Posts Tagged ‘ Tradition ’

Catholic and Reformed Understandings of “He Descended into Hell”

Apr 4th, 2015 | By | Category: Blog Posts

Why are the Catholic and Reformed positions different regarding the meaning of the line in the Apostles’ Creed “He descended into hell,” and how can we stake steps toward resolving this disagreement? To approach those questions I consider and briefly engage below the writings of R. Scott Clark and Rick Phillips on this subject, in […]



Trueman, Lent, and Reformed Catholicity

Feb 16th, 2015 | By | Category: Blog Posts

In the Latin Rite liturgical calendar, this Wednesday (February 18) is Ash Wednesday, and marks the beginning of Lent, that forty-day period of fasting and abstinence in which we prepare for Easter. One intention for which we can fast and pray this Lent is the reunion of all Christians. Oddly enough, however, Lent is precisely […]



Sola Scriptura Redux: Matthew Barrett, Tradition, and Authority

Nov 7th, 2013 | By | Category: Blog Posts

I recently happened to read a post at the Gospel Coalition site titled “‘Sola Scriptura’ Radicalized and Abandoned” written by Matthew Barrett. Matthew received a Ph.D. in systematic theology from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and is presently an assistant professor of Christian studies at California Baptist University, (and apparently a Lakers fan). In his post […]



G.I. Williamson and the Grinch

Dec 19th, 2012 | By | Category: Blog Posts

As the Holy Season of Advent winds ever closer to its yearly end, my heart is often full of mixed emotions. The expectation and hope of celebrating the Birth of Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ on December 25th tends to be mingled with other thoughts about my Reformed past. In becoming Reformed after […]



John Piper on “Correcting” the Apostles Creed

Apr 9th, 2012 | By | Category: Blog Posts

Sadly, leading Protestants such as John Piper and Wayne Grudem are ready to bring scissors to the Apostles Creed: On Good Friday, Jesus told the Good Thief crucified alongside him that “today you will be with me in paradise,” according to Luke’s Gospel. “That’s the only clue we have as to what Jesus was doing […]



Underlying Disagreements in ECT Evangelicals’ Objections to the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception

Dec 8th, 2011 | By | Category: Blog Posts

Today is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. Last year, immediately preceding this Solemnity, Taylor posted “Mary Without Sin (Scripture and Tradition),” and on the Feast I posted “Mary’s Immaculate Conception, in which I included podcasts of Prof. Lawrence Feingold’s lecture and Q&A on this dogma. Those two posts provide evidence for the Catholic dogma, […]



What Therefore God Has Joined Together: Divorce and the Sacrament of Marriage

Sep 22nd, 2011 | By | Category: Featured Articles

There are some ancient Christian doctrines that only the Catholic Church has retained. One such doctrine is her teaching on contraception, which was the unanimous teaching of the Church Fathers, and which all Christians shared for nineteen centuries until the Lambeth Conference of 1930. At that conference the Anglican Church decided to permit the use […]



The Vatican Files N. 4: A Reply to Ref21’s Leonardo De Chirico

Jul 20th, 2011 | By | Category: Blog Posts

Leonardo De Chirico Leonardo De Chirico is a Protestant lecturer in theology at IFED (Istituto di Formazione Evangelica e Documentazione) in Padova, Italy. He edits the theological journal Studi di teologia. He also worked in Italy for twelve years as a Reformed Baptist church planter. Over the past few months De Chirico has posted a […]



Calvin, Trent, and the Vulgate: Misinterpreting the Fourth Session

Jun 13th, 2011 | By | Category: Blog Posts

*Update* I have made finding my responses to critics easier by linking to them at the end of the post. When I first began to take interest in theology, and in Reformed theology in particular, during college, I learned the story of how the Catholic Church closed herself off to serious study of the Holy […]



The Commonitory of St. Vincent of LĂ©rins

May 25th, 2011 | By | Category: Featured Articles

Yesterday (May 24) was the feast day of St. Vincent of LĂ©rins, a soldier who became a monk at the monastery in LĂ©rins, and wrote his famous Commonitory in AD 434, three years after the third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus, and seventeen years before the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon. Because Protestants generally accept both those […]