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Apollinarianism vs. Orthodoxy
One commenter on my blog requested an explanation of the difference between Apollinarianism and orthodoxy. Apollinarianism is the view that Jesus had a true body and human soul, but not a rational human spirit/mind – instead he had (according to Apollinaris the younger) only a divine spirit/mind. In some ways this is similar to the…
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Visualizing the Flow of Communication and Ultimate Interpreters
The chart above shows the relationship of various parties with respect to a flow of communication. First, let’s consider the left hand side of the chart. God spoke directly to Adam and Moses. Moses spoke directly to the people of Israel, but he also provided Scripture. Scripture speaks both to individual believers and the church,…
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Justin Martyr's Source of Apostolic Information – the Memoirs of the Apostles
Justin Martyr’s biography is necessarily a bit uncertain. Nevertheless, according to our best guesses, Justin Martyr was born around the year of our Lord 100, only a few years after the last of the apostles, the Apostle John, died. Thus, one might imagine that Justin Martyr’s knowledge of the Apostles’ teachings would come primarily from…
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Justin Martyr’s Source of Apostolic Information – the Memoirs of the Apostles
Justin Martyr’s biography is necessarily a bit uncertain. Nevertheless, according to our best guesses, Justin Martyr was born around the year of our Lord 100, only a few years after the last of the apostles, the Apostle John, died. Thus, one might imagine that Justin Martyr’s knowledge of the Apostles’ teachings would come primarily from…
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Didn't Augustine Say That He Wouldn't Believe the Gospel but for the Catholic Church?
I anticipate a response to my post on the Augustinian approach of seeking the Church through Scripture. The response is to provide the following quotation: But should you meet with a person not yet believing the gospel, how would you reply to him were he to say, I do not believe? For my part, I…
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Didn’t Augustine Say That He Wouldn’t Believe the Gospel but for the Catholic Church?
I anticipate a response to my post on the Augustinian approach of seeking the Church through Scripture. The response is to provide the following quotation: But should you meet with a person not yet believing the gospel, how would you reply to him were he to say, I do not believe? For my part, I…
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Seeking the Church through the Scriptures – the Augustinian Approach
The following quotations, all of which are drawn from Augustine’s work entitled “On the Unity of the Church,” help to show that Augustine made his appeal to the Scriptures alone. This, of course, is a striking difference from the approach suggested by many Roman Catholics today. Thanks to David King for his assistance in preparing…
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Responding to Nathan from "Called to Communion"
Over at the Roman Catholic blog Called to Communion (the link was this, though it seems to be broken at the moment), a commenter going by the name “Nathan” provided the following comment: Thus far your attempt to rebut the claims of this article seems to be simply a restatement of sola scriptura as including…
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Responding to Nathan from "Called to Communion"
Over at the Roman Catholic blog Called to Communion (the link was this, though it seems to be broken at the moment), a commenter going by the name “Nathan” provided the following comment: Thus far your attempt to rebut the claims of this article seems to be simply a restatement of sola scriptura as including…
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John Calvin and the Fathers on Baptism
I’ve been told that John Calvin invented a justification for infant baptism that was new. I’m not fully persuaded that, in its essence, Calvin’s justification was new. My impression is that the main argument is that Calvin was departing from medieval Western tradition that viewed baptism essentially as regenerative by virtue of its operation. However,…