The Federal Vision: Two Understandings of Salvation Held Together By One Name
(This essay continues a series on the Federal Vision that I have been writing since November, 2019. The first installment can be found here. The second is here. The third is here, and the fourth is...
View ArticleHumanizing the Reformers: Melanchthon on Childbirth and Child Death
From the vantage-point of centuries, it can be difficult to remember that the magisterial Reformers–or, indeed, any other historical figures–were actual human beings, made of the same stuff as we are,...
View ArticleThe Federal Vision: A Systematic Critique
(This is the final essay in a series on the Federal Vision. The first installment, a general introduction to the state of the conversation, can be found here. The second installment identifies the...
View ArticleHumanizing the Reformers (2): Luther to Jonas on the Death of Melanchthon’s Son
In a previous post, we looked at Melanchthon’s response to the birth of Joachim Camerarius’s daughter and to the death of his own son, Georg, in August of 1529. Two days after that event, Martin Luther...
View Article“With All Lowliness and Meekness”: The Collect for the Second Sunday after...
Here is the Collect for this week from the Order of Worship for the Reformed Church in the United States. The prayer draws together (in the following order) several texts from the New Testament...
View Article“Look Mercifully upon Our Great Weakness”: The Collect for the Third Sunday...
I’m a little late getting to this this week, but here is the Collect for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany from the Order of Worship for the Reformed Church in the United States. It is short, as...
View ArticleZanchi on Festivals (1)
In clearing out some old papers, I came across something I had meant to do here, but didn’t get around to it; so I’m doing it now. That “something” is a series on an interesting bit of Girolamo...
View ArticleZanchi on Festivals (2)
In today’s post, Zanchi continues his response to the objection that Christians should not have festivals through an analysis of the Fourth Commandment. Zanchi here makes the important distinction...
View ArticleZanchi on Festivals (3)
Zanchi continues his comparison of gentile, Christian, and Jewish festivals, drawing on Festus for what he has to say about the gentiles. Christians festivals are like those of the gentiles in some...
View ArticlePastorally Speaking the Deep Things of the Cross: Tim Keller, What Christ...
Earlier this week, Pastor Tim Keller restarted a minor controversy when he tweeted, “If you see Jesus losing the infinite love of the Father out of His infinite love for you, it will infinitely melt...
View ArticleZanchi on Festivals (4)
Today we move onto the second quaestio, now that Zanchi has established that festivals, as a matter of natural law, are appropriate not only for the church of the Old Testament, but also of the New...
View ArticleZanchi on Festivals (5)
In today’s post, Zanchi deals with the second type of licit festivals: those instituted by men with the consent of the church. As examples, he points to Purim (Esther), as well as to Hanukkah, the...
View ArticleThe Historical Untenability of Apostolic Succession
One of the most common procedural grounds on which Protestant churches can be critiqued is their lack of Apostolic Succession. It is very common for anti-Protestant apologists to argue that Protestants...
View Article“Endure unto the End in the Way of Life”: The Collect for the Fourth Sunday...
I’m late with this again this week, but here is the Collect for the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany from the Order for Worship of the Reformed Church in the United States. It is quite a bit different...
View ArticleZanchi on Festivals (6)
Zanchi now proceeds to discuss festivals as applied to the Christian church in particular, by analogy with what he has already set out in relation to the Old Testament. The Christian church, too, has...
View ArticleZanchi on Festivals (7)
In today’s post, we move on to Zanchi’s discussion of festivals instituted by men with the consent of the church, of which he gives several that he approves of. The list echoes to a large extent what...
View ArticleZanchi on Festivals (8)
We continue with Zanchi on Christian festivals such as the Nativity, the Passion, the Ascension, and Pentecost. Today’s passage has a number of interesting features. Here are a few: Zanchi notes the...
View ArticleZanchi on Festivals (9)
Today we come to the last post in this series and, boy howdy, it’s a fascinating one. Zanchi moves on from the dominical festivals, of which he approves, to the feast days of apostles and martyrs....
View ArticleHemmingsen on the Sabbath and Christian Festivals (1)
Now that I have concluded the series on Zanchi on festivals, I’m going to turn my attention back to an old favorite of mine, the Danish Lutheran “crypto-Calvinist” Niels Hemmingsen. Hemmingsen was a...
View ArticleHemmingsen on the Sabbath and Christian Festivals (2)
In today’s post, which includes assertiones 4-6, Hemmingsen defines the proper meaning “Sabbath” and then shows how, from that primary meaning, it is transferred as a title to days, weeks, and years....
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