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Horses, Hills, And Planes In The Back Country
The Directory Of Publick Worship On Christmas
Festival days, vulgarly called holy-days, having no warrant in the Word of God, are not to be continued. Westminster Assembly, Directory for Publick Worship (1645) | (HT: Semper Reformanda) RESOURCES Subscribe To The Heidelblog! The Heidelblog Resource Page Heidelmedia Resources The Ecumenical . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 52: Images Of Christ Don’t Affirm His Humanity, They Deny It
In some Reformed quarters to it is considered clever to argue that to reject images is to deny the humanity of Christ. That Reformed writers should make such an argument would shock our Reformed forefathers, who were convinced that images of Christ . . . Continue reading →
Scalia On The Lemon Test As Late-Night Ghoul
Like some ghoul in a late-night horror movie that repeatedly sits up in its grave and shuffles abroad, after being repeatedly killed and buried, Lemon stalks our Establishment Clause jurisprudence once again, frightening the little children and school attorneys of Center Moriches . . . Continue reading →
Black Friday, Subjectivism, And Christian Liberty
On 24 November, the Roman Bishop, Francis, issued a document, Evangelium Gaudii which the Vatican classifies as an “Apostolic Exhortation.” It’s a book, a really long (217 pages) sermon. Rome is a complicated creature with seemingly endless categories of offices, canons, decrees, laws, . . . Continue reading →
Machen: Debate Is Preferable To Breach Of Faith And Suppression
Perhaps it may be objected that if we continue to be tolerated, we shall harm the church by an insistence upon the maintenance of a strict view of its doctrinal standards. I think that just from the “Liberal” point of view there . . . Continue reading →
Tell Me Again, Why Don’t We Sing The Psalms?
Only it appeared to me to be requisite to show in passing, that this book makes known to us this privilege, which is desirable above all others — that not only is there opened up to us familiar access to God, but . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 51: Happy Thanksgiving From The Heidelcast
According to the Heidelberg Catechism there are three great heads of the Christian faith: guilt, grace, and gratitude. There may be other motivations to godliness but the catechism isn’t structured by them. It is structured by gratitude. Yet, there are those who . . . Continue reading →
Samuel Bolton’s Survey Of Opinion On The Mosaic Covenant
My friend and colleague Mike Brown published a revision of his excellent MA (Historical Theology) thesis (Westminster Seminary California) in 2012 as Christ and the Condition: The Covenant Theology of Samuel Petto (1624-1711). As part of the background to explaining Petto, Mike . . . Continue reading →
Economics, Trust, Imputation, and Worth (Updated)
Shocking as it may be, courses in medieval history and theology do not always have immediate relevance to late modern society. There is a theme in medieval history and theology, however, that does illumine what is happening to the global economy. Since . . . Continue reading →
Samuel Petto: Moses Is And Isn’t A Covenant Of Works
It will now be asked, what manner of covenant was that at Mount Sinai, which is called the worst covenant? What kind of covenant was it? Sol. In general, it was a covenant of works, as to be fulfilled by Jesus Christ, . . . Continue reading →
What Is True Faith? (7): Its Object
In the previous installment we considered the role of Scripture in faith. Now we turn to its object. I think they’ve largely gone away but a few years back team-building “trust exercises” were all the rage. The producers even got the Duck . . . Continue reading →
Where Was Our Church Before Luther And Zwingli? (10)
From the confession of our opponents, who cannot deny that before Luther and Zwingli, there were innumerable persons who professed our faith and protested publicly against the papal errors. See what is related of the Waldenses and Albigenses, Hussites, Wycliffites, Lollards and . . . Continue reading →
Freedom From Religion Foundation v Lew: What Now? (New Links Added)
Links are being added below. Refresh the page for updates throughout the day. For elders and parishioners and not infrequently for ministers, clergy taxes are one of the more difficult aspects of ministerial finances. Those difficulties just became potentially greater last week. . . . Continue reading →
The Coffer Is Quiet…For Now
But it still exists. It’s still possible to support the Heidelblog—the coffer continues!—but now, when your cursor strays over the coffer and your sound is turned up, you won’t be scared out of your chair. It hasn’t gone away entirely, the sound . . . Continue reading →
Happy Birthday To The Shorter Catechism!
Thanks to Wayne Sparkman for his consistently excellent daily posts. From his keyboard comes a reminder that today is an anniversary of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. On this day in 1647, the House of Commons ordered the printing of the Westminster Shorter . . . Continue reading →
Dorothy Sayers On The Lost Tools Of Learning
By Dorothy Sayers (1947) That I, whose experience of teaching is extremely limited, should presume to discuss education is a matter, surely, that calls for no apology. It is a kind of behavior to which the present climate of opinion is wholly . . . Continue reading →
Wilhelmus À Brakel On Pietism
Some years ago there was a sizeable movement among the Lutherans in Germany toward religiosity. Of some we believe that it was in truth, but with the majority it was but an illusion. This counterfeit religiosity has in some places also affected . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 50: Making Some Sense Of The Republication Debate Pt 3: With Chris Gordon
Beginning at least in the 1560s, it was non-controversial for Reformed theologians to teach that God, before the fall, entered into a legal, probationary covenant with Adam, who was the representative of the whole human race, the condition of which was perfect . . . Continue reading →
Huxley: Existentialism Was Just A Cover For Free Sex
For myself, as, no doubt, for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneously liberation from a certain political and economic system and liberation from a certain system of morality. . . . Continue reading →