According to J. H. Alsted (1588–1638), “the article justification is said to be the article of the standing or falling of the church.” It was said to be such by the confessionally Reformed and Lutheran alike. The language was probably borrowed from . . . Continue reading →
When we recorded the first episode of Office Hours, in the Summer of 2009, podcasting was rather new. We had to manage carefully the size of the podcasts because most of our listeners were still using dial-up connections. Indeed, we used the word . . . Continue reading →
As always we had a good time on the old Presbycast Hayride, Jamboree, and Barn Dance. Chortles told us the story of the Huguenot Pirates—real pirates, not “piratical” pretenders hitting defense flower vases with baseball bats or setting harmless grass alight—and the . . . Continue reading →
Over the last week, on social media, there has been some discussion of an essay entitled “The Second Eve: How Christian Women Undo The Curse.” This expression, “undo the curse,” is a provocative way to speak and is used in modern authors . . . Continue reading →
Now sanitized for your listening safety, the Heidelcast is back with episode 149 in which we take questions from Lancaster, PA, Houston, TX, Cork, Ireland, and Belfast, UK. The Heidelcast is a global podcast. As always we had some good and challenging . . . Continue reading →
The Heidelberg Catechism is in three parts: Law, Gospel, and Sanctification or Guilt, Grace, and Gratitude. This is not an artificial interpretation of the Catechism nor is it an artificial arrangement of the Christian faith. Question 2 outlines the Catechism for us: Continue reading →
We shall now be prepared to understand how the recognition, that the two worlds exist and have existed side by side from the beginning, enables the author of Hebrews to solve the chief problem of the history of redemption and revelation. For . . . Continue reading →
The Heidelcast has listeners from across the globe as well as across North America for listeners outside the USA and for the convenience of listeners within the USA, we have instituted a new way for you to leave voicemail for the Heidelphone. . . . Continue reading →
1. The Solas Whence the Reformation Solas? 2. Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone) Was Sola Scriptura A Reformation Slogan And Doctrine? Christian Liberty: A Product Of Sola Scriptura More Conference Audio: Biblicism Versus Sola Scriptura Was Agabus Wrong? Or Why Sola Scriptura Is . . . Continue reading →
The Reformation was a complex event, which happened for many reasons but the triggering event on which many have focused over the centuries was Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses (1517). Though provocative, the theses were not themselves all that radical. Luther’s discovery of the . . . Continue reading →
A Preface On Paradigms As Baptists and Reformed folk engage each other’s theological traditions two things need to happen to make that engagement productive: 1) They need to realize that each tradition is theologically distinct. Some Baptists have historical and institutional relations . . . Continue reading →
I am interrupting the series on the doctrine of God (again), I Am that I Am, to talk about a recurring problem in the church: abuse of the sheep by the shepherd. Recently Julie Roys featured audio from a public conference by . . . Continue reading →
It is always fun to talk with the Presbycast guys. Tonight we talked about a wide range of issues. We started by discussing Chortles’s discovery of an online copy of the last number of Presbyterian and Reformed News from 2004. That issue . . . Continue reading →
…Over the past several years, I have been distressed at the downfall of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and the rise of heresy within the body through the Federal Vision teaching and immorality through the same-sex attraction movement. I have raised . . . Continue reading →
The Christian life is not the instrument of salvation. To attempt to make it so is a self-defeating move, since none of us, in this life, shall attain perfect sanctification. Thus, all of us fall short of the mark. This is undeniably true. In that case, we are left to going back to the dog’s breakfast of the late-medieval doctrine of congruent merit, the doctrine rejected by the entire Reformation, that God imputes perfection to our imperfect efforts unto justification and salvation. Continue reading →
There are other collections of ecumenical creeds. There are other collections of the Reformed confessions (e.g., Reformed Confessions in the 16th and 17th Centuries). There are other surveys (e.g. Pelikan and Hotchkiss, Credo) but there is still nothing that does just what Philip . . . Continue reading →
Introduction Two correspondents have written in recent days to ask about whether those who confess the Reformed confessions (e.g., the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession, the Canons of Dort, and the Westminster Standards) and the Reformed confession, which is a broader category . . . Continue reading →
Introduction Arguably Reformed theology has never been more popular among evangelicals than it is right now. There are multiple large parachurch movements that extol the virtues of Reformed theology in a way that was unknown thirty years ago. It has never been . . . Continue reading →
I am interrupting the series on the doctrine of God again to do the call-in show I have been promising. With this episode, you the listener get to vote on the Heidelblog. You tell me which call you liked best and I . . . Continue reading →
Job Dalomba has just been called to pastor Christ Covenant PCA in Woodstock, GA. Not only is this his first call to a PCA congregation, it is also the culmination of his journey from Baptist to Reformed convictions. Until recently he was . . . Continue reading →