In our time, however, the tendency is to view the church as means of therapy, merely as a place of fellowship and encouragement, but not as the divinely instituted embassy in which the keys of the Kingdom of God are administered. Viewed . . . Continue reading →
HeidelQuotes
Chris Gordon: Did Therapeutic, Moralistic Deism Give Us A “Woke Church”?
The joining of the church and the world in America has been years in the making. The American churchgoer was trained to view the church as having the sole purpose of making people happy, commonly labeled as moralistic therapeutic deism. Whatever struggle . . . Continue reading →
The So-Called “Celestial Flesh” Christology Is Just Gnosticism
But, according to [the Gnostics], neither was the Word made flesh, nor Christ, nor the Saviour (Soter), who was produced from [the joint contributions of] all [the Æons]. For they will have it, that the Word and Christ never came into this . . . Continue reading →
Religious Freedom Watch: Federal District Court Upholds Religious Liberty For Physicians Against Obamacare Rule
In these consolidated cases, a coalition of entities affiliated with the Catholic Church and the State of North Dakota challenge the implementation of Section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”), a statute that prohibits certain forms of discrimination . . . Continue reading →
Bavinck: Grace Does Not Destroy Nature
Regeneration does not erase individuality, personality or character, Continue reading →
Why Do Confessional Presbyterian Churches Use Images Of Christ?
The Westminster Larger Catechism (a constitutional doctrinal standard of the PCA) in answer to question 109 says sins forbidden by the Second Commandment include “making any representation of God, of all or of any of the three persons, either inwardly in our . . . Continue reading →
Owen Gives Us Theological Reasons To Object To Intinction
2. The special object of faith, as justifying, is not the special object of faith in this ordinance. The special object of faith, as justifying, is the promise, and Christ in the promise, in general, as “the Saviour of sinners:” so when . . . Continue reading →
Herman Witsius Contra Intinction
XXV. Next follow the actions of the disciples, and consequently of the other guests. And these, according to Christ’s appointment, are three: first, to receive both the bread and the cup; but each separately, for so Christ distributed them: in this manner . . . Continue reading →
What Is Your Only Comfort In Life And In Death?
What is your only comfort in life and in death?
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Orwell: On Opposing Hitler At The Price Of Accepting Stalin
Secondly there is the fact that the intellectuals are more totalitarian in outlook than the common people. On the whole the English intelligentsia have opposed Hitler, but only at the price of accepting Stalin. Most of them are perfectly ready for dictatorial . . . Continue reading →
Recovering The Lost Treasure Of The Second Service
Unfortunately, these days the heart attitude of this dear elderly woman is almost as rare as the evening service itself. Indeed, over the past twenty years the evening service (in a variety of Christian traditions) has either been turned into a kind . . . Continue reading →
Luther Challenges The (Ana)Baptist Interpretation Of Mark 16:16
In the third place, it is said, as I also have read, that they base their faith on this verse, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved” [Mark 16:16]. This they interpret to mean that no man should be baptized . . . Continue reading →
Calvin: Circumcision Was Spiritual And Substantially Identical To Baptism
But since before baptism was instituted God’s people had circumcision instead, let us examine how these two signs differ from each other, and in what respects they are alike. From this will appear the anagogic relationship of the one to the other. . . . Continue reading →
Trueman: Critical Theory Is Self-Certifying And Resistant To Evidence
Critical race theory, like other critical theories—postcolonialism or queer theory, for example—is self-certifying. Its basic claims, for example, that racism is systemic or that being non-racist is impossible, are not conclusions drawn from arguments. They are axioms, and they cannot be challenged . . . Continue reading →
Next To Be Banned?
There would be no end to what could be censored. Trans-sceptical feminists, already victims of Silicon Valley’s woke purges, would be completely wiped out on the basis that some idiot might interpret their intellectual, non-bigoted critiques of genderfluidity as an instruction to . . . Continue reading →
Ursinus: The Holy Spirit Uses The Word To Create Faith And The Sacraments To Confirm Faith
The Word is that through which the Holy Spirit commences and confirms faith in us, and for this reason, should go before the sacraments. The sacraments are means through which the Holy Spirit confirms faith already called into exercise, and for this . . . Continue reading →
Why “Settled Science” Is A Myth (And Why Just A Little History Shows That)
To see how science can change and evolve, look at theory of eugenics, which held sway over much of Western thought from the 1870s through the 1930s and beyond. Eugenics held that good or bad characteristics were passed on through heredity, and . . . Continue reading →
Crisp: Edwards Was A Panentheist
…Such a picture of God’s relation to the creation is undoubtedly striking, combining as it does aspects of classical theism, theological aesthetics, panentheism, and the doctrines of continuous creation and occasionalism (about which, more presently). Far from being the product of some . . . Continue reading →
More On Edwards, Affections, Romanticism, And Pantheism
If there is a prevailing commonplace about the Romantics it is to associate them with a close and tender regard for nature. And it is true that the relating of human being to being generally considered was so central in their minds, . . . Continue reading →
On “Safetyism”
But these same scenes present an affront to the organs of social control. There would seem to be an inherent tension between the spirit of play and “safetyism” (I parse this tension more fully in my book Why We Drive, which will . . . Continue reading →