06 Mar 2020
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
In today’s selection, Melanchthon affirms both that the church has never ceased to exist, from its establishment in the time of Genesis all the way up to the present, and that it nevertheless has often been quite small. This he proves from, for example, the case of Noah. Still, God does not let the church...
Read more → 05 Mar 2020
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
In today’s post, Melanchthon cites one more patristic source (Origen) as an example of how the church’s authority is rightly deployed. He then proceeds to sketch his understanding of the relation of the church to the Word and to give his definitions of what the church (1) is not, and (2) is. The church...
Read more → 05 Feb 2020
Posted by Ian Mosley 
One of the most common procedural grounds on which Protestant churches can be critiqued is their lack of Apostolic Succession. It is very common for anti-Protestant apologists to argue that Protestants lack authentic ministerial orders because they cannot lay claim to this succession, and hence their...
Read more → 19 Dec 2019
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
I must apologize for the month-long delay in completing this series on the Federal Vision. Seasonal travels and other obligations interfered. Nevertheless, I will begin to lay out a summary description of the theological issues involved in the Federal Vision and offer some critical observations. Before...
Read more → 10 Dec 2019
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
At various points, we’ve discussed the celebration of Christmas and other holidays in various sectors of the Reformed tradition, including among some conservative Presbyterians in the nineteenth century, as well as time-keeping more generally. The same favorable attitude we see in Hodge continues...
Read more → 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 → 10 Oct 2019
Posted by Mark Jones 
Many of us have come to see the reality of something called “Big Eva” and the way in which it seems to shape much of our modern church culture. You might think this is mostly a problem for Baptist and broader Evangelical churches, but something very much like it can be present in Reformed Church...
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 → 18 Jan 2019
Posted by Mark Jones 
I’ve been pastoring in Vancouver for roughly twelve years now, preaching close to 1000 sermons, to over 50 nationalities, with people of various backgrounds and theological understanding in the pews. And 100s of children (ages 0-13) have been present. We are a Presbyterian church and, as such, believe...
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...
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