Numerous amici—even some not supporting the States—have cautioned the Court that its decision here will “have unavoidable and wide-ranging implications for religious liberty.” Brief for General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists et al. as Amici Curiae 5. In our society, marriage is not simply a governmental institution; it is a religious institution as well. Id., at 7. Today’s decision might change the former, but it cannot change the latter. It appears all but inevitable that the two will come into conflict, particularly as individuals and churches are confronted with demands to participate in and endorse civil marriages between same-sex couples. Continue reading →
Blog Archives
Heidelberg 84: The Indispensability Of Preaching
In evangelical Christianity, to some degree after the so-called First Great Awakening and certainly after the so-called Second Great Awakening, the line between lay witness and the official (done from a particular ecclesiastical office) of preaching became blurred. The Reformed theologians who . . . Continue reading →
Fundamental Liberties Still Matter
The colonists brought the principles of Magna Carta with them to the New World, including that charter’s protection against uncompensated takings of personal property. In 1641, for example, Massachusetts adopted its Body of Liberties, prohibiting “mans Cattel or goods of what kinde . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 83: Christ Gave The Keys To The Church
This imagery is a challenge to our late-modern assumptions. We might assume that, of course, God must be happy to have us, that the kingdom of God must be inclusive. Such an assumption, however pervasive it has become in the modern age, is foreign to Scripture. In Scriptural teaching we are by nature rebels, at odds with God and excluded from his kingdom. Apart from Christ our righteous substitute and our king, we have no status before God except as condemned before the king. Therefore we very much need the gates to the Kingdom of Heaven to be opened for us. Continue reading →
Francis Does Not Understand The Gospel
To reduce this verse to material poverty is to fail to grasp the significance of Christ’s incarnation. Money has nothing to do with the gospel. When Francis says material poverty is integral to the gospel, he is robbing people of the true . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 82: The Jeopardy Of The Supper
82. Are they then also to be admitted to this Supper who show themselves by their confession and life to be unbelieving and ungodly? No, for thereby the covenant of God is profaned and His wrath provoked against the whole congregation; wherefore . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 81: Who May Come To The Table?
Who are to come to the table of the Lord? Those who are displeased with themselves for their sins, yet trust that these are forgiven them, and that their remaining infirmity is covered by the passion and death of Christ; who also . . . Continue reading →
We Acknowledge And Bewail Our Sins
ALMIGHTY God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Maker of all things, Judge of all men; We knowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, which we, from time to time, most grievously have committed by thought, word, and deed, against thy . . . Continue reading →
When Pastors Abuse
In the wake of the recent discussions about church discipline there have been many online discussions about whether churches should exercise ecclesiastical discipline (yes, it’s one of the three marks of the true church—see Belgic Confession art. 29), how, and when. In . . . Continue reading →
The First Amendment Defense Act
The First Amendment Defense Act follows our nation’s long tradition of protecting the natural right to the free exercise of religion and freedom of association as enshrined in our Constitution. It ensures that the federal government respects the rights of individuals, businesses . . . Continue reading →
A Win For Free Speech
Today, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Good News Community Church, concluding that these sign restrictions are content-based regulation because they define the categories of temporary, political and ideological signs on the basis of their messages and subject each category . . . Continue reading →
Interview With TruNews’ Rick Wiles: On The Secret Rapture
It was a pleasure to talk with Rick Wiles on TruNews today. Rick’s show is heard on radio stations all over America, across the globe, and on the web at TruNews.com. Here is the full episode. Here is the audio from the . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 80: We Don’t Need Any Footnotes
In one of Humphrey Bogart’s (1899–1957) most famous scenes, from Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), he asks some bandits, who claimed to be Mexican Federal Police, to show their badges. Their famous reply, which has been oft misquoted, was: Badges, we . . . Continue reading →
Logicide And The Death Of Freedom
All of that and more promotes the semantic fog that allows for mind rape. It amounts to an act of “logicide,” to borrow a term from Meerloo, whom I will continue to quote below. To kill logic and reason that might stand . . . Continue reading →
In Defense Of Church Discipline
Jonathan Merritt has an interesting two-part post chronicling reaction to the struggles of The Village Church, a large (twice the size of at least two NAPARC denominations) multi-site Acts 29 congregation in Texas, with a church discipline case. In this case a woman discovered . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 79: A Metaphor Is No Joke
79. Why then does Christ call the bread His body, and the cup His blood, or the New Testament in His blood, and St. Paul, the communion of the body and the blood of Christ? Christ speaks thus not without great cause, . . . Continue reading →
Pay No Attention To That Slippery Slope Behind The Curtain
The Emory Law Journal has a symposium on the constitution and polygamous marriage. Some articles are on whether the government may criminalize adults entering into polygamous religious marriages, even when the parties aren’t claiming any legal rights stemming from such a marriage. . . . Continue reading →
The Gospel Is Not Social
Between Monasticism And Transformation
Like Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834) before him, Rauschenbusch’s Pietism had not equipped him to address the challenges before him. Like Schleiermacher, Rauschenbusch turned to the liberals for answers. He synthesized his Pietist theology with Albrecht Ritschl’s theology of the Kingdom of God. The Social Gospel movement wanted to bring about the Kingdom of God on earth. Their optimistic eschatology (doctrine of last things) told them that they could do it. They were inspired by the Modern idea of the universal brotherhood of humanity and the universal fatherhood of God. As many others before them had done the Social Gospel movement harassed the Christian faith to their social agenda. Continue reading →
What’s Going On, Why, And What To Do About It?
…There is indeed a war on the private mind, as Kevin Williamson explained in a recent National Review column. Unfortunately, too many Americans have been sleeping through most of its propaganda battles, and for a very long time. When it comes to . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 78: Against Transubstantiation
The key term here is substance. In the older Christian appropriation (and modification) of Aristotle the term substance refers to that which makes a thing what it is, that without with it is not (sine qua non). It’s easier to understand substance if we contrast it with accidents. You are probably reading this post on a computer or a mobile device. Your device may be silver, black, or white or some other color. Its color is accidental to its essence. Accident here does not refer to an unintentional collision but to a feature of something that is not essential to it. So, in an electronic device, the color does not make it what it is. Its circuits, chips, and screens make it what it is. They are essential to it. They are of the substance of the device. According to the Romanist doctrine of the supper, the substance of the bread is transformed into the substance of the body of Christ, even though the accidents remain unchanged. Continue reading →