Meet the Puritans

H aving considered John Knox's doctrine of predestination ( part 1 ) and how he related it the attributes of immutability and omniscience ( part 2 ), we now move specifically to election. Election Election for Knox was the “eternall and immutable counsell of God, in which he hath purposed to choose...

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.” ("Romeo and Juliet," II, ii, 1–2) J uliet expressed her love for Romeo in these words. Her point was not that she loved the name of Romeo’s family, Montague, but that his name didn’t matter, as it was Romeo whom...

S everal posts ago I began a series of short posts on Owen’s teaching on communion with the Trinity under the analogy of building an iPad (part 1 , 2 ). This third and final post presents his teaching on all three persons in the Godhead. What Does the Owen iPad Look Like?: The Father, the Son, and...

L ike me, many young reformers of my generation and even younger came out of a myriad of non-Reformed but evangelical churches into a Reformed church. Recall the struggles. One of them, no doubt, was over the theology and practice of worship in a Reformed church. In former churches we were taught...

A condemned prisoner was climbing the gallows when William Perkins said to him, “What man! What is the matter with thee? Art thou afraid of death?” The prisoner confessed that he was less afraid of death than of what would follow it. “Sayest thou so,” said Perkins. “Come down again man and thou...

G od wants Christians to baptize their infant children. It took me a while to make such a claim. I was converted at 21 and spiritually raised in Arminian Baptist circles. Eventually, I embraced the “doctrines of grace” and joined a Reformed Baptist church where I started to struggle with my...

W e really have a crazy-sounding religion. We confess that God exists as one, yet three. Totally irrational! We confess that one of those three, the Son, became a human by being born of a virgin. What a fantasy! We confess this God-man died on a common Roman cross to take away sins. Keep dreaming!...

W hat do you do when two parties within the same Reformed tradition approach the issues from such different perspectives that they end up seeing one another as the devil? In the previous article in our series on lessons from an old controversy (see parts 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ) we learned that one...

"This is our plaine confession, which we simply and boldly do affirme, that Rom. 8., this is a stable and immutable foundation, 'The Lord knoweth his own, that no creature is able to seperat his Elect frome his love, which in Christ Jesus he beareth to them.’" (John Knox, Works , 5:256) L ast time...

Randall J. Pederson, Unity in Diversity: English Puritans and the Puritan Reformation, 1603-1689 , vol. 68, Brill Studies in Church History (Leiden: Brill, 2014). 380pp. Hardcover. *Click here for details on our current giveaway of this book. “P uritanism” is so difficult to define that some...