Happy 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea! Perhaps this day, when the bishops assembled May 20, 325 AD, is the most important of all in the history of Christianity. Throughout this council, the bishops under the direction of a secular ruler, the Emperor Constantine, laid the groundwork for what would later become the Trinity….
Category: Evangelicalism
God’s 1 million justifications of one soul
As a native in the former American frontier, just west of Appalachia in what we today call the South, having been exposed to numerous forms of so-called Biblical Christianity, the fact never ceases to amaze me that the Church of Christ shares historical roots with its rival groups next door. The religious fervor of the…
Even Evangelicals preach works
Martin Luther revolutionized western society five centuries ago with a gospel message of salvation as God’s free gift. His good news fragmented the Christian West after centuries of doctrinal calcification under Rome’s watchful eye. To a certain degree, however, Luther continued the Pauline tradition of mental gymnastics in regards to justification. Evangelical preachers, five centuries…
‘Convicted’? So what?
“He is convicted.” No, that’s not a reference to someone found guilty of a crime. Rather, it’s a statement I’ve often heard about a Gospel preacher or a believer giving testimony. It’s what a church pastor wants to hear when he listens to a prospective member giving his testimony on “how he came to Christ,”…
Illiterates in Hell
If reading the Bible is a necessary means toward faithful discipleship, then Christians of the modern fundamentalist persuasion can only conclude that Hell is very likely full of most of their Christian ancestors since they were illiterate. Too bad they lived in the wrong century, right? This brings to mind Augustine of Hippo asserting that…