Touching the catechesis of children in the Jewish church, the Old Testament abounds in many explicit commands. In the 12th and 13th chapters of Exodus, God commands the Jews to give particular instruction to their children and families in relation to the . . . Continue reading →
What About Noah and Covenant Theology?
Taylor asks the question on the PB. My reply below: There are resources on covenant theology here. I would especially encourage you to read this collection of quotations from older writers on CT. There is a brief history here. My own views . . . Continue reading →
A Short Biography of Voetius
Born in the small fortified city of Heusden as the son of Paulus Voet and Maria de Jongeling, Gisbertus (or Gijsbert) Voetius’s early years were dominated by the experience of war. Heusden was on the front line in both a military and . . . Continue reading →
What Is The Substance Of The Covenant Of Grace?
For most of 2,000 years the Christian church was universally agreed that there is one way of salvation, that the history of redemption was essentially unified. In the post-apostolic church this consensus began to develop very early in the 2nd century in . . . Continue reading →
Disagreeing With You Isn’t Unloving
Have you ever noticed that when differences of opinion come up between the confessionalists and the “can’t we all get along” (hereafter abbreviated “cwaga”) folks, that incredibly shrill and unloving voices come from the latter group directed towards the former group, all . . . Continue reading →
Black, White, and Reformed
When this post first appeared in January 2008, there was an interesting discussion at the now-defunct Reformingchurches.org on what it means to be black and Reformed. As a white guy with a long interest in black culture (my grammar school and Jr High . . . Continue reading →
Censorship By The Humorless And The Top Men
“And in a world where evangelical comment is increasingly censored from within by the humourless and the Top Men, a samizdat operation is unlikely to lose its purpose in the near future.”* —Carl Trueman, “On Mortification and Narnia” — * Samizdat = . . . Continue reading →
Machen On Revival And Controversy
I do not know all the things that will happen when the great revival sweeps over the Church, the great revival for which we long. Certainly I do not know when that revival will come; its coming stands in the Spirit’s power. . . . Continue reading →
Is There A Covenant Of Grace?
It’s not unusual for evangelicals, which movements have been heavily influenced by Anabaptist theology, piety, and practice since the early 19th century. In that case we would not expect them to be aware of the categories “covenant of works” and “covenant of . . . Continue reading →
Have We Become Bedford Falls Without George Bailey?
I know it’s a sentimental movie and I know that its view of angels isn’t biblical and I know that the anthropology of the film is problematic. Nevertheless, I get the sense that the whole country is becoming Bedford Falls without George . . . Continue reading →
The Attraction Of Legal Preaching: The Interview
As a follow-up to the post on legal preaching Chris Gordon and I sat down in the Abounding Grace Radio studio to talk through the issue of the attraction of legal preaching. Once again, neither the post nor the episode is a . . . Continue reading →
Witsius On Merit
I.I.XV. In the covenant of works, man is considered as working, and the reward to be given as of debt; and therefore man’s glorying is not excluded, but he may glory as a faithful servant may do upon the right discharge of . . . Continue reading →
The Contemporary Relevance Of The Reformation
There is an old saw, “Now you’ve quit preaching and gone to meddling.” The “preaching” is telling the story. The “meddling” is applying the story. Folk will tolerate it when historians tell stories about the past. They might be entertaining or interesting . . . Continue reading →
Escondido Rainbow
Olevianus On Moses As A Legal Covenant
For the [Mosiac] covenant was a legal covenant solemnly agreed, by which the people were obligated to present, by their own strength, perfect obedience to the Law (Matthew 22). Since the Law is the eternal rule of righteousness in the divine mind . . . Continue reading →
The Myth Of Diversity
For all the talk of diversity, today’s politics are extraordinarily uniform. The West lives under a single political regime, managerial liberalism, that combines an emphasis on individual choice and democratic values with domination of social life by experts, functionaries, and commercial interests. . . . Continue reading →
Ishmael and Infant Baptism
We heard a sermon from Genesis 17 this morning, and I couldn’t help but draw some conclusions relative to the current discussion about infant baptism that is ongoing at Together For the Gospel and at Between Two Worlds. Of course this is . . . Continue reading →
Three Ways of Relating to the One Covenant of Grace
At the PB the question was asked: We know that there are at least two categories of people within Scripture, the elect, and the non-elect. However, it might be apparent that there is a third class of people, those who have taken . . . Continue reading →
Where Machen Last Preached
The photo comes from GhostsofNorthDakoka.com. Thanks to Wayne Sparkman for pointing us to this photo of the Presbyterian Church of America congregation, in Leith, ND, as it was known then, where J. Gresham Machen preached his final sermon before becoming ill on . . . Continue reading →
Abandoned Churches: From Mission To Museum
For years we drove past this old, abandoned church just north of I-80 near Milford, Nebraska. It was always a lonely vista but it was just one among many. I have often wondered about it, briefly, as we have driven west from . . . Continue reading →