Articulus iustificationis dicitur articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae (the article of justification is said to be the article of the standing or falling of the church)” —J. H. Alsted (1588–1638), Theologia scholastica didactica (Hanover, 1618), 711. For the sense and origins of . . . Continue reading →
Sola Gratia
The Social Crisis is Too Great to Be Arguing About… (Updated)
The various social crises facing the West are great but the Roman empire was already in crisis when God the Holy Spirit empowered Christ’s apostles to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. Rome fell. The gospel and Christ’s church continued. Another empire, Christendom, replaced the old Roman Empire but it fell too. The kingdom of God, as manifested chiefly in this world in the visible, institutional church, continued. Social crises are important but they aren’t more important than the gospel. Seeing that is a key difference between actually being Reformed and being just another social conservative with a passing interest in the Reformation (as it suits whatever social agenda is in view). Continue reading →
Warfield or Shepherd?
“Just in proportion as we are striving to supplement or to supplant His perfect work, just in that proportion is our hope of salvation resting on works, and not on faith. Ethicism and solafideanism — these are the eternal contraries, mutually exclusive. . . . Continue reading →
The Problem of Continuing Revelation and the Finality of Scripture
This week’s episode of the White Horse Inn is interesting and important because it deals with two closely related problems: the finality of the Scriptures as God’s Word and the claims to ongoing revelation made by modern neo-Pentecostalists and by the Roman . . . Continue reading →
Was the Reformation a Big Misunderstanding?
This topic has arisen before on the HB. Not long ago we discovered that, contrary to some suggestions, the Pope is, in fact, not a Protestant. Before that we saw that, contrary to the assertion of Mark Noll and Carolyn Nystrom, the . . . Continue reading →
Whence the Reformation Solas?
From where do we get the Reformation solas? I get this question with some frequency, usually around Reformation Day. Here is a preliminary answer: The ideas were present from the earliest stage of the Reformation, but the actual phrases developed over time. . . . Continue reading →