What is it that haunts the nightmares of parents of children with disabilities—with cerebral palsy, let’s say, or, given our psychologized times, perhaps even a propensity towards depression? I discovered the answer in a recent conversation with a friend who has a . . . Continue reading →
Natural Law
Heidelcast: Superfriends Saturday: The Theological Significance of Pets
In this episode of the Heidelcast, the Superfriends talk about pets. Continue reading →
Heidelcast: Superfriends Saturday: A Practical Approach to Natural Law—How Do We Know When Scripture is Speaking to Only Nature or Only to Grace or to Both?
In this episode of the Heidelcast, the Superfriends talk about natural law. Continue reading →
Natural Law and Light in the Reformed Confessions
In the modern period, particularly in the twentieth century, many Reformed folk became uneasy with the traditional Reformed language concerning natural law. As one who began to enter the Reformed world circa 1980, I mostly found Reformed people to be hostile to . . . Continue reading →
So What? How Does Homosexual Marriage Affect Me?
Last Friday, KFI (AM 640 Los Angeles) afternoon talker John Kobylt made the argument that one reason Prop 8 was overturned is that proponents of Prop 8 could not show that homosexual marriage actually creates any adverse effects or bad outcomes. I . . . Continue reading →
Sexual Liberation, Natural Law, And The Modern Resistance To Fixed Moral Norms
In the 1960s it was common to hear American civil rights leaders appeal to natural justice and natural law in defense of the extension of civil rights to oppressed peoples, namely African Americans. Those arguments were compelling to Americans because they are . . . Continue reading →
Machen Rejected Sunday Football But Not On Theocratic Grounds
Machen wrote a letter to a notable politician on April 20, 1933. Just as he saw what was coming with fascism in the 1930s in Europe, so Machen saw the encroaching menace of the National Football League, which held its first championship . . . Continue reading →
Luther On The Difference Between Hagar’s Children And Sarah
Therefore the Law or the old covenant contains only physical promises, to which some such condition as this is always attached: “If you will hear My voice” (Ps. 95:7); “If you will keep My covenant” (Ex. 19:5); “If you walk in My . . . Continue reading →
Luther: The Law And The Gospel Make Promise On Different Conditions
For the Law did not have promises added to it about Christ and His blessings, about deliverance from the curse of the Law, sin, and death, and about the free gift of the forgiveness of sins, righteousness, and eternal life. But the . . . Continue reading →
Luther: If You Are Under The Law You Are A Slave
Now it should be noted that the Holy Spirit insults the people of the Law and of works here by calling them “sons of the slave woman.” It is as though He were to say: “Why do you boast about the righteousness . . . Continue reading →
Luther On Law And Grace
Therefore we are pronounced righteous, not on the basis of the Law or of works or of our own righteousness but on the basis of pure grace. Paul insisted on the promise so vigorously and stressed it so often because he saw . . . Continue reading →
Colquhoun: Distinguishing Correctly Between Law And Gospel Is Essential
If then a man cannot distinguish aright between the law and the gospel, he cannot rightly understand as much as a single article of divine truth. If he does not have spiritual and just apprehensions of the holy law, he cannot have . . . Continue reading →
Colquhoun: The Law And The Gospel Are The Sum And Substance Of Scripture
The law and the gospel are the principal parts of divine revelation, or rather they are the center, sum, and substance of all the other parts of it. Every passage of sacred Scripture is either law or gospel or is capable of . . . Continue reading →
Colquhoun: The Law As Covenant Of Works
The law, then, as a covenant of works, does, in the most authoritative manner, demand from every descendant of Adam who is under it perfect holiness of nature, perfect righteousness of life, and complete satisfaction for sin. And none of the race . . . Continue reading →
Colquhoun On Natural Law
The natural law of God, or the law of nature, is that necessary and unchangeable rule of duty which is founded in the infinitely holy and righteous nature of God, to obey which all men, as the reasonable creatures of God, are . . . Continue reading →
Malthus or Althusius? An Introduction To A Pioneering Reformed Social Theorist (Part 2)
According to John Witte Jr., Althusius did consider the question of religious liberty, whether a private person has the right to “alter amend, or even abandon” the duties prescribed under the first table (the first four commandments) of the Decalogue. Continue reading →
Malthus or Althusius? An Introduction To A Pioneering Reformed Social Theorist (Part 1)
We seem to live in a Malthusian age—an age of increasing scarcity, or perhaps fear of scarcity, where concern over how to divide an economic (and environmental) pie of limited size (called a “zero sum game”) has replaced the idea of expanding . . . Continue reading →
Perkins On The Abrogation Of The Law
…how far forth the law is abrogated? Answer. The law is threefold: moral, ceremonial, judicial. Moral is the law of God concerning manners or duties to God and man. Now the moral law is abrogated in respect of the church and them . . . Continue reading →
La Ley Natural Y La ‘Luz De La Naturaleza’ En Las Confesiones Reformadas
En la época moderna, especialmente en el siglo XX, muchos reformados se sintieron incómodos con el lenguaje reformado tradicional relativo a la «ley natural». Como alguien que empezó a entrar en el mundo reformado alrededor de 1980, la mayoría de los reformados . . . Continue reading →
Should the State Imitate the Church?
One of our readers named K wrote me to ask, “If God’s Word forbids women from teaching and exercising authority, why shouldn’t the state follow the same principle?” This is a good and interesting question. It is made even more complicated by . . . Continue reading →