Incensed parents now make news almost daily, objecting to radical material taught in their children’s public schools. But little insight has been provided into the mindset and tactics of activist teachers themselves. That may now be changing, thanks to leaked audio from . . . Continue reading →
Discovering the Reformed Confession: Ryan Broadhurst’s Journey From Left Behind To Loving Covenantal Baptism
Though the mode of baptism is not the primary argument that moved me away it was the starting point that caused me to re-examine Reformed covenant theology as a whole and Jeremiah 31 in particular. Continue reading →
Heidelcast 200—What Must A Christian Believe? (17): The Holy Spirit
This is episode 17 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 eighth article, “I believe in the Holy Spirit.” Before the outbreak of neo-Pentecostalism in . . . Continue reading →
Ninth Circuit Postpones Vaccine Mandate For Prison Workers
A federal appeals court temporarily blocked a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for California prison workers on Friday. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a request for a stay of a lower court order from September pending an appeal, delaying the January . . . Continue reading →
On Whose Record Will You Stand?
Just pause and think of what it meant for the Lord Jesus to obey for us, in our place. For thirty years he never once said or did anything wrong. More than that, at every single moment he positively said and did . . . Continue reading →
What Does It Mean To Be “Confessional” (E.g., In The PCA)?
Becoming Self-Consciously Confessional When I was introduced to Reformed theology, piety, and practice I do not think that very many people were talking about being “confessional.” Indeed, the idea of creeds (e.g., the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed etc) confessions (e.g., the . . . Continue reading →
The Canons Of Dort In Swahili
The Three Forms of Unity are now in Swahili. The third of the forms, the Canons of the Synod of Dort are now translated into Swahili. Continue reading →
The First Huguenot Thanksgiving In 1564 At Ft Caroline (Florida)
In 1562, Jean Ribault, a naval officer under Admiral Gaspard de Coligny and a Huguenot, began a voyage to the land that is now southeastern United States. He established a colony on Parris Island, South Carolina called Charlesfort. The settlement failed in . . . Continue reading →
First Amendment Liberties Wounded: Baronelle Stutzman Forced Out Of Business
“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%