Soteriology and Sacraments: The Early Church and the Contemporary Ecclesiastical Spectrum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jTld1nmkq4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpVz4okhdRU

Several weeks ago I caught Jordan Cooper's videos dealing with the Ethiopian Orthodox man and the Knechtle's over questions regarding the Early Church. The videos of the exchange went viral and have been the source of considerable discussion. It's been something of a boon to Orthodox and Catholic apologists at the Knechtle's were demonstrably incapable of defending their position.

The Rich Young Ruler, Law, and New Covenant Supremacy (I)

Not long ago I listened to a sermon on the Rich Young Ruler in Matthew 19 and I was struck by the difficulty the preacher seemed to have in dealing with the passage. I agree, there are some interpretive challenges but I think that often these difficulties are the result of theological baggage that's brought to the text.

Spiritual Symbolism is Still Symbolism

https://www.crossway.org/articles/is-the-lords-supper-jesuss-actual-body-and-blood-1-corinthians/

On one level this article had moments in which it was a blessing to read. And yet another part of me wanted to crumple up the paper and throw it across the room.

We can agree that the Lord's Supper is not a repeated sacrifice as understood in the Roman Catholic Mass and while some of the Lutheran hair-splitting and insistence on ubiquity is not always helpful, Naselli's rendering of the Supper as merely symbolic does not account for the Scriptural data.

Two Kingdoms and the Reformed Tradition (II)

Common Grace is a reality, a mercy, and restraint while the Church bears witness in the world and (this is critically important) wins by losing. We win by bearing the cross, we conquer by being sheep for the slaughter. By living as pilgrims and rejecting the world, we testify against it and to the spiritual powers that undergird it – and proclaim a way of life, a coming Kingdom, and a coming doom. This is foolishness to the world, madness, and supremely unappealing and unattractive. Only people who have lost their minds would embrace such a message and calling – or so it would seem. It's tragic that the majority of Christians think the same as the world does on these points and view such glory and victory, such testimonies to the power of the Holy Spirit as pessimism, defeat, cowardice, and offensive foolishness. One wonders if such thinking has in fact grasped even the broad strokes of the gospel message and the core principles of New Testament doctrine – let alone its ethics. No wonder Christ's words concerning mammon (and the security and power it represents) are incomprehensible to them.

Inbox: Questions Concerning the Apocrypha (III)

While the aforementioned councils of Late Antiquity were not 'ecumenical' councils – a point some make to argue their canon proclamations weren't considered universally authoritative – such an argument or appeal proves too much.

More Right-Wing Rehabilitation, Revision, and Anachronism Concerning the Crusades

https://issuesetc.org/2022/07/29/2101-christian-crusaders-raymond-ibrahim-7-29-22/

This was but another ridiculous interview I found on Issues Etc., yet another case at the attempted rehabilitation of The Crusades. Ibrahim inadvertently all but confesses that his work is not just revisionism but hagiography focusing on the 'heroes' of The Crusades.

The Unity of the Brethren and the Magisterial Reformation (Part 2)

For the Bohemian Brethren, the contacts with the Magisterial Reformation produced mostly negative results. Swept up into the political struggle, the theology and ethics of the Reformation produced worldliness and compromise in their lives. The net sum was that their movement was forced to pay a vicious price in the aftermath of the Schmalkaldic War. Though attempting to keep their distance at times, they were now part of the larger Protestant movement and (willingly or not) they were caught up in the catastrophe and bloodletting known as The Thirty Years War.

The Unity of the Brethren and the Magisterial Reformation (Part 1)

A good resource regarding the formative years of the Moravian Church is The History of the Unity of Brethren (A Protestant Hussite Church in Bohemia and Moravia) by Rudolf Rican. First published in the 1950's, the available English translation (by C. Daniel Crews) came out in the 1990's. It's published by The Moravian Church in America.

The book begins with the martyr Jan Hus (1372-1415) and other dissident movements in Bohemia such as the Waldensians. Petr Chelčický (c.1380-1460) also receives significant treatment as he came to exert a great deal of influence on the early Brethren movement – itself a derivative of the larger Hussite wave.

Siemon-Nietto on Vietnam: No Wisdom Gained

http://uwesiemon.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-wrong-side-won.html

I have written before about Uwe Siemon-Nietto who is a semi-frequent guest on Lutheran Public Radio's Issues Etc. Along with John Warwick Montgomery, Siemon-Nietto often provides what might be described as the view from Europe.

The First Reformation and the Present Ecclesiastical Crisis

Recovering the First Reformation - Toward a Proto-Protestant Narrative of Church History (XV)

The time is now. Dominionism and the reactionary re-casting of Sacralism in the wake of 19^th and 20^th century secularism is on the verge of swallowing up the remaining (if paltry) testimony of the First Reformation, its lifeline to the Early Church and New Testament Christianity.

