Interesting interview here with Thabiti Anyabwile.

The Reformers affirmed the necessary distinction between the church visible and invisible; that is, between the one church of Christ on earth as man sees it, and the one church in heaven and earth as God sees it. The one is related to other but cannot be identified as equal. The identity between...

The annihilation of the wicked was not a popular thought in the sixteenth century. Therefore, when Calvin discusses the resurrection of unbelievers, it is not so much the fact of their resurrection that is in view, but the implications of it. If unbelievers, too, are resurrected to "life," does...

My former colleague in ministry in Belfast and good friend, Dr. John Ross, currently at Dumisani Theological Institute (King William's Town, South Africa) has written a fascinating piece on missions here . Ref21 readers will find it well worth reading.

Machen's birthday (July 28) went almost unnoticed (blame Calvin), but our friend Martin Downes has put together a helpful Machen resource here .

Day 5: and more sermons: Ted Donnelly with a superlative exposition of the closing verses of Romans 8 (if you can get a hold of this sermon you should); Hywel Jones on the Elihu narratives in Job (making the case that Elihu was a godly preacher rather than a "wind-bag" as so many, myself included...

( Ligon Duncan preaching in St. Pierre Cathedral, Geneva ) Three more sermons today: Steve Lawson on Galatians 1:6-10, an uncompromising call to defend the gospel against all detractors after the fashion of the Reformer, Iain D. Campbell on Romans 8:26-27,34, on "Three Great Intercessions", and...

Day 1 of the Calvin 500. Sinclair Ferguson opened the proceedings preaching from Calvin's pulpit (not really; that one fell to pieces and the present one is nineteenth century but in the same spot). His text was Philippians 3:8-12 in which he emphasized (using distinctly "old" perspective...

Tim Keller and Ligon Duncan debated the issue of women and the deaconate at this year's PCA General Assembly in Orlando. Speaking as someone who was there amd heard it, this was the finest debate I have heard on a controversial issue, as much for the spirit of the debate as for its content. Our...

Ref21 readers might be interested to read (obviously well edited) reports of a speech made by a member of Duke Street Church ( in South West London), a high court judge on the family issue. He had taken part in a BBC documentary which they axed because of its outspoken defence of marriage as an...

Many of the Ref21 bloggers are at Disneyworld where this year's PCA General Assembly is meeting, Phil Ryken has been spied wearing Mickey Mouse ears. Sean Lucas was heard making a terrific Goofy impersonation and Ligon has not been seen; rumor has it he went to the Epcot Center and hasn't been seen...

Calvin begins a new section here comprising five chapters given over to the nature of the Christian life. It knew a separate existence from the Institutes published as a booklet in its right. Referring to his love of brevity (yes!), Calvin begins by outlining his plan and method. Christians must...

Yet more on purgatory; Calvin really does not like this absurd doctrine and takes up a passage, the interpretation of which has bothered folk in our time in an entirely different manner. What did Paul mean by saying that some will be saved "but only as through fire" (1 Cor.3: 15)? Those who...

More attacks on man's perennial problem of a works-righteousness mentality, this time by medieval Catholic insistence that "love covers a multitude of sins" - that is, with God. Calvin correctly interprets misinterpreted passages of Scriptures viewed as suggesting that works of pity, love and...

David Meredith has blogged here , and David Robertson can be heard being interviewed for a local news station here .And Willie Philips response to his own congregation here .

We have just posted a piece by Phil Ryken in which he reflects on aspects of life for his grandparents during World War II.

Trueman must be in Oregon. I recall the occasion to which he refers vividly (and, by the way, the best dinner EVER!). At first I thought my name was being dragged into the Miss California debacle. I'm pleading innocent, having never watched a beauty pageant in my life. But then, it was the Wagner...

Those of you following our Calvin blog will have noticed an interruption last week. The individual concerned has been apprehended and sent to the dungeons of First Presbyterian Church where an extraction of penance is underway. Meanwhile, Carl Trueman blogs this week on topics ranging from faith,...

Just a quick note in a shameless act of sycophancy to point you to Guy Waters' article in The Law is Not of Faith , edited by Bryan Estelle, J. V. Fesko and David Van Drunen (P & R, 2009) on the interpretation of Romans 10:5. A fascinating piece worth looking at. His citation of Turretin in the...

Carl Trueman reviews David Wells' The Courage to be Protestant in the latest edition of the The Ordained Servant (denominational magazine of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church) here . We saw it coming, of course: Wells' on "consumerism" and its linkage to capitalism was bound to strike a nerve...

News has filtered out that our own Sean Lucas has received and accepted a call as the Senior Minister of First Presbyterian Church, Hattiesburg, Mississippi (PCA). Brian Chapell released a formal note offering his congratulations on behalf of Covenant Seminary today. Sean takes up his new role in...

Blog 60 2.714 - 2.8.1 Obligation to the keep the law as believers seems to many to legalistic and contrary to the gospel. Antinomianism has ever been an issue and Calvin asks, "To what extent has the law been abrogated for believers?" Taking Matthew 5:17 and Jesus' words to the effect that he did...

More covenant theology from Calvin: the covenant with David is a line of continuity with Moses, and the entirety as a preparation for the coming of Christ. Calvin walks between the (Lutheran) Scylla that the sole purpose of the law is pedagogic (what Calvin calls the narrow sense, "Christ is the...

More arguments against Calvin's view of free will emerge. One from Ecclesiasticus which Calvin, knowing it to be of dubious authority as an apocryphal document, nevertheless patiently answers viewing these texts as "supportive" of his point of view even if they are apocryphal. Next, Luke 10:30,...