In Acts 21 we read a somewhat startling episode involving a New Testament prophet named Agabus: This is the same Agabus of whom we read earlier in Acts: Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. And one of . . . Continue reading →
Protestant churches, i.e., those that still believe and confess the theology, piety, and practice recovered in the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, celebrate Reformation Day on October 31. This is the day, in 1517, that Dr Martin Luther (1483–1546), a German . . . Continue reading →
Heidelblog reader Randy writes to ask why footwashing (pedilavium) is not regarded as a sacrament. The answer is twofold: 1) from the nature of the sacraments; 2) from the nature and intent of the act of footwashing in the life of our . . . Continue reading →
Christians face now the same great and unending struggle we have always faced: how to recognize when we are being more influenced by the culture than we are by the Word of God. The contours of that struggle have changed over the . . . Continue reading →
One of the questions submitted to the Reformation conference last fall at the Lynden URC asks “in regards to the current state of the church, what is needed in terms of a Reformation?” That’s a great question. If we are talking about . . . Continue reading →
It is widely thought among Christians that God is still revealing himself to believers apart from Scripture. It is not at all uncommon for a Christian to say, “I believe in Scripture alone” (sola Scriptura) in one breath and “The Lord told . . . Continue reading →
RHEMI. [ 1. Desert.] As John the Baptist, so our Saviour by going into the desert and there living in contemplation even among brute beasts, and subject to the assaults of the Devil for our sins, gives a warrant and example to . . . Continue reading →
“But you tell us, why we do so much avoid the Fathers.” I had rather you would tell us why you do so carefully avoid the Scriptures. “For” (say you) “they that cannot away with set times of Fasting, must needs be . . . Continue reading →
DEARLY Beloved in God, after you have heard so eagerly the Gospel and the teachings of the holy Apostles, now for the fourth year, teachings which Almighty God has been merciful enough to publish to you through my weak efforts, the majority . . . Continue reading →
Some make a mockery of the holy things of God. One part of the year they will be holy; a rotten, foolish affection of people that are popish. In Lent they will use a little austerity, oh! they will please God wondrously! . . . Continue reading →
As early as the late 4th century, challenged by a variety of claims of religious authority, many of whom claimed to have an unwritten secret tradition or revelation, Basil the Great (c.330–79), one of the Cappadocian Fathers, rather than standing on the . . . Continue reading →
As I hasten to a conclusion, I am compelled to pass by your calumny, that, leaning entirely to our own judgment, we find not in the whole Church one individual to whom we think deference is due. That it is a calumny, . . . Continue reading →
Machen’s reasoning here was an extension of the Regulative Principle. In the Presbyterian and Reformed tradition this principle has typically been applied to public worship. It teaches that we may only worship God as he has commanded us to worship him in . . . Continue reading →
Wherefore when this Word of God is now preached in the church by preachers lawfully called, we believe that the very Word of God is proclaimed, and received by the faithful; and that neither any other Word of God is to be . . . Continue reading →
When I saw Chris Rosebrough tweet something about a “sneaky squid spirit doctrine” I thought it must be something from The Onion or the Babylon Bee. It is not. It is the latest thing from the world of charismatic continuing prophecy. The . . . Continue reading →
Müntzer stretched Karlstadt’s distinction between the Spirit and the flesh still further by discarding baptism altogether and by setting aside the Scriptures as in themselves constituting no more than a dead letter. ‘Bible, Babel, bubble!’ was his slogan. A. Skevington Wood, “The . . . Continue reading →
Take away, indeed, from the heretics the wisdom which they share with the heathen, and let them support their inquiries from the Scriptures alone: they will then be unable to keep their ground. Tertullian, De res. 3. On the Resurrection of the . . . Continue reading →
To the fourth we answer, that your conclusion of that which Jerome and Vincentius say, that the Devil and heretics use of the Scriptures is childish. And unless you will conclude that all those that use the Scriptures are heretics, it is . . . Continue reading →
This is season 8 of Office Hours and we are celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. In confessional Protestant circles we use some shorthand Latin phrases that all might not understand, even though we use them frequently. Sola scriptura, according to . . . Continue reading →