Basic Reformed Theology

COVID Repentance Peter VanDoodewaard is the pastor of Covenant Community Church in Taylors, SC. He’s in-house today to chat about an article he’s written for Reformation21.org titled Covid-19 Repentance. Peter's piece combines a reflection on the Old Testament minor prophets with the unprecedented...

How do we think about the Old Testament saint’s believing experience in relation to our own? Perhaps we think better of them than we do of ourselves! Or maybe we use them as an excuse for our bad behavior. For instance, how many times has David’s name been invoked as an excuse for unfaithfulness?...

Romans 8:29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified...

Christian sanctification is normally understood as the on-going spiritual growth of a believer where that believer is more and more conformed into the image and likeness of Christ. The moment a person believes in Jesus and thereby becomes one with Him, the Spirit of Christ enables and works within...

Our English term sanctification derives from two Latin terms sanctus and facio . When brought together they mean “to make holy.” If we are to understand how the term sanctification is used in Scripture, we must understand the Scriptural use of the term holy . The biblical notion of holiness, or...

Puritan pastor Walter Marshall concludes his magisterial work on a believer’s sanctification, The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification, with the simple but profound dictum that “Sanctification in Christ is glorification begun as glorification is sanctification perfected.” [1] What makes this statement...

He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. Mat. 28:6 NKJV Very early in the second century, a Roman historian named Publius Cornelius Tacitus referred to the resurrection of Christ as a “pernicious superstition.” Gaius Suetonius, another Roman historian...

These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life… 1 John 5:13a NKJ The Protestant Reformation is most often remembered and celebrated as the time God restored the crucial doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone to the church...

Editor's note : In a previous post , Megan Taylor introduced us to the great American theologian Jonathan Edwards. She directed us to consider the Small Pox vaccination which ended his life. In this post. Megan once again enlists the great theologian, this time as a guide for us in our use of time...

Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone. [i] When this pastor begins counseling a new person my first question is not “what brings you...