Heidelminicast: The Gospel According to John (MacArthur) Pt 9
This is part 9 in our audio series on The Gospel According to John (MacArthur). Continue reading →
View ArticleThe Gospel According To John (MacArthur)—Part 14
No chapter in this volume, so far, relies on MacArthur’s debt to Dispensationalism more than chapter 11, where he addresses the parable of the soils in Matthew 13. The Problem Of Dispensationalism He...
View ArticleHeidelminicast: The Gospel According to John (MacArthur) Pt 10
This is part 10 in our audio series on The Gospel According to John (MacArthur). Continue reading →
View ArticlePiper Is Wrong. Luther Is Right.
I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. John 6:47 One could preach a hundred thousand years about these words and emphasize them again and again. Yes, one can’t speak enough about...
View ArticleHeidelminicast: The Gospel According to John (MacArthur) Pt 11
This is part 11 in our audio series on The Gospel According to John (MacArthur). Continue reading →
View ArticleHeidelminicast: The Gospel According to John (MacArthur) Pt 12
This is part 12 in our audio series on The Gospel According to John (MacArthur). Continue reading →
View ArticleLuther: Only Christ Is The Savior
Therefore all hypocrites and idolaters try to do the works that properly pertain to the Deity and belong completely and solely to Christ. They do not actually say with their mouths: “I am God; I am...
View ArticleHeidelminicast: The Gospel According to John (MacArthur) Pt 13
This is part 13 in our audio series on The Gospel According to John (MacArthur). Continue reading →
View ArticleThe Gospel According To John (MacArthur)—Part 15
In chapter 15 of GAJ, MacArthur’s critique of Dispensational antinomianism (and particularly of the “carnal Christian” doctrine, which we addressed last time) turns to the parable of the sower (Matt...
View ArticleHeidelminicast: The Gospel According to John (MacArthur) Pt 14
This is part 14 in our audio series on The Gospel According to John (MacArthur). Continue reading →
View ArticleHeidelminicast: The Gospel According to John (MacArthur) Pt 15
This is part 15 in our audio series on The Gospel According to John (MacArthur). Continue reading →
View ArticleThe Reformed Agree With Luther
As I have said, therefore, the statement of Moses, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things, etc.,” is not contrary to Paul’s declaration that all who rely on works of the Law are under a...
View ArticleShould We Allow Wesleyans To Narrate The Reformed Tradition For Us (Or Why We...
Perhaps the most important paragraphs in Rhyne Putman’s recent review of a new volume attempting to relate good works to salvation appear near the end (16 paragraphs in): One theological topic closely...
View ArticleLuther: “Do This And Live” Is Ironic
For he who does them shall live by them . . . I take this passage as a general statement, like that saying of Christ (Luke 10:28): “Do this, and you will live,” so that it is a kind of irony or . . ....
View ArticleShould We Allow Wesleyans To Narrate The Reformed Tradition For Us (Or Why We...
Further, salvation includes three aspects: justification (i.e., God’s judicial declaration that believers are righteous), sanctification (i.e., God’s progressive and gracious work in conforming...
View ArticleGuy Waters Reviews & Critiques Piper on the Nature of Faith in the Act of...
But it must be also said that WSF’s thesis that saving faith is essentially affectional, and the arguments advanced in support of that thesis, are unable to sustain the weight of Piper’s Reformational...
View ArticleThe Gospel According To John (MacArthur)—Part 16
In MacArthur’s account of the parables of the kingdom of God, the nature of saving faith, and in his use of sources, we face three interesting sets of questions and some recurring problems in chapter...
View ArticleThe Gospel According To John (MacArthur)—Part 17
Dispensationalism is as much a theory of the church as it is of dispensations. Or rather, dispensationalism divides humanity into three distinct groups: Israel, the church, and the nations. The first...
View ArticleWilhelmus à Brakel On Justification
He who errs in this doctrine errs to his eternal destruction. The devil is therefore continually engaged in denying, perverting, and obscuring the truth expressed in this chapter and, if he does not...
View ArticleHeidelminicast: The Gospel According to John (MacArthur) Pt 16
This is part 16 in our audio series on The Gospel According to John (MacArthur). Continue reading →
View ArticleBaxter’s “Hot Peppercorn” Of Justification And Salvation Through Good Works
Touching the latter, how far he will extol the peppercorn of our own works, and righteousness to justification and salvation he does not here (though afterward, he does) in express words signify. But...
View ArticleHeidelminicast: The Gospel According to John (MacArthur) Pt 17
This is part 17 in our audio series on The Gospel According to John (MacArthur). Continue reading →
View ArticleHeidelminicast: Amandus Polanus On The Free Justification Of The Sinner
Amandus Polanus on the justification of the sinner before God. Continue reading →
View ArticleThe Gospel According To John (MacArthur)—Part 18
Throughout this series, however it might seem to devoted fans of John MacArthur, I have endeavored to be honest and fair—both of which require me to acknowledge, as I have before, that chapters 14 and...
View ArticleHeidelminicast: Turretin On The Harmony Of Paul And James On Justification
Francis Turretin on the harmony between Paul and James on justification. Continue reading →
View ArticleHeidelminicast: Beza Defended Justification Through Faith Alone
Beza was a staunch defender of justification through faith alone. Continue reading →
View ArticleHeidelminicast: For Turretin Justification Was Not A Cold, Academic Matter
For Turretin, justification was not a matter of cold, academic speculation. Continue reading →
View ArticleCalvin: Christ’s Present Reign Is Hidden Under The Cross
The appearance of Christ and his kingdom mean the same thing; for although he now reigns in heaven and earth, yet hitherto his reign is not clearly manifested, but, on the contrary, is obscurely hidden...
