“What is a nice OPC minister like you doing constantly quoting Martin Luther on Twitter?” is the familiar refrain after people take a gander at my feed. Normally, I admit when I am guilty as charged, but there is no great guilt . . . Continue reading →
Reviews Harrison Perkins, Review: To Gaze upon God: The Beatific Vision in Doctrine, Tradition, and Practice By Samuel G. Parkison Jason Vander Horst, Review: The Cure for Unjust Anger By John Downame, Edited by Brian Hedges Sean Morris, Review: Reformed Worship By Jonty . . . Continue reading →
In the summer of 2021, the evangelical world discussed the “Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.” Embedded in that narrative was a reference to John Piper’s famous “seashells” sermon. Many of us who came to Calvinism during that time remember this sermon. . . . Continue reading →
Welcome to the Heidelcast, the official podcast of the Heidelberg Reformation Association. The Heidelcast began in 2009, making it one of the oldest Reformed podcasts. It has released over 1,000 episodes that cover the breadth and depth of Reformed theology, piety, and . . . Continue reading →
Regular readers of the Heidelblog and listeners of the Heidelcast will know that considerable time has been spent here analyzing and interacting with the podcast series produced by Christianity Today and hosted by Mike Cosper (see the resources below).
This is the argument of Jason Estopinal. He appeals to Proverbs 10:19, 1 Thessalonians 4:11; Philippians 4:8, Proverbs 3:30, and Matthew 18 and concludes that Christians should not be fascinated by what one critic has called the “failure porn” of the Christianity Today podcast . . . Continue reading →
Americans have always been restless. We are, after all, a nation of immigrants and once those immigrants arrived here they kept moving. The impulse to move and to keep moving is driven by dissatisfaction. Sometimes it has been dissatisfaction with the religious . . . Continue reading →
Some objected to the critics of the Federal Vision that the social crisis is too great that to be arguing about the Federal Vision. That objection has resurface in recent days in the wake of a social media post in which a prominent member of the Young, Restless, and Reformed Movement and a Baptist theologian has argued, “The Father is the Father because he sends the Son. The Son is the Son because he submits to the Father’s will. The Spirit is the Spirit because the Father and the Son send Him. There is no Trinity without the order of authority and submission” (emphasis original). As one might imagine, this line of reasoning has prompted a considerable response. In response to the critics, some have re-stated the same argument made by the Federal Visionists and their enablers in 2008: “Are we really going to start arguing about ESS again? With all the other stuff going on in the world, this is the battle some of you want to fight? Again? I seriously do not understand some of you. Like, at all.” Continue reading →
Episode 8 of the Christianity Today podcast, “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill,” illustrates the degree to which the restless, feather-swallowing (according to Luther) anti-canonical spirit has influenced modern evangelical theology, piety, and practice. The Reformation principle (if not always its practice) . . . Continue reading →
I am catching up Christianity Today’s podcast series, “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill. The August 30, 2021 episode, “Questioning the Origin Myth: A Rise and Fall Short Story,” centered around what, in Reformed theology, piety, and practice, we call the internal call to ministry. In our understanding of Scripture and its outworking in the life of the church there are two aspects to the call to ministry, the internal and the external. Continue reading →
There are three major questions here: Halloween, the Sabbath, and how Christians ought to relate their faith in Christ to their life in the broader culture. Continue reading →
Pastor John Piper is well-known for his role in sparking the “young, restless, and Reformed” movement, mainly through his emphases on God’s sovereignty and serious expository preaching. There are no doubt numerous present members of Reformed churches who ended up there because of initial investigations of Reformed theology that began with hearing or reading John Piper. Personally, Piper was my first exposure to a thorough and biblical explanation of predestination in some of the appendices of the 2003 edition of Desiring God, which I was told to read shortly after becoming serious about my faith. Continue reading →
Yesterday Trevin Wax crystalized the case for preserving the neo-evangelical coalition, which emerged after World War II and in so doing, for Reformed confessionalists, he has also made the case against the neo-evangelical coalition. What is that coalition and what are its attractions . . . Continue reading →
The Mars Hill/Mark Driscoll debacle is well known. Many have listened to Christianity Today’s excellent podcast series, The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill. The fall of Mars Hill is but another incident in a long series of scandals plaguing American evangelicalism. . . . Continue reading →
Joshua Harris is back in the limelight. He made his name as the young author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye, and was thereby a key inspiration for the purity movement in American evangelicalism. Then, after a stint as pastor of an evangelical . . . Continue reading →
One of the unexamined themes Of the podcast series, The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, is the stated purpose of the Mars Hill congregation and movement: to transform the Seattle metro. Continue reading
We start this episode by thinking a bit about an audio clip in the intro. If you are one of those who skips the intro 😮 please go back and listen for context. See also the show notes below for more. I . . . Continue reading →
So I am listening to the latest episode in the Christianity Today podcast series, “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.” Like the others it is illuminating, compelling, and frustrating simultaneously. Continue reading
It is difficult to know the details of Calvin’s family life and there remains some uncertainty about the number of Calvin’s biological children but it has been known for centuries that Calvin married the widow Idellete de Bure in 1540. She brought . . . Continue reading →
And the hits just keep coming. Not only is Christianity Today producing a podcast series doing a post-mortem of Mars Hill Church