In January 1973, as the Supreme Court was announcing its Roe v. Wade decision, construction began in Philadelphia on a shopping mall and restaurant complex known as the New Market. An entire city block along Pine Street had to be excavated. During . . . Continue reading →
HeidelQuotes
What Is And Is Not Gossip?
In recent months, I have had several people speak with me about situations going on around them. Each of these parties were godly Christians seeking counsel about difficult matters involving others. Each time, they would pause and say something like “I don’t . . . Continue reading →
Matt Taibbi On The State Of Free Speech In The USA
The guests for NPR’s just-released On The Media episode about the dangers of free speech included Andrew Marantz, author of an article called, “Free Speech is Killing Us”; P.E. Moskowitz, author of “The Case Against Free Speech”; Susan Benesch, director of the . . . Continue reading →
What Church Is And Is Not
Church is not a concert with a TED talk. It’s an audience with the thrice-holy Lord of heaven and earth. Continue reading →
Medical School Professors Denying The Reality Of Biological Sex?
During a recent endocrinology course at a top medical school in the University of California system, a professor stopped mid-lecture to apologize for something he’d said at the beginning of class. “I don’t want you to think that I am in any . . . Continue reading →
Riddlebarger: Driscoll’s “Elders” Were Not Elders—Why Genuine Ruling Elders Are So Important
The Mars Hill/Mark Driscoll debacle is well known. Many have listened to Christianity Today’s excellent podcast series, The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill. The fall of Mars Hill is but another incident in a long series of scandals plaguing American evangelicalism. . . . Continue reading →
Owen: We Are Sanctified Because We Are Justified But We Are Not Justified Because We Are Sanctified
Now, to be justified is to be freed from the guilt of sin, or to have all our sins pardoned, and to have a righteousness wherewith to appear before God, so as to be accepted with him, and a right to the . . . Continue reading →
Asking For A Friend: How To Love A Jerk
Who Says That Calvin Was Not Practical?
…But how do we do that with someone we might think to be unworthy of our love and good deeds? How do you love a jerk? You might say take a look in the mirror. Humbly realizing that we’re all unworthy jerks . . . Continue reading →
A True Epitaph: “Saved By Grace”
On a tombstone in the old graveyard behind the Meeting House at Knockbracken, nestling among the evergreens, rising from the grass, on a well-mown grassy mound, is a plain and modest headstone: etched upon its granite face is the name of both . . . Continue reading →
A Reformation Doctrine To Be Recovered: Every Christian Has A Vocation
Finally, this point is to be noted: the Lord bids each one of us in all life’s actions to look to his calling [vocatio].8 For he knows with what great restlessness human nature flames, with what fickleness it is borne hither and . . . Continue reading →
Who Is The Legalist?
There is much antinomianism in the modern evangelical church. By antinomianism I mean the rejection of a fixed moral law and specifically to the rejection of God’s moral law as summarized in the Ten Commandments and applied in the New Testament to . . . Continue reading →
The Bubble
Entrance into the pundit class is highly restricted. It requires having the right credentials and knowing the right words. To get those, you have to spend your early life weaving through a series of ever more selective institutions where you learn how . . . Continue reading →
Owen: Either We Are Justified Sola Fide Or By An Inherent Righteousness
It is true, that all those who place the formal cause or reason of our justification in ourselves, or our inherent righteousness, and so either directly or by just consequence, deny all imputation of the righteousness of Christ unto our justification,
Luther: Find A Church Where This Is Preached Weekly
Simul Iustus Et Peccator Is Still True
Therefore, whoever is justified is still a sinner; and yet he is considered fully and perfectly righteous by God who pardons and is merciful. Martin Luther | The Disputation Concerning Justification (1536) | Luther’s Works, 34:152–53 (HT: Inwoo Lee) Resources How To . . . Continue reading →
PCA Concerned Presbyterians To Meet September 25, 2021 In Greenville, SC
All PCA Teaching and Ruling elders are warmly invited to attend the meeting of concerned Presbyterians. While the Gospel Reformation Network (GRN) meetings, events, and communications continue to be public and transparent, due to space limitations we must restrict the meeting to . . . Continue reading →
Luther: Before The Fall We Had No Need Of Christ
Before the Fall, Adam did not need Christ, for he was righteous by his own nature, through the law of perfect nature he loved the law. But after the Fall all need Christ. Martin Luther | The Disputation Concerning Justification (October, 1536) . . . Continue reading →
A Classical Reformed Alternative To The New Calvinist Language On God And Evil
The Reformed churches confess that the relationship between God and evil is a mystery. We reject any attempt to resolve the mystery. We are not rationalists. We refuse to go beyond what Scripture says. We affirm both that God is sovereign and . . . Continue reading →
A Useful Test For Evaluating Sermons And Ministry: If A Sermon May Be Preached In A Mosque Or Synagogue It is Not A Christian Message
Years ago I remember hearing an elder say that if my sermon could be accepted in a Jewish synagogue then it is not a distinctively Christian sermon. I’ve thought a lot about that over the years. What makes Christian sermons distinctively Christian? . . . Continue reading →
Evangelicalism’s Backstreet Boy Is Now Ex-Evangelicalism’s Backstreet Boy
Joshua Harris is back in the limelight. He made his name as the young author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye, and was thereby a key inspiration for the purity movement in American evangelicalism. Then, after a stint as pastor of an evangelical . . . Continue reading →
Piper’s Doctrine Of Final Salvation Through Works: The Reformed Brotherhood Understands Your Pain
Does John Piper teach a two-stage doctrine of salvation wherein the initial stage is said to be justification by grace alone (sola gratia), through faith alone (sola fide), on the basis of the imputed righteousness of Christ but in which final salvation . . . Continue reading →