No Other Name (2): Do We Need Salvation?
In part 1 we looked at the problem created by Jesus’ declaration and the Apostolic teaching that the is the only way to the Father. In this part we need to consider another problem: salvation itself....
View ArticleNo Other Name (3): All Or Nothing
Since the garden humans have faced the temptation to listen to an authority claiming to compete with God’s authority. Since the beginning voices have questioned, “has God really said?” Since the...
View ArticleThe Next Church-Growth Trend?
The Telegraph (UK) has a story about a flamenco-dancing priest in Spain. According to the story Fr. Pepe is wildly popular and especially with the ladies. They love it when, as part of the mass, he...
View ArticleHe Is The Savior And We Are The Saved (1)
I first encountered the Reformed theology, piety, and practice (c. 1980) in St John’s Reformed Church, in Lincoln, Neb. There were a couple of fairly recent seminary graduates, who had both studied at...
View ArticleHe Is The Savior And We Are The Saved (2)
In the first post in this series we considered the fundamental distinction between the Savior and the saved, an apparently obvious distinction that, nevertheless, has been regularly blurred in the...
View ArticleHe Is The Savior And We Are The Saved (4)
In part 3 we looked how Jesus fulfilled the office of priest. The third of the three offices (triplex munus) is the office of king. We Americans have a little difficulty with the office of king. In the...
View ArticleHe Is The Savior And We Are The Saved (5)
In part 4 we looked at the third of Christ’s three offices (triplex munus): king. The catechism, however, connects Christ’s threefold office to the Christian. This series began with a basic distinction...
View ArticleHe Is The Savior And We Are The Saved (6)
In part 5 we began looking at Heidelberg Catechism 32, which distinguishes between the Savior (Jesus) and the saved (Christians) and applies to believers the three offices of Christ: prophet, priest,...
View ArticleWhat Do We Mean By “Suffered”?
An internet search for “suffering” turns up an astonishing array of results. Because of the internet we are now aware of global suffering in a way, with an immediacy that no other generation has ever...
View ArticleWhy Did Christ Suffer Under Pontius Pilate? (1)
When we read the Gospel accounts we can be tempted to disconnect them from the historical context in which the life of Christ occurred. One of the several functions of this line in the Apostles’ Creed,...
View ArticleWitsius On The Distinction Between Christ’s Resurrection And His Glorification
X. While Christ remained on the earth, however, his body was not advanced to that full perfection of glory, which it has possessed ever since its exaltation above the heavens. From condescension to the...
View ArticleWitsius: Christ Condignly Merited A Reward By Fulfilling The Covenant Of Works
XXXIII. And the thing speaks for itself, For, as there is a covenant between the Father and the Son; “when thou shalt make his soul (if the soul of the Son shall devote himself) an offering for sin,”...
View ArticleHodge On Adam, Christ, Conditions, And Merit
The condition of the covenant of grace, so far as adults are concerned, is faith in Christ. That is, in order to partake of the benefits of this covenant we must receive the Lord Jesus Christ as the...
View ArticleThe Real Question is Whether There is An Objective Definition of Reformed
Part of Saturday was spent trading tweets with Matthew Milliner, who teaches Art History at Wheaton College. We had a good, genial conversation from two different confessional traditions. I’m not sure...
View ArticleCanonization, Saints, and Christ Our Only Mediator
The AP ran a story yesterday on the naming of seven new Roman “saints.” According to the story, “Two of the new saints were Americans: Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American saint from the U.S.,...
View ArticleThe Treasury of the Church—”A Satanic Mockery”
Now very many persons see the base tricks, deceits, thefts, and greediness with which the indulgence traffickers have heretofore mocked and beguiled us, and yet they do not see the very fountain of the...
View ArticleOffice Hours: Steve Baugh on Hebrews 7:18-28
Steve Baugh, Professor of NT at Westminster Seminary California, joins us for this episode Office Hours that takes a look at Hebrews 7:18–28. Does Hebrews teach that the Ten Commandments are no longer...
View ArticleSaturday and the Silence of the Lamb
During this season, which many Christians call “Holy Week,” I am perversely drawn to Saturday. Perhaps it is because the Saturday between “Good” Friday and Resurrection Day is, for others a sort of...
View ArticleHe is Not Here, For He Has Risen as He Said
Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended...
View ArticleThe Serpent Strikes At The Son
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his...
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