Now it is certain that our Lord did not want to change anything about the government (police) or the civil order, bus without reviling it in any way, he made his office, for which he came into the world, that of forgiving . . . Continue reading →
Lucca: Cradle Of The Reformation
It was on 18 April 1521 that Luther appeared before the powers of this world and, ostensibly, the next, at at the Diet of Worms. It was there he announced publicly the formal cause of the Reformation, sola Scriptura. That doctrine says . . . Continue reading →
Civil Liberties Watch: It Is Yours Until A Big Developer Wants It
Kelo v. City of New London effectively turned an explicit constitutional right into a nullity. Though the language of the Fifth Amendment is clear — “nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation” — state and local governments . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: Where Are They Now? Preaching The Gospel To Cuba
Dan Warne is from Kansas and grew up on the mission field in Sinaloa, Mexico (just across the Gulf of California from Baja California, Mexico). He is also a 2017 graduate of Westminster Seminary California. Unlike most of the graduates, his ministry . . . Continue reading →
Did Calvin’s Theology, Piety, and Practice Need To Be Rounded Out With Müntzer’s?
Thomas Müntzer (c. 1489–1525) was a university-trained pastor and theologian. Martin Luther recommended him to be the pastor of St Catharine’s Church in Zwickau (117 km south of Leipzig). There he came into contact with three fiery souls, Nicholas Storch (c. 1500–25), Thomas . . . Continue reading →
Beza On The Evidentiary Necessity Of Good Works For Salvation
Q. 154 Therefore, you say that good works are necessary to salvation? A: If faith is necessary to salvation, and works necessarily flow out of true faith, (as that which cannot be idle), certainly also it follows, that good works are necessary . . . Continue reading →
Racism And The Second Use Of The Law (Updated)
Broadly, in evangelicalism, there are two stances toward the Ten Commandments or the moral law. For many, if not most evangelicals, it is believed that the Ten Commandments are so uniquely Mosaic, so identified with the Mosaic epoch in redemptive history, that . . . Continue reading →
Construction Update: Nearing The Finish Line
The Law Exposes Racism As Sin
In response to yesterday’s column, a correspondent to the HB asked how we know that racism is sin. It is true that I assumed that we all know that racism is sin, that it is obvious on the face of Scripture but . . . Continue reading →
The Gospel Is The Remedy For Racism
Racism is sin. There can be no hedging or qualifying here. To regard another image bearer as inferior because of his ethnicity is sin and has no place in the church of Jesus Christ. God’s Word is clear about the only remedy . . . Continue reading →
Grammar Guerrilla: Cases Still Matter in English
Not very long ago, as recently as the 1950s and 60s, the most remote public school student in America learned a little Latin. By remote I mean, e.g., rural villages in Nebraska. By the 1970s, however, Latin went the way of phonics . . . Continue reading →
Social Media Testifies To The Covenant Of Works
In Colossians 2:8 Paul warned the Colossians Christians not to be taken captive by unbelieving ways of thinking (philosophies) nor by “the stoicheia (στοιχεῖα) of the world.” The noun stoicheia is usually translated with something like “elemental principles” or the like. That . . . Continue reading →
AGR: Christianity And Liberalism
It was a pleasure to join Chris Gordon recently to talk about one of my favorite books, Christianity and Liberalism. Published in 1923, it became Machen’s most well-known work. In it he lays out briefly but clearly the difference between Christianity as . . . Continue reading →
A Law-Abiding Gun Owner Speaks Up
Beza On Sanctification (1570)
Q133 Therefore, explain fully this sanctification of ours in Christ. A133 Something is said to be sanctified which is segregated from common pollution, so that it is most pure, and wholly consecrated to God the greatest adversary of all filth. Therefore, in . . . Continue reading →
Review: Reformation Worship: Liturgies From the Past For The Present
Unless you are a member of a congregation of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America (RPCNA, “the Covenanters”) or another similar denomination, in all probability the way your congregation worships today is not much like the way Reformed and Presbyterian congregations worshiped in the 16th and 17th centuries. If, however, you are like most other P&R Christians, you probably are not aware of that discrepancy. You might assume that the way your congregation conducts its public worship is the way the P&R churches have always done but, in fact, that assumption would not be justified. Continue reading →
Roseanne, Gender Bending, And The War Against Nature
Roseanne is back on television and to great success. The pilot for the renewal of the twenty-year old series did so well in the overnight ratings that season 2 has already been picked up. Most of the attention has focused on the . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: Where Are They Now? Planting Reformed Churches In Italy
Westminster Seminary California has been preparing men to enter pastoral ministry since 1980. More than 1,100 students have graduated and about 70% of them are preaching the gospel across the globe, making hospital calls, doing the work of an evangelist, and a . . . Continue reading →
Woman, Why Are You Weeping?
Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and *saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other . . . Continue reading →
HT501 Introduction to Historical Theology (Fall 2018)
Course Description and Objectives: This course is designed to introduce graduate students to skills, practices and research trends in contemporary historical theology. Over the last fifty years the discipline of intellectual history, a subset of which is historical theology, has been at . . . Continue reading →