Justification has been described in various ways by Reformers we respect and admire. Luther spoke of it as the foundation of the church and Calvin said it was the main hinge on which religion turned. However, we say it the…
Diet Eman – Holding on to God’s Promises For Dutch Christians like Diet (pronounced Deet) Eman and her family, the German invasion of the Netherlands generated new, urgent questions. Queen Wilhelmina had left for England, taking her whole government with…
Romans 8:29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and…
The believer, by rights, is best able to bear bad news. After all, we believe that we are morally corrupt, unable to reform ourselves, and so incorrigible that the only solution was that the Son of God live and…
Johann Heermann and the Comfort of the Cross In the spring of 1630, while the Thirty-Year War raged around Europe, pastor and poet Johann Heermann wrote a hymn to inspire his congregation to meditate on Christ’s suffering. Ah, holy…
The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints means if a person is truly saved he cannot lose his salvation. Roman Catholicism and some strands of Protestant theology, such as traditional Arminianism, Methodism, and Pentecostalism reject this final point of…
“For this is the will of God, your sanctification,” (1 Th 4:3)[1] St. Paul writes to a group of mostly non-Jewish Christians in Thessalonica who had formerly worshiped idols and casually participated in a culture steeped in sexual promiscuity. Sanctus…
If we shared our testimonies with one another, we would find that they are as individual as we are. We were saved at different times in our lives and in very different circumstances, but there is one thing we all…
John Calvin called justification as “the main hinge on which religion turns” and said we must devote great attention to it (Institutes, III.xi.1). When we consider justification’s role in the order of salvation it plays a crucial role in distinction…
Paul Gerhardt and His Songs of Confident Hope In 1943, the German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote from his lonely prison cell, “I’ve lately learnt for the first time to appreciate the hymn, ‘Beside thy cradle here I stand.’ Up…
