In the early 2nd century one of the gravest threats faced by the early Christians was a movement that we know as Gnosticism. It thrived by radically revising Christianity. According to the Gnostics, the material world is evil, the Creator God of the . . . Continue reading →
Introduction Arguably Reformed theology has never been more popular among evangelicals than it is right now. There are multiple large parachurch movements that extol the virtues of Reformed theology in a way that was unknown thirty years ago. It has never been . . . Continue reading →
I am interrupting the series on the doctrine of God again to do the call-in show I have been promising. With this episode, you the listener get to vote on the Heidelblog. You tell me which call you liked best and I . . . Continue reading →
Here is the fifth installment of the audio from the conference, So You You Say You Want A Reformation? hosted by Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, MA. This is one of the Saturday morning talks, on aspects of the QIRC (quest . . . Continue reading →
In anticipation of the upcoming conference, So You Say You Want A Reformation? Mike Abendroth and I discuss some of the topics we will be considering this Friday and Saturday: law, gospel, and the confusion of the two, the Lordship Salvation controversy, . . . Continue reading →
At the 1518 Heidelberg Disputation (academic presentation), Martin Luther (1483–1546), the father of the Protestant Reformation, as he was coming to his Protestant convictions, argued: “One is not worthy to be called a theologian who looks upon the ‘invisible things of God’ . . . Continue reading →
I think I first read about “web logs” about 1995, when I was teaching at Wheaton College. Then they were the domain of people writing about what they had for breakfast. They were daily, public journals where people recorded online their most . . . Continue reading →
As I was running errands this past Saturday I listened to a podcast in the Ricochet network hosted by Mark Bauerlein, himself a convert to Rome from atheism, in which he interviewed a convert to Rome (from evangelicalism) about the impending canonization . . . Continue reading →
Theonomy (or, more broadly Christian Reconstructionism) is one of the tollbooths through which pilgrims from traveling from Münster to Geneva, as it were, often seem to pass. I encountered it almost as soon as I came into contact with the Reformed churches. . . . Continue reading →
It is widely thought among Christians that God is still revealing himself to believers apart from Scripture. It is not at all uncommon for a Christian to say, “I believe in Scripture alone” (sola Scriptura) in one breath and “The Lord told . . . Continue reading →
It is always a joy to talk to Mike Abendroth (No Compromise Radio). He loves the gospel and appreciates the Reformed faith. He and his brother Pat (Omaha Bible Church) are part of a broader movement toward recovering Reformed theology, piety, and . . . Continue reading →
Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can . . . Continue reading →
Long ago, in a galaxy far away, Recovering the Reformed Confession was published and there I argued that confessional Reformed theology, piety, and practice has two competitors, unwelcome guests, if you will: the Quest for Illegitimate Religious Certainty (QIRC) and the Quest . . . Continue reading →
American evangelical Christianity has both influenced and been influenced by shifts in American culture since before the founding of the Republic. One of the shifts, which has had lasting effects, was the turn toward a more radically democratic turn in politics at . . . Continue reading →
Chick Tracts ironically turn grace into the same kind of superstitious incantation that they passionately decry. —Samuel D. James
It is entirely wrong to place the rationalism of the Enlightenment in contradiction to pietistic mysticism. It is popular nonsense that reason and mysticism are the two great opposites. Historically, Pietism and the Enlightenment both fought against Orthodoxy. The subjectivity of Pietism, . . . Continue reading →
Chortles Weakly, Wresbyterian (hence the image of “Baron von Raschke,” the “wrasslin” hero of my youth), and I spent an hour last night talking about the Quest for Illegitimate Religious Certainty (QIRC) and the Quest for Illegitimate Religious Experience (QIRE) and their . . . Continue reading →
The Reformation solas (by grace alone, through faith alone, according to Scripture alone) are not well understood today. Yesterday, however, was the anniversary of Luther’s famous declaration at the Diet of Worms. Although already under ban for his teachings, Charles V had promised . . . Continue reading →
Some of theologians of the era tended toward pietism or, among the Dutch Reformed, toward the Nadere Reformatie, and many evidenced affinities for the newer rationalist philosophies. Continue reading →
Why do evangelicals become Romanists, Eastern Orthodox, or Anglo-Catholics, i.e., Anglicans who identify more with Rome than with the historic Protestant Anglican confession (e.g., the Thirty-Nine Articles and the Anglican Catechism)? Al Mohler reflected recently on a Wall Street Journal story on . . . Continue reading →
