15 Jun 2017
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
Mark Jones wrote a fun essay last week explaining why he doesn't like the name "Calvinism." I agree with all of the substantive points and have made many of them myself. I also liked the playful jab at the name of this site. Good ol' Mark. Still, I want to give a word or two in defense of using the expression...
Read more → 08 Jun 2017
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
Around the year 1548, Peter Martyr Vermigli published the following quote from John Chrysostom, said to be from a letter to Caesarius the monk: For as [in the eucharist] before the bread is consecrated, we call it bread, but when the grace of God by the Spirit has consecrated it, it is no longer called...
Read more → 17 May 2017
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. (1 Timothy 2:1-2) Like many of you, I have allowed myself...
Read more → 07 May 2017
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
Though it triggers some Presbyterians to say so out loud, John Calvin was not a Sabbatarian. He did have a strict Sunday practice (and thus he most likely did not go lawn bowling on that day...), but this was always explained as a matter of human and not divine law. In fact, Calvin argues that the early...
Read more → 05 Apr 2017
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
From time to time, the Protestant Reformers, especially the Calvinists, found it necessary to clearly distinguish the ways in which the two natures of Christ operate in His work of redemption, even explaining which aspects of the work were properly carried out by Christ's divine nature, which were carried...
Read more → 03 Apr 2017
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
The question of whether Protestants should regard Roman Catholic churches as "true churches" is very important to all ecumenical endeavors. Usually in reaction to those hardened Protestants who simply say that Rome is apostate and thus "no church at all," the ecumenically-minded Protestants, who usually...
Read more → 28 Mar 2017
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
As we have noted in the past, Calvin allowed for the suppression of heretics for political reasons, but he did not believe that the faith could be coerced. One reason that it can not be coerced is that, for Calvin, worship must be offered willing. A worship give out of fear or force is of no value. Calvin...
Read more → 20 Mar 2017
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
The doctrine of the Beatific Vision, so central to medieval Western theology, is much rarely discussed in Reformed churches. It does appear in most of the older dogmatic writers, however. There are interesting points of variety between them too-- take, for instance, Calvin's view and Owen's (more on them...
Read more → 08 Feb 2017
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
Here are some important passages from Calvin to add to the two kingdoms files. In his commentary on 1 Cor. 14, especially having to do with order, he raises the question of uniformity when it comes to ecclesiastical polity, tradition, and external forms. He writes: The design of the admonition is this...
Read more → 31 Jan 2017
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
A little over a week ago, we began the argument that the disruption currently occurring within the Roman Catholic Church is an inevitable reverberation of the 20th century. A fundamental transformation then occurred, and the classic position on religious liberty and the rights of the human conscience...
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