Category – Historical Studies

One of the classes taught at Westminster Seminary California is titled "Ancient Church." It covers the history of the church after New Testament times until the Medieval period. I have sometimes joked that it is really misnamed. We should call it the "Somewhat Old Church" because I teach about the…
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R. Scott Clark Professor of Church History & Historical Theology Perhaps the first post-Apostolic use of the New Testament verb “to justify” (δικαιόω) occurs in 1 Clement, written just after 100 AD to the same Corinthian congregation to whom Paul had written half a century earlier. There is no claim…
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WSC's latest faculty publication comes from Dr. Fesko. He's written an essay entitled, "Reformed Orthodoxy on Imputation: Active and Passive Justification." The essay is part of a special edition of the academic journal, Perichoresis. This special edition of the journal celebrates the 500th anniversary of the Reformation by examining contemporary perspectives…
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Associate Professor of Biblical Languages, Charles Telfer, has a new book that has just been released, Wrestling with Isaiah: The Exegetical Methodology of Campegius Vitringa (1659-1722). Theologians in the late seventeenth- and early eighteenth century acknowledged that Vitringa was a theologial giant, but sadly the sands of time have buried his…
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Dr. Godfrey, President of WSC, has just had a book review of Jacob Arminius: Theologian of Grace (Oxford: OUP, 2012) by Keith Stanglin and Thomas McCall. This is one of the latest books on Arminius, and should be consulted when doing research on this famous Dutch theologian. But Dr. Godfrey notes…
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Why Do I Exist? Q&A 1 Our Ultimate Question “What is the chief and highest end of man?” This is our ultimate question and should be the heartbeat of who we are, thinking of it daily. This is what it is all about as a Christian. To have a “chief…
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  I am thankful for the invitation to contribute to the Valiant for Truth blog. In the series that follows, I will be offering Meditations on the Larger Catechism, which will include exposition and application of this wonderful statement of Christian teaching from our Reformed Protestant tradition. A Meaty Catechism…
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IV. Consolation Preached In part one of this series we considered Calvin’s interpretation of several biblical passages on consolation. In part two we looked at how he harvested a theology of consolation from his exegetical work. In part three we examined what he wrote in his Institutes on consolation, and…
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III. Consolation and Pastoral Ministry For Calvin, christian consolation is not only a theological reality but it is also the result of good pastoral practice. Christians often fail to appropriate the consolation they might because they don’t humble themselves to confess their sins to one another. Let us take the…
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II. His Theology of Consolation (1559 Institutes) In the previous installment we looked at the way Calvin read Paul’s epistles and how he drew from them a doctrine of consolation, of God’s presence with his people in Christ, by the Spirit, in the gospel, in the sacraments, and in prayer.…
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