For most of 2,000 years the Christian church was universally agreed that there is one way of salvation, that the history of redemption was essentially unified. In the post-apostolic church this consensus began to develop very early in the 2nd century in . . . 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 is professor emeritus of church history and historical theology at Westminster Seminary California, where he taught for 29 years. He also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007 and the Heidelcast since 2009.
Censorship By The Humorless And The Top Men
“And in a world where evangelical comment is increasingly censored from within by the humourless and the Top Men, a samizdat operation is unlikely to lose its purpose in the near future.”* —Carl Trueman, “On Mortification and Narnia” — * Samizdat = . . . Continue reading →
Is There A Covenant Of Grace?
It’s not unusual for evangelicals, which movements have been heavily influenced by Anabaptist theology, piety, and practice since the early 19th century. In that case we would not expect them to be aware of the categories “covenant of works” and “covenant of . . . Continue reading →
Have We Become Bedford Falls Without George Bailey?
I know it’s a sentimental movie and I know that its view of angels isn’t biblical and I know that the anthropology of the film is problematic. Nevertheless, I get the sense that the whole country is becoming Bedford Falls without George . . . Continue reading →
The Attraction Of Legal Preaching: The Interview
As a follow-up to the post on legal preaching Chris Gordon and I sat down in the Abounding Grace Radio studio to talk through the issue of the attraction of legal preaching. Once again, neither the post nor the episode is a . . . Continue reading →
The Contemporary Relevance Of The Reformation
There is an old saw, “Now you’ve quit preaching and gone to meddling.” The “preaching” is telling the story. The “meddling” is applying the story. Folk will tolerate it when historians tell stories about the past. They might be entertaining or interesting . . . Continue reading →
Escondido Rainbow
Ishmael And Infant Baptism
We heard a sermon from Genesis 17 this morning, and I could not help but draw some conclusions relative to the current discussion about infant baptism that is ongoing at Together For the Gospel and at Between Two Worlds. Of course this . . . Continue reading →
Three Ways of Relating to the One Covenant of Grace
At the PB the question was asked: We know that there are at least two categories of people within Scripture, the elect, and the non-elect. However, it might be apparent that there is a third class of people, those who have taken . . . Continue reading →
Where Machen Last Preached
The photo comes from GhostsofNorthDakoka.com. Thanks to Wayne Sparkman for pointing us to this photo of the Presbyterian Church of America congregation, in Leith, ND, as it was known then, where J. Gresham Machen preached his final sermon before becoming ill on . . . Continue reading →
Abandoned Churches: From Mission To Museum
For years we drove past this old, abandoned church just north of I-80 near Milford, Nebraska. It was always a lonely vista but it was just one among many. I have often wondered about it, briefly, as we have driven west from . . . Continue reading →
Images Of Harvest
Food starts here
Narcissism, Ignorance, and Bureaucracy: A Vicious Combination
Vitium. St Augustine helped us to understand Paul’s doctrine of sin by using the word vitium. It denotes a powerful corrupting force. We’ve translated it into English with the word “vice” but that word long ago lost its force. We refer to . . . Continue reading →
Abounding Grace: Godfrey On Evangelism
Bob Godfrey joined Chris Gordon last week to record two episodes of AGR. Bob is president of Westminster Seminary California and a convert to the Christian faith who came to faith through the ministry of a Reformed congregation. You can read his . . . Continue reading →
Video: Rosaria Butterfield’s Secret Thoughts Of An Unlikely Convert
(HT: Justin Taylor)
Office Hours: The Legacy of Martin Luther King
Americans are in the midst of a national discussion about race. It’s a difficult discussion, one that is not always conducted well either by politicians or preachers. Dr Martin Luther King is not only a central figure in this discussion but he . . . Continue reading →
Photos From “Our Only Comfort” Conference
Abounding Grace Radio: How To Choose A Church (2)
Here’s part 1. One of the more difficult things Christians do is to decide where to worship. They use a lot of criteria. Some of them are valid criteria but many of them are not. Frequently people choose congregations on the basis . . . Continue reading →
Law, Gospel, And The Three Uses of the Law
By “law and gospel” I refer to the difference between those of us who hold to the historic and confessional distinction between those places in Scripture where God commands and those places where he promises. Historically, Protestants have described these two ways . . . Continue reading →















