The Daily Confession site takes you through the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the Children’s Catechism, The Heidelberg Catechism, The Westminster Confession, The Canons of Dort, and the Belgic Confession through the year. Each day a different document appears. The Daily Westminster brings up . . . Continue reading →
Words are frequently learned aurally. After all, children learn their native language aurally until they learn to read. Even after we learn to read, however, we continue to collect new words through hearing them. I suspect that fact may account for the . . . Continue reading →
A belated Happy New Year from the Heidelblog! Thanks to the hundreds of thousands of you who read the HB in 2017 and to the thousands of you who listened to the Heidelcast. Together (between the Heidelblog and rscottclark.org) you downloaded pages . . . Continue reading →
In the last few episodes we have been considering the biblical, ecumenical (or creedal) doctrine of the Trinity. The God who is, is one in three persons. The historic doctrine of the Trinity is very clear. It is also great mystery but . . . Continue reading →
Given America’s sad history with slavery and the shame with which it is regarded today one might think that defenders of Roe v Wade (1973) would be a little more cautious about the rhetoric they use in defense of what they regard . . . Continue reading →
Because the Reformation began 500 years ago, because the Reformers are larger than life, because we often think of them as heroes, we might forget that they were once young men, college students, who were excited by new books, new ideas, and . . . Continue reading →
Sportscaster Dick Enberg died at 82 today. One writer recalled him “waxing poetically” while calling a ball game. To wax poetically suggests that one is polishing one’s car while reciting Keats but that is not what the writer intended. Enberg may have waxed . . . Continue reading →
San Diego County has places of obvious beauty. Mt Palomar is grand and so are the beaches and, of course, the Pacific Ocean. My little corner of San Diego County (North County), has areas of quiet beauty. The back roads are quiet . . . Continue reading →
The Reformation, in spite of its substantial contribution to the history of doctrine and the shock it delivered to theology and the church in the sixteenth century, was not an attack upon the whole of medieval theology or upon Christian tradition. The . . . Continue reading →
Many today mistakenly interpret these religion clauses to mean something like, “Americans are tolerant of private religious conduct.” But mere “toleration” of “private” religious conduct was precisely what James Madison, a primary author of the Bill of Rights, was careful to avoid. . . . Continue reading →
There is much consternation and joy about the announcement that the United States intends to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Some evangelicals and fundamentalists, perhaps inspired by a Dispensational understanding of redemptive history and their pre-millennial hermeneutic, are overjoyed with . . . Continue reading →
It is easy to confuse two words when they have the same root. This is the case with the adjectives (words that modify nouns or persons, places, and things) incredulous and incredible. As incredible as it might seem and as incredulous as . . . Continue reading →
Francis, the Bishop of Rome (who claims to be the universal vicar of Christ on the earth) has recently announced his opinion that the translation of the sixth petition of the Lord’s Prayer should be revised. Anthony Esolen has published a terrific . . . Continue reading →
And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. And with great power the apostles were . . . Continue reading →
The Scriptures have a great deal to say about wisdom (see, e.g., all of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job), about what it is, about its importance, how to get it, and what happens to those who do not (Pss 14, 53 ). Judging, however, . . . Continue reading →
Augustine of Hippo used to say that what was concealed in the Old Testament is revealed in the New Testament and that is certainly true in case of the biblical doctrine of the Trinity. As we have discussed so far in the . . . Continue reading →
One hears some interesting things on sports-talk radio. I listen for news about my Nebraska Cornhusker (American) football team. Sometimes, however, the hosts venture outside their fields of expertise. An Omaha station, to whose podcasts I listen, interviewed Harriet McFeely yesterday. She’s . . . Continue reading →
From time to time, Protestants have been tempted to think that the Roman communion has been dealt a fatal blow. History, however, tells us that though she has been wounded from time to time, she always returns. However vigorous the Reformed churches may be in some parts of the world (e.g., Brazil, South Korea, and Nigeria) the confessional Presbyterian and Reformed churches in North America (NAPARC) are tiny compared to the Roman communion. Continue reading →
“It Came Upon The Midnight Clear” (now typically titled, “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear”) was first published in 1834. It was written by Edmund Hamilton Sears (1810–76), an Unitarian minister with Swedenborgian convictions. C. Michael Hawn, who teaches sacred music, describes . . . Continue reading →