“We’re all in trouble – whether we’re religious or not—when we don’t have the freedom to live consistent with our faith and our beliefs, when I don’t have the freedom to run my business according to my beliefs, live my life according to my beliefs” Continue reading →
With Back To The Reformation Podcast Taking About Politics And The Church
The question of how Christians should relate Christ (i.e., their allegiance to Christ and the Christian faith) to culture is perhaps the most pressing challenge facing the Christians individually and the institutional, visible church. A subset of this question touches on how . . . Continue reading →
In Defense Of The Bible Belt
One can imagine fewer complaints from the South if her critics held everyone over the fiery pit like one of Edwards’s unfortunate spiders, and did so with equal contempt. But there seems to be a bit of socio-theological dissonance at play. On . . . Continue reading →
They Are Still At It
People assume (as I once did) that since the Martin Luther (1483–1546) first protested the abuse of indulgences, in 1517, that Rome must have been shamed into ending the practice. She was not. The sale of indulgences continues. In §1471 of the Catechism . . . Continue reading →
A Canary In The Cultural Coal Mine
Rasanen and Pohjola are being charged with “hate speech” for respectively writing and publishing a 24-page 2004 booklet that explains basic Christian theology about sex and marriage, which reserves sex exclusively for within marriage, which can only consist of one man and . . . Continue reading →
Federal District Court Judge Suggests That Military Personnel Denied Religious Exemption From The Covid Vaccine May Have A Case Under RFRA
Whether characterized as a facial challenge or as a class of precisely similar as-applied challenges, requiring only a single judicial determination, the plaintiffs’ contention is—based on current data—quite plausible that each branch’s procedure for requesting a religious exemption is a ruse that . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 199—What Must A Christian Believe? (16): Christ Returning
This is episode 16 in the series, What Must A Christian Believe? In our survey of the rule of faith, i.e., the Apostles’ Creed, we have reached the seventh article: “Whence he shall come to judge the living and the dead.” Now . . . Continue reading →
Loco Or In Loco Parentis?
Christina Wyman has published an OpEd on NBCnews.com in which she argues that parents who insist on influencing the education of their children do not understand how education actually works. She observes that the latest crisis, focused on the schools in Loudon . . . Continue reading →
An Unusually Thoughtful Podcast: Presbycast On When Church Became Theatre
The Presbycast is one of my favorite podcasts and Harrison Perkins, a regular contributor to the Heidelblog, is one of my favorite writers and, in this episode, like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, the two come together: They are discussing Jeanne Halgren Kilde’s . . . Continue reading →
Mass Anesthesia: Self-Medicating Our Deconstructed Souls
Americans have always been restless. We are, after all, a nation of immigrants and once those immigrants arrived here they kept moving. The impulse to move and to keep moving is driven by dissatisfaction. Sometimes it has been dissatisfaction with the religious . . . Continue reading →
Review: Grant Macaskill, Autism and the Church: Bible, Theology, and Community (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2019)
Since first being credentialed by a presbytery in 2014, several topics have occupied my thoughts for extended periods of time regarding how best to preach and to pastor people wrestling with difficult issues, but none so much as the matter of mental . . . Continue reading →
Discounted 55% Until November 30, 2021: On Being Reformed
It is temporarily discounted 55%
Religious Liberty Watch: OSHA Suspends Vaccine Mandate In Wake Of Fifth Circuit Ruling
There is very little news coverage of this decision but it is on the OSHA website. Continue reading
Should They Stay Or Should They Go?
It’s a question that more than a few PCA elders and members are asking right now. The recent Standing Judicial Commission’s (SJC) decision to reject the complaint against Missouri Presbytery has left many disheartened. Moreover, the current presbytery voting tallies on Overtures . . . Continue reading →
Another Reason Why The Covenant Of Works Matters
Yesterday a prominent evangelical theologian tweeted “The gospel does not begin with Genesis 3 and human sin. The gospel begins with Genesis 1 and God’s goodness and our grandeur. If we start with Genesis 3, we make the gospel seem tiresome, predictable. . . . Continue reading →
Trueman: Nietzsche Was Prescient
While many on the right default to accusations of cultural Marxism when confronted with such iconoclasm, I would argue that this latest trend is reminiscent of nothing so much as Friedrich Nietzsche’s haunting statement in Twilight of the Idols: “I fear we . . . Continue reading →
“A Very Well-Organized Clandestine Political Wing Of Our Denomination”
The recent e-mail dump containing nine years’ worth of confidential National Partnership business has been dubbed #PresbyLeaks, which hilariously sounds like a terrible geriatric condition. A very well-organized clandestine political wing of our denomination has been exposed for being exactly what it . . . Continue reading →
Book Notes: Two Significant Titles For Your Library
Our Bibles consistently use the noun ‘Transfiguration’ with regard to Jesus but ‘Transformation’ with regard to the Christian – and yet it is one and the same verb, transliterated ‘metamorphosed,’ that is used in those places in the original text. Why is that so? Is there an important difference between them? Continue reading →
Heidelcast 198—What Must A Christian Believe? (15): Christ Reigning
This is episode 15 in the series, What Must A Christian Believe? In our survey of the rule of faith, i.e., the Apostles’ Creed, we have reached the sixth article: “He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of . . . Continue reading →
Discovering The Reformed Confession: Keith Giles Moves From Hal Lindsey To The Heidelberg Catechism
I was born and brought up in London, England and my family were faithful members of the Open Brethren churches, who count as part of their history the great George Müller and the martyr, Jim Elliot; firmly premillennial, dispensational, ‘no creed but the Bible’ and credobaptist with many other idiosyncrasies thrown in! I moved to Coventry in the Midlands of England for college and stayed in that area afterwards, involved in a variety of evangelistic efforts and youth work. I even remember one summer teaching faithfully at a Bible class with all the charts and without any doubt, the end times according to Hal Lindsey! Continue reading →