According to PCA pastor Wes White, the doctrine of baptismal regeneration is “impossible in the Reformed system.”1 By noting this, he intends to show that we should reject the doctrine of baptismal regeneration. But if the evidence for the truth of the doctrine of baptismal regeneration is stronger than the evidence for the truth of [...]
Throughout the past year on Called to Communion, the various blog posts and full-length articles by the contributors have been met with objections of various stripes and sizes. It has been a mixture of excitement, hope, prayer, frustration, and calls for mercy for me to read many of those posts and the dialogue that has [...]
Here is a simple synopsis of God’s original plan for Adam by Saint Augustine. Notice how Augustine views humanity as “between the angelic and bestial,” since man consists of a immaterial, separable soul and a material body:
Dr. Lawrence Feingold Two weeks ago, Lawrence Feingold of the Institute for Pastoral Studies at Ave Maria University, presented a teaching on the Catholic doctrine of the Sacrament of Holy Orders and the ministerial priesthood, at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis. The audio of this teaching is available below, in two parts, each about [...]
Fr. Dwight Longenecker has written a nice summary (in two sentences!) of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic novel, The Lord of the Rings. I was moved to comment there, and now to post a greatly amplified version of that comment here. One justification for the latter move is that the subject has some bearing upon recent discussions at [...]
I was involved in a wonderful conversation the other day with a few friends of mine, two Catholics (one of whom is a priest) and a Presbyterian (PCA). Over some good tobacco and coffee at the local cigar shop we discussed a variety of things, including Baptism. My friend, the Presbyterian, spoke about how Reformed [...]
I was blessed to spend roughly 6 years as a part of the OPC. Love them or leave them, you cannot deny their tenacity for truth and orthodoxy. While the Eastern Orthodox have been called Orthodox for a long time, there is a sense in which this denomination which began in the 1930s has “earned” [...]
Someone recently remarked that sacramentalism was a medieval corruption of authentic Christianity. Perhaps the early Christians were cold rationalists, unswayed by superstitious notions that God had created a magical world. God’s world acted strictly according to scientific laws He had put in place and to suggest otherwise amounted the high treason of believing in magic. [...]
Sacramentalism is a soteriological position, according to which the Christian sacraments are effectual means of grace. It is primarily, though not exclusively, by these means that the covenant-making, covenant-keeping God accomplishes his salvific purpose of uniting all things in Christ (Ephesians 1:7-10). The sacramentalist affirms that God, according to his sworn word of promise, because of [...]
Several years ago when I was once a Calvinist, I remember reading this quote by John Calvin and being impressed by it: We must confess, then, that if the representation which God gives us in the Supper is true, the internal substance of the sacrament is conjoined with the visible signs; and as the bread [...]
