We remark that the obedience of Christ has a twofold efficacy, satisfactory and meritorious; the former by which we are freed from the punishments incurred by sin; the latter by which (through the remission of sin) a right to eternal life and . . . Continue reading →
HeidelQuotes
Warfield: We Have The Autographic Text Of The New Testament
Warfield makes this distinction even clearer in an article he wrote for The Independent in 1893 titled, “The Inerrancy of the Original Autographs.” There he spoke of the autographic codex and the autographic text.6 The autographic codex, for example, is the original . . . Continue reading →
The Holy Spirit’s Identity Politics
It is pretty common nowadays, especially on the political left, to hear people talking about “identifying” as or with different things. Some people “identify” with whatever ethnic, national, cultural, or gender identity they were actually born into (although doing that usually doesn’t . . . Continue reading →
Washington State AG Threatens Civil Liberties Of Christian College
Seattle Pacific University, a private school associated with the Free Methodist Church, claims its rights are being violated by Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, whose office launched an investigation into the school’s hiring practices. At issue is the school’s policy, prohibiting . . . Continue reading →
Regarding Piper’s Notion Of Justification And Love
But surely that is a progressive response of sanctification. It is not definitive, but justification is a once-for-all act of divine declaration “Righteous!” I am certainly more satisfied with Christ today than I was sixty years ago when I first believed, but . . . Continue reading →
Turretin: The True Church Has Always Existed
I. Although from what has been said in the preceding question concerning the obscurity of the church, it is easy to answer the proposed question (for if the church can sometimes be so obscured and concealed as to the nowhere conspicuous on . . . Continue reading →
Examining Fasting, Joy, and The Christian Life
Now that Christ has come and has appeared among us—and especially now that he has completed his work of redemption—the occasion for fasting fades before us in light of our identity as a people who rejoice; for we are Christ’s bride, being . . . Continue reading →
Replacing Pseudo-Neutrality With Divinely Ordained Natural Law
Abraham Kuyper offers one non-liberal route for the state to organize itself in a way that is supportive of the basic truths of the divinely ordained natural law within a system that is more tolerant of diversity than the Constantinian settlement. Kuyper . . . Continue reading →
Defining Our Terms In The Identity Culture Crisis
Think of the struggle we are witnessing in our culture over the question of identity. Today, people are on an endless quest of finding an identity in those things that they believe will make them happy. The culture tells people to turn . . . Continue reading →
When We Are Tempted To Save Ourselves
When you feel doubts about being God’s child because you have not shown God that obedience that you owe to him, know that the devil is very near you. He will attempt to falsify the gospel by convincing you that you must . . . Continue reading →
Irenaeus: On Serving A God Who Needs Not Man’s Love
4. And therefore does the Scripture say, “These words the Lord spake to all the assembly of the children of Israel in the mount, and He added no more;” for, as I have already observed, He stood in need of nothing from . . . Continue reading →
Will Abortion Test Americans’ Religious Fidelity?
The Dobbs decision has revealed fault lines in American Christianity. These fault lines lay just below the surface for a long while, but are now clearly exposed. As long as abortion was legal by Supreme Court decree, it was possible to identify . . . Continue reading →
Pseudo-Masculinity And The Qualities Of The Kingdom
Rather than being formed by the King of heaven, it can be tempting to soak up hours of the Joe Rogan podcast or to become imitators of Jordan Peterson. Rather than living out the ethical qualities of the kingdom (Matt. 5-7), some . . . Continue reading →
Haldane: Romans 2:13 Is Law, Not Gospel
As for the last of them, which answers first in this 13th verse, he says that it is not sufficient for justification before God to have received the law, and simply to be hearers of it; but that must be observed and . . . Continue reading →
Millennials And The Fallout Of Post-Political Evangelicalism
Young Evangelicals, we are told, leave the faith because Evangelicals have changed political and social behaviors. There is little evidence for that. What evidence that is offered—Trump’s supposed popularity—is more evidence of Evangelicals not changing their political habits than of them changing. . . . Continue reading →
Defined By Our Theology, Not Critical Theory
Yet perhaps one of the reasons why so many people—including Christians—have been drawn to forms of critical theory and their activism is that at times they see a lack of love and mercy in the church and abuses by those in positions . . . Continue reading →
Paul On Personal Law-Keeping And The Work Of Christ
The Mosaic law itself did not originate the notion of personal obedience de novo, since it recapitulated a more fundamental creational principle of righteousness through obedience to the Creator’s covenant stipulations. Further, the Mosaic law did not introduce a new way of . . . Continue reading →
Truth, Transgender, And Twitter Suspension
The other day, a friend wrote to tell me he’d been suspended from Twitter. Two of his tweets had triggered the ban on “promoting violence against, threatening, or harassing other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, . . . Continue reading →
Preaching To Soil
Pearls should not be cast before swine. This has its truth, but kingdom preaching pays no attention to this. Instead, the preaching here in this parable is undiscriminating, wild, even promiscuous. The Word is scattered randomly. There is no strategy, programming or . . . Continue reading →
Olevianus: The Kingdom And Its Benefits
Since, then, you say that the additional name “Christ” or “Anointed” implies that He came with the command of the Father to establish a royal priesthood, explain first what the kingdom of Christ is. A. A kingdom is a kind of rule . . . Continue reading →