Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
A Brief Comparison of Calvin’s Institutes with the Westminster Confession and Catechisms regarding the shape of imputation This essay is a brief argument that the soteriology of John Calvin in his Institutes of the Christian Religion regarding union with Christ and the imputation of his righteousness is the same as…
The thoughts in this paper were largely prompted by a study of Walter E. Krebs, “The Word and the Sacraments,” Mercersburg Review (July, 1867), 366-383. The discussion in this paper presupposes my earlier studies of baptism, “Baptismal Efficacy and the Reformed Tradition: Past, Present, and Future” and “Calvin on Baptism,…
Sometimes our systematic theology creates an illusion of precision. For example, we distinguish the ground and instrument of justification. Justification is grounded in Christ’s work alone, and is instrumentally received by faith alone. That makes good sense and guards us from thinking that faith itself is somehow meritorious. All the…
Whenever we participate in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, we remember Christ and His Work for us. We remember. And in remembering, we imitate God, as His creatures made after His image. God remembers. This is mysterious to us because we usually think of remembering in the context of our…
It is standard in paedobaptist circles to argue for the baptism of infants out of the Old Covenant system. Because there is no explicit command in the New Testament, we are left to the broader principles and patterns of Scripture. In the Old Covenant, we continually find that the children…
Luther popularized the law/gospel hermeneutic. Luther argued that any demands God made upon us fell into the category of “law” and could only condemn. By contrast, anything God gave us was “gospel” and came with no strings attached. Calvin paid lip service to this law/gospel antithesis, even though it was…
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John W. De Gruchy points out in his Christianity and Democracy that nineteenth-century Anglican socialists were concerned equally for the possessive individualism of capitalism and liberal democracy, and the deletion of the individual in collectivism. De Gruchy summarizes the views of William Temple: “respect for individual personality is the root…
In the same issue of the Weekly Standard , Matthew Continetti analyzes the “bailout state.” The point of government management of the auto, banking, and other industries is not merely to save jobs (and votes) and support organized labor. More, in the bailout state, the government can “transform once-private companies…
James Gardner captures the eccentricity, flaws, and brilliance of George Steiner in a short piece in the June 15 issue of the Weekly Standard . His weaknesses are manifest - Steiner is “an unapologetic know-it-all and acrobatic show-off” given to “incessant posturings in print.” Gardner describes his usual modus as…
INTRODUCTION God is a God of music. The Spirit-breath glorifies the Word of the Father, and is the music of the Triune life. Made in the image of this God, we are musical instruments, created for praise. Jesus speaks with a voice like the sound of many waters (Revelation 1:16…
Job 19:25-26: I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth, even after my skin which they have cut off, yet from my flesh I shall see God; whom I myself shall behold, and whom my eyes shall see and not…
At one point in his debate with Job, Eliphaz says that “the heavens are not pure in God’s sight.” That may have been true when he spoke it. Blood from bulls, goats, and sheep never cleansed the heavens. But it’s not true anymore. Jesus purified heaven with better blood, His…
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