Derek Thomas (moderator) asked Pipa: "Did Calvin really play ball on the Lord's Day or not?" Pipa answered straightforwardly: "No, he did not." Then he launched into a discussion which included the line that for years he offered to buy anyone a steak dinner who could prove him wrong. But, "after Chris Coldwell did his fine work on the historical research, there can be no doubt. It is settled."
I was at a GPTS conference a few years ago, and Dr. Pipa used that exact same example/illustration. At the time, of course, I had never heard of the now-famous Mr. Coldwell, but I started trying to look for the work (and eventually found it!). It was very helpful to me, since I had heard folks simply throw out the "Calvin bowled on the Sabbath" statement as if it were the final word. It was nice to see a bit of definitive research on the matter.
