For a decade the Westminster Assembly of divines (i.e., theologians) met at Westminster Abbey in London (1643-1653) to produce a Scriptural doctrinal standard and church government. During that time the well-known Confession of Faith was drawn up to explicate the system of doctrine drawn from the...

The surging waves of the sexual revolution continue to crash on the shores of our culture and threaten to wash the Christian church, supporting institutions, and believing individuals and their families out to sea. This is not really new. While scholars often point to the 50s and especially the 60s...

One of the landmark documents of the Westminster Assembly of Divines (1643-1653) is the Confession of Faith. This confession was created to provide a doctrinal basis for unity across the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Although in God’s inscrutable providence the confession did...

The work of the Westminster Assembly (1643-1653) in London, England involved the furtherance of the gains of the Protestant Reformation in the domains of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Called by Parliament amidst a civil war between parliament and the king (Charles I), the Westminster Assembly was...

As we contemplate the 500 th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation we are reminded of the glorious truths (and their entailed spiritual experiences) rediscovered and recovered that had been long lost under centuries of encrusted extra-biblical tradition. Clericalism was one...

The Protestant Reformation declared that the Scriptures displayed four perfections: authority, clarity, necessity, and sufficiency. When we say that the Scriptures are sufficient we mean that God has given us all that we need to know for salvation and life. The Westminster Confession of Faith ,...

Women are not second-class citizens in the Kingdom of God ruled over by Jesus Christ. There are two errors which we can fall into when we consider the role of women’s ministries in the church. We can either ride roughshod over the limits which God in Scripture places on the role of women in the...

Some Christians resist belief in the doctrine of irresistible grace. These brothers and sisters find the teaching that grace conquers all pushback repugnant. How could an all-loving God run roughshod over the freedom of his human creation? This is a misunderstanding of the doctrine for sure. We...

The Apostle Paul in Romans 9 addresses God’s sovereignty and uses the illustration of the potter and the clay. The potter, of course, creates out of his pile of clay whatever he or she desires. The clay has no say in the matter. Paul reaches a climax with these words in verse 18: “So then he has...

In this age when Christians find themselves on the “wrong” side of the arc of history, especially on the losing side of legal disputes, the questions quite naturally arise, what exactly is our relation to the laws of our land and to the promulgators and enforcers of those laws, the state? These are...

The Christian doctrine of the Triune Godhead is often thought more in terms of an intellectual puzzle to be solved than a truth to be adored . But the fact of the matter is that the truthfulness of this Scriptural teaching is of immense practical comfort for the child of God. It is the Triune God...

Some years ago, J. Ligon Duncan, chancellor of Reformed Theological Seminary, declared in a sermon at the historic First Presbyterian Church of Jackson, MS that God was “not an undifferentiated monad!” Precisely so. The God of Scripture is Triune: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is a Triunity ...

I have been having a lot of theological conversations of late. In fact, just last night I spent nearly five hours with a friend discussing the current Trinitarian controversy among Reformed complementarians while enjoying a delightful dinner (we were worried we were overstaying our welcome but no...

The chapters on God and his relation to his creation in the Westminster Confession of Faith (I have in mind here chapters 2-7, but in reality the whole confession is about this) reveal to us a Triune God who actively rules this universe and interacts with his creatures. To put it another way, God...

All the benefits of redemption are found in Jesus Christ. While Phillip Melanchthon, Martin Luther’s colleague and heir apparent, said “To know Christ is to know his benefits.” We could just as rightly say to know Christ’s benefits one must know Christ himself. Adoption is one of those benefits...

Benjamin B. Warfield (1851-1921) served as the professor of didactic and polemic theology at Princeton Theological Seminary from 1887-1921. Warfield is known as the “Lion of Princeton” for his defense of Christian supernaturalism and the verities of the faith, which has come to be known “Old...

Samuel Miller (1769-1850) was the second professor appointed to the theological seminary of the Presbyterian Church in the USA (Princeton Theological Seminary) by the general assembly of the church. Along with his senior colleague Archibald Alexander, Miller set the tone of the school we now know...

The Bible has many human authors. It has one divine author. If only the first statement were true we would not be surprised to find disagreements and inconsistencies between authors. But because the second sentence is true we find that the many human writers are in harmony and consistency with one...

One of the hallmarks of Presbyterian and Reformed churches (including Reformed Baptist congregations) is our approach to corporate public worship. While we affirm the importance of private and family worship, the emphasis has usually fallen on public worship. Public worship is not optional and what...

Some years ago I attended a service where the preacher noted he was thankful that God the Son had come in the flesh and that two natures, the divine and the human, were “blended” in one person for us and for our salvation. When I heard that I did a double-take because if what he said was true, we...

Geerhardus Vos (1862-1949) is widely known as the father of orthodox Reformed confessional biblical theology. Also known as redemptive historical theology, biblical theology is concerned with the progressive unfolding of God’s revelation over time in history. Vos himself wrote several seminal books...

You may be wondering what a worldview is. Or maybe not. Either way, worldviews are worth pondering. A worldview (sometimes called a "world and life view") is something we all have whether we know it or not. It is like a pair of glasses we wear to see the world around us more clearly. The point is...

Every once in a while I run across someone who sings the praises of faith. After all, I am told, we are justified by faith alone. And indeed we are. The Reformers noted that faith is the instrument by which we are justified. Or more accurately faith is the instrument by which we are united to...

The Bible represents God’s relationship to his human creation in terms of a two covenant structure (nicely summed up in the Westminster Confession of Faith 7.3,5, and 6). God created Adam and Eve within a covenant structure called the covenant of works in which God commanded our first parents to...