The Federalist Papers, No. 78 – The Judiciary Department

The Judiciary Department From McLEAN’S Edition Wednesday, May 28, 1788 By: Alexander Hamilton There are 3 primary objectives to this Paper - How to appoint judges, how long they should remain in their appointment, and the separation between courts/how they relate to each other. The manner of constituting it seems to embrace these several objects: …

Would Your Church Admit Augustine to The Table? Some Reformed Churches Would Not.

This may seem like a strange topic; I admit that it is one that we don't normally discuss. But I would like to know if your church would not allow Augustine to partake of the Lord's Supper if he were to pop out of history and show up at your Church's door on a Sunday …

Augustine On Our One True Mediator

According to the Platonists, then, the gods, who occupy the highest place, enjoy eternal blessedness, or blessed eternity; men, who occupy the lowest, a mortal misery, or a miserable mortality; and the demons, who occupy the mean, a miserable eternity, or an eternal misery. ... But if, as is much more probable and credible, it …

Augustine on Regeneration and Resurrection

As, then, there are two regenerations, of which I have already made mention,-the one according to faith, and which takes place in the present life by means of baptism; the other according to the flesh, and which shall be accomplished in its incorruption and immortality by means of the great and final judgment,-so are there …

Discussing Ken Wilson’s Work, Part 2 – Augustine, 412, and Original Sin

  Introduction Recently, Dr. James White has been interacting quite a bit with Dr. Ken Wilson's book (and dissertation) regarding Augustine's "conversion" to a predestinarian. As I have read more Augustine and other Church Fathers than probably almost anyone else I know, I felt that I should enter this discussion with a layman's perspective. Since …

Discussing Ken Wilson’s Work, Part 1 – Clement and Free Will

Introduction Recently, Dr. James White has been interacting quite a bit with Dr. Ken Wilson's book (and dissertation) regarding Augustine's "conversion" to a predestinarian. As I have read more Augustine and other Church Fathers than probably almost anyone else I know, I felt that I should enter this discussion with a layman's perspective. Since Dr. …

A Wrinkle in the Practice of Reformed Infant Baptism

Briefly today, I would like to respond to the statements in a paragraph in Dr. Clark's latest blog post. After posing a question that he received from someone, Dr. Clark gives us an introductory paragraph in which he is laying out the early evidence that infant baptism was an established practice received from the Apostles …

“The same Christ that now is, was the salvation of the elect [in the Old Testament]” – Henry Lawrence, 1659

I confess there are some things of common equity, the rule of life was the same then that now, and the same Christ that now is, was the salvation of the elect, such things therefore as are of such common nature, may be illustrated and inferred from one Testament to another. Henry Lawrence, 1659

The Covenant of Works in the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith

I am uncertain why it is the case, but for some reason there has been a belief spread over the years that the Particular/Reformed Baptists do not Confess or believe in a "Covenant of Works". A cursory read of the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (i.e. the 1689) shows that there are both implicit …

Roundup of Some Recent Blog Posts from Reformed Baptists – Updated

In addition to my 3 recent posts, and a third forthcoming, we have several other posts that should prove to be extremely helpful in understanding Reformed Baptist thought related to covenants, typology, and other related doctrines. On Sam Renihan's blog, we have the following 3 recent articles that he has written. Typology and Communication in …