Joe writes to ask Hi Dr. Clark, My church is currently streaming service online and advocating for family worship at home. They are also encouraging us to get bread and juice/wine and take communion during service hours with our families. Is this . . . Continue reading →
For those who’ve inquired about any PCA precedent on digitally “administering” the Lord’s Supper, below is a pertinent string of excerpts from the Minutes of the 39th, 40th and 41st General Assemblies (2011, 2012 and 2013 in Louisville, Virginia Beach and Greenville SC). Continue reading →
This question/objection occurs frequently in the context of the debate over infant baptism and it reveals a widely-held Baptist misunderstanding about the sacraments.
On June 9, 1886, a funeral was held in a church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The deceased, John Williamson Nevin (1803–86), was a pastor, professor, and theologian in the German Reformed Church. Friends and family were in attendance as well as several theologians and professors of differing fame and reputation. None of this was unusual for a theologian’s funeral in nineteenth-century America. There was, however, at least one irregularity: A. A. Hodge (1823–16) gave one of the eulogies.1 Hodge’s late father, Charles Hodge (1797–1878), and Nevin were involved in one of the most prominent sacramental controversies in nineteenth-century America, yet the younger Hodge eulogized the very man who contested with his father decades before. Even now, the controversy and the theologies that gave rise to it live on long after the death of the major figures. Continue reading →
Further than is obviously implied in this, it seems also a necessary for us just now to inquire into the precise meaning of a sacrificial feast. Its general law is laid down by the apostle Paul in the tenth chapter of First . . . Continue reading →
Holy communion (the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist) is one of the two sacraments instituted by Christ (Matt 26:26–29; Mark 14:22–25; Luke 22:14–23; 1 Cor 11:23–34). In the Reformed tradition whereas Baptism is regarded as the sacrament of initiation into the visible church, . . . Continue reading →
How often should a Reformed congregation observe holy communion? This question has occasionally troubled Reformed churches. Most of the evidence suggests that the ancient church observed communion weekly. John Calvin wanted to celebrate communion weekly but the Genevan city council refused him . . . Continue reading →