View ArticlePerkins: Justification By Works Is Nature, Not Grace
Whereas Paul says that “they are under the curse, that will be of works,” we see the whole world almost walks in the way of perdition. It is a conclusion of nature that we must be saved and justified...
View ArticleThe Gospel According To John (MacArthur)—Part 19
“Most of the current controversy regarding the gospel hinges on the definitions of a few key words, including repentance, faith, discipleship, and Lord.”186 So writes John MacArthur in his chapter on...
View ArticleHodge On Two-Stage Justification
Hodge draws attention to the two-stage justification of the Roman Catholic Church and rejects it. The first justification, according to Roman Catholic theology, is gratuitous and is given for Christ’s...
View ArticleHeidelminicast: The Gospel According to John (MacArthur) Pt 18
This is part 18 in our audio series on The Gospel According to John (MacArthur). Continue reading →
View ArticleThe Gospel According To John (MacArthur)—Part 20
The formal question of the Protestant Reformation was that of authority: What is the principal source of authority for the Christian faith and the Christian life? The Roman communion claimed that the...
View ArticleThe Gospel According To John (MacArthur)—Part 21
MacArthur is right to observe that too many evangelicals have no place for good works in their account of the faith. The question is not whether there is a “relationship between faith and works,” but...
View ArticlePerkins: Christ’s Curse Brings Abraham’s Blessing
Whence comes the benediction of Abraham? Answer. From the cursed death of Christ. For thus are the words, “He was made a curse for us, that the benediction of Abraham might come on the Gentiles.” Mark...
View ArticlePerkins Opposed Two-Stage Justification
. . . we must here observe the opposition between the law and the free promise of God in the justification of a sinner. “For if life come by the law, it comes not by the promise,” says Paul. And, “If...
View ArticleThe Gospel According To John (MacArthur)—Part 22
Throughout this series, despite my documented concerns about this volume, I have worked to be scrupulously fair. When MacArthur gets things right, I have given him credit for that; and he gets some...
View ArticleThe Gospel According To John (MacArthur)—Part 23
Chapter 21 of MacArthur’s The Gospel According to Jesus is typical of this work. There is much that is true and helpful, there is not a little irony, and there are one or two significant mistakes....
View ArticleThe Gospel According To John (MacArthur)—Part 24
Chapters 22 and 23, “The Cost of Discipleship” and “The Lordship of Christ” do not add anything that MacArthur has not already said. Essentially, chapter 22 is a rejection of the Christian life of...
View ArticleThe Gospel According To John (MacArthur)—Part 25
With this installment we come to the end of the series reviewing and critiquing John MacArthur’s The Gospel According to Jesus. Remarkably, like the Old Testament prophets searching and enquiring...
View ArticleWhat The Confessional Reformed Churches Have Said About Doug Wilson
The Heidelberg Reformation Association has received a queries in recent days asking about our view of Doug Wilson, a proponent of theonomy, Christian Reconstruction, Christian Nationalism, and the...
View ArticleLuther: A Christian Is Simultaneously Sinner And Righteous
Thus a Christian man is righteous and a sinner at the same time, holy and profane, an enemy of God and a child of God.* None of the sophists will admit this paradox, because they do not understand the...
View ArticleFree E-Book: Beza, Polanus, And Turretin On Justification
For the month of August, 2024, Reformation Heritage Books is giving away copies of the electronic (e-book) version of R. Scott Clark and Casey Carmichael ed. Justification By Faith Alone: Selected...
View ArticleLuther: In Christ We Are No Longer Under The Law For Justification
Therefore Paul separates the spiritual people of the new covenant from the Law when he says that this people is not the child of Hagar, who had a husband, but of Sarah, the free woman, who does not...
View ArticleMachen: Justification Sola Fide Is Liberating
[Justification by faith alone] has been a liberating doctrine; to it is due most of the freedom that we possess today, and if it is abandoned freedom will soon depart. If we are interested in what God...
View ArticleThe Moralist’s Catechism
Moralism is the teaching (doctrine) that God approves (accepts or justifies) of us either because we have cooperated with his grace (semi-Pelagianism) or because we have kept the law without his help...
View ArticleColquhoun: If Any Quality In Us Or Good Work By Us Is A Condition Of...
Hence, it is also manifest that if any good quality or work of ours were made the condition of our justification or title to eternal life, this would turn the covenant of grace exhibited in the gospel...
View ArticleErskine: Were Paul Alive He Would Excommunicate Richard Baxter
…1. As to doctrinal legalists, we might bewail and refute the legal schemes that take place in the world. I name these two: 1. The Popish Scheme, denying the imputation of Christ’s righteousness. The...
View ArticleSimul Iustus et Peccator: The Role of Justification in Pastoral Counseling
As shepherds of Jesus’s flock, pastors wrestle with the wounds and waywardness of the human heart. They counsel the guilty, who are consumed by self-condemnation. They counsel the defensive, who try to...
View ArticleJustification by Faith Alone: No Christian Life without It
Whenever the doctrines of justification and sanctification are to be considered, the instinctive reaction of a Protestant ought to be to draw a distinction between them. Continue reading →
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