. . . b. A usus elenchticus or pedagogicus. In this capacity the law serves the purpose of bring man under conviction of sin, and of making him conscious of his inability to meet the demands of the law. In that way . . . Continue reading →
Crums! You Mean Rome Isn’t Completely Unified?
So just when Jason and the Callers thought they had escaped the unsatisfying clutches of Protestantism, they entered a communion riven by the same kind of divisions that characterized the modernist-fundamentalist controversy. One side wants the church to continue to adapt to . . . Continue reading →
The Synagogue As Pattern For Early Christian Worship
When comparing the worship of the early church with that of the synagogue, we labour under this disadvantage, that, if the primitive church had any liturgy, it has not been handed down to us; still, as far as we can ascertain anything . . . Continue reading →
Owen On The Law In The Garden And On Horeb
Q. 1. Which is the law that God gave man at first to fulfill? A. The same which was afterwards written with the finger of God in two tables of stone Mount Horeb, called the Ten Commandments. John Owen | Greater Catechism . . . Continue reading →
Calvin: The Promise Of Grace Without Any Mention Of The Law
I do not want to pursue the individual testimonies that the stupid Sorbonnists of today have groundlessly torn from Scripture—whatever first came to hand—to fling at us. For some are so ridiculous that I could not mention them unless I wished to . . . Continue reading →
Subjectivism As Scholarship
The epistle to Diognetus is an anonymous writing of an uncertain date. …Its claim to be include among the apostolic fathers rests on custom rather than right, for it is probably later than any of the other writings in this group, and . . . Continue reading →
The Sum And The Whole Cause Of Romans
The sum and whole cause of the writing of this epistle is to prove that a man is justified by faith only; which proposition whoso denieth, to him is not only this epistle and all that Paul writeth, but also the whole . . . Continue reading →
Monuments Of Idolatry
There was also presented to the Assembly, a new Paraphrase of the Psalms in English meter, which was well liked of and commended by some of the members of the Assembly; But because we conceived that the Psalm Book in all the . . . Continue reading →
Political Pluralism And Public Prayer
When we allow evangelicals to pray as evangelicals, Catholics to pray as Catholics, Muslims to pray as Muslims, Jews to pray as Jews, we are not undermining political pluralism in our democracy, we’re upholding it. That’s why these prayers are not an . . . Continue reading →
Pervasive Unbelief In The PCUSA
All this is true. But it really does not apply to the situation in the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. The point is that Church is very largely dominated by unbelief. It does not merely harbor unbelief here and there. No, it . . . Continue reading →
Standard Reformed Polemics Against The Use Of Musical Instruments In Worship
But all light into, all perceptions of, this glory, all experience of its power, were, amongst the most, lost in the world. I intend, in all these instances, the time of the Papal apostasy. Those who had the conduct of religion could . . . Continue reading →
The Church’s Closed Canon By The Latter Half Of The Second Century
This is enough to show that it is quite wrong to contend that there was no concern for marking out or keeping inviolate the contents of the new covenant Scriptures in the second century, or to claim that there was no generally . . . Continue reading →
Laura Smit On The Foolishness Of Romantic Dreams About The Mainline
Some of my friends in the CRC seem to think that this would be a good thing. They speak to me with wistful longing about the “freedom” of the PCUSA. This is a romantic vision that is unrelated to the truth. The . . . Continue reading →
Kevin DeYoung Isn’t “Nice” (Because He Laughs At Vanity)
Satire, sarcasm, irony, hyperbole–these are dangerous weapons, only to be wielded in spiritual warfare with caution and with great aplomb. But they are to be wielded at times. To poke fun at the oh-so-important, the perpetually offended, and the self-righteously sentimental can . . . Continue reading →
John Rainolds On The Jewishness Of Roman Masses And Instruments
I have showed, how. And if you see it not: the veil may be the cause, which is very likely to be laid on your heart in reading of the new testament, as it was on the heart of others, in reading . . . Continue reading →
Calvin On The Proper Practice Of The Lord’s Supper
43. But as for the outward ceremony of the action — whether or not the believers take it in their hands, or divide it among themselves, or severally eat what has been given to each; whether they hand the cup back to . . . Continue reading →
Wollebius On Bible Translation
Prolegomena To Christian Theology “XV. Therefore, their [Scripture] translation into the common language of every nation is necessary. XVI. No translation is authentic except in so far as it agrees with the Hebrew and Greek originals.” Johannes Wollebius | Compendium of Christian . . . Continue reading →
When Nice Is The Highest Virtue
In an age when being nice is the highest virtue, publicly confronting error from a well-known Christian is perhaps the last taboo in contemporary evangelicalism. I am a pastor. I write things that a very small number of people here and there . . . Continue reading →
Foucault: Homosexuality Is A Social Construct
In his Histoire de la Sexualité, Michel Foucault argues that homosexuality is a social construct, and one constructed terribly recently at that. “As defined by the ancient civil or canonical codes,” he writes, “sodomy was a category of forbidden acts; their perpetrator . . . Continue reading →
Tyndale’s Application of the Regulative Principle
Mark well how many parsonages or vicarages are there in the realm, which at the least have a plow-land a-piece. Then note the lands of bishops, abbots, priors, nuns, knights of St John’s, cathedral churches, colleges, chauntries, and free-chapels. For though the . . . Continue reading →