again a large convention ballroom at Baton Rouge’s Bellemont Hotel for its next Assembly. Meeting in the deep South and the furthest west to date, the 12th GA would continue hashing out areas of mission and expansion. The . . . Continue reading →
Riddlebarger On The Two Ages
The third aspect of New Testament eschatology is that the relationship of these two ages ensures that the blessings of the present age are a guarantee of the consummation of the age to come, which will bring even greater and final blessings. . . . Continue reading →
Perkins: Believers And Unbelievers Both Need Civil Government
Objection II. Believers are governed by God’s Spirit, and therefore outward government by magistrates is needless. Answer. In the visible church, hypocrites are mingled with true believers, and they are not governed by God’s Spirit, but by the spirit of the devil. . . . Continue reading →
Luther: Christian, You Are Isaac
Therefore just as Isaac has the inheritance from his father solely on the basis of the promise and of his birth, without the Law or works, so we are born as heirs by Sarah, the free woman, that is, by the church. . . . Continue reading →
Calvin: There Are Two Ministers In Baptism
In Baptism, the external minister baptizes with an external element, that is water, which is received bodily. The internal minister, the Holy Spirit, baptizes with the blood of the spotless Lamb, so that he that is baptized is endowed with the whole . . . Continue reading →
Machen Saw And So Should We
J. Gresham Machen was certainly prescient about the havoc theological liberalism would wreak on the mainline churches in the 20th century. He also saw the rise of fascism and ethnonationalism in the 1920s and 1930s. We would do well to consider those . . . Continue reading →
Colquhoun On Natural Law
The natural law of God, or the law of nature, is that necessary and unchangeable rule of duty which is founded in the infinitely holy and righteous nature of God, to obey which all men, as the reasonable creatures of God, are . . . Continue reading →
Calvin: There Are Two Ministers In The Supper
In the Supper of the Lord, the external minister holds forth the external symbols, the bread of the Lord and the wine of the Lord, which are perceived by the organs of our body, consumed and swallowed. The internal minister, the Holy . . . Continue reading →
Perkins On What Union With Christ Does And Does Not Mean
Believers are not one with Christ by transfusion of the properties and qualities of the Godhead or manhood unto us. It may be said, how then are they one with Him? I answer, by one and the same Spirit dwelling in Christ . . . Continue reading →
Luther: Both The Law And The Gospel Make Promises
For the Law did not have promises added to it about Christ and His blessings, about deliverance from the curse of the Law, sin, and death, and about the free gift of the forgiveness of sins, righteousness, and eternal life. But the . . . Continue reading →
Riddlebarger: Dispensational Eschatology Is Jewish
Much like modern dispensationalists expect Jesus to reign over the nations in the future millennial kingdom, the Jews expected the Messiah to establish a political kingdom whereby Israel would rule over the Gentile nations. This explains why the Jews rejected Jesus as . . . Continue reading →
Bavinck: Pope Gregory I Marked A Turning Point (And Not In A Good Way)
It was he who sanctioned the external legal religion of the Roman Catholic Church and conferred on medieval Catholicism its actual character. He is the capstone of the ancient world, the foundation stone of the new. Through his liturgical writings and his . . . Continue reading →
An Overture To Assist The Accused
An overture to the 51st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America would expand the pool of representatives for those accused by church courts and bring the PCA’s practice more in line with that of her conservative presbyterian sister denominations. Church . . . Continue reading →
Alexis de Tocqueville and American Exceptionalism
It must be acknowledged that in few of the civilized nations of our time have the higher sciences made less progress than in the United States; and in few have great artists, distinguished poets, or celebrated writers been more rare. Many Europeans, . . . Continue reading →
Perkins Explains What Baptism Does And Does Not Do
The third point is, how baptism confers grace? Answer. It confers grace because it is a means to give and exhibit to the believing mind Christ with His benefits, and this it does by His signification. For it serves as a particular . . . Continue reading →
Luther: We Are No Longer Under The Types And Shadows
Now the Galatians had been forced by the false apostles to observe these same rites as something necessary for righteousness. This is why he says that they have lost grace and Christian liberty, and have turned back to the slavery of the . . . Continue reading →
We Are Free To Obey
One of the most important aspects of the Christian life I learned about in seminary has to do with our freedom in Christ to love and obey God. I’m always thankful to my professor R. Scott Clark for emphasizing the following point, and it’s . . . Continue reading →
Advice To Young Pastors
I was twenty-eight years old when I started in full-time ministry in 1999 as associate pastor of a large Presbyterian church. I was thirty when I was called to pastor a small suburban church on my own. I made loads of mistakes . . . Continue reading →
Riddlebarger: What “Last Days” Really Means
This use of the phrase “last days” as marking the dawn of the new age of redemption can be seen in Peter’s Pentecost sermon (Acts 2:16–17). Peter demonstrated that the coming of Christ and his resurrection clearly meant that the last days . . . Continue reading →