VI. Will-worship, when God is worshipped with a naked and bare good intention, not warranted by the word of God (Col. 2:23; 1 Sam 13:9,10, 13).1 Hitherto may we add Popish superstitions in sacrifices, meats, holidays, apparel, temporary and bead-ridden prayers,2 indulgences, . . . Continue reading →
Recovering the Reformed Confession
Perkins On Churches And Sects
As for the assemblies of Anabaptists, Libertines, Antinomies, Tritheists, Arians, Samosatenians, they are no Churches of God, but conspiracies of monstrous heretics judicially condemned in the primitive Church, and again by the malice of Satan renewed and revived in this age. The . . . Continue reading →
How We Lost The Psalms
In the course of time the constraint of Calvin’s ideals has gradually come to be less felt in the worship of the Reformed Churches. A modification of view as to the relations of art and worship has permitted the harmonization of congregational . . . Continue reading →
The Synod Of Dort Opposed Funeral Sermons
Where funeral sermons are not held, they shall not be introduced; and where they already have been accepted, diligence shall be exercised to do away with them by the most appropriate means. —Church Order of the Synod of Dort (1619). RESOURCES Subscribe . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 95: Reformation Happens
As you read this the churches, theology, piety, and practice represented by confessionally Reformed and Presbyterian Churches is almost statistically invisible. Of the 60 million evangelicals in North America only a tiny fraction actually identify with the confessional Reformed and Presbyterian churches as . . . Continue reading →
The Hungarian Reformed Sanctified The Sabbath
We perform divine service publicly according to the sanctification of the Sabbath as follows: by teaching, listening, administering the sacraments, assembling together. On these days, we forbid work that hinders the public sanctification of the Sabbath, As did Christ and the apostles. . . . Continue reading →
Christ’s Merits Affirmed And Ours Denied In The Reformed Confessions
Christ’s Merit For Us Affirmed “only for the sake of Christ’s merits” (Heidelberg Catechism 21) “for the sake of Christ’s merits” (Heidelberg Catechism 84) “if they did not rest on the merit of the suffering and death of our Savior” (Belgic Confession, . . . Continue reading →
Musical Instruments In Public Worship Are Among The Legal Ceremonies
…musical instruments were among the legal ceremonies which Christ at His coming abolished; and therefore we, under the Gospel, must maintain a greater simplicity (John Calvin, Commentary Exodus 15:21) Continue reading →
It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way
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 →
The Author Of The Belgic Confession On 16th-Century Pentecostalism
There be some who have daily some new command from God, to make known unto their brothers and strangers. Some are rapt into an ecstasy and have their appearance and countenance changed, lying upon the ground certain hours. Some tremble and quake . . . Continue reading →
New In Translation: The Synopsis Of A Purer Theology
When I began reading Reformed theology in university Calvin was virtually the only sixteenth-century Reformed author widely available in English translation. The other authors I read were all from the 19th and 20th centuries (e.g., Hodge, Warfield, Van Til, Murray). In the . . . Continue reading →
“Divine Winds” And Gay Elders: Where The QIRE Leads
The church has long been tempted to use a canon opener since the late 2nd century. As it became clear that the great acts of redemption were complete, that God’s special revelation had ended, the Montanist movement reacted by claiming to receive . . . Continue reading →
Sacraments Versus Selective Piety
An appropriately rich Reformed sacramentalism also renders Ash Wednesday irrelevant. Infant baptism emphasizes better than anything else outside of the preached Word the priority of God’s grace and the helplessness of sinless humanity in the face of God. The Lord’s Supper, both . . . Continue reading →
Of Confessional Christianity And The Cult Of Personality
The danger of the cult of personality has ever been with us. Paul warned the Corinthian church: I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 82: The Holy Law Of God (6)—The Fourth Commandment
That there is a Sabbath is evident in the first chapter in God’s Word. According to Scripture, Almighty God “worked” for six days, six mornings and evenings, and rested the seventh. Have you ever stopped to wonder why Scripture says that God “rested”? Was . . . Continue reading →
See You In Bakersfield January 23–24 2015 For According To Scripture Alone
Central California is a beautiful place and that’s where I’ll be Friday evening January 23 and Saturday morning January 24, 2015. I’m giving three talks (and holding a Q &A session) on Sola Scriptura: “The Backbone of the Reformation,” “Its Unique Authority in Knowing . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 80: God’s Holy Law (4)—The Second Commandment
All the commandments are challenging to us sinners. In the first commandment we saw that God will not share his glory with another. In the 2nd commandment we read and hear that we must worship the true God truly. We do not . . . Continue reading →
The World Was Made To Be Known And You Were Made To Know It
The Starting point of theory of knowledge ought to be ordinary daily experience, the universal and natural certainty of human beings concerning the objectivity and truth of their knowledge. After all, it is not philosophy that creates the cognitive faculty and cognition. . . . Continue reading →
Sentiment Is Not A Sacrament
Holidays are a time for great sentiment, which the Oxford American Dictionary defines, in this usage, as an “exaggerated and self-indulgent feelings of tenderness, sadness, or nostalgia.” Who does not watch the annual Christmas movies? They are part of the late-modern communal . . . Continue reading →
Creeds Are Unavoidable
Christianity is a creedal religion. You cannot separate Christianity from its ancient creeds. In fact, every true Christian adheres to the ancient creeds of the church, whether he knows it or not. We all have creeds. Whether formal or informal—whether written or . . . Continue reading →