Faith Alone

Not long ago I sat across from a young man who complained, “The Bible itself does not teach Sola Scriptura .” In that meeting I took him through several passages and because the divide between Reformed Protestants and Rome is as great as it ever was these texts bear unearthing in this series of...

Today the Roman Catholic Church does not sound like the Roman Catholic Church of the Counter Reformation of the 16 th century. I am not talking about tone but rather content. For example, in the first canon of the twenty-second session of Trent the Mass is defined as a “true and proper sacrifice.”...

Fabiola and Her Radical Charity On a Saturday before Easter, most likely in AD 393, Fabiola stood outside the full church of Saint John Lateran in Rome. She was dressed in sackcloth, with her hair disheveled, her unwashed cheeks streaming with tears. It was a surprising sight. In the early church,...

Robert Jermain Thomas – First Protestant Martyr in Korea Today, when Christians from Korea travel to Great Britain, they often make a point of visiting Hanover, south Wales, where Robert Jermain Thomas spent his childhood. Some even venture out to the small town of Rhayader, where he was born in...

“Life will get worse.” What if that were one half of a ubiquitous Christian bumper sticker? “Follow me to Jesus. Life will get worse.” Maybe a little tacky, but it would be truth in advertising. To follow the Man of sorrows is to enter a life of sorrows. It is this lesson Calvin works out his...

Back in the 1980’s when my wife and I were pursuing our Master’s degrees in music at Arizona State University, before we understood Reformed/Covenant Theology, we experienced first-hand a situation similar to what is given to us in the Gospel of John, chapter 9. Seeing a blind man, the disciples...

Our author, John, wants us not only to see the prophet Moses, whose rich memory is woven throughout the entirety of chapter six, but he also wants us to see He who is greater than Moses. Consider: the setting, we’re told, is the season of “the Passover, the feast of the Jews” (vs. 4), and just like...

It’s probably fair to say that Jesus was the most misunderstood man who walked upon the earth. The gospel accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus seem to continually highlight this fact. Of course it started at his very birth, when Herod attempted to kill him. Those to whom he spoke often...

Many years ago my wife and I participated in a very large scavenger hunt. We had tremendous fun and wasted a lot of gas! But imagine a humorous scenario. Picture one of our colleagues finding a clue and instead of using it to press on to find the next clue he became enamored with the current clue...

Hypo What? Our hosts Jonathan and James sit down together to discuss what to some may be a daunting topic—nevertheless, one that is important to get right. Hypostatic union refers to the union of the two natures of Christ in His person. The questions then are raised: How do these two natures...