First Reformation Primitivism and the Second Constantinian Shift

Recovering the First Reformation - Toward a Proto-Protestant Narrative of Church History (XII)

The First Reformation it would seem embraced theological primitivism – unelaborated and limited doctrinal concepts. Like the Early Church they weren't terribly worried about seeming contradictions or doctrines that seemed to defy sense-experience or logical categories tied to it.

Inbox: Chan, Communion and Transubstantiation

I'm not terribly familiar with Francis Chan and I must confess that I've never been particularly motivated to look into him or his teachings. However I've noticed his name being recently tossed about regarding some comments he made on the topic of Communion and an apparent favourable disposition toward the Roman Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation.

The Social Justice Controversy: An Addendum (Poway, R2K and the Inherent Violence of Sacralist Theology)

I was stunned to learn that some have dared to argue that Two Kingdom theology led to the Poway Shooting.

In reality the exact opposite is true.

Washer's Ten Indictments Against the Modern Church: Critiquing the Critics (Part 2)

Washer refers to infant baptism as the golden calf of the Reformation. To put it bluntly, he's wrong... but there's a sense in which he's right. He's wrong on the issue of paedobaptism there's a hint of truth to his statement.

Paedobaptism is Scriptural and despite Baptist assertions to the contrary it is even testified to in the book of Acts but the problem is when it's applied in a Sacralist milieu. Then it becomes distorted and destructive. Baptism, paedo- or otherwise should never be universally applied to a tribe, nation or culture. It is applied only to the separatist pilgrim Church that has come out of the world and continues in perseverance. Within that context paedobaptism has its import and can function correctly. Sacralism necessarily waters down discipline to the point of near irrelevance and it destroys the Church's distinct identity and (as a consequence) renders the Word and Sacrament almost meaningless.

Washer's Ten Indictments Against the Modern Church: Critiquing the Critics (Part 1)

Recently I decided to revisit Paul Washer's Ten Indictments Against the Modern Church. You can get it in pamphlet form but in this case I wanted to listen to it and so I went to SermonAudio. I'm not usually one for highly impassioned preaching with shouting and all the rest, but if I am going to listen to someone do it, it's going to be along the lines of Paul Washer.

It's been a good eight years since I listened to it last. I remember what I was doing at the time and can place the date in 2010. I remember being pleasantly surprised by his candor and largely accurate assessment of Evangelicalism in the 21^st century. Of course, I don't agree with him on every point but overall it's excellent.

Inbox: The Right and Wrong of NT Wright

His Critics and Some Comments

http://theaquilareport.com/n-t-wrights-long-farewell/

Earlier this summer I offered a few comments on this Aquila Report article in a discussion with a friend. This is slightly edited version of them here...

Lutheran Sacralism: Veith on Economics

GE Veith is a retired professor, formerly associated with Virginia's Patrick Henry College. A conservative Lutheran he has long been associated with Evangelical and Dominionist projects from World Magazine to Wheaton, the Heritage Foundation and Patrick Henry. His writings primarily focus on the Christian relationship to arts and culture. The link is to a talk on economics given by Veith at the 2016 Just and Sinner Conference.

I respond due to the fact that he's a popular teacher and the message he presents is one that resonates with contemporary Evangelicalism. As he represents a posture and theology contrary to what is taught in the New Testament, it needs to be challenged. I hope my brief comments will at the very least introduce a different set of categories and concepts for readers to interact with and consider whether Veith is representing the Christianity of the Apostles or something quite different.

A Lutheran Interpretation of Reformed Two Kingdom Theology: Some Observations and Considerations

http://justandsinner.libsyn.com/a-critique-of-escondido-two-kingdom-theology

Jordan Cooper of Just and Sinner recently lectured on some of the significant differences between the Reformed and Lutheran versions of Two Kingdom Theology. The Reformed variety usually associated with Westminster Seminary West in Escondido California is often conflated with the Lutheran variety and this troubles Cooper. He wants to set the record straight. This has probably been furthered by the fact that to many, Westminster West also has (more or less) embraced a Lutheran Soteriology and understanding of sola fide.

Inbox: Lutheranism, Kuyper and the Two Kingdoms

In terms of the differences between the confessional Lutheran position and my own maybe I can shed a little light, but I will be brief and paint with a broad brush. I'm also throwing a variant of Reformed Theology into the mix because I think it's pertinent and may shed a little light for some readers on a seemingly obscure point of dispute in contemporary Reformed circles.

The Law-Gospel Hermeneutic and The Great Commission

Recently I heard what I considered to be an extreme example of the Law-Gospel hermeneutic at work. It struck me in the same way Hyper-Calvinist readings of John 3.16 or 2 Peter 3.9 can. It was a clear case of system taking precedent over the text.