Westminster Assembly

Editor's Note: This is the final post in a four-part series on the life and relevance of Samuel Rutherford ( 1600-1661) . Find previous entries here . Rutherford as a Preacher There is no getting around the fact that Rutherford was an exceptional preacher. Historian Robert Wodrow even goes so far...

Editor's Note: This is the third post in a four-part series on the life and relevance of Samuel Rutherford ( 1600-1661) . Find previous entries here . A Ministry of Sacrifice and Suffering B eing called to the small, obscure parish of Anwoth did not give Rutherford an opportunity to take it easy...

Editor's Note: This is the second part of a four-part series on the life and relevance of Samuel Rutherford ( 1600-1661) . Read part one here . Rutherford's Conversion Rutherford received the M.A. degree in 1621 from Edinburgh and, two years later, was appointed Regent of Humanity for the...

I f you have heard the name of Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661) at all, you have probably heard it in connection with the Westminster Assembly or one of his two best known works, the Letters of Samuel Rutherford or Lex, Rex . You may know that Rutherford is arguably the most important of the Scottish...

A friend of mine, a fellow pastor, spent some time as an ultra-runner. Most runners, who run with any sort of seriousness, seem to knock out a 5k or 10k for fun. Some of those will take some more time to train and get a 1/2 Marathon done. Fewer are those who go the whole 26.2 miles for Marathoner...

In 1650 amidst the rise of Socinianism in England, Francis Cheynell, a prominent Westminster Divine, wrote an apologetic of orthodox Trinitarianism, entitled The Divine Trinunity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. [1] This work stood out as clear exposition of both biblical and historically...

M y recent posts ( 1 , 2 ) on Puritan Theology in connection with William Ames made a little light go on in my head (that happens every once in a while!) while reading Thomas Watson’s A Body of Divinity , his commentary on the Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647, hereafter WSC) that was published...

C ontemporary Christian sayings are not necessarily new. In the last article, I pointed out that Edward Reynolds, an important member of the Westminster Assembly, encouraged us to ask what would Jesus do in a particular situation. Reynolds is not alone in building a bridge between the Puritans and...

The morning air was still cold when Martin Luther entered the shop of Peter the barber. Peter was not only the local barber but a surgeon able to perform minor surgeries like bloodletting and tooth extraction. Likely his specialty cut as a barber prior to the Reformation was the tonsure or the...

I n this article, I want to look at a fourth reason that suggests that the Westminster Confession of Faith does not teach baptismal regeneration, and that is the conditional nature of baptism. The sacraments are not efficacious and effectual means of salvation to all recipients, but only to some...