18 Nov 2019
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
I recently introduced a series on the Federal Vision. In the first installment, I explained why people are still talking about it and promised follow-up articles explaining the history and development of FV. In this post I would like to give something of a survey history of the personalities and controversy...
Read more → 08 Nov 2019
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
A little over a week ago Professor Scott Clark sounded his quarterly alarm about the Federal Vision. Even though the Federal Vision was a theological discussion that began at the turn of the 21st century and reached its zenith around 2008, Dr. Clark warns his audience that the Federal Vision is back...
Read more → 18 Oct 2019
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
Earlier this year, an article at TGC Australia started a controversy over the question of the temptations and impeccability of Christ. In the article, Ed Shaw wrote, "I’m wanting the young people who come to this event to know that Jesus is the one person that they can fully trust with their sexualities,...
Read more → 23 Sep 2019
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
Originally published in 1908, Herman Bavinck's book The Christian Family was only just translated into English in 2012. Throughout the book, Bavinck lays out a Christian theology of the family, and he gives practical advice on how families can withstand modern challenges and temptations. At one point...
Read more → 12 Jun 2019
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
In his famous "Third Theological Oration," Gregory of Nazianzus gives this rule for interpreting biblical passages about Christ: To give you the explanation in one sentence. What is lofty you are to apply to the Godhead, and to that Nature in Him which is superior to sufferings and incorporeal; but all that...
Read more → 24 Jan 2019
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
Anyone familiar with the Simpsons' Groundskeeper Willie, knows that old-fashioned Presbyterians did not celebrate holidays. Even Christmas was seen as illegitimate, and Christmas was not celebrated in early Puritan America. This stance has given way pretty decisively, and in the present day, the overwhelming...
Read more → 16 Jan 2019
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
One of the dangers inherent in "complementarianism" is the perception that ordination to ecclesiastical office is a matter of semi-arbitrary positive law and private zones of jurisdiction, that male leadership in church is only a question of ordination or specific church polity and only because a few bible...
Read more → 13 Nov 2018
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
This paper was originally delivered as a lecture to All Saints Church in Lancaster Pennsylvania on Feb. 18, 2017 as a part of a conference on church history and education. The audio from the entire conference is available here. Like all catechisms, the Heidelberg Catechism has a section dedicated...
Read more → 03 Oct 2018
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
I grew up with a very normal American view of Halloween. It was a day where I dressed up like cartoon characters or cartoonish or campy monsters in order to have a few laughs and get some candy. There really was no weighty “significance” behind it. It was just good clean fun. As I got older, things...
Read more → 19 Sep 2018
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
It's time to bring our series on the identity and government of the church to a conclusion. You can find the previous installments here: Part 1: The Crisis of Rome and Its Claims of Ultimate Authority Part 2: Church Origins and Officers in the New Testament Part 3: Bishop-Elders and Bishops in the Late...
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