With No Compromise Radio On The Lordship Controversy, QIRE, And The Reformation

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 →

What’s Wrong With A Theology Of Glory?

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 →

Bavinck’s Critique Of Pietism

Like so many other efforts at reforming life in Protestant churches, Pietism and Methodism were right in their opposition to dead orthodoxy. Originally their intention was only to arouse a sleeping Christianity; they wished not to bring about a change in the . . . Continue reading →

Another Downside Of Pietism: Christ’s Bodily Resurrection Is Marginalized

If it does not care much about the Lord’s Supper (either to observe it or as to who communes) neither does it necessarily have a vital interest in the facts of the history of salvation. This tendency is plainly evident in two great figures in the history of Pietism, Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834) and Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918). Both were raised in the Pietist tradition and both abandoned historic Christianity. Continue reading →

Did Calvin’s Theology, Piety, and Practice Need To Be Rounded Out With Müntzer’s?

Thomas Müntzer (c. 1489–1525) was a university-trained pastor and theologian. Martin Luther recommended him to be the pastor of St Catharine’s Church in Zwickau (117 km south of Leipzig). There he came into contact with three fiery souls, Nicholas Storch (c. 1500–25), Thomas . . . Continue reading →

Anti-Scholasticism, Revival(ism), Pietism, Or The Reformed Theology, Piety, And Practice?

Or Why I Wrote Recovering The Reformed Confession

Recovering the Reformed Confession

In recent weeks there has been a remarkable confluence of articles that, in their own way, are right on time. Let us start chronologically. In November John Frame reviewed James Dolezal’s excellent book, All That Is In God. In the course of . . . Continue reading →

The Resurrection, Piety, And Pietism

And with great power the apostles were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all (Acts 4:31). Perhaps since the rise of the late-medieval mystics, who desired nothing so much as to be absorbed . . . Continue reading →

With The Regular Reformed Guys On QIRC And QIRE

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 →

Resources On A Covenantal Approach To The Christian Life

Chris writes to the HB to ask about moving from the conversionist paradigm for the Christian life to the covenantal vision for the Christian life, how does a “covenantal” approach to the Christian life appear? This is an important question. Since the . . . Continue reading →

Jackson, “Unto” And “Toward” In Ephesians 4:11–12, And Every Member Ministry

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 →

The Evangelical Fall From The Means Of Grace

The prayers had been offered, the promises read, and the psalm sung. Two princes stepped forward to receive Communion, but the deacon refused to give them the cup. The superintendent of the city’s pastors ordered a second minister present to take the . . . Continue reading →

Discussing QIRC And QIRE On Presbycast

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 →