Heidelblog

Sometime back my friend and neighbor Jim Renihan, who directs the Institute for Reformed Baptist Studies that meets on campus at WSC, very graciously gave me a copy of his new edited collection of confessions from the 16th and 17th centuries. In the style of Sinclair Ferguson and Joel Beeke’s Reformed Confessions Harmonized, Jim has arranged the First London Confession (1644), the 1596 True Confession, The Second London (1677), The Savoy, the Baptist Catechism, the Orthodox Catechism (1680) alongside the Westminster Confession and Shorter Catechism and the Heidelberg Catechism. 

This is a valuable collection for those (Baptists and non-Baptists) who are not aware of the confessional Baptist tradition. True Confessions is available at WSC books for $27.78.

David VanDrunen just passed along an off print of his essay, “The Two Kingdoms Doctrine and the Relationship of Church and State in the Early Reformed Tradition” published in Journal of Church and State 49 (2007): 743-63. You can order single issues or subscribe here. Otherwise you can get copies of this essay at your nearest public library via inter-library loan. This material will also appear I think in his forthcoming volume on this topic.

Hannah Rosin offers a brief synopsis of Daniel Radosh’s Rapture Ready. What Rosin doesn’t mention is that there have been voices within the Christianity such as the Wittenburg Door (in the 70s), and more seriously the White Horse Inn guys have been examining and critiquing the foibles of evangelicalism and chronicling it’s relations to popular culture for years. Purgatorio and the TBNN guys a good job of it on the web. Still Radosh’s book looks like a good read. 

Warning: Apparently Christians are imitating everything in the culture, even porn and Rosin writes about it briefly.

(HT: WSC student Matthew Thomas Morgan) 

(HT: Anthony Carter).

This is a good start. I love it when one of the pastors says, “I’m Presbyterian by choice and I want to inculcate that into the African-American community.” Amen. This video is very encouraging. Criticisms: well, I hesitate because this is such an important work but I hope the pastors will continue to think about their use of the transformationalist model of social engagement. Is the visible, institutional church called to “transform” the culture around it? Or is it perhaps better to say that we hope and pray that the gospel will have a transforming effect in the life of Christ’s people?

Our annual January faculty conference focused on the relations between Reformed theology, piety, and practice and the emerging/emergent missional movement(s). Bob Godfrey’s talk, “Friends or Foes: The Mission and the Confession of the Church,” is printed in the May 2008 issue of Evangelium. You can subscribe for free here. The text of the talks are now available for free on the WSC website. They include:

Friends or Foes: The Mission and the Confession of the Church     by Dr. W. Robert Godfrey

Why the Mission Needs the Marks of the Church by Dr. R. Scott Clark

Why the Marks of the Church Need the Mission by Dr. Michael S. Horton

Mission According to Paul by Prof. Joel E. Kim

Mission in a Pluralistic Age by Dr. Hywel R. Jones

Mission and Missions: Evangelism in the 21st Century by Julius J. Kim

Audio CDs and MP3 downloads are available for purchase at The Bookstore at Westminster Seminary California. Order online or call 760/735.BOOK (735.2665).

Information about the 2009 conference will be available on our website in Summer 2008.

They’re studying covenant theology at Mars Hill. (HT: Austin Britton)

For those just getting started in covenant theology I recommend:

“A Brief History of Covenant Theology.”

God of Promise: Introducing Covenant Theology. It is biblical, accessible, clear, and the state of the art.

For more advanced reading, one of the classic texts is Herman Witsius,Economy of the Covenants.

For more on the history of covenant theology see R. Scott Clark, Caspar Olevian and the Substance of the Covenant: The Double Benefit of Christ.

There are more resources here and here.

Edited by Peter Lillback and David Hall, contributors include Mike Horton, Sinclair Ferguson, Bob Godfrey, and many others.

Contributors include: Gary L. W. Johnson (Editor), Ronald N. Gleason (Editor), David F. Wells (Foreword), Paul Wells, John Bolt, Paul Helm, Scott Clark, Paul Kjoss Helseth, Jeffrey Waddington, Guy P. Waters, Phil Johnson, Martin Downes, Greg Gilbert, Gary Gilley

New on the Faculty Reflections page at WSC

From 7 Feb 2007

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A correspondent to the HB writes:

About 7 years ago during a study of Romans in BSF, God rocked my theological world! My thinking was turned upside down as I embraced the doctrines of grace and began to see God and myself in a more biblical way. Over the next few years I began to read and study the Reformation and sought out contemporary authors who were firmly planted in this tradition. The White Horse Inn, Modern Reformation, RC Sproul, JI Packer — all these helped me grow in the knowledge and grace of Christ. The Heidelberg Catechism came up often on the WHI and I downloaded the catechism from the internet. As I began to read it the first question/ answer brought me to my knees as I knew an assurance that had often been lacking. My family is now a part of a small RCUS mission work in Bentonville, AR and we know that God has richly blessed us with a faithful pastor. Not many in the “Bible Belt” have ever heard of the Reformed denonminations, but I for one am most thankful that God lead me to the reformed confessions and cathechisms! It would be a terrible thing for these denominationns to take lightly the great treasures handed down to them from men who were willing to die for their faith in the all-sufficient Savior. 

In Christ,
Johnna Duncan