The Calvinist International
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 attempting this, a few caveats have to be given. […]
So I do want to point out the virtual impossibility of talking about these things without “sounding like” we might be drifting toward a problem. If the Son is the one who made the actual decision, where did the unified divine will (that which makes decisions) go? If Jesus made this as a voluntary decision, does this […]
In his Heidelberg Catechism lectures, Zacharias Ursinus lists 17 “theses” on baptism. These form a section of their own, and they appear after his commentary and exposition of Heidelberg Lord’s Day 27. For those who have the hard-cover version of the P&R reprint titled Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, the theses begin on pg. 371. We have […]
On November 7th, the church which I pastor is hosting a conference with Douglas Wilson, Joe Carter, and Benjamin Merkle. We’ve called it “Witness: Life in a Post-Christian World,” and the talks will each deal with ways in which Christians can live public lives of faith in a culture which has quickly turned against traditional […]
The title is clickbait. One finds that associating a position with which one disagrees with a Christological heresy is both cheap and effective. A provocation: without sola scriptura, human society collapses. Ok, that is an overstatement. Sort of. This post is a follow-up to Andrew’s from the other day. We were discussing his last point on […]
Our Monday jolt of Calvin for this week comes from his discussion of the Law in Institutes 2.7.8. The Law pronounces a curse on all who, taking their beginning from unbelief, disobey its demands and binds the wayward to condemnation and destruction. But why? In order to serve the divine clemency: so that the wayward […]
The Davenant Latin Institute has now publicly launched, the initial response has been very encouraging. So far we have over 40 students enrolled, and we expect that number to grow. This has been particularly exciting in light of the fact that nearly all of the promotion has been online and online “word of mouth.” This […]
Introduction In the previous post we saw that “one,” “holy,” “catholic,” and “apostolic” are attributes of the church. The church as the Creed speaks of it has these characteristics already, and it has them because it is elected in Christ to be this kind of thing rather than another kind. This church is put before […]
There’s been a lot of Calvin on here lately. I suppose that shouldn’t be surprising, given that he is the site’s eponymous inspiration, even if he wished to remain anonymous. One of the reasons he surfaces so frequently is because he is the consummate exegete, and his theology is one that is properly ordered, with […]
Bringing together a couple of recent themes, viz. the theater and alienation: Calvin in an uber-Brechtian synthesis gives an account of the latter which prevents us from seeing God’s glory in the former. It cannot be emphasized enough that the alienation that most needs to be dealt with is, as Calvin understood so well, the alienation […]