Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
I appreciate Andy Webb’s recent entry into the current discussion over baptismal efficacy. 1 This is an issue which has consumed a great deal of time and energy in the Reformed world in recent years. It is not likely to subside soon. As a contributing party to the discussion, I…
The Covenant Vision of the Heidelberg & Westminster Catechisms Regarding Children and Baptism 7 POINTS ABOUT THE TEACHING OF THE REFORMED CHURCHES Question 1. What is thy only comfort in life and death? Answer: That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but…
Is the Holiday Unpresbyterian? ‘Tis the season to be informed–sometimes in gentleness, often with vigor–by a variety of Christians (and others 1 ) claiming that it is wrong to celebrate Christmas. I have no desire to force anyone to celebrate Christmas against their will. Indeed, it would be insulting to…
This month we begin by considering Alan D. Strange’s article, “Understanding the ‘Federal Vision'” published in the February 2007 issue of New Horizons, the official denominational magazine of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Mr. Strange is an OPC minister, a teacher at Mid-America Reformed Seminary, and was a member of the…
There is no reason to believe that Matthew 24, Mark 13, or Luke 21 records Jesus prophesying about what is now known in Christian theology as “the Second Coming.” In my opinion, the fact that most modern conservative Christian scholars and pastors are not yet willing to acknowledge that the…
Francis Turretin, the Reformed theologian of the seventeenth century, carefully distinguishes the Reformed view of infant faith from Lutheran and Anabaptist claims. Anabaptists denied any faith to infants so that they could justify their refusal to baptize them. Lutherans affirmed (rightly) that covenant infants were believers, but made no distinction…
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I hope to post more elaborate comments on Newman’s classic and challenging Lectures on Justification (recently reprinted by Wipf & Stock), but a few tidbits with have to suffice. 1) Newman frames the whole discussion by distinguishing between justification and faith as they are in idea and terminology, and justification…
Much of the poetry of Frederick Turner’s Paradise is traditionally rhymed and metered, and employs the veiled self-referentiality of earlier generations of poets (“the poet” appears in a number of poems). The themes of the poetry are also very traditional, focusing, as Turner points out in the concluding essay, on…
Philip Kenneson has some helpful things to say about the relationship of worship and the rest of life in his contribution to the Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics . He challenges the notion that worship is a specifically religious activity, a view embodied in the modern assumption that the practices…
I posted this a short time before my web site went down, and I don’t believe it’s been restored. David Yeago offers a stimulating discussion of Luther?s views on gospel and law in a 1998 article in The Thomist . Yeago challenges modern Luther interpreters who suggest that Luther, in…
I’ve been asked to post this ad for New St. Andrews, and since they be the big boss, I’d better comply. New St. Andrews College and Christ Church-Moscow seek a joint music instructor and church music director for fall 2005. Position includes teaching yearlong Music Colloquium and elective courses, conducting…
More lecture notes. INTRODUCTION Modern life can be characterized in many ways, but one of the central themes of modernity is that it is a revolt against ritual. This is particularly true of modern Christianity. As Hennig Graf Reventlow showed in his study of the rise of modern biblical interpretation,…
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