Happy New Year from the Heidelblog. Thanks to the two-hundred sixty-three thousand Heidelblog readers in 2019 and to the thousands of you who listened to the Heidelcast. Together (between the Heidelblog and rscottclark.org) you downloaded posts, pages, and podcasts over 758,000 times. . . . Continue reading →
This is the portion of the trailer for the video By What Standard? released by Founders Ministry in which video, known in the business as “B-roll,” of Rachael Denhollander is used to illustrate the words, “always having the powers, the spiritual powers . . . Continue reading →
Most of the confessional Reformed denominations took formal positions or at least received study papers rejecting the self-described Federal Vision theology a little more than twelve years ago. Because the original debate is so far in the rear view mirror, it seems . . . Continue reading →
Theonomy (or, more broadly Christian Reconstructionism) is one of the tollbooths through which pilgrims from traveling from Münster to Geneva, as it were, often seem to pass. I encountered it almost as soon as I came into contact with the Reformed churches. . . . Continue reading →
Let us define our terms. A Baptist is someone who believes that baptism is only validly administered to professing believers. He denies that the infant children of believers are the proper subjects of baptism. A Federal Visionist is someone who, among other . . . Continue reading →
The danger that I see in this is that many people who do not share Doug Wilson’s views on theology, history, slavery, patriarchy, marriage, sex, etc. may be allowing him to teach his views to their children without being aware of it. . . . Continue reading →
In talk radio the host is supposed to “re-set” the show at regular intervals. He is to remind listeners to which show they are listening and on what network or station. One reason why the host does this is because some listeners . . . Continue reading →
For some time the Federal Visionists have been arguing that no one should criticize the Federal Vision until the church courts ruled on it. This is a strange argument since, on that basis Luther couldn’t have replied to Erasmus (the Augsburg wouldn’t . . . Continue reading →
Leila writes: “My husband and I planned, from the beginning, to send our children to private school, since we weren’t happy with the public schools in our area. Right before our oldest was ready to start kindergarten in the mid-90s, a new . . . Continue reading →
The HB began in 2007 as a low-key exposition of the Heidelberg CatechismHeidelberg Catechism and gradually morphed into a discussion of issues surrounding the federal vision and then into a broader discussion of contemporary issues surrounding the recovery of the Reformed confession. . . . Continue reading →
In response to another post, Daniel F., one of Doug Wilson’s more ardent defenders, asked me to listen to a clip from a sermon which is supposed to demonstrate Wilson’s pristine evangelical, Protestant, Reformational orthodoxy on justification. What follows is a lightly . . . Continue reading →
One of our graduates, a Reformed pastor and church planter in the Mediterranean region, pointed me today to a troubling blog. The Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC) is planting congregations in Europe, exporting the FV to Europe, and attempting to recruit . . . Continue reading →
UPDATE 12 October 2009 The remarks that follow highlight areas of significant disagreement so let me preface my remarks thus: I am thankful for the good work that John Piper has done. I’m most thankful for his clear and strong stand in . . . Continue reading →
In talk radio the host is supposed to “re-set” the show at regular intervals. He is to remind listeners to which show they are listening and on what network or station. One reason why the host does this is because some listeners . . . Continue reading →
In his brilliant work, Christianity and Liberalism (1923), J. Gresham Machen called for the “liberals” (many of whom could just as aptly be called broad evangelicals) to be honest about their views and to leave the Presbyterian Church. Thirteen years later, it . . . Continue reading →
I have heard it before and I will hear it again, “The Federal Vision is dead. Move on.” Though it is true that the Federal Vision (FV) is now well over twenty years old, it has lost none of its steam in . . . Continue reading →
In the controversy between Protestants and Roman Catholics there has been no question whether Jesus obeyed God’s law, but only to what effect. Did Jesus obey the law so as to make it possible for us to cooperate with grace toward future justification, or did he obey God’s law for us (pro nobis) to accomplish our justification once for all? The Protestants affirmed the latter and denied the former. Nevertheless, despite the unity among confessional Protestants on justification, questions have persistently arisen among them concerning the nature, intent, and effect of Jesus’s law keeping and its relation to the justification of sinners. Continue reading →
In this volume Cornelis Venema tackles a serious problem in the Reformed world that needs to be addressed, and he has done so in a thoughtful, thorough, biblical, and confessionally Reformed manner. Background to the Review Before we begin the review, it . . . Continue reading →
Editor’s Note: The following is the complete chapter as it appeared in R. Scott Clark, ed., Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry: Essays by the Faculty of Westminster Seminary California (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2007), 25–57. In 2021, the publisher returned the publication rights . . . Continue reading →
Sexual, physical, and spiritual abuse is a reality in the visible church. Those of us in the Pauline-Augustinian tradition should not be shocked or surprised since the Scriptures and the Augustinian doctrine of sin teaches us to expect as much. What remains . . . Continue reading →