Heidelcast

This is episode 8 of our series: I will be a God to You and to Your Children. Last time we looked at circumcision, about which we saw that, just as with the bloodshed of the sacrifice of pigeons, bulls, goats, and . . . Continue reading →

This is episode 7 of our series: I will be a God to You and to Your Children. For the last two episodes we have been thinking about what is temporary and what is permanent in the history of redemption. We have . . . Continue reading →

This is episode 6 of our series: I will be a God to You and to Your Children. Last time we began looking at how types and shadows help us sort out what, in the history of redemption, is temporary and what . . . Continue reading →

This is part 5 of the series: I Will Be A God To You And To Your Children. Last time we looked at the distinction between the substance of the covenant of grace and its accidents or its outward (external) administration throughout redemptive . . . Continue reading →

This is part 4 of the series: I Will Be A God To You And To Your Children. Last time we considered whether it's right to speak of a "covenant of grace." We saw that, from the very beginning of redemptive history, . . . Continue reading →

Last time we looked at some of the challenges we face in learning how to interpret Scripture properly and how the Ancient Christian Churches and the Reformed churches read the Scriptures, with Christ at the center. One way to understand this unity . . . Continue reading →

This is part 2 of the series: I Will Be A God To You And To Your Children. We're talking about how to read the Scriptures, about what Scripture says about the covenant of grace, its administration, and baptism. One of the . . . Continue reading →

One of the most frequent topics and questions for discussion on the Heidelblog has been this: Who should be baptized and why? To anticipate an objection: some will say that the Heidelcast should not be addressing this subject because it causes needless . . . Continue reading →

Remember our definition of the covenant of works. It was that legal arrangement into which God voluntarily condescended to enter and by which he promised eternal blessedness to Adam, on the condition that Adam by personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience should keep . . . Continue reading →

The doctrine of the covenant of works was taught by the Dutch, the Germans, the French, the Swiss, the English, the Scots, and the Irish. It was taught in the 1560s (it was arguably implied in the 1561 Belgic Confession's phrase "commandment . . . Continue reading →

For a doctrine that was almost universally held by Reformed theologians from the 1560s through the 19th century, and confessed explicitly twice in the Westminster Confession of Faith (1648), in the Westminster Larger Catechism, in the Savoy Declaration (1658), as well as . . . Continue reading →

What's the big deal about being Presbyterian or Reformed? After all, isn't it enough to love Jesus? Honestly, no. Of course you should love Jesus but then what? If someone else personally paid for all your legal offenses out of his own . . . Continue reading →

In contemporary Reformed Christianity, even in confessional churches, i.e., those churches where they not only formally hold the historic confessions but where they still profess to believe and seek to practice what we confess, two of the most disposable doctrines seem to . . . Continue reading →

Christians in the USA live in an increasingly confused, confusing time. Hostility to the faith seems to be increasing. We seem to be witnessing a growing hostility even to the very idea that there is such a thing as nature with fixed . . . Continue reading →

We in the Reformed world are in the midst of another controversy over sanctification, salvation, good works, and conditions in the covenant of grace. Are we justified by grace alone through faith alone but saved by grace, through faith and works? Is . . . Continue reading →

Evangelical involvement in politics has perhaps never been more intense. The George W. Bush administration had an office of faith-based initiatives. The Obama administration continues to hold prayer breakfasts and regularly invokes the Christian faith when it serves favored policy goals. The . . . Continue reading →

Confessional Reformed theology, piety, and practice does not seem to be sweeping the field in North America but it is prospering in other parts of the globe. In this episode Dan Borvan joins us to get us up to speed about the . . . Continue reading →

As you read this the churches, the theology, piety, and practice represented by confessionally Reformed and Presbyterian Churches is almost statistically invisible. Of the 60 million evangelicals in North America only a tiny fraction actually identify with the confessional Reformed and Presbyterian churches . . . Continue reading →

This is part 2 of our two-part interview with Stella Morabito about an essay she published in The Federalist on the how LGBT movement is seeking to restrict free speech in the United States. Here is part 1. This is not a theoretical issue. Consider this scenario: . . . Continue reading →

We're interrupting the series Of Nice And Men for a two-part interview with Stella Morabito about an essay she published in The Federalist on the how LGBT movement is seeking to restrict free speech in the United States. This is not a theoretical issue. Consider . . . Continue reading →

With this episode we begin a new series: Of Nice And Men. The argument, the thesis, of the series is that niceness is one thing and Christian virtue is another. Niceness is a pervasive ethos among evangelicals. The dictionary defines ethos as the a spirit . . . Continue reading →

"You shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's." Continue reading →

The ninth commandment, however, also requires that we confess and defend the very existence of truth in an age when the notion that there is truth and that truth is distinct from error is widely doubted. Continue reading →

The 8th commandment says: "You shall not steal" We are, by and large, a wealthy people. There is no sin in that, but there are dangers in wealth. A recent study has shown that even as the world measures happiness, the wealthy . . . Continue reading →

In this episode we consider the 7th commandment: "You shall not commit adultery." Warning: since this episode discusses sexual ethics, it may not be suitable for younger listeners. In the seventh commandment the Lord asserts his authority over our sex life. What . . . Continue reading →

