It is also of interest to note that Smith’s own Confession, the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF), uses the term “sacrament” in chapters XIV and XXVII-XXIX in various places. It also uses the word “ordinance” to refer to baptism (XXVIII.5-6) and the Lord’s Supper (XXIX.3). Which is it – sacrament or ordinance? It’s both; they were interchangeable terms back them.

In endorsing Noll's book, I said that the Reformation is over only to the extent that it has succeeded. And it has succeeded in bringing change to both sides of that 16th-century divide. Back in the 16th century, the two sides shared in common the written Word of God. They had different interpretive patterns. We shouldn't minimize that. But in that pre-critical world, what they shared, often as unspoken assumptions, was far greater than the issues that divided them

I believe that our "Frankenstein's monster", the result of unintentional consequences is statism: the perpetual philosophical lie that human redemption can come from a centralized political collective and that it will lead us to the utopia we inherently desire.

And so at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the church—graced with a confession of such joy and a calling of such beauty—nonetheless finds itself burdened with deep questions over the nature of its identity, the efficacy of its labors, the character of the culture around it, and the possibility of faithfully being the church in the late modern world. To all appearances, the answers to these questions are far from certain.

In the end ministers are pawns – not of fate but of God. He puts us where he sees fit, uses us as suits his purposes, and sets us aside according to his timing. He need not explain his ways to us. Perhaps that is the most important lesson of all

The Lord's Supper is important. It is important for biblical obedience. It is important for church discipline. It is important for comforting the afflicted and the weak. We neglect it to our very great impoverishment.

Much has been written over the past several years regarding the Adopting Act of 1729 and the idea of “scrupling.” A recent article by Frederick Heuser included a brief overview of the Adopting Act while pondering the various controversies and splits within our history as American Presbyterians. Dr. Jeffrey C. Francis, Sharp Chaplain of the... Continue Reading

The practical impotence of in thesi declarations is why I think them corrosive to the Church's well-being. Church officers are free to agree or disagree with them with whatever degree of openness they prefer; disagreement brings with it no automatic sanctions

What are the theological maturity qualifications for ‘joining the church’? I know the wrong answer. I know churches where you ‘join’ around high school graduation time, so you join and then leave town, maybe never to find your way back to church again.

The OPC found a way to avoid J&R with the PCA and in the process recovered something of its older polemical edge. The PCA became a refuge for disaffected Orthodox Presbyterians of a New Life persuasion. The CRC debated and finally gave its blessing to women’s ordination. As the OPC hardened, the PCA softened, and the CRC amended, Reformed Protestantism fractured.