In his Against Establishment: An Anglican Polemic , Theo Hobson points to some hidden reasons why some fear disestablishment for the Church of England: “In a permissive society, the established Church is necessarily a permissive Church; otherwise it advocates social policies at odds with the . . . . Continue Reading »
Jesus broke down the dividing wall between Jews and Gentiles, uniting them into one new man. And not only in the church: Jews and Gentile who did not accept Jesus also joined into one unit, defending the old ways, especially sacrifice. For instance, this from the Martyrdom of Polycarp 12:2: . . . . Continue Reading »
Jesus went away. What did He leave behind? The church, of course. But how? On the cross, Jesus is the new Adam, His side opened, and even after the resurrection still open. What comes out is not a rib but water and blood. What Jesus leaves behind is the water and the blood, baptism and Eucharist. . . . . Continue Reading »
So says Calvin, doctor of divine sovereignty. Commenting on John 14:18, he writes, “We . . . imagine to ourselves but a half-Christ, and a mutilated Christ, if he does not lead us to God.” In John 17, when Jesus speaks of Himself as One with the Father, we must remember that Jesus is . . . . Continue Reading »
Brock notes that the root of worship is the church’s common trust in the Word that calls them. Worship is a school in trust, where the church listens for God’s word to them. Worship develops a taste for trust in communication, and thus subverts the subversive suspicions of our culture. . . . . Continue Reading »
Brian Brock argues that the church’s diversity of gifts should not be understood as a “division of labor.” That conforms the church to the social models of technological society in which “individuals [are] so organized that they can productively live out the fully formed . . . . Continue Reading »
Karant-Nunn again, remarking on the hierarchy among the saints that was embodied in certain Protestant eucharistic practices: “The Lord’s Supper itself was not only administered within this ranks milieu but it also set apart, usually as a small group, those who communed. In Lutheran . . . . Continue Reading »
This is the first Sunday after Epiphany, when we commemorate the appearance of God in His Son. It is a strange appearance. The Son appears in the flesh, lives, dies, rises, and then quickly disappears. Light flickers in darkness, but then the light goes out, goes elsewhere, and when then? Does . . . . Continue Reading »
Is Christ ever without His body? Might as well ask, Is Christ ever without His Spirit? The answer to that is, obviously, No. Anointing with the Spirit is what makes Christ Christ. And the Spirit gathers and knits together what He gathers. Hence: To say “Christ is anointed by the . . . . Continue Reading »
Another old article by James Torrance (in the SJT ) runs through his standard criticisms of federal theology, and adds that it was responsible for producing “an unhappy if not false distinction between the Visible and Invisible Church, which lost sight of the passionate emphasis of the Scots . . . . Continue Reading »
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