R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.
Arguably two of the issues that separate confessional Reformed folk from their Baptist friends are the Sabbath and baptism. For many Baptists (but not all—there are confessional Baptists who agree with the Reformed on the Sabbath) it is a given that the . . . Continue reading →
The contemporary use of the word community has troubled me for some time. I could not put my finger on it until today. It came to me during a drive across the vast wasteland that is Nevada. People routinely speak about the . . . Continue reading →
When Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536) was born, the printing press was about fifteen years old. Paul II was Pope. Frederick III was Holy Roman Emperor. What we think of today as the Netherlands was ruled by the House of Burgundy. Luther would not . . . Continue reading →
Apparently a bizarre and unforeseen tornado struck Minneapolis. According to this post by John Piper, it hit an ELCA (mainline) Lutheran Church just as they were about to consider ecclesiastical policy regarding homosexuality. Continue reading →
In the public sphere, for example in online publications and on social media, one sees two extremes regarding women in the church generally: let us call the first the “make me a sammich” crowd. Continue reading →
Like watching paint dry. Continue reading →
The Heidelberg Reformation Association presents the first ever translation of a brief work on the Lord’s Supper by Zacharias Ursinus and translated by Dr Lee Irons. Continue reading →
We sit in church week after week and, if we are blessed, twice a week, for corporate worship. One of the most important elements of that holy assembly of the Christ-Confessing covenant people is the preaching of the Word. Yet, were we . . . Continue reading →
Americans love a comeback story. Americans also love magic. Sometimes the two converge, as they did in the Ted Williams story. He was a radio announcer with a great voice, who became a drunk and a drug addict. He was on the . . . Continue reading →
In the last month, we have witnessed the death of one pope and the election of another, and as typically happened, we saw reporters speaking in solemn tones about the unbroken line of succession from Peter to Leo XIV. Also, recent months . . . Continue reading →
Planet Money is an interesting and usually fair-minded (they talk to Keynesians and to free-market capitalists) account of economic theory and the global economy. Their most recent podcast was a story about a Spanish savings bank called cajas de ahorros.1 It is . . . Continue reading →
![baptism fin [recovered]](https://heidelblog.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/18153622/Smith_Reformed_Confessionalism-300x420.jpg)
When the strongest criticism I can make of a book is that the author used an obscure word (complexify, 45) that says something about the strength of a work.1 Let me say at the outset, I really like this book. This is . . . Continue reading →
And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their . . . Continue reading →
The publication of this new research, completed only in the last month, may surprise some readers, disappoint others, and delight still others but it is important research that changes what we know about the origins and development of the controversy over the . . . Continue reading →
Two days ago (Monday, 21 June 2010) was the summer solstice (from Latin sol [sun] + sistere [to stand]). The AP reports that “Thousands of New Agers and neo-pagans danced and whooped in delight Monday as a bright early morning sun rose . . . Continue reading →
What follows is intended to reflect the liturgies of Geneva (1542), Strasbourg (1545), and Heidelberg (1563) but I have borrowed language from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and the Forms and Prayers of the United Reformed Churches in North America. Continue reading →
Consider your options. Continue reading →
In 1520 Martin Luther published one of his most influential treatises, On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church. In it he attempted to set the church free from bondage to human opinion by unleashing again, as it were, God’s Word as the . . . Continue reading →
“Because of the angels . . .” (1 Cor 11:10). Paul uses this profound and striking phrase in the eleventh chapter of 1 Corinthians, but because of all the issues Paul was addressing in the Corinthian congregation, many of which continued to plague the . . . Continue reading →
Most college students are taught that, in the pre-Enlightenment world, religious zealots persecuted enlightened astronomers for daring to challenge deeply held but ignorant religious beliefs on the basis of early modern science. Whether that story is true as told is immaterial. That . . . Continue reading →