In church traditions that have a clerical, distinct priesthood, it is common to find the claim that a priest is a presbyter. That is, that when we read in the New Testament about the qualifications for presbyters—elders—we are really reading about priests. Paul tells Titus to appoint πρεσβυτέρους (elders) in every town. What follows are the qualifications for the man, a list that is very much like what we read in 1 Timothy 3, where…
Quite frequently one finds online debates about what is going on in the salvation of sinners. These debates are not what it means to be saved, or how one is saved. Rather, they have to do with the mechanics of salvation, what is happening behind the scenes, an d often, before someone’s conversion. Sometimes these things are cast as an ordo salutis—an “order of salvation.” Does regeneration precede faith? What is the nature of election?…
For both Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox, Mary occupies a significant place in devotional life. (Other sacramental traditions may honor her to lesser degrees, but more so than Protestants.) Protestants have been reluctant to afford her this same devotion for several reasons. Above all, the New Testament does not place the emphasis on her that approaches anything near what has developed in history. Secondly, such devotion detracts from the uniqueness of Christ as the…
The church is an organism, not an organization. Ecclesiology is one of the more contested topics in theology. One can see this from the various polities that prevail. Episcopal, presbyterian, congregational all conceive of the church in a slightly different way. But even more basic than this is the idea of the church as an organization, an institution, and one that stands as the dispenser of grace to believers. The Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox…
One of the perennial arguments in favor of definite atonement (that Jesus did not die except for a subset of humanity) is that if Jesus paid for the sins of all humanity, then it is logically impossible for those same people to suffer condemnation, or that it would be unjust to exact the same penalty twice. If some suffer condemnation and hell, how could it be possible for someone whose debt of sin has been…
Cardinal John Henry Newman famously said “To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.”[1] Newman seemed to refer to the institutional church and the rites and sacraments that came to prevail. Many apologists for high sacramentalism have offered similar arguments. What we see in history is not what “free churches” manifest. We see priests, bishops, archbishops, and the church occupying a central role in the Christian life. Along with this, the church…
John Henry Newman was a British churchman, a sometime member of the Oxford Tractarian movement. The movement was an attempt at course correction in the Anglican church at a time when it was moving left. They saw a recovery of tradition and traditionalism in worship as the way forward. Newman was one who didn’t stop there, however, but went on to join the Roman Catholic Church, and was eventually named a cardinal. Newman’s intellect and…
Christian Nationalism is getting a lot of attention at present, and Stephen Wolfe’s The Case for Christian Nationalism is held forth by some as the most persuasive argument. There is simply too much in the book to comment on everything, but I will appraise the main arguments of the book. I want to begin by listing what I think Wolfe gets right. His assessment of the current state of things in the United States is…
From time to time I have posted comments about the nature of ministry in the New Testament. Some have difficulty accepting the idea of a non-hierarchical ministry, but when we look at the Scriptures, this is what we find. I summarize this by saying that the New Testament never refers to Christian ministers as priests; this is a title reserved for all the people of God (or for the Lord Jesus alone.) The truth of…
Does the “Double Payment” Argument have merit? In a prior post, I looked at the idea of faith purchased on behalf of believers. This argument is often central to a defense of definite atonement. Seeing such a purchase seems to require a commitment to the covenant of redemption—at least, in the thinking of John Owen it does. Faith and the transfer of it to the elect is included in the death of Christ, and this…