Remember Sybil
Can we stop abusing our children now? Remember Sybil's lesson. It's time for our society to repent.
Our cultural moment tells us to affirm, affirm, affirm; when in reality we are destroying human bodies because the medical professionals have told us that this is the right treatment for this type of problem. Soon we will have our Sybil moment. Sybil was a fraud and eventually the egg on the face of society was... Continue Reading
Calvin’s Sermons on the Beatitudes: Paul Helm Review
This is a gem of a book, an excellent introduction to Calvin the preacher and Calvin the man.
It goes without saying that these sermons bear little or no resemblance to the After Dinner Speeches that nowadays often pass for sermons. No opening jokes to settle the refugees and the Genevois, to put them at their ease. Somehow, putting people at ease was not Calvin’s style. Did Jesus do that? It is interesting to reflect... Continue Reading
Two Great Men: John And Martin
The Reformation began 506 years ago, resetting the ministry of the Church since then.
It goes without saying that Reformed Faith churches owe their very existence to John Calvin and Martin Luther. And if such a premise is true, isn’t it worth becoming acquainted with them in a more-than-superficial manner? Do we know anything more about Luther than the fact he nailed 95 theses on a church door? Is... Continue Reading
The Arabs and the Anglicans: Samuel Gobat and the Nineteenth Century Protestant Bishopric in Palestine
Proselytizing Muslims was forbidden by Ottoman law, and so Gobat urged Anglicans in Palestine to concentrate their conversion efforts on Greek Orthodox Arabs.
Gobat’s episcopacy lasted for nearly thirty years and proved relatively successful given nineteenth century Palestine’s cacophony of religious and racial groups. He maintained the support of British Evangelicals—the Earl of Shaftesbury wrote the preface to his biography—and managed to keep his diocese relatively unified despite the fractious nature of converts from various cultures and religions.... Continue Reading
The Burning of William Tyndale
William Tyndale began immediately translating the Holy Scriptures from their original Greek language into the language of the common man, which was English.
While Tyndale’s God allowed the smoke of his body to rise up and over Europe, this same God was also causing the winds of reformation fire to blow. Not long after William Tyndale’s death more editions of the Bible were printed, including the King James Version of 1611, which became the most published book in... Continue Reading
Katharina Schütz Zell – Church Mother of the Reformation
With the Reformation’s new emphasis on congregational singing, Katharina oversaw the revision, subdivision, and publication of a hymnbook of the Bohemian Brethren that had been translated into German.
After her husband’s death, Katharina continued her works of charity, housing refugees and visiting prisoners and the sick, including a magistrate who had contracted leprosy. She also offered refuge to Bucer and Paul Fagius when they were banned from Strasbourg for their outspoken criticism of the Augsburg Interim – a compromise dictated by the emperor,... Continue Reading
The Morning Star of the Reformation
The sun did rise in the Reformation of the sixteenth century, and the light of the gospel chased the darkness away. But we can all be grateful for the pioneering efforts of the fourteenth century Oxford scholar John Wycliffe.
Luther famously had his Ninety-Five Theses. While not having quite as many, Wycliffe had his own theses (that is, arguments) against the church. One thesis declares, “There is one universal church, and outside of it there is no salvation. Its head is Christ. No pope may say that he is the head.” For this and... Continue Reading
The Marquis de Sade – the Progressive Prophet?
For progressives, when they get their values, it’s like drinking salt water. Their thirst is never satisfied.
For de Sade culture is relative. You can trust only yourself and your feelings – especially your sexual desires. They are your authentic self so you must do what you want and live your own truth. Freud accepted Sade’s proposition that sexual identity is fundamental to your identity and that it is bad to suppress... Continue Reading
Discernment and Judging
Yes we must discern and we must judge.
Jesus prohibits a critical spirit, but does not forbid all use of the critical faculty. To follow Jesus, we must therefore discover why he says, “Judge not,” in Matthew 7, but says, “Judge with right judgment,” in John 7. Notice first that Jesus tells His disciples to make judgments in the very chapter that says “Judge... Continue Reading
Scholasticism for Evangelicals: Thoughts on “All That Is in God” by James Dolezal
Until a better way appears (perhaps in the new Heavens and new Earth) I intend to follow the biblical depictions of the Father, Son, and Spirit as a holy family, both in Heaven and on Earth, analogous to our earthly families, with a unity far beyond what any society of human beings is capable of.
I am grateful to God for giving to James Dolezal substantial gifts of theological knowledge and intelligence. But insofar as he desires to convict most of his colleagues of heresy, I cannot join him on the side of the prosecution. Rather, I am hoping that in time Dolezal will develop a more mature way of... Continue Reading
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