Carl Trueman made a big splash by speaking uncomfortable truths to seemingly intractable power in The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self (Wheaton: Crossway, 2020). In Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution (Wheaton: Crossway, 2022), . . . Continue reading →
Western culture is ripping apart, to varying degrees depending on the country, over issues of social justice and cultural welfare. That increasing pressure has also often included the advocates of various social causes demanding assent from everyone else. This no exception approach to ideological uniformity has also often affected the church, as proponents of cultural issues impose their views upon us as another institution that must get in line with secular orthodoxy. Continue reading →
It seems like a slam dunk in Johnson’s favor—yet another sad example of heterosexual Christians excusing their unbridled, “polyamorous” lusts for members of the opposite sex and choosing instead to fixate upon the homosexual sins of another. But, something key is missing. Continue reading →
The book under review attempts to engage culture effectively using the past, especially the puritans. In what follows I will evaluate whether The Mission of God: A Manifesto of Hope for Society, is successful in its appropriation of puritanism as an antidote . . . Continue reading →
Hans Boersma, Five Things Theologians Wish Biblical Scholars Knew (Downers Grove, IL, InterVarsityPress, 2021). Introduction The idea behind this book is good. The author is right to say that no one approaches the biblical text without a prior commitment to metaphysics. Nevertheless, . . . Continue reading →
Since first being credentialed by a presbytery in 2014, several topics have occupied my thoughts for extended periods of time regarding how best to preach and to pastor people wrestling with difficult issues, but none so much as the matter of mental . . . Continue reading →
Pastor John Piper is well-known for his role in sparking the “young, restless, and Reformed” movement, mainly through his emphases on God’s sovereignty and serious expository preaching. There are no doubt numerous present members of Reformed churches who ended up there because of initial investigations of Reformed theology that began with hearing or reading John Piper. Personally, Piper was my first exposure to a thorough and biblical explanation of predestination in some of the appendices of the 2003 edition of Desiring God, which I was told to read shortly after becoming serious about my faith. Continue reading →
Kingdom Through Covenant is a massive work of biblical theology written from a Baptistic perspective, now in its second edition.1 My very first attempt at public writing was a review of KTC’s first edition, which I did while in seminary, and which Dr. Clark very graciously posted on The Heidelblog. With more experience, I have often looked back with acute awareness of that review’s weaknesses and wished I could redo it. I am thankful for the chance to review the second edition on the same platform with hopes to improve my comments and assessment concerning this work. Continue reading →
Unless you are a member of a congregation of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America (RPCNA, “the Covenanters”) or another similar denomination, in all probability the way your congregation worships today is not much like the way Reformed and Presbyterian congregations worshiped in the 16th and 17th centuries. If, however, you are like most other P&R Christians, you probably are not aware of that discrepancy. You might assume that the way your congregation conducts its public worship is the way the P&R churches have always done but, in fact, that assumption would not be justified. Continue reading →
J. I. Packer is a significant figure in a variety of circles. He is one of the last voices representing that generation of British evangelicalism that had roots in the Reformation, that was articulate, warm, and evangelical in the best sense of . . . Continue reading →
I’m not a Luddite. I bought my first computer, an Atari ST, in 1985. I began using email (CompuServe) before the internet was made available to the public. It was very exciting when CompuServe and AOL users could email to each other. At . . . Continue reading →
What should we do with John Calvin? What if, on the way back from dinner, we drove through a wormhole into a parallel universe and found John Calvin sitting on our sofa when we arrived home? What would we do with him . . . Continue reading →
This is part 2 of a two-part review of Peter J. Gentry and Stephen J. Wellum, Kingdom Through Covenant (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012). The review is written by Harrison Perkins. He grew up in the south and attended college in Alabama. He began . . . Continue reading →
With this post we begin a two-part review of Peter J. Gentry and Stephen J. Wellum, Kingdom Through Covenant (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012). § It is difficult to know what the best way to review such a large book is (778 pages plus . . . Continue reading →
The main concern is that TGC comprises folk who do not confess the same understanding of the church and sacraments. Continue reading →
John Muether, Cornelius Van Til: Reformed Apologist and Churchman (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2008). Audio Interview with John Muether It is hard to overstate the influence of Cornelius Van Til on confessional and conservative Reformed theology since the early 20th century. I’ll use . . . Continue reading →
Part 1: Overcoming the Musical Divide There is an interesting discussion at Reformingchurches.org [Ed. note: this discussion is no longer online] on what it means to be black and Reformed. This is a question of great importance to the Reformed churches. 11–13% . . . Continue reading →
This is an important book for at least a four reasons. First, it is the first book of its kind demanding and giving compelling reasons why white Reformed Christians should think about and pay attention to and learn from the experience of . . . Continue reading →
Historical theology is an important part of the process of deciding who we are, what we believe and consequently how we will behave. For confessional Protestants, the past is not absolutely definitive, since all theologies besides God’s revealed word err, but its . . . Continue reading →
Bradley Longfield, of Duke University, has written an important book about the struggles surrounding the formation of the OPC in the 1920s-30s. Know Yourself This book is of interest to us for three reasons. First, the OPC is family, and we have . . . Continue reading →