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 →
What To Do About Halloween On The Sabbath?
nature and grace
With Back To The Reformation Podcast Taking About Politics And The Church
The question of how Christians should relate Christ (i.e., their allegiance to Christ and the Christian faith) to culture is perhaps the most pressing challenge facing the Christians individually and the institutional, visible church. A subset of this question touches on how . . . Continue reading →
New In Print: Geerhardus Vos, Natural Theology
For Christians who came of age during the heyday of Barthianism, the very words “natural theology” can send shudders down the spine. Barth himself went to war against natural law, natural revelation, and natural theology of all kinds. Modern Evangelicals have resonated . . . Continue reading →
Roman And Protestant Integralists Together
Or Why An Established Religion Is A Really Bad Idea
Integralism and Protestant theocracy are twin movements of which our readers should be aware. The first is a Romanist movement. The second is a movement among a small but visible band Protestants who seek a similar outcome. Roman Integralism Romanist “integralists” like . . . Continue reading →
The Integralist Abandonment Of Classical Liberalism: The Quiet Revolution
As much as the debates in Commonweal and the Times revealed that Roman Catholics were not of the same mind about the church’s relationship to modern society, those disputes were mild compared to a revival of antiliberalism from Roman Catholic intellectuals. In . . . Continue reading →
Rescuing Complementarianism
Those who study these things (e.g., historians, sociologists) write of three “waves” of feminism. First-wave feminism accounts for the women’s suffrage movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Second-wave feminism is associated with the legalization of birth control (Griswold v . . . Continue reading →
The Two Sexes As God Created Them Enables A Deeper Union
The noblest of God’s binaries, though, is found in humanity. God crowned us with the honor of bearing his image, uniting a physical body and a rational soul (Genesis 1:26, 2:7). Then he split the man into “male and female” (1:27, 2:22), . . . Continue reading →
Should The Visible Church, As An Institution, Form And Express An Opinion On Political Violence?
s noted here previously, the mainline (liberal) PCUSA has adopted more than 120 positions on a bewildering variety of issues. The temptation to use the visible church to achieve one’s desired social goals is almost irresistible. Continue reading →
Winsome Is The New Nice
Tom Hervey has published an interesting essay on the Aquila Report. In it he questions the legitimacy of “winsomeness” as a virtue. He is correct. It should be questioned. Continue reading
Nature, Grace, And Film
I love a good film. I took three courses in film criticism as an undergraduate. They were more difficult than one might think. First, taking notes in the dark is challenging and reading them afterward is even more difficult. Second, I had . . . Continue reading →
1689 Vs. The Westminster Confession (2): Nature, Grace, and Revelation
Since I first indicated that I intended to do this series, I have been challenged repeatedly by Baptist correspondents to justify the legitimacy and necessity of the series. Some have insisted, nay, demanded that I abandon the project as worthless. More than . . . Continue reading →
Aquinas On The Source Of Truth
Aquinas did not view truths of reason and truths of revelation as incompatible or in need of synthesis. Underlying theological project of Aquinas’ two Summas is the assumption that what is true is true whatever its immediate source, given that all truth . . . Continue reading →
With Presbycast Discussing Side B, Concupiscence, And The Distinction Between Nature and Grace
The Presbycast is always weird—the intro music for this episode comes from Ralph Carmichael; a blast from the CCM past—wild, and fun and this episode is no exception. HB contributor Stephen Spinnenwebber and I joined HB contributor and Presbycast co-host, Brad “Chortles” Isbell, . . . Continue reading →
The Crisis Of The Hour: Christ And Culture
There may be no more pressing issue before Christians (as individuals) and the visible church (as a corporate body) than the question of Christ and culture. Much of what concerns us all just now goes back, in one way or another, to . . . Continue reading →
Found: One Lost Category
To follow up on the earlier essay on Christ and culture, I want to make a further observation about the importance of creation or nature as a category of thought. When many conservative Christians think of creation, the first thing they think . . . 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 →
Second Council Of Orange On Nature And Grace In Justification
CANON 21. Concerning nature and grace. As the Apostle most truly says to those who would be justified by the law and have fallen from grace, “If justification were through the law, then Christ died to no purpose” (Gal. 2:21), so it . . . Continue reading →
Paying Tuition To Sodom
In this space I have been very critical of American public education and rightly so. It was a flawed system from its beginnings in the nineteenth century (which probably did a better job of educating students than its intellectual foundations even intended) . . . Continue reading →
Heidelminicast: R. B. Kuiper Says That Christians Study Nature In School And Grace In Church
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 →
Twenty Affirmations And Exhortations For Christian Citizens
Just as Christians are not to “grieve as others do who have no hope,” neither are we to rage as those who do not know the one true God. Continue reading →