Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
When someone expounds the way of salvation found in the Westminster Confession and Catechisms and in the easily-accessible writings of the Reformed heritage, he often finds him embroiled in a debates about the covenant of works and the Mosaic Covenant. One is “proven” to be aberrant by allegations that one…
The ultimate condemnation of a position in Reformed circles is to show that it “leads back to Rome.” Indeed, one gets the feeling that Rome is a worse destination for a Presbyterian than even hell itself. The accusation of Rome stings deeply, of course, because it means that all the…
One of the odd features of Michael Horton’s version of Covenant theology is his interpretation of the covenant God made with Abraham 1 in Genesis 15. According to Horton, The very way in which God made the covenant with Abraham (putting him to sleep; walking through the torn animals by…
What was I trying to do, when I wrote my book on Mark’s Gospel ? Fundamentally, I wanted a book that would change readers by making them better readers of the Gospel of Mark. My ideal reader is not someone who goes to the book to use as a resource…
Why do we need sacraments? According to the Westminster Confession, sacraments were instituted by Christ “to confirm our interest in him” (27.1), “to strengthen and increase” the “faith” of those within the Covenant of Grace and “to distinguish them from those that are without” that covenant (Westminster Larger Catechism, #162).…
In Isaiah 5:1-7, we have a typical covenant lawsuit, in which the Lord accuses his people of rejecting his grace and mercy. It is not my intention here to exegete the entire passage, or to look at the way the vineyard image used here serves as a metaphor in other…
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From the Renaissance to the early twentieth century, “almost all painting had obeyed a convention: that of one-point perspective,” says Robert Hughes ( The Shock of the New , 16-7). Renaissance perspective has come to seem natural, just the way we actually see, but Hughes points out that it is…
Jody Bottum nicely captures the unclassifiability of the new Pope: “He is an advocate of the poor who has consistently opposed the Argentinian government’s ostensible programs for the poor. A social activist who rejects most social reform. A churchman who refused many of the elaborate trappings of his office while…
The second installment of Pastor Ralph Smith’s series of studies in Deuteronomy is up on the Trinity House site this morning.
What other institution on the planet produces as many impressive old men as the Catholic church? Francis is 76. Joseph Ratzinger was nearly 80 when he became Benedict XVI. Not yet 60, John Paul II was a kid when he started the second-longest Papacy in history, but he was 85…
Even the inattentive see that Jesus’ ministry focused on what He described as the coming of the “reign of God.” In his recently republished The Aims of Jesus , Ben F. Meyer puts some concreteness to that by emphasizing “that the reign of God as imminent meant the imminent restoration…
In his contribution to The Apocalypse in English Renaissance Thought and Literature , Joseph Wittreich examines the apocalyptic elements of King Lear . Shakespeare doesn’t hold, he thinks, to traditionally Christian views of the end, nor does he want to turn the apocalyptic framework into a fixed law of history.…
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