In part one, I asked readers what they thought about something John Calvin said about baptism in his book Institutes of the Christian Religion. Several readers made good comments on my Facebook page, and I thought I’d share them: [V]iewing the sacraments as only being able to be administered by clergy takes the emphasis off ‘Christ…
Category: Church History
Can Wrestlers Baptize?
Baptism scene from Nacho Libre In other posts, I’ve mentioned I’m wrestling my way though Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion. I’m currently reading a section about sacraments. Calvin sees sacraments like communion or baptism as signs of the work of Christ. Baptism, for example, pictures our death, burial, and resurrection with Christ. Baptism doesn’t only signify forgiveness. It…
The Pithy George MacDonald
“Life and religion are one or neither is anything.” –George MacDonald
Jesus Done Got Hitched
Comic by Chan Lowe So maybe you heard: Some scholar says Jesus may have had a wife. I won’t bore you by rehashing a debate that amounts to nothing. You can read about it yourself if you want. Big, fat zero or not, I felt annoyed when I first read about it. Once again, non-Christians are…
Mosaics, Quilts, and Piles of Socks
What should church “look like?” How should we “do church?” I hear these and similar questions bandied about regularly. There are lots of different answers. Some say we should “do church” like they did in the New Testament. In reality, there was no single New Testament way of “doing church.” There was a mosaic of…
The One
Recently, our family has been listening to the soundtrack of Frozen. It’s my daughter’s favorite movie right now so we’re all into it 🙂 One of the songs (sung by princess Anna) is about a ball happening that night. Anna sings that she is excited to meet everyone. Then she adds, “What if I meet THE…
The Hands of the Father–George MacDonald
What follows is an excerpt from George MacDonald’s Unspoken Sermons The Hands of the Father “Father, into thy hand I commend my spirit.”—St Luke xxiii. 46. Neither St Matthew nor St Mark tells us of any words uttered by our Lord after the Eloi. They both, along with St Luke, tell us of a cry with a…
What the Lord Said…
This what the Lord said to me last night: “If you never sinned you still wouldn’t be righteous.” “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). “Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I…
Divine Polygamy
Polygamy lurks in the shadows of theology. We know it’s there but don’t talk much about it. Christians consider polygamy heretical and immoral. But what do we do with Abraham, Jacob, or David? All of them had multiple spouses without one rebuke from God. And why would God say anything? Polygamy is nowhere condemned in…
Change or Die: A Post-Christmas Wrap-up
Image from A Christmas Carol (2009, directed by Robert Zemeckis) This year, I introduced my daughter to Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. We read the book then watched a couple film versions. The 2009 animated version (with Jim Carrey playing Scrooge) is her favorite. It’s my new favorite as well. While adding flourishes here and there, it follows…
The Voice of One 