In part 2 we considered the nature of assent. There is a third aspect to the Reformed definition of faith: trust. This is the crux of the disagreement between Rome and the Reformation over nature of faith in the act of justification. . . . Continue reading →
So just when Jason and the Callers thought they had escaped the unsatisfying clutches of Protestantism, they entered a communion riven by the same kind of divisions that characterized the modernist-fundamentalist controversy. One side wants the church to continue to adapt to . . . Continue reading →
One of the more frustrating things about getting older is that I seem to spend more time looking for things. It’s such a waste of time. It would be great if someone would just tell me where my keys are. Because we . . . Continue reading →
From the conformity of our church to the primitive apostolic Church. For since no one can deny that the primitive church was instituted by Christ and the apostles neither can it be denied that our church, if it is conformed that both . . . Continue reading →
The UK Guardian reported yesterday that Rome has reached a new low in reaching out to the Romanist equivalent of low-information voters. Low-sanctity penitents perhaps? Rome is now offering plenary indulgences to Romanists who follow Pope Francis’ tweets from Catholic Youth Day . . . Continue reading →
XVII. From the faith of history which exhibits multiple worshipers of God and witnesses of the truth, who repeatedly opposed themselves to the papistical errors and bore testimony to the truth. For if there are granted many who by words, deeds and . . . Continue reading →
Darryl Hart posted this today: Pope Francis will grant a plenary indulgence – a remission of all temporal punishment due to sin – to World Youth Day Catholic participants, the Vatican announced July 9. Great lots of folk assume that, after Luther . . . Continue reading →
In a 15 May essay in The Christian Century, Richard Mouw argues that we Protestants should perhaps re-think the question of praying to deceased Christians. He confesses that he wasn’t really well acquainted with the Roman doctrine of prayer and the intercession . . . Continue reading →
XV. But we add further that our church was in the papacy itself, in as much as God always preserved in the midst of Babylon a remnant for himself according to the election of Grace (to wit, true believers who, groaning under . . . Continue reading →
XIII. Third, as to place, the question can be understood in two ways. It may be understood definitely concerning the certain and constant seat of the church (such as Rome is) and in that continued series of bishops or pastors which the . . . Continue reading →
X. Nevertheless, that we may not seem to shun the question (as if it were insoluble [alytos] by us), we can answer directly that the question puts on a fourfold relation or has reference to four things: (1) the doctrine and faith . . . Continue reading →
VIII. Fifth, the injustice of the demand appears also clearly in this—that they treacherously corrupt the writings of the fathers and endeavor to destroy whatever of candor remains and extinguish all memory of antiquity as far as they are able (most base . . . Continue reading →
VI. The question is one of history, not of faith, the solution of which, therefore, is not necessary to salvation. It suffices for the private Christian to know and be persuaded that that assembly in whose connection he lives is the true . . . Continue reading →
He that knowledgeth not himself to be under the bishop of Rome, and that the bishop of Rome is ordained by God to have primacy over all the world, is an heretic, and cannot be saved, nor is not of the flock . . . Continue reading →
1. When, however, they are confuted from the Scriptures, they turn round and accuse these same Scriptures, as if they were not correct, nor of authority, and [assert] that they are ambiguous, and that the truth cannot be extracted from them by . . . Continue reading →
Curt writes to ask, I have a question. In “A Brief History of Covenant Theology” You write: For most of the Medieval period, the Western (Latin) church and the major theologians agreed that God says what he says about us, because we . . . Continue reading →
IV. Second, they falsely argue from the ignorance of a thing to its negation, as if it was necessary for a thing not to be because it is not known. And yet the truth of the thing is to be measured from . . . Continue reading →
I. Although from what has been said in the preceding question concerning the obscurity of the church, it is easy to answer the proposed question (for if the church can sometimes be so obscured and concealed as to the nowhere conspicuous on . . . Continue reading →
4. From these colleges and societies issues those swarms of missionaries who travelled over the whole world so far as it is yet discovered, and from among the most ferocious nations gathered congregations which were, if not in reality, yet in name . . . Continue reading →
We should learn here that no one should place his trust in men, even if he is in an estate ordained by God. But if we are not to believe nor put our trust in Annas and Caiaphas, how are we to . . . Continue reading →