Since the 1970s and 80s the Dispensational-evangelical world has been involved in a running controversy over “the Lordship of Christ.” On one side are those Dispensationalists allied with Lewis Sperry Chafer, Charlies Ryrie, and Zane Hodges, who assert that so long as . . . Continue reading →
Dear Brother I want to thank you. Here, where I live, it is not easy to get Reformed teaching but thanks to technology I have been able to listen to the Heidelcast; specifically to the series on the Marrow of Modern Divinity. . . . Continue reading →
Here is the third 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 the question and answer session of the conference from Friday evening. Here . . . Continue reading →
Here is the second 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 the question and answer session of the conference from Friday evening. Here . . . Continue reading →
In season 5 of Office Hours we focused on the biblical, Reformed, and confessional doctrine and practice of sanctification, i.e., the process of being made holy, of being brought gradually and graciously into conformity to Christ by the Holy Spirit. The doctrine . . . Continue reading →
Romans is one of the greatest resources available to the Christian faith and life. Written in the mid-to late AD 50s to the congregation in Rome, Paul sent this pastoral letter to make clear the gospel, that salvation is from the Lord, . . . Continue reading →
Romans is one of the greatest resources available to the Christian faith and life. Written in the mid-to late AD 50s to the congregation in Rome, Paul sent this pastoral letter to make clear the gospel, that salvation is from the Lord, . . . Continue reading →
Romans is one of the greatest resources available to the Christian faith and life. Written in the mid-to late AD 50s to the congregation in Rome, Paul sent this pastoral letter to make clear the gospel, that salvation is from the Lord, . . . Continue reading →
Romans is one of the greatest resources available to the Christian faith and life. Written in the mid-to late AD 50s to the congregation in Rome, Paul sent this pastoral letter to make clear the gospel, that salvation is from the Lord, that it is and has always been by his free favor alone (sola gratia), through faith alone (sola fide), in Christ alone. Continue reading →
The single most frequent way to corrupt the doctrine of perseverance has been to turn it into a covenant of works. This happens regularly outside the Reformed churches. E.g., the Romanists teach that, in baptism, sins are graciously washed away, initial justification . . . Continue reading →
One of the great and persisting differences between the Reformed and Remonstrant (Arminian) confessions is the difference between the Reformed realism about the Christian life as distinct from the latent Remonstrant perfectionism, i.e., the Pelagianizing doctrine of entire, sinless perfection short of . . . Continue reading →
This is Easter Week 2019. On this day, since the late 4th century (393) the Western (Latin) church has remembered that our Lord instituted the sign and seal of the renewal of the covenant of grace, holy communion (the Lord’s Supper). On . . . Continue reading →
What is legalism? The charge of legalism is so carelessly flung around today that people have no idea what the term means. It’s become a catch phrase to write off any teaching of God’s moral law. There are three ways this term . . . Continue reading →
And this is the reason why the author of The Letter to the Hebrews refers to faith all the good works of which we read as being done among the holy fathers, and judges them by faith alone [Heb. 11:2 ff.; 11:17; . . . Continue reading →
There is a lot of vague talk about “spirituality” in the broader culture today and very little of it is genuinely Christian. Visit the “spirituality” section of Barnes and Noble and you will see I what I mean. There is another approach . . . Continue reading →
Outside the church, i.e., outside the visible, organized Christ-confessing covenant community, where the gospel is preached purely, the sacraments of Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are administered purely, and where church discipline is used, the church often looks very different than . . . Continue reading →
A complex question came over the electronic transom this morning. It has at least two parts: (1) Is persistent sin (e.g., sexual sin or desire) our identity, who we are; (2) Does the Lord want us to offer this sin to him? . . . Continue reading →
Almost since the beginning of the Reformation there were two reactions to the recovery of the gospel: legalism, or nomism, and antinomianism. There are associated doctrines and practices but the core of antinomianism is the rejection of the abiding validity of the . . . Continue reading →
In Luke 12:50, as part of a wide-ranging discourse with strong eschatological overtones, our Lord Jesus characterizes his coming death in a striking way. He said, “But I have a baptism with which to be baptized and how I constrained until it . . . Continue reading →
In some circles it has become axiomatic that sexual sins are no worse and no different from any other sins. This is only half true. To be faithful to Scripture we must divide the question because there are two things to be . . . Continue reading →