In internet speak a “404” is the message that comes up when a link is broken. That is what happened when I searched the website of Calvary Chapel South Bay (Gardena, CA) for information about James MacDonald. This is good news because . . . Continue reading →
It is a pleasure to talk with Colleen Sharp and Rachel Miller, the Theology Gals. Recently, we talked about covenant theology. We talked about what covenant theology is, how it differs from Dispensationalism, from where it comes, why it matters, what it . . . 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 →
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 →
You asked for it, you got it. The Heidelcast is back after an 11-month hiatus. Did you miss me? Episode 130 was part of the series on the doctrine of God. If the Lord permits, we will get back to that series . . . Continue reading →
In the wake of Josh Harris’ announcement of his apostasy a group of leaders in the so-called Young, Restless, and Reformed movement (YRR) or New Calvinism has written of his “deconversion.” If one searches the history of Christianity one will probably not . . . Continue reading →
On July 20, 2019 I wrote about Josh Harris, “he has grave doubts about the truth of Christianity and he is intent on starting a podcast to share those doubts with the world.” Some of his defenders, ignoring the point of the . . . Continue reading →
Yet another evangelical personality has announced that not only are he and his wife separating—this after he wrote a widely-read book on dating and courtship—but he has grave doubts about the truth of Christianity and he is intent on starting a podcast . . . Continue reading →
For perhaps 20 years we have been in the midst of a movement which Collin Hansen (2008) described as Young, Restless, and Reformed. Others have spoken of the “New Calvinists” (see the resources below). The one doctrine that animates these movements is the sovereignty of God. For many American evangelicals it is a given that God has his opinion and we have ours. Continue reading →
Recently, a well-meaning “New Calvinist” (more on this nomenclature in part 2) posted some very blunt language on Twitter about the relationship between divine sovereignty and various ways in which people suffer in this world. He wrote that if you experienced X . . . Continue reading →
I love my church. I mean LOVE. My family are members of a small, sweet, in many ways unremarkable Presbyterian church somewhere in Chicagoland. And yet every week on our way home, we marvel at just how remarkable our church actually is. . . . Continue reading →
For far too many American and global Christians, the “prosperity gospel” is all they know of Christianity. For far too many Christians what the Scriptures actually teach about the law and the gospel is almost entirely unknown. Their leaders and influences are . . . Continue reading →
Few bogeyman frighten Moderns as much as Calvin apparently does. He has been frightening them since about the onset of the European, British, and American Enlightenment movements and has served as a bogeyman for longer than that. He was caricatured during his . . . Continue reading →
Few of our Reformed confessional documents are as valuable and yet as neglected as the Canons of Dort. Today most who know about them think of them as the so-called and quite misleading “Five Points of Calvinism” or TULIP: Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints. Strangely, for many, especially those in the self-described Young, Restless, and Reformed movement, the “Five Points” have become the be all and end all of “Reformed theology.” The truth is that there is much more to Reformed theology than the five points. Continue reading →
The church growth movement has been one of the more influential movements in modern evangelicalism for the last 40 years. Pastors receive a steady stream of emails and advertisements promising to “grow the church” if only his congregation will buy this product or service. In some quarters it is unquestioned dogma, it is axiomatic that if the church is not growing numerically it is failing in its mission. Continue reading →
The “New Calvinists” and the self-described Young, Restless, and Reformed movement has brought new interest in Reformed theology, piety, and practice. In the last 15 years Mark Driscoll and John Piper have been the gateway for many to find and join Reformed . . . Continue reading →
The Scriptures simply do not support the inference that there are two stages of salvation and that our putative “future salvation” is contingent upon sanctification. Saying that our future sanctification is “decisively” wrought by God does not alleviate the problem. The whole construct rests on the premise that so long as we assert divine sovereignty we may say, more or less, whatever we please. Continue reading →
Recently I had opportunity to engage in a friendly dialogue with some Baptist academics over the merits of the project proposed in Recovering the Reformed Confession. That project is, as they say, wending through the publication process. Because of space limitations I was unable to do a couple of things, namely, to engage more fully with some of the texts and approaches to Baptist covenant theology (as distinct from Reformed covenant theology). Continue reading →
It’s available in DVD, BluRay, and digital on-demand. My BluRay copy arrived in the mail today. It goes on sale October 2. Here’s my blurb: It has been a little more than a decade since Collin Hansen called attention to the Young, . . . Continue reading →
Chris writes to the HB to ask about moving from the conversionist paradigm for the Christian life to the covenantal vision for the Christian life, how does a “covenantal” approach to the Christian life appear? This is an important question. Since the . . . Continue reading →