Mortimer Adler On How To Read A Book (And Why)

R. Scott Clark

on October 21, 2013 | 2 Comments

Few books are as needed today as Mortimer Adler’s How To Read A Book. It might be an encouragement, however, before you read, or while you’re between chapters, to watch Adler and Charles Van Doren talk about different ways to read and . . . Continue reading →

Pervasive Unbelief In The PCUSA

Heidelblog

on October 21, 2013 | 2 Comments

All this is true. But it really does not apply to the situation in the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. The point is that Church is very largely dominated by unbelief. It does not merely harbor unbelief here and there. No, it . . . Continue reading →

Office Hours: The Lordship Controversy Is Back

R. Scott Clark

on October 21, 2013 | 34 Comments

This is season 5 of Office Hours and we’re talking about sanctification: New Life In The Shadow Of Death. In this episode, Mike Horton, J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics, and I time travel to the “Lordship Controversy” that raged . . . Continue reading →

Standard Reformed Polemics Against The Use Of Musical Instruments In Worship

Heidelblog

on October 20, 2013 | 6 Comments

But all light into, all perceptions of, this glory, all experience of its power, were, amongst the most, lost in the world. I intend, in all these instances, the time of the Papal apostasy. Those who had the conduct of religion could . . . Continue reading →

Rural North County: Palms and Plows

by R. Scott Clark on October 20, 2013 3 Comments

This gallery contains 7 photos.

Heidelcast 45: What’s New About The New Covenant? (Pt 2)

Heidelcast

on October 19, 2013

In this episode, part 2 of 2, we look specifically at what is new in the new covenant. Here’s part 1. Jeremiah 31:31–34 looks forward to four future blessings in the new covenant. The New Testament takes up those categories and elaborates . . . Continue reading →

The Psalms Are Transcultural

R. Scott Clark

on October 19, 2013

(HT: Leon Brown)

The Church’s Closed Canon By The Latter Half Of The Second Century

Heidelblog

on October 19, 2013

This is enough to show that it is quite wrong to contend that there was no concern for marking out or keeping inviolate the contents of the new covenant Scriptures in the second century, or to claim that there was no generally . . . Continue reading →

A Bibliography of Historical Theology and Historiography

R. Scott Clark

on October 18, 2013

Note: This bibliography is intended to alert HT students to the existence of some important and/or useful works for students of historical theology. I have omitted standard and older works in church history (e.g., Schaff) and reference works, since they are available . . . Continue reading →

Chronology Of The Medieval And Reformation Church

R. Scott Clark

on October 18, 2013

Drafted c. 1995. Last revision, 2024. § 1100 c. b. Peter Lombard (1160). Magister Sententiae). 1155–58 Lombard publishes Sententiarum libri quatuor (Sentences in Four Books), which will be mandated in at the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) as the standard textbook for theology . . . Continue reading →

The Avignon Papacy

R. Scott Clark

on October 18, 2013

Avignon Rome Pisa 1305 Clement V 1316 John XXII 1328 Nicholas V* [1328–30] 1334 Benedict XII 1342 Clement VI 1352 Innocent VI 1362 Urban V 1370 Gregory . . . Continue reading →

Cromwell: Simul Iustus Et Peccator

R. Scott Clark

on October 18, 2013 | 3 Comments

Judging by his serene expression, he certainly doesn’t look like a man who should have changed England’s politics, culture and history forever. I refer to Oliver Cromwell and his expression preserved for the ages in his death mask on display at Warwick . . . Continue reading →

Has The Church Replaced Israel?

R. Scott Clark

on October 17, 2013 | 3 Comments

It is a common canard among Dispensationalists that Reformed theology must teach that the church “replaces” Israel. They call this “Replacement Theology.” That must is what is known as an a priori, something that someone “knows” before they’ve actually looked at the . . . Continue reading →

Laura Smit On The Foolishness Of Romantic Dreams About The Mainline

Heidelblog

on October 17, 2013

Some of my friends in the CRC seem to think that this would be a good thing. They speak to me with wistful longing about the “freedom” of the PCUSA. This is a romantic vision that is unrelated to the truth. The . . . Continue reading →

The Irony Of The Coming Dark Age (Updated Again)

R. Scott Clark

on October 16, 2013 | 7 Comments

The old schoolbook story of the middle ages describes the entire period as the “dark ages.” Of course that’s rubbish. There was a period of chaos in the early medieval period but there were also periods of remarkable learning and the renewal . . . Continue reading →

Kevin DeYoung Isn’t “Nice” (Because He Laughs At Vanity)

Heidelblog

on October 16, 2013 | 9 Comments

Satire, sarcasm, irony, hyperbole–these are dangerous weapons, only to be wielded in spiritual warfare with caution and with great aplomb. But they are to be wielded at times. To poke fun at the oh-so-important, the perpetually offended, and the self-righteously sentimental can . . . Continue reading →

Renewed And Improved: Gillespie Against The Normative Principle Of Worship

R. Scott Clark

on October 15, 2013 | 4 Comments

When I first came into contact with the Reformed faith about 33 years ago, there were two things that Reformed folk had to believe: divine sovereignty and the inerrancy of Scripture. It’s not that we actively disbelieved the other elements of the . . . Continue reading →

John Rainolds On The Jewishness Of Roman Masses And Instruments

Heidelblog

on October 15, 2013 | 2 Comments

I have showed, how. And if you see it not: the veil may be the cause, which is very likely to be laid on your heart in reading of the new testament, as it was on the heart of others, in reading . . . Continue reading →

New Article: Law And Gospel In Early Reformed Orthodoxy

R. Scott Clark

on October 14, 2013 | 3 Comments

Richard Muller recently celebrated his 65th birthday to mark that occasion and as part the 20th anniversary of the PhD program at Calvin Seminary, he was presented with a Festschrift (celebration book) in his honor. Jordan Ballor has the details on Opuscula . . . Continue reading →

Office Hours: The Law And The Bible

R. Scott Clark

on October 14, 2013

There’s no question whether Christ is Lord over every square inch. There are, however, many important and difficult questions to be discussed over how Christ exercises his Lordship over all things. Office Hours talks with David VanDrunen about his new book, The Law and the Bible, which . . . Continue reading →