Video: What Is Baptism?

by on August 22, 2021 | 5 Comments

The Rev Mr Scott McDermand is a graduate of Westminster Seminary California (MA, MDiv). He is pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Bad Axe, Michigan. A native of San Diego and a former baseball player, Scott served as full-time pulpit supply at Alpine . . . Continue reading →

Princeton Seminary Catches Up With Machen On Segregation?

by R. Scott Clark on August 20, 2021 1 Comment

Almost three years ago there was a controversy over the disclosure and publication of Machen’s hitherto unpublished letter to his mother in which he mentioned his objection to B. B. Warfield over the latter’s plan to integrate the seminary’s dormitory. Predictably, Machen was denounced by social progressives. They might have spoken too soon, however, since apparently PTS has come to agree with Machen in principle and practice. Continue reading →

Afghanistan, A Twofold Kingdom, Serpents, And Doves

by on August 19, 2021 | 9 Comments

The disastrous American withdrawal from Afghanistan has created a multifaceted crisis. A savage regime has retaken control of Afghanistan and bodies of innocent civilians and American allies are already strewn across the streets. This is the Taliban is showing a modicum of restraint as they wait for the world’s television cameras to lose interest and they can begin executing their reprisals in earnest. Doubtless they are quaking in their new boots (courtesy of the Afghan National Army and the US taxpayer) at the finger wagging coming from the US State Department.  Most Americans seem to want America out of Afghanistan but few Americans want what has transpired over the last few days across Afghanistan. Continue reading →

Yes, A Pope Will Occasionally Speak About Justification By Grace And Faith

by R. Scott Clark on August 18, 2021 11 Comments

The Bishop of Rome apparently made noises about justification by grace through faith and some evangelicals are excited as if this marks a change in Roman doctrine or in the bishop’s thinking. It does not. Continue reading →

Tyler The Ex-Evangelical Quits Swimming

by on August 17, 2021 | 4 Comments

(HT: Brian Brindis De Salas) Resources How To Subscribe To Heidelmedia The Heidelblog Resource Page How to support Heidelmedia: use the donate button below this post. Heidelmedia Resources The Ecumenical Creeds The Reformed Confessions The Heidelberg Catechism Recovering the Reformed Confession (Phillipsburg: P&R . . . Continue reading →

Ministry Is Not Mastery

by on August 16, 2021 | 7 Comments

For all that I learned and tried one aspect of the church-growth movement, perhaps the most fundamental aspect, always made me uneasy and makes me uneasy to this day: the church-growth model was a theology of glory and it turned ministers, who should be theologians of the cross, into theologians of glory. The selling point of the various methods and mentalities was numerical success: look at this congregation. Their pastor and leadership adopted this model and look how many people came. Congregation after congregation was shown to be growing and exciting and influential. Why could we not do the same thing? The possibility was very attractive and it was easily clothed in the pious language of “reaching the lost.” I did want to reach the lost but I also wanted to be “successful.” Continue reading →

New Resource Page: On The Assurance Of Salvation

by on August 14, 2021 | 2 Comments

One of the animating forces that drove the Reformation was problem and doctrine of assurance. In the medieval church (as in the Roman communion and in some Protestant quarters today) it was ordinarily impossible for a Christian to have confidence that he had been saved and was accepted by God. Tragically, one finds this sort of approach among some evangelicals and even among some ostensibly Reformed writers. Continue reading →

Calvin As Theologian Of Comfort

by on August 14, 2021

Wikipedia, that ubiquitous source of unimpeachable scholarship, defines “consolation” as “something of value, when one fails to get something of higher value….” That is precisely the opposite of what John Calvin (1509–64) meant by “consolation.”For Calvin, the consolation that Christ gives to his people, by the gospel, through the Spirit, is not second prize but to be valued above that which we lost. When we consider Calvin, “consolation” might not be the thing we first associate with him. The dominant perception of Calvin our culture is that of a tyrannical, dyspeptic fellow, who delighted in nothing more than to dispatch a few heretics to the flames before breakfast. That caricature, however, was one drawn by his enemies during his lifetime and sadly, despite the facts, it has stuck for a variety of reasons. Continue reading →