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 →
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 →
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 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 →
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 →
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 →
The Reformation churches have some wonderful slogans that are chock full of important truths. Sometimes, however, these slogans can be misconstrued, misreported, and misunderstood. With the possible exception of sola Scriptura (by Scripture alone), none of these slogans has been mangled more . . . Continue reading →
Now indeed these two kinds of theology are so different that they cannot truthfully be related to some one, definite head and shared genus. Of course the first kind of theology, which we have named divine and a prototype, does not belong . . . Continue reading →
THE CREEDS OF FOUR COUNCILS RECEIVED. And, to say many things with a few words, with a sincere heart we believe, and freely confess with open mouth, whatever things are defined from the Holy Scriptures concerning the mystery of the incarnation of . . . Continue reading →
“Evangelical,” on the other hand, although it is a fine term, does not quite seem to designate clearly enough the position of those who hold specifically to the system of doctrine taught in the Westminster Confession of Faith, as distinguished from other . . . Continue reading →
Lambert Daneau (1530–95) described Franciscus Junius as “a man of singular learning”—and that he was. His biblical scholarship was cited widely by writers from a variety of traditions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His influence on the Reformed tradition has been . . . Continue reading →
(HT: Chortles Weakly)
Thus far, then, is the liberty given by Christ unto his church preserved entire; and the request seems not immodest that is made for the continuance of it. When men cry to God for the liberty in his worship which was left . . . Continue reading →
Wherefore we do not despise the interpretations of the holy Greek and Latin fathers, nor reject their disputations and treatises concerning sacred matters as far as they agree with the Scriptures; but we modestly dissent from them when they are found to . . . Continue reading →
The Latin Bible was a major formative influence on the way the Reformed theologians interpreted Scripture. The King James Version/Authorized Version (1611) particularly reflects the influence of the Latin Bible but its influence reverberates in many English translations. It influenced their word . . . Continue reading →
We Reformed folk like to think that what we do now in public worship is what we have always done. This is especially easy to do when we are cut off from or unaware of the original sources and practices of our . . . Continue reading →
Perhaps a few words regarding the context of this service of reconciliation will not be amiss…. Note first of all that it follows the opening service. In this service the Lord and His people greet each other. After the greeting comes the . . . Continue reading →
III. Let then these things be premised. First. Reason signifies either that faculty of man where by he perceives, and judgeth, and distinguisheth truth from falsehood, or those maxims, aphorisms, or axioms, which are either self evident, or believed to be rightly . . . Continue reading →
But, in modern America, a culture not known for its sensitivity to history and precedent, “Reformed” has started to refer to “a different drink”. As Starbucks re-discovered espresso and popularized it, people have re-discovered Augustinianism (i.e., predestination) and are now marketing it . . . Continue reading →
I know how difficult it is to persuade the world that God disapproves of all modes of worship not expressly sanctioned by His Word. The opposite persuasion which cleaves to them, being seated, as it were, in their very bones and marrow, . . . Continue reading →