This is season 8 of Office Hours and we are celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. In confessional Protestant circles we use some short hand Latin phrases that we might not all understand, even though we use them frequently. Sola fide . . . Continue reading →
The problem of race in America is more deeply embedded and intractable than most American Christians probably realize. Everyone reads Scripture in a context, in a culture and that reality influences the way we understand and apply it. Race, slavery, Jim Crow, . . . Continue reading →
For most of his long career, Johannes Cocceius (1603–69) taught Old Testament, biblical theology, theology, and philology in the Netherlands. He was arguably one of the most important and influential Reformed theologians of the 17th century and his influence continues to be . . . Continue reading →
Perhaps you have seen on television or in the movies successful, wealthy professionals driving, surfing, and generally enjoying what looks like a magical life in Southern California. Television glitz aside, there is some reality to that portrait and one place it is . . . Continue reading →
In confessional Protestant circles we use some short hand Latin phrases that we might not all understand, even though we use them frequently. Sola gratia is one of those. These expressions go back to the very beginning of the Reformation. Andreas Bodenstein . . . Continue reading →
God’s people have been reading and studying His Word for a very long time but much of that work is lost to most of us because it remains untranslated from Latin (0r Greek). The Reformed tradition begins with a profound commitment to . . . Continue reading →
At the turn of the 21st century there was a great deal of discussion about who were the most important figures in the last 1000 years. In 2017 we will celebrate the life and significance of one of those epochal figures: Martin . . . Continue reading →
The medieval and late medieval Christian lived in a theological world in which salvation was merely possible and never certain either in this life or in death. It was never more uncertain than it was in the two centuries leading up the Reformation. Continue reading →
This is season 8 of Office Hours and we are celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. In this episode we look at the background to the Reformation in the medieval church, how the medieval church set the stage for the Reformation . . . Continue reading →
In Romans chapters 9–11 the Apostle Paul addresses the difficult question of whether the Lord has abandoned his promises to the Jews. Paul concludes that God has not abandoned his promises. He appeals to himself as an example, even though he was . . . Continue reading →
Until very recently most people probably had some idea who they thought Jesus is. The Jews regarded him as a traitorous blasphemer. Muslims regard him as a failed prophet (who did not die nor was raised) who was succeeded by Mohammad. Liberal . . . Continue reading →
Academic life at Westminster Seminary California does not happen only in the classroom. It happens in prayer, it happens in the chapel, it happens in casual hallway discussions, and when one faculty member walks out of his office and into a colleague’s . . . Continue reading →
Westminster Seminary California was founded more than 30 years ago principally to prepare men for pastoral ministry. The seminary educates students from all across the world to fulfill a variety of callings but they are still committed to that original vision because . . . Continue reading →
Princeton Theological Seminary was founded in 1812 in order to train men for pastoral ministry in the Presbyterian Church. Within a century of her founding, however, those features that had helped to make old Princeton a bulwark of Reformed orthodoxy had been . . . Continue reading →
If you are Reformed or on your way to becoming Reformed you have probably heard and possibly read the Westminster Confession of Faith and perhaps of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. If you’re more experienced you might even have some experience of the . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours usually focuses on the process, i.e., on what the faculty says to the students and to others about what scripture says and what it means. That is as it should be because that is what we do at Westminster Seminary . . . Continue reading →
One of the dominant trends in global Christianity is the growth of the Pentecostal and the Charismatic movements. A 2011 study published by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life says that more than 500 million Christians globally identify . . . Continue reading →
For Reformed Christians there has never been any question whether Christ is Lord over all things. When the Dutch theologian, pastor, and Prime Minister Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920) declared in his 1898 Stone Lectures at Princeton that there is not one square inch . . . Continue reading →
Our English word core is comes from the Latin word for heart. We use it to refer to that which is most central. The Christian faith has a core, essentials, without which one does not have a Christian faith but what are . . . Continue reading →
When Reformed and Presbyterian Christians think of Paul we might think first of Paul as the New Testament theologian of grace, of salvation, of unconditional election but he might just easily be called the theologian of the Holy Spirit. Where we might . . . Continue reading →