An examination of the contemporary literature, and the writings of the divines themselves, reveals that the Westminster divines universally held to a concept of natural law, as did other theologians of the seventeenth century who were influential on the divines’ thinking. As . . . Continue reading →
Natural Law
Nature Is Nature (And Cloud Cuckoo Land Is Just That)
In 1996, the United States Senate passed and President Bill Clinton signed into law the “Defense of Marriage Act” (DOMA). The bill said, No State, territory, or possession of the United States, or Indian tribe, shall be required to give effect to . . . Continue reading →
What Can We Do With Natural Law?
The two principal reasons the Heidelblog exists (and its parent organization, the Heidelberg Reformation Association) are, first, to encourage Reformed confessing Christians to recover their confession, i.e., both the confessional documents but also the broader and classic Reformed theology, piety, and practice, . . . Continue reading →
Heidelminicast: Alan Keyes Demonstrates How To Make A Natural Law Argument
These are some of our favorite Heidelquotes. Something to think about from the Heidelcast. If you are subscribed to the Heidelcast or the Heidelblog (see below) you will receive these episodes automatically. All the Episodes of the Heidelcast How To Subscribe To Heidelmedia . . . Continue reading →
Heidelminicast: Caspar Olevianus On The Natural Knowledge Of God And The Natural Law
These are some of our favorite Heidelquotes. Something to think about from the Heidelcast. If you are subscribed to the Heidelcast or the Heidelblog (see below) you will receive these episodes automatically. All the Episodes of the Heidelcast How To Subscribe To . . . Continue reading →
Lamenting Christendom
What difference should the visible church make in the broader culture? How significant should it be? How one answers this question tells us something about how one views the relations between Christ and culture and the evident death of Christendom. Defining Christendom . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 222: A Question & Answer Cornucopia
In this episode Dr Clark answers Heidelcalls, texts, and mails with questions, questions, and more questions from 1) Aaron about “covenant renewal worship” (is this a “federal vision” thing or may orthodox Reformed Christians talk this way?); 2) Ritchie (from Ireland) about . . . Continue reading →
Straight Talk About Homophobia
In just a few short years the noun Homophobia has become one of the most powerful words in the English language. It has an interesting, if brief, history. It was derived from the combination of two Greek loan words brought into English, . . . Continue reading →
Removing The Stigma From “Minor Attracted People”?
The Neo-Pagan Sexual Revolution Progresses
Allyn Walker is Associate Professor criminal justice and sociology at Old Dominion University. The video is from an interview regarding “Minor Attracted Persons.” Continue reading →
Two Millennia Of Western History To The Michigan AG: Yes, Please Enforce The Second Table Of The Decalogue
Until Very Recently We All Expected The Magistrate To Enforce The Second Table Of The Decalogue
…All of the items Plutarch mentions—adultery not least—are scourges that undercut the very fabric of society. It is a sad fact that some dads don’t know this, or don’t care; it is positively shocking that Michigan’s attorney general seems not to, either. . . . Continue reading →
Does The Twofold Kingdom License Antinomianism Etc?
We are in the midst of a tempest in a teapot regarding the contemporary, post-theocratic appropriation of Calvin’s distinction between the sacred and the secular, which is called God’s “twofold government” of the world. Continue reading
A. A. Hodge in Defense of Natural Revelation
An extreme opinion on this subject has been held by some Christians, to the effect that no true and certain knowledge of God can be derived by man, in his present condition, from the light of nature in the entire absence of . . . Continue reading →
The Law Of Christ Is The Moral Law
In his provocative March (2020) essay, Matt Smethurst asked “Why Don’t Christians Keep the Jewish Law?” He reminds us that the “Bible is a thoroughly Jewish document,” a note that has been regularly (and properly) sounded in modern biblical studies. From this premise, he asks the provocative question before us. He notes that “God’s people kept it for centuries in the Old Testament. What happened?” He answers by observing that Jesus, the Jewish Messiah and the Son of God kept and completed “the law of God in his people’s place. Jesus embodied in himself everything the law demanded.” Smethurst recognizes two functions of the “Jewish law:” “God designed the law both to instruct and guide his people and also to expose their sin and need for a Savior.” In the magisterial Protestant traditions we have spoken of these as the normative (third use) and the pedagogical use. Historically there was also a “civil use,” the function of which, according to Louis Berkhof, is to restrain sin and to serve “the purposes of God’s common grace in the world at large.” According to Smethurst, the “Jewish law” is a signpost that is no longer needed now that the “new covenant and new age ushered in by a new king” has arrived. As he puts it, “The signage of the law, therefore, can be taken down. It served its purpose.” Continue reading →
New Resource Page: Natural Law
The Reformed theologians and churches have held, taught, and confessed the existence of natural law since the earliest days of the Reformed Reformation in the 1520s. If all one knows, however, of Reformed theology is 20th century (or 21st-century) Reformed theology, one . . . Continue reading →
Samuel Rutherford: “The Whole Bulk Of The Judicial Laws…Is Expired”
That this Author saith, God commanded those that transgressed his holy Law with an high hand, and presumptuously to be killed, lest they should live and profane his holy things; I defend not: But sure Erastus erreth, who will have all such . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 137: How To Avoid The TheoRecon Tollbooth
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 easier . . . Continue reading →
Dickson: Theonomy Is An Error
Quest. IV. Did the Lord by Moses give to the Jews, as a Body Politick, sundry Judicial Laws, which expired together with their state? Yes. Do they oblige any other now, further than the general equity thereof may require. No. Exod. 21. . . . Continue reading →
Gillespie And Piscator: The Natural Law Remains In Force
But how doth it appear that these or any other Judicial Laws of Moses do at all appertain to us, as rules to guide us in like cases? I shall with him who scrupleth this, to read Piscator his Appendix to his . . . Continue reading →
Rollock: The Judicial Laws Are Abolished But The Natural Law Remains
It is true, indeed, a prince should be loath to put out that life that God hath put in, and should beware, to judge rashly in capital crimes. It is no small matter to make a crime capital; but if the crime . . . Continue reading →
Polanus: We Are Released From the Judicial Laws Of Moses But Not From Natural Law
THUS MUCH CONCERNING INWARD FREEDOM: NOW CONCERNING OUTWARD FREEDOM. The outward freedom, is that which pertaineth to the outward life. And it is called Christian liberty, because it belongeth to Christians only. And that is two fold, freedom from the laws of . . . Continue reading →