Unlike many older Calvin scholars, then, I would not try to understand Calvin terms of a single thesis in the Institutes such as the glory of God, predestination, providence, or meditating on the future life, then using this as a master principle . . . Continue reading →
Author: R. Scott Clark
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.
Resources On Continuing Revelation
Since the Second Great Awakening, in the 19th century, modern evangelical theology, piety, and practice has come to be dominated by various species of what are really expressions of the original Anabaptist theology, piety, and practice in the sixteenth century. They were . . . Continue reading →
Audio: How Not To Be A Heretic
You and I are not the first ones to read the Bible. Christians as individuals and the church as a corporation has been hearing, meditating upon, and reading God’s Word for its entire history. One of the principal fruits of that corporate . . . Continue reading →
Coming Soon: Theodore Beza On The Lord’s Supper
Theodore Beza lived from 1519 until 1605. This means that he was a boy when the Reformation occurred and was nearing his death as the controversy between Arminius (whom Beza taught in Geneva) and the Reformed churches was developing. In between, he . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: Student To Pastor To Pastor-Teacher
Office Hours usually focuses on the process, i.e., on what the faculty says to the students and to others about what scripture says and what it means. That is as it should be because that is what we do at Westminster Seminary . . . Continue reading →
Calvin Birthday 2016: Resources For Understanding Calvin
John Calvin was born on this date, 10 July 1509. He died in 1564. He was author of many volumes (including a massive Bible commentary, hundreds of personal letters, and public treatises), most famous of which is his Institutes of the Christian . . . Continue reading →
Maybe It Comes Down To Method?
We understand that some strands of Baptist and evangelical life have not typically learned the habit of creedal thinking but have tended to emphasize independent Biblicism and personal exegesis. Perhaps that lies at the root of much of this dispute. But this . . . Continue reading →
Function And Subsistence Are Distinct Categories
Both the unity of the divine essence and the distinction of the persons within that essence are matters of ontology, of the divine being. Some, like Wollebius, define the divine persons as “the essence of God, with a certain manner of subsisting” . . . Continue reading →
Bakersfield School Board Member Resigns:What It Means
As I considered the many requests I became increasingly dogged by the concern that staying on the board would be giving Christian parents false hope. Why? I do not believe this battle can be won at the school board level. It is . . . Continue reading →
Iowa Civil Rights Commission Asserts Authority To Determine Christian Faith And Practice
An Existential Threat To Religious Liberty
DOES THIS LAW APPLY TO CHURCHES? Sometimes. Iowa law provides that these protections do not apply to religious institutions with respect to any religion-based qualifications when such qualifications are related to a bona fide religious purpose. Where qualifications are not related to . . . Continue reading →
Marshall: Meditate Before You Rush Into Law Keeping
This is an advertisement very needful; because many are apt to skip over the lesson concerning the means (that will fill up this whole treatise) as superfluous and useless. When once they know the nature and excellency of the duties of the . . . Continue reading →
The Wilsonian Legacy: Too Big To Jail
This is the Wilsonian legacy, finally achieved after a century of waiting: the Big Man (or Woman), unanswerable to the law, approved by the population without regard to equality under the law. We now elect our dictators. And they are unanswerable to . . . Continue reading →
What Heresy Is, Who Gets To Say, And Why?
Part of the problem has been that in using the word ‘heresy’ (which I didn’t but do now) we have been talking past each other. Heresy is not a word to be used carelessly and hurled indiscriminately at anyone who dares to . . . Continue reading →
Sanctification Is A Work Of God’s Grace: Resources On Sanctification
It is held by some who think of themselves as evangelical and Reformed that justification is by grace alone (sola gratia) but sanctification is by grace and works, i.e., that it is synergistic. To my great shame, I remember once answering a . . . Continue reading →
The American Declaration Of Independence
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume . . . Continue reading →
The Practical Danger Of “Continuing Prophecy”
When I first met my husband-to-be, it was like a dream come true. We met on a missions trip. He was kind, considerate, actively serving in the church, spiritually mature, and handsome, too. Our friendship grew quickly and within months we were . . . Continue reading →
How The PCA GA Action On The Role Of Women In The Church Appears To One Woman
Editor’s Note: The following is written by a PCA pastor’s wife, who is herself a seminary graduate. In the interests of focusing on issues and not personalities, the writer shall remain anonymous. For obvious reasons, comments on this post are closed. § . . . Continue reading →
Help Les Make “Calvinist”
Open Discussion Leads To Peace. Squelching Dissent Does Not
By the way, I accept it as fair that if a person advocates positions in writing, his ideas may be criticized and disagreed with vigorously—I won’t squeal about spirited and rational public discourse. Indeed, more of that may lead to more peace . . . Continue reading →
Justice Thomas Contra The Majority On Making Up Law As We Go Along
I remain fundamentally opposed to the Court’s abortion jurisprudence. …It is tempting to identify the Court’s invention of a constitutional right to abortion in Roe v. Wade, 410 U. S. 113, as the tipping point that transformed third-party standing doctrine and the . . . Continue reading →