After the last episode it occurred to me that there is an obvious question that I should have addressed under the 6th commandment: abortion, the termination of a human life in the womb. Since 1973 no fewer than 50 million human beings . . . Continue reading →

In this episode we consider the sixth commandment: "You shall not murder." You may have learned this commandment a little differently. Some translations, e.g., the Authorized or King James Version (1611) translate Exodus 20:13 as, "You shall not kill." The Hebrew verb . . . Continue reading →

This is part 2 of a two-part episode on the fifth commandment: "Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God gives you." In Heidelberg Catechism 104 we interpret this commandment to require . . . Continue reading →

With episode 84 we are taking a brief hiatus from our series on the moral law to talk with one of my favorite authors, Stella Morabito, about an article she published in The Federalist, "A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to . . . Continue reading →

In this episode we consider the fifth commandment: "Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God gives you." In Heidelberg Catechism 104 we interpret this commandment to require "that I . . . Continue reading →

That there is a Sabbath is evident in the first chapter in God's Word. According to Scripture, Almighty God "worked" for six days, six mornings and evenings, and rested the seventh. Have you ever stopped to wonder why Scripture says that God "rested"? Was . . . Continue reading →

God's holy law says, "You shall not take the name of the Yahweh your God in vain; for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain." The first thing we need to say about the name of the . . . Continue reading →

All the commandments are challenging to us sinners. In the first commandment we saw that God will not share his glory with another. In the 2nd commandment we read and hear that we must worship the true God truly. We do not . . . Continue reading →

The first commandment says: "You shalt have no other gods before me." The Hebrew text says literally, "You shall not have any other Elohim before my face." Elohim is the generic word for God in the Hebrew Bible. When Genesis 1:1 says, . . . Continue reading →

This is part 2 of the series God's Holy Law. In order to use the law rightly we need to make some important distinctions. One of the most important of these is the distinction between law and gospel. Historically, confessional Reformed theologians . . . Continue reading →

With this episode we begin a new series: God's Holy Law. In this episode we consider what the law is, how the moral law is distinguished from the civil and ceremonial aspects of the law, the universality of the law, its expression . . . Continue reading →

This is 13th and final part of the our series, nomism, antinomianism and The Marrow of Modern Divinity. If you're just joining us, you can start at the beginning with episode 58. Why this series? Because The Marrow was an important classic . . . Continue reading →

What worship is and how it should be done is one of the most difficult questions with which confessional Reformed and Presbyterian churches are presently faced. Few things will cause trouble in a congregation more quickly than making changes in a worship . . . Continue reading →

Before I began this series my intent was to do a series of episodes on the Reformed understanding of the Christian use of the moral law as the norm or rule of the Christian life. Confessional Protestants (Reformed and Lutheran) call it . . . Continue reading →

Last time we considered what some folk mean by the expression "the law of Christ" and, in contrast, what the Bible means by it. It's neither a new covenant of works, as if we could obey our way into acceptance with God . . . Continue reading →

If you've been near social media or a television recently you probably know about the troubles in Ferguson, Missouri. It's a predominantly African-American suburb of St Louis where, around Noon on Saturday August 9, 2014 a Mike Brown, a young, 18-year old, . . . Continue reading →

We've come to the 3rd part of the Marrow, "Of the law of Christ." This is a phrase that occurs frequently in this discussion. Neither the antinomian nor the neonomian are satisfied with the law of Christ the way it is. The . . . Continue reading →

The issue before this week is this: The nomist (i.e., the legalist) will frequently deny that he is a legalist. We can even get the nomist to profess orthodox things about the doctrine of justification but here's an acid test—by the way . . . Continue reading →

The Heidelcast is a broadcast about history and theology and recovering the Reformed confession but one of my great concerns in recent years has been the potential and actual loss of religious and other civil liberties. It's not unusual for Reformed ministers . . . Continue reading →

It's widely thought that science, the modern study of nature, is the product of the rejection of Christianity, as if science and Christianity are naturally at odds. As part of this narrative it is said that Christianity was anti-intellectual and disinterested in . . . Continue reading →

Before there was Recovering the Reformed Confession, there was Recovering Mother Kirk a seminal book for all Reformed confessionalists who are looking for a way between revivalism and fundamentalism or between QIRC and QIRE. Darryl Hart published Recovering Mother Kirk just over . . . Continue reading →

We're resuming the series on antinomianism and we're talking with Nick Batzig, pastor of New Covenant Presbyterian Church (PCA) in the Savannah area. Nick blogs at Feeding On Christ. He's also on Twitter. He recently wrote a provocative essay on the third . . . Continue reading →

We're talking a break from the series on nomism and antinomianism to talk about science. Not long ago there was a debate between Bill Nye the Science Guy and Ken Ham the Creationist Guy that garnered a considerable amount of attention. Why did . . . Continue reading →

The nomist wants to know whether the works he did before coming to faith are of any value. He asks, "why then, sir, it would seem that all my seeking to please God by my good works, all my strict walking according . . . Continue reading →

The Heidelcast is working through The Marrow of Modern Divinity (1645). Last time we began looking at the doctrine of the covenant of grace. We saw that the principle of the covenant of grace is fundamentally different from that of the covenant of works. . . . Continue reading →