Petrus van Mastricht (1630–1706) was among the more important Reformed theologians of the later 17th century. According to Richard Muller, in van Mastricht we see Reformed orthodoxy and scholasticism coming to its high point technically. So students of the history of Reformed . . . Continue reading →
Theodore Beza (1519–1605) was a remarkably long-lived and significant theologian in the Reformed tradition. He is best known as a theologian but he was an advisor to Calvin and the Reformed churches across Europe and the British Isles. He was more than . . . Continue reading →
For so soon as a man believes, he is presently justified. For every believer has… Continue reading →
The facts of the controversy are rather simple. Jerome Bolsec who was a Carmelite monk and doctor of theology in Paris, was drawn to the Reformation and so forced to leave France. By early 1551 he had settled in the canton of . . . Continue reading →
One writer notes that “Kuyper reflected critically on what he perceived as an increasing emphasis on natural theology through the early centuries of the Reformed tradition,” while another indicates that Kuyper’s views on common grace opened up a place for natural theology. . . . Continue reading →
In other words, if we want to know why there are so many Reformed theological giants in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and comparatively few afterwards, a large part of it has to do with the later theologians adopting various forms of . . . Continue reading →
I was led to think that Thomas had been more or less mugged by Aristotle, indeed, I was given to think that Thomas was the source of much that ailed Christianity. In one tour de force, Van Til jumps from Aristotle, to . . . Continue reading →
Our comparison and contrast of the WCF with the 2LC continues through chapter 3, Of God’s Eternal Decree. In this installment we see some interesting revisions and one striking omission. WCF 2LC 1. God from all eternity did, by the most wise . . . Continue reading →
Our comparison and contrast of the WCF with the 2LC continues through chapters 4 and 5, “Of Creation” and “Of Divine Providence.” WCF 4.1 2LC 4.1 1. It pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for the manifestation of the glory of His . . . Continue reading →
The “French Religious Wars” describes a series of eight civil wars fought out between 1562 and 1598. An estimated three million people perished, fifteen percent of the French population. Although the antagonists wore their inherited religious labels of “Protestant” or “Catholic,” social . . . Continue reading →
At least two delegates at the Synod of Dort (1618-19) were toying with alternate language regarding the atonement. Continue reading →
We divide this Word into two principal parts or kinds: the one is called the ‘Law,’ the other the ‘Gospel.’ For all the rest can be gathered under the one or other of these two headings…Ignorance of this distinction between Law and . . . Continue reading →
The Reformation made clear the distinction between law and gospel in reference to the Old and New Testaments of Scripture. Continue reading →
This essay was written before I published Recovering the Reformed Confession (2008), which, remarkably and quite unexpectedly, remains in print. In it, I interacted with a book review published in Christianity Today which serves as a symbol of the way Pietists and modern evangelicals . . . Continue reading →
When this orthodox or scholastic Protestantism is examined in some depth and viewed as a form of Protestant theology in its own right rather than as merely a duplication or reflection of the theology of the Reformation, it is clearly a theology . . . Continue reading →