The Fellowship: With the Church, with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ
In the opening of 1 John, the Apostle explains that his reason for proclaiming Jesus Christ, the Word of Life Made Manifest, is this: “that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with [...]
Seen on a Church Marquee Sign
“Running low on faith? Stop in for a fill-up!” Is there anyone who would actually be enticed to go to a church because of a sign like that?
The Necessity of Factions in the Church
Edit, 1/22/2011: I have been going back through some old blog posts, and I wanted to write that I do not find this blog post persuasive at all any more. I want to leave it here, but I very much hear Paul’s words dripping with sarcasm, not with genuine zeal for creating proper divisions. I [...]
Come Out, and Be Separate
One of the ongoing struggles of evangelicals is to rid themselves of fundamentalist notions of “being separate” from the world. In the past, especially in the wake of public, humiliating losses in the public square on the issue of creationism (e.g., the Scopes Monkey Trial), fundamentalists essentially retreated from any engagement with the rest of [...]
Preaching and Preachers
Is it a good thing that most churches have generally only one man preaching? Obviously, there are some churches that only have one pastor trained to preach, and most churches that generally only utilize one man have other preachers once every 4-6 weeks (on average). Still, when does preaching turn from being the faithful proclamation [...]
Unresolved Issues
In the first day of my Doctrine of the Church class, which is taught by a Lutheran, this exchange occurred when we were discussing our denominational tradition: Student: I grew up as a Mennonite, which means that your people used to burn my people. Professor: Well, only for political reasons; it would be inappropriate to [...]
An Extremely Perceptive Baptist
I am writing a paper for my church history class that will contrast sacramental theology in the Westminster Confession of Faith and one of the Baptist confessions–probably the Baptist Faith and Message of 1925. In my research, I just came across an excellent essay by G. Todd Wilson called “Why Baptists Should Not Rebaptize Christians [...]
Modern Apostles
For whatever reason, I have always been disinclined to consider anyone living today as an “apostle” in the biblical sense. I suppose my main concern lies in the Catholic idea that every pope has apostolic authority, equal to Jesus’ twelve disciples (minus Judas, plus Matthias), Paul, and Barnabas (see Acts 14:14). Instead, as a traditional [...]
