Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Book Review The Call of Grace: How the Covenant Illuminates Salvation & Evangelism by Norman Shepherd The Call of Grace is an excellent manual to put in the hands of laymen to teach them how to rest in God’s grace while taking seriously the prize of the upward call of…
My Role as a Parent in My Children’s Salvation Evangeline Jael Horne is our third child. My two boys were born while we were at seminary and we had the privilege of giving them to Jeff Meyers, our pastor at that time, for baptism. When Evangeline was born, however, I…
John Calvin writes in the Institutes about the possibility of admitting children to the Lord’s Supper by virtue of their baptism once and only once: At length they object, that there is not greater reason for admitting infants to baptism than to the Lord’s Supper, to which, however, they are…
The debate over paedocommunion does not seem to have made much headway on either side in recent years. Certainly both sides have made a solid effort to argue for their position. But no resolution seems to be forthcoming in the near future. As a convinced paedocommunionist, I find the church’s…
Lots of conservative Protestants want to answer “no” to this question. The problem with this position is that conservative Protestants are bound to believe what the Bible teaches. And the Bible says inconvenient things, like “baptism now saves you” (1 Peter 3.21), or “all of you who were baptized into…
This paper is something of a follow-up to my earlier study, “ Baptismal Efficacy and the Reformed Tradition: Past, Present, and Future .” One of the more controversial aspects of that paper was my claim that Calvin held to a very high view of baptismal efficacy. Indeed, he was a…
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?May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine.?ESo says the Bride at the beginning of the Song of Songs. And the chorus agrees: ?We will rejoice in you and be glad; we will extol your love more than wine.?E Later the…
Deut 16:13-17 This morning we considered some issues in child-rearing, showing that we are to raise children to serve, to rule, to have wisdom they can communicate with others. Many aspects of raising children are fairly intangible. We not only teach and exercise discipline, but we work to create a…
Today?s sermon is about raising priests and kings, and a few of the things I say in the sermon today refer to touch. I?m going to encourage you all to hold and caress and cuddle with your infants, and I?m going to encourage you to hug and kiss your older…
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Kaspar Olevianus Schwandt is named for one of the founders of the Reformed Church of Germany, and one of the principal architects of the Heidelberg Catechism. One of the highlights of that beautiful catechism is the answer to the first question, ?What is thy only comfort in…
Thomas Schreiner offers an intriguing reading of the end of Rom 5:12, “death spread to all men EPH HO all sinned.” The Greek phrase has long been a crux: Most recent commentators take the phrase as causal - death spread because all sinned; Augustine interpreted it as equivalent to “in…
A student of mine suggests that frequent communion creates pressures toward paedocommunion. So long as Eucharist is celebrated quarterly or less, it seems to be a special occasion for adults, like fancy dinner parties. Kids know that they are not included, and don’t care to be. As soon as the…
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