This difference between the Law and the Gospel is the height of knowledge in Christendom. Every person and all persons who assume or glory in the name of Christian should know and be able to state this difference. If this ability is . . . Continue reading →
reformation
Office Hours Season 8: Reformation 500—How Martin Luther Became A Protestant
The medieval and late medieval Christian lived in a theological world in which salvation was merely possible and never certain either in this life or in death. It was never more uncertain than it was in the two centuries leading up the Reformation. Continue reading →
Relics Remain
It is a general, if unstated, assumption among moderns that whatever the causes of the Reformation might have been, they must be long past. Often, however, that assumption is ill-founded. In fact, the fundamental causes for the Reformation (e.g., the Roman denial . . . Continue reading →
“Relevance” Leads Back To Rome
In the Western church calendar Lent began yesterday on “Ash Wednesday.” Lent did not exist in any form in church law until 325 where the word appears in Canon 5 of the canons of Nicea. Even then there is no detailed prescription . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: Bob Godfrey On Sola Scriptura
This is season 8 of Office Hours and we are celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. In confessional Protestant circles we use some shorthand Latin phrases that all might not understand, even though we use them frequently. Sola scriptura, according to . . . Continue reading →
Luther Against Denying Communion In Two Kinds
I conclude, then, that it is wicked and despotic to deny both kinds to the laity, and that this is not within the power of any angel, much less of any pope or council. Nor does the Council of Constance give me . . . Continue reading →
The Legal-Eschatological Religion And Racism
2017 is a “Reformation Year.” It is the 500th anniversary of Luther’s 95 Theses and an opportunity to remember the Reformation basics. One of those is the distinction between law and gospel. One of the five most basic distinctions Luther recovered for . . . Continue reading →
Luther On His State When He Wrote The 95 Theses In 1517
But above all else, I beg the sincere reader, and I beg for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ himself, to read those things judiciously, yes, with great commiseration. May he be mindful of the fact that I was once a . . . Continue reading →
With Adam Kane Debunking Myths About The Reformation And More
Adam writes: The Reformation is such a complex series of events, myths and errors are bound to crop up around its memory. In this laid back conversation with R Scott Clark…we get the details on some of what really went down all . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: What Happened To The Reformation? (Part 2)
It is October 2017. 500 years ago this month Martin Luther wrote 95 theses against the abuse of indulgences in the Western church. We have traced the Reformation to this date for a long time but as you and I have discussed . . . Continue reading →
Salvation Sola Gratia, Sola Fide: On Distinguishing Is, With, And Through
It is ironic that, as we celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, the Reformed-ish wing of evangelicalism is having a controversy over salvation. It has been proposed by a leading evangelical pastor that we are initially justified by grace alone, through . . . Continue reading →
With Janet Mefferd On Sola Scriptura
As early as the late 4th century, challenged by a variety of claims of religious authority, many of whom claimed to have an unwritten secret tradition or revelation, Basil the Great (c.330–79), one of the Cappadocian Fathers, rather than standing on the . . . Continue reading →
“Final Salvation” Through Faith AND Fruit Is Not Reformation Doctrine
John Piper, “Does God Really Save Us By Faith Alone?” (September 25, 2017)
With Abounding Grace Radio On Justification By Grace Alone, Through Faith Alone
When Scripture uses the verb “to justify” (δικαιόω) as it does in Romans 3:20, “wherefore out of the works of the law will no flesh be justified before he, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin,” it means to say, . . . Continue reading →
Where Were The Church And The Truth Between The Fathers And The Reformation?
Johnny Carson was a kid from Nebraska, who hosted The Tonight Show from 1962–92. One of his more famous recurring gags was Carnac the Magnificent, ostensibly a magician—Carson had a magic act as a high school and college student—who was able to . . . Continue reading →
What Kind Of A Reformation Do We Need?
One of the questions submitted to the Reformation conference last fall at the Lynden URC asks “in regards to the current state of the church, what is needed in terms of a Reformation?” That’s a great question. If we are talking about . . . Continue reading →
Reformation 2018: Salvation Is By Abounding Grace Alone
Protestant churches, i.e., those that still believe and confess the theology, piety, and practice recovered in the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, celebrate Reformation Day on October 31. This is the day, in 1517, that Dr Martin Luther (1483–1546), a German . . . Continue reading →
Audio: With Bill Feltner (Pilgrim Radio) On Why So Many Denominations? (pt 2)
It is always good to talk with Bill Feltner, host of His People on the Pilgrim Radio Network (covering Northern California, Nevada, and Wyoming). Recently Bill called to ask the question: why are there so many church denominations? It is a big . . . Continue reading →
The Reformation Of Vocation
In the period between the early post-apostolic church (e.g., the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD) and the Reformation (beginning in the early 16th century AD) the church came to develop some unbiblical and therefore unhelpful and unhealthy ways of relating creation and . . . Continue reading →
By Nature We Are Not Ill But Dead
One of the first and greatest differences between the Augustinian understanding of Paul and what became the dominant understanding of Paul. By the 7th century and for most of a millennium following, the parable of the Good Samaritan (Mark 10:29–37) became the . . . Continue reading →