By Scott | Published:
March 9, 2010
Whether through the hands of another human being, in the narrative text of the Holy Scriptures, or through some sense of direct connection, it has always been Jesus of Nazareth, called the Christ, who draws me toward Christianity and who keeps me circling in a whirlpool of love with Jesus at its center. But I [...]
Posted in Original Sin | Also tagged christianity, communion with god, death, God, guilt, holy scripture, incarnation, Jesus, jesus of nazareth, logos, love, Original Sin, sin |
By Scott | Published:
August 1, 2009
Now we move right to the middle of the third century with St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage. Today, we’ll look at his letter to St. Cornelius, Bishop of Rome. (As an interesting side note that I’m not sure many Protestants know, the Latin papa (or pappa) meaning ‘father’ is the word that Romans in particular [...]
Posted in Church History, Eucharist | Also tagged anger, baptists, bishop of rome, bishops, body, body and blood, bread and wine, Christian, communion, cornelius, eucharist, God, heaven, lapsed christians, peace, person, protestants, romans, spirit, spiritual, st cyprian, synod of bishops, theology of the eucharist |
By Scott | Published:
July 31, 2009
I hesitate to include Tertullian in my series. He is not, strictly speaking, a Father of the Church since he is not recognized as a saint and actually ended his life as a schismatic. I tend to tread carefully and mostly stick to the recognized Fathers. That’s why you won’t see me referring to Origen [...]
Posted in Church History, Eucharist | Also tagged baptists, bodily resurrection, body, body and blood, Christian, christianity, eucharist, Faith, flesh, God, resurrection, schism, schismatic, Southern Baptist, spirit, tertullian |
By Scott | Published:
July 30, 2009
We’re going to examine most of Chapter II, Book V, Against Heresies in today’s post. Before we start, I will note that Irenaeus is refuting a specific group of those who held that our corruptible flesh is incapable of incorruption and resurrection. This was likely one of the gnostic groups, but I’m struck by the [...]
Posted in Church History, Eucharist | Also tagged apostle, baptists, body, body and blood, Christian, church of corinth, communion, eucharist, flesh, God, heresies, irenaeus, Jesus, london confession, lyons, polycarp, resurrection, spirit, spiritual, wheat, zwingli |
By Scott | Published:
July 28, 2009
I’m now going to move forward a few more decades to a period around 170-180 AD as we focus on Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons. We know that when Irenaeus was young he knew Polycarp. Polycarp, as you may recall, was a disciple of John the Beloved. So there remains a close, direct connection between the [...]
Posted in Church History, Eucharist | Also tagged apostle, apostles, baptists, celestial beings, Christian, christian gnosticism, dualism, eucharist, evil, Faith, flesh, gnostic heresies, God, heaven, heresies, heretics, irenaeus, Jesus, judgment, love, lyons, old testament, person, polycarp, prophet, prophets, resurrection, spirit, spiritual, trinity, unity |
By Scott | Published:
July 26, 2009
This post continues our reflections on Justin Martyr’s First Apology. I want to take a slight detour here for an examination of the Trinity. I’ve heard the assertion a number of times that the doctrine of the Trinity was a late-developing dogma of Christianity. While it is true that some of the first dogmatic and [...]
Posted in Church History, Eucharist | Also tagged atheists, baptists, Christian, christianity, doctrine of the trinity, eucharist, Faith, God, justin martyr, prophet, spirit, trinity, triune god |
By Scott | Published:
July 25, 2009
Now we will move forward several decades and reflect on Justin Martyr’s First Apology. This places us right in the middle of the second century. There are few left alive at this point who personally encountered any of the apostles, but there are still those few. There are now many who have been taught by [...]
Posted in Church History, Eucharist | Also tagged adaptation, anger, apostle, apostles, baptists, bread and wine, Christian, deacons, episcopal, eucharist, God, Holy Scriptures, Jesus, justin martyr, Orthodox, person, prayer, prayers, presbyter, presbyters, priests, prophet, prophets, roman catholic, scripture, thanksgiving, torah |
By Scott | Published:
July 24, 2009
I decided to open and close the posts in this series reflecting on St. Ignatius with different chapters in his letter to the Smyrnaeans. In my first look at this letter, I focused on chapter 8. In this post I’m going to consider chapter 6.
Let no man be deceived. Even the heavenly things, and the [...]
Posted in Church History, Eucharist | Also tagged ancient christian writings, apostle, apostles, baptist belief, baptists, bishops, body, Christian, condemnation, Didache, eucharist, evil, Faith, flesh, God, heaven, heretics, Jesus, london confession, love, new testament, person, prayer, reality, resurrection, scripture, spirit, spiritual, way of life, zwingli |
By Scott | Published:
July 23, 2009
In today’s letter to the Romans, St. Ignatius is preparing for martyrdom. As always, I recommend reading the whole letter. It won’t take long. But for the purposes of this series, I’m going to focus on chapter VII.
The prince of this world would fain carry me away, and corrupt my disposition towards God. Let [...]
Posted in Church History, Eucharist | Also tagged baptists, Christian, eternal life, eucharist, flesh, God, heaven, heavenly bread, Jesus, love, polycarp, reality, romans, spirit, spiritual, st ignatius, theologian, theology of the eucharist |
By Scott | Published:
July 21, 2009
Next we will move into a set of letters from the end of the first century or the beginning of the second century by St. Ignatius of Antioch. Ignatius was born around 50 AD and was the second bishop of Antioch after Evodius. Some of the second and third century accounts have him installed as [...]
Posted in Church History, Eucharist | Also tagged apostle, apostles, baptists, barnabus, Christian, constantinople, corinthian church, deacons, different perspective, eucharist, evil, first crusade, God, Jesus, love, love feast, polycarp, presbyter, presbyters, priesthood, st ignatius of antioch |