Tag Archive

It should be available in November, but the cover art arrived today so I thought I would share it with you. It will be available at the WSC Bookstore and it should be available for pre-order at Amazon next week. You can learn more about the painting here and even order it for yourself. Thanks to Dawn Premako, Marvin Padgett and everyone at P&R for doing such a terrific job.

I see that Tony Jones has posted something critical of small/cell groups (I don’t know where and I can’t find it now. You’re welcome to post a link in the comments). Perhaps now that a leader in the Emergent Village has suggested that they’re not very useful maybe it’s okay for an Old Side confessionalist to say it too. The last time I re-published this on the web the reaction was pretty heated but now I can say, “Hey, I’m just agreeing with Tony Jones.”

Caveat: I since this first appeared and since I first re-published it on my old website I’ve come to disagree with this essay on one point. I don’t think it’s necessary to juxtapose Shorter Catechism 88 with the Berkhof and the Heidelberg on prayer as a means of grace. Still, this essay articulated something I had thought for a long time but had, to my shame, been afraid to say.

Reprinted from the Nicotine Theological Journal 3 (October, 1999): 1-4, by permission of the publishers.

The NTJ is sponsored by the Old Life Theological Society and published quarterly (sort of) and edited by that redoubtable duo of Orthodox Presbyterians, John Muether and Darryl Hart. Subscriptions are $10.00 annually ($12 Canadian) and more for institutions. You can order it by post to 1167 Kerwood Circle, Oviedo, FL 32765.
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By Henry M. Lewis

Why is it that when Presbyterians gather for prayer they look more like Quakers than heirs of the magisterial Reformation? To be sure, Presbyterian prayer meetings possess a little less spontaneity than the Quaker service since someone is assigned the opening and concluding prayer. But in between Presbyterians rely on the Spirit to lead them in the fashion of Quakers, with one person praying for this request another for that, until the length of the silence becomes unbearable and the designated supplicant utters the concluding prayer. Whatever allowances we might want to make for informal gatherings of the saints, surely the inheritors of a theological tradition that stresses decency and order might want to reconsider a spiritual discipline (the trendy way of putting it) that is inherently indecent and disorderly. Strong words those, but the pattern of informal gatherings of the saints for prolonged times of petitions has become so familiar to conservative Presbyterians that they seldom see how inappropriate it is to their beliefs (or they are afraid to voice objections because of the charges of impiety that will surely follow). So vituperative language may be in order to rouse contemporary Calvinists from their Spirit-led slumbers. Read the rest of this entry »

Re-post from the Old HB archives January 2007. I’m reposting this in response to the discussion occurring in response to this notice.

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The question comes concerning the relations between Theonomy and the Federal Vision. There is reason to think that there is some connection between the two movements. Severall well-known theonomists are also proponents of the FV. One of the FV leaders recently described the current FV controversy as a renewal of the theonomy argument. Interpreters on both sides have seen connection between the two controversies and movements. Read the rest of this entry »

Just saw the draft cover art for the forthcoming book, Recovering the Reformed Confession: Our Theology, Piety, and Practice [Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2008] to be published in Oct/Nov of this year.  I’ll post the cover art when it’s finalized and provide ordering details.

James K. A. Smith has an interesting post at CT: Teaching a Calvinist to Dance. In this post he says he longs for a “ a kind of “Pentecostalized” Reformed spirituality.” Read the rest of this entry »

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 

From 8 Jan ‘07.

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In reaction to Rick Phillips’ critique of Steve Wilkins’ responses to his presbytery, one of the proponents of the Federal Vision made the following argument:

… Surely, we all know there’s a difference between how we use terms in systematic theology or in writing confessions and how the biblical writers use terms. This seems to me to be so very foundational. I learned this from all of my instructors in seminary and in graduate school. The whole point of analyzing the way the 17th-century divines crafted their theologies and wrote confessions is so that we, 500 years later, can appreciate their insights without being naively bound to all of their formulations. Or are we to become the equivalent of an historical reenactment club, never changing, never improving upon Puritan theology (as if it were monolithic in the first place)?

Read the rest of this entry »

In response to the post on Bob Godfrey’s Unexpected Journey, Arthur writes to ask, “So does someone who does not hold to every point of doctrine in the Reformed confessions be considered “Reformed”. More to the point, can a credobaptist not be truly Reformed?” Read the rest of this entry »

David writes to ask about a brief essay I wrote several years back on the distinction between the substance and accidents of the faith and how I reconcile what I wrote there with what I’ve been arguing about the nature of confessional subscription. He also says some nice things (which I’ve omitted because they tend to make the HB look even more self-serving and Narcissistic than it already is! Read the rest of this entry »

That I receive on a regular basis is the post that says, Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to Pastor Howard Sloan who contacted me to let me know about the Heidelberg Reformation Association, a small but growing group of Reformed pastors and others with roots in the German Reformed tradition. This a group (like many of us!) is in the process of recovering the Reformed confession (theology, piety, and practice). Some of these congregations have been in the mainline (UCC) but have left the UCC or are identifying with historic Reformed Christianity in their current setting. This is a group that deserves our encouragement and prayers. They have a newsletter and are happy to email it.

One caveat: Read the rest of this entry »

From the Gospel-Driven Life Conference. This was the adult Sunday School course in the AM.

Apparently not for this group. The Rev Dr Gary Johnson writes to say that yesterday he was alerted that a new “Reformed” congregation is opening “its doors here in Mesa.” They call themselves “Desert Haven Reformed Church.” Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to a link by Justin Taylor I read an article by Nancy Morganthaler this morning that is disturbing on so many levels I hardly know where to begin. Read the rest of this entry »

The medievals had a slogan, “The law of praying is the law of believing.” It means, “If we can change liturgy, we can change what folk believe.” This axiom means that whoever controls the liturgy controls the future of the church, humanly speaking. Read the rest of this entry »

So there’s been a lot of discussion of John MacArthur’s recent comments at the Shepherd’s Conference. Kim Riddlebarger has replied and I’ve commented on the HB here and here and on the Puritainboard. I’ve promised to write something on Quistorp’s summary of Calvin’s eschatology. I’ve read and accept Phil Johnson’s account of what happened. Okay. John is a dispensational, pre-trib, premillennialist. Read the rest of this entry »