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Writing

Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.

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Federal Vision

Zacharias Ursinus & the Imputation of Christ’s Righteousnes

While I think Zacharias Ursinus’ thinking would be profitable to consider, I am not recording his reflections in order for readers to come to agreement with his position as a whole. Rather, my interest is twofold. First, I think the way the Heidelberg Catechisms is used as a “proof” of…

by Mark HorneJune 5, 2006
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Covenant

Does the New Covenant have its own distinctive sanctions as well as blessings? We affirm

On this question Hebrews 10 is quite clear and really needs no additional argument. For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume…

by Mark HorneMay 21, 2006
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Biblical Horizons

FV, NPP, PCA, AAPC, ETC.

Not all readers of this essay letter may be aware of it, but a tempest has been brewing in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), a tempest created by the liberal party in that denomination. It came about this way. In January 2002, a Pastor’s Conference on covenant theology was…

by James B. JordanAugust 5, 2005
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Biblical Horizons

The Closing of the Calvinistic Mind

Once upon a time there was such a thing as Calvinistic thought. It existed when I was younger, but seems to have largely disappeared in recent years. But let me elaborate. When I became a Calvinist, back in 1970, I bought a bunch of books. Over the next few years,…

by James B. JordanAugust 5, 2005
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Ephesians

The Centrality of Preaching

CHRIST THE PREACHER How Ephesians Shows Us Why Preaching is Essential to Salvation & Sanctification Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name. He made my mouth like a…

by Mark HorneJune 5, 2005
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Baptism

Baptismal Theology Within Reformed Evangelicalism

Tracking the informal shifts in Protestant opinion regarding Baptism can be a difficult business. For example, in 1849 Anglican clergyman William Goode published his defense of Evangelicalism against the Anglo-Catholics under the title, The Doctrine of the Church of England as to the Effects of Baptism in the Case of…

by Mark HorneMay 29, 2005

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Questioning Simplicity

Matthew Levering devotes a dense chapter of his Engaging the Doctrine of Creation to a defense of divine simplicity. As one would expect from a leading Catholic thinker, Levering relies on Thomas. God, Levering argues, must be pure act in order to be something other than "a being among beings":…

February 22, 2018

Do Not Be Anxious

The following excerpt is taken from the first volume of my Matthew commentary , recently published by Athanasius Press . Jesus announces the new law from the mountain; He is Moses on a new Sinai. But in this passage, Jesus assumes another role for a few moments – the role…

February 22, 2018

Hell and Primal Love

An old piece, first published in Touchstone magazine . Contemporary horror films have nothing on Dante. His Inferno is full of terrors that even the most jaded film-maker would shrink from putting on screen: Nightmarish landscapes flowing with streams of boiling blood, deserts of burning sand showered by fire from…

February 21, 2018

Liberalism and Empire

In Liberalism and Empire , Uday Singh Mehta calls attention to the neglected link between British liberalism and the British empire. He writes, "We rightly think of liberalism as committed to securing individual liberty and human dignity through a political cast that typically involves democratic and representative institutions, the guaranty…

February 20, 2018

Sacraments of Christian Society

Henry de Candole was one of the leaders of the early liturgical movement in the Church of England. In his 1935 The Sacraments and the Church , he explores "the corporate nature of Christianity" and places sacramental theology firmly within ecclesiology. He hits many, many of the right notes. He…

February 20, 2018

Fruits of Pentecostalism

The following are my opening remarks at the fifth annual Nevin Lectures, February 16-17, 2018 . Sixty years ago, British Pentecostal leader Donald Henry Frere Gee wrote that the Pentecostal Movement passed Jesus’ test: “By their fruit you shall know them.” While Pentecostalism “makes no claim to perfection,” he wrote,…

February 19, 2018

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