Imagine you belong to an urban church. You have some generous members, but money remains tight as the church continues to grow. Meanwhile, tensions with city and its officials are on the rise. Your social credit score, much like your…
Some diseases are more pernicious, causing more damage to the body, than others. And in like fashion some heresies tend to have a kind of pernicious staying power that cause significant damage to the body of Christ more than others. …
Montanism in the Second Century: “I am the Lord God, the almighty, dwelling in man.”[1] These shocking words were spoken by Montanus of Phrygia (modern-day Turkey) in the mid-second century, A.D. Along with two disciples, Priscilla and Maximilla, Montanus claimed…
We are all too familiar with rioting and unrest in our streets. But riots over theology? Over one letter of the Greek alphabet–literally one iota? Yet the Arian controversy of the fourth century was a decisive juncture for the Church.…
Introduction Though often treated as an ancient heresy confined to the early centuries of the church, Gnosticism remains a persistent theological temptation. Its modern expressions are rarely labeled as such, yet its core instincts continue to surface in Christian teaching,…
I always feel a bit uncomfortable when I see someone asking a Christian author to sign a book; there’s something about it that just seems so antithetical to who we are as Christians. It’s not a sin, just one…
Johannes Bogerman and His Powdering Speech “Dimittimini exiteI” (“You are dismissed, get out!”) With these imperious words, Johannes Bogerman (1576-1637), president of the Synod of Dordt, expressed what many of the delegates were had been painfully thinking. The Remonstrants…
The triplet of sin-related requests embedded in the Lord’s Prayer ends with the shortest, but in many ways the most potent of them all: ‘Deliver us from evil’. As many commentators point out, there is a measure of ambiguity over…
Theological error and heresy constantly plagued the church during the life of the Apostle Paul, so it is no surprise that his final instructions to Timothy contain essential counsel on the right way to address error and heresy …
Tertullian and Irenaeus are the earliest witnesses to the Creed now known as the Apostle’s Creed. During their pastorates it was likely in its earliest form and known as the Roman Symbol. This early form of the Apostle’s Creed most…
