Heidelcast 29: The Imputation of Christ’s Active Obedience (pt 2)

Heidelcast

on June 25, 2013 | 6 Comments

Lane Keister joins the Heidelcast again for part 2 of our discussion of the imputation of the active obedience of Christ. Did Jesus obey only to qualify himself to be a Savior, did he obey for only himself and suffer only for . . . Continue reading →

Heidelcast 27: With Lane Keister on the Imputation of Christ’s Active Obedience

Heidelcast

on June 23, 2013

HB reader Nick writes to ask about the imputation of Christ’s active obedience. Is it true that the Westminster divines, Twisse, Vines, and Gataker opposed the imputation of the active obedience of Christ and that the phrase, “the whole obedience of Christ” . . . Continue reading →

Synod Of Dort Day: Arminius Brought Out Of Hell

Heidelblog

on May 9, 2013 | 2 Comments

[We reject the errors of those] Who teach: That Christ by His satisfaction merited neither salvation itself for any one, nor faith, whereby this satisfaction of Christ unto salvation is effectually appropriated; but that He merited for the Father only the authority . . . Continue reading →

Why Do Some Say That Doubt Is Of The Essence Of Faith?

R. Scott Clark

on May 2, 2013 | 1 Comment

Curt writes to ask, I have a question. In “A Brief History of Covenant Theology” You write: For most of the Medieval period, the Western (Latin) church and the major theologians agreed that God says what he says about us, because we . . . Continue reading →

Heidelcast 17: Legalism and Antinomianism

An HB Classic

Heidelcast

on April 21, 2013 | 3 Comments

What’s the difference between legalism and antinomianism? The latter is the denial of the abiding validity of God’s moral law for the life of the believer. The church has been afflicted with antinomianism throughout its history. All the Gnostics of the 2nd . . . Continue reading →

What Is The Article Of The Standing or Falling Of The Church?

Heidelblog

on April 19, 2013 | 11 Comments

Articulus iustificationis dicitur articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae (the article of justification is said to be the article of the standing or falling of the church)” —J. H. Alsted (1588–1638), Theologia scholastica didactica (Hanover, 1618), 711. For the sense and origins of . . . Continue reading →

Guy Waters on the Federal Vision

R. Scott Clark

on April 8, 2013

Guy Waters is an outstanding scholar of the New Testament and he has been a stalwart on the doctrine of justification. He has been a vigorous opponent of the self-glossed “Federal Vision” movement. A few years ago, when Guy was on campus . . . Continue reading →

Faith-The Instrument By Which We Embrace Christ

Heidelblog

on January 8, 2013 | 1 Comment

We do not mean, however, properly speaking, that it is faith itself that justifies us — for faith is only the instrument by which we embrace Christ, our righteousness. But Jesus Christ is our righteousness in making available to us all his . . . Continue reading →

Peter Martyr Vermigli on Law and Gospel

R. Scott Clark

on December 31, 2012 | 9 Comments

In the history of Christian theology there have been two ways of speaking about the relation between law and gospel: 1. historically and 2. theologically or hermeneutically. These two ways of relating law and gospel are complementary. The first way of relating . . . Continue reading →

Calvin on “Not Having a Righteousness of My Own”

R. Scott Clark

on December 30, 2012 | 3 Comments

He says, that believers have no righteousness of their own. Now, it cannot be denied, that if there were any righteousness of works, it might with propriety be said to be ours. Hence he leaves no room whatever for the righteousness of . . . Continue reading →

Calvin On A Mistaken Confidence In Works

Heidelblog

on December 29, 2012 | 4 Comments

We, too, when treating of the righteousness of faith, do not contend against the substance of works, but against that quality with which the sophists invest them,1 inasmuch as they contend that men are justified by them. Paul, therefore, divested himself—not of . . . Continue reading →

Who Are the True Catholics? (5a): Justification

R. Scott Clark

on December 3, 2012 | 3 Comments

Part 4: Who are the True Catholics (4): Assurance of Salvation In theological terms, there were two principles of the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation: the formal principle and the material principle. The first, the formal principle, was the doctrine that Scripture is the . . . Continue reading →

Office Hours: Union with Christ

R. Scott Clark

on September 18, 2012 | 3 Comments

Office Hours talks with John Fesko, Academic Dean and Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at WSC, about his new book: Beyond Calvin: Union with Christ and Justfication in Early Modern Reformed Theology (1517-1700). There is some confusion about the Reformed doctrine . . . Continue reading →

Why Complementarianism Can’t Be a “Gospel” Issue

R. Scott Clark

on September 17, 2012 | 31 Comments

For those who have not been following this discussion, here is a quick rundown as a preface to my point. On August 16, 2012 Denny Burk posted a Gospel Coalition video on his blog in which he noted that Tim Keller suggested . . . Continue reading →

Maybe They Really Don’t Get It

R. Scott Clark

on February 21, 2011 | 1 Comment

Over the years of battling the moralists (Federal Visionists, Norman Shepherd et al) I’ve not always been certain whether the moralists understand the orthodox doctrine of justification and reject it or if they think they are really teaching it. Here’s a post . . . Continue reading →

Resources on the Law/Gospel Distinction

Heidelblog

on January 13, 2011

The distinction between law and gospel is one of the most fundamental aspects of the Protestant Reformation. It was essential to the Reformation and it was a basic part of both early Reformed theology and Reformed orthodoxy. For a variety of reasons . . . Continue reading →

Office Hours: But Through Faith Alone-Guy Waters on the NPP and the FV

R. Scott Clark

on August 10, 2010 | 4 Comments

The latest episode of Office Hours is up and it is a discussion with Prof. Guy Waters about the nature of the New Perspectives on Paul and the nature of the self-described “Federal Vision,” movement. We talk about what Paul really said . . . Continue reading →

Still A Stumbling Block

R. Scott Clark

on July 8, 2010 | 2 Comments

A Heidelblog Classic from January 9, 2007: —— A Jewish critic of Dr Laura Schlessinger (for her public abandonment of orthodox Judaism) writes: “The late Yeshayahu Leibovitz pointed out that the quintessential symbol of Christianity is Jesus dying on the cross for . . . Continue reading →

The Inquisition Isn’t Over, It Just Changed Clothes

R. Scott Clark

on June 25, 2010 | 15 Comments

RNS has a story about the Vatican’s policy of “pontifical secrecy.” Read the story. The approach Rome is taking toward the problem of sex abuse by priests reminds one of the policies followed in the inquisition. What was established for the preservation . . . Continue reading →

Calvin On Osiander

R. Scott Clark

on June 18, 2010 | 1 Comment

One of the more bizarre claims made about Andreas Osiander is that, for Calvin ” he was the only consistent Lutheran.” One would hardly reach this conclusion from reading what Calvin actually wrote about Osiander!