Calvin is not mute and his tremulous voice rises with the rest and “on his dying countenance,” says Beza, whose eyes are fixed upon his master, “was not obscurely indicated a holy joy.” They sang, as usual, the Song of Simeon, with . . . Continue reading →
History of Reformed Theology
Calvin Against Baptism By The Laity
20. It is also pertinent here to know that it is wrong for private individuals to assume the administration of baptism; for this as well as the serving of the Supper is a function of the ecclesiastical ministry. For Christ did not . . . Continue reading →
New In Translation: The Synopsis Of A Purer Theology
When I began reading Reformed theology in university Calvin was virtually the only sixteenth-century Reformed author widely available in English translation. The other authors I read were all from the 19th and 20th centuries (e.g., Hodge, Warfield, Van Til, Murray). In the . . . Continue reading →
New Genevan Psalter (Updated)
The Canadian Reformed Churches have just published the New Genevan Psalter. I purchased a copy. It seems to be well done. There is an interesting, brief introduction by George van Popta, General Editor as well as some brief notes on the Genevan . . . Continue reading →
Faith Is The Open Hand Of A Beggar
Question 36. But how are we justified by faith? Answer: Not because of the worthiness of our faith, as if God justifies us because of it, as the Remonstrants would have it, and [as if] faith is here reckoned as a virtue . . . Continue reading →
Heidegger And Turretin Contra Amyraut
Canon IV: Before the creation of the world, God decreed in Christ Jesus our Lord according to his eternal purpose (Eph 3:11), in which, from the mere good pleasure of his own will, without any prevision of the merit of works or . . . Continue reading →
Amyraut As Neo-Ockhamist
Given the above Amyraldian scheme, instead of a divine decree as being unconditional or absolute, (perhaps, in our ideas thought of as a set of such unconditional decrees) Amyraut seems to have preferred to think in terms of an antecedent will of . . . Continue reading →
Hodge: Justification At The Center
The Reformed churches have ever considered Christ and justification by faith in his merits, as the great centre of the Christian system. The Oxford Tract writers make the church the main point; the church as an ordinance for conveying life to all . . . Continue reading →
Davenant Not As Deviant?
Some of what Davenant writes is clearer than other parts. But it seems that a primary thought is that Christ died for the world in a universal sense, from which flows what are nowadays called the gifts of common grace, and warrant . . . Continue reading →
John Owen: Abraham’s Evangelical Obedience Excluded From His Justification
2. He infers a general conclusion, “That a man is justified by faith, without the works of the law,” chap. 3:28. What is meant by “the law,” and what by “the works of the law,” in this discourse of the apostle about . . . Continue reading →
William Perkins Is Back!
William Perkins (1558–1602) is among one of the most important English Reformed theologians. Arguably, he and John Owen (1616–1683) are the two most important English Reformed theologians. Remarkably, his works have been out of print and largely inaccessible for the centuries. Now, . . . Continue reading →
Forthcoming: Lion Of Princeton. Riddlebarger On Warfield
Congratulations to my friend and colleague Kim Riddlebarger on the forthcoming publication of his excellent work on B. B. Warfield. I read this as a PhD diss. written under Richard Muller. It’s one of the best things I’ve read on Warfield. Anyone . . . Continue reading →
Junius And Gomarus Saw It Coming
It is also important to comment on Junius’s relationship with Jacobus Arminius, who became professor at Leiden University in 1603. Junius carried on a correspondence with Arminius after meeting him at Leiden in 1596 at the wedding of Geertje Jacobsdochter (Arminius’s aunt) . . . Continue reading →
Coming Soon: The Acts And Documents Of The National Synod Of Dort
Thanks to the good work of Donald Sinnema, Christian Moser, and Herman Selderhuis (series editor), volume 1 a modern edition of Latin text of the Acts of the National Synod of Dort (Acta et Documenta Synodi Nationalis Dordrechtanae (1618–1619)) is scheduled to . . . Continue reading →
Now In English: Junius On True Theology
Lambert Daneau (1530–95) described Franciscus Junius as “a man of singular learning”—and that he was. His biblical scholarship was cited widely by writers from a variety of traditions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His influence on the Reformed tradition has been . . . Continue reading →
Sectarians: Socinians, Arminians, And Pietists
By the end of the seventeenth century, there was a sense that sectarian groups – a list that included Socinians and Arminians, as well as Pietists — were increasingly establishing themselves throughout Europe to the detriment of true Christianity. As Elisée Géraud . . . Continue reading →
Calvin: Diligently To Inquire What Worship God Approves
We should learn also from this passage, not to be induced by the will of any man to embrace any kind of religion, but diligently to inquire what worship God approves, and so to use our judgment as not rashly to involve . . . Continue reading →
Prelacy And Its Train Extirpated
We cannot but admire the good hand of God in the great things done here already, particularly that the Covenant (the foundation of the whole work) is taken; Prelacy and the whole train thereof extirpated; the Service-book in many places forsaken; plain . . . Continue reading →
On The Burning Of Trinkets
We had so contrived it with my Lord Wharton, that the Lords that day did petition the Assembly, that they might have one of the Divines to attend their House for a week, as it came about to pray to God with . . . Continue reading →
The Long Struggle To Reform Dutch Reformed Worship
As we saw several synods in the 16th century and the National Synod of Dordtrecht in 1619 decided that only Datheen’s psalms were allowed in worship. On this ground it has many times been asserted that Calvinists in the Netherlands did sing . . . Continue reading →