Reformed Theology

Why do some pastors so strongly emphasize the “means of grace” or God’s “ordinances”—God’s word, the sacraments (Baptism and the Lord’s Supper) and prayer? It boils down to this: humans are dead in their sin, wholly corrupted in their soul, and the only source of life—God—has given to his church...

Although some theologians claim to see discrepancies between Calvin’s early thought in The Institutes and his later commentaries and sermons on the matter of resistance, a review of his commentary on Daniel 6:21-23 reveals no radical discontinuity. Admittedly, certain events, such as the 1572 St...

Moses’ layered scheme, advised by his father in law in Exodus 18 seemed to Calvin and his disciples to be republicanism. Commenting on a similar passage in Deuteronomy 1:14-16, Calvin stated: “Hence it more plainly appears that those who were to preside in judgment were not appointed only by the...

Rather than commending either a democracy or a monarchy, Jethro advised Moses and the people to select a plurality of prudent representative leaders (Exodus 18:21). [1] Moses instituted a graduated series of administrations with greater and lesser magistrates, and Calvin asserted that the earliest...

In a phrase that would become incendiary, Calvin noted that not only kings but also “people must sometimes take up arms to execute public vengeance” (4:20, 11). The same basis for waging war was also used both to justify revolution and to put down sedition. If the magistrates were to punish private...

Of course, I did not espouse a democracy or a Presidency in my lifetime. My disciples teased out the logic, however, of my thought and reached new positions. If one wishes to hear the early Calvinist principles, one would need to look to two sets of texts: Text Corpus #1: Calvin himself , in his...

If all your paperwork rolled like a sea upon your desk, you’d struggle to navigate and prepare your tax returns. If you blanketed your computer’s desktop with all your digital files, you’d smother the writing of a departmental report. So is any unorganized library a maze of confusion. This is why...

This week on Theology on the Go, our host, Dr. Jonathan Master is joined by Dr. Mark Dalbey, president of Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, MO. Dr. Dalbey was a pastor and Bible instructor prior to his coming to Covenant Theological Seminary. He holds an MDiv from Pittsburgh Theological...

When considering the matter of our application of Scripture, or what we can call our doctrine or theology, we really do need to think about it. Think about this—God only gave us ten commands for all life and then reduced them to two, both about what we love. Every situation you have ever found...

There are many dimensions bound up with what it means to be a Christian. Its roots stretch back into eternity past, its experience is bound up with our existential present and its horizons take us into eternity future. It changes what we are in ourselves as we are united to Christ and, because of...