The Reformed know and confess that faith without works is a dead faith, and it cannot save. But knowing and affirming this, they content themselves to dismiss the essential message of James chapter 2. For they say that dead faith is merely evidence that the faith was never faith at all. But this interpretation is […]
This post will answer the question, “Did St. John Chrysostom believe in justification by faith alone?” As in the previous post answering the same question of St. Ambrose, the answer will be in the negative. Before reading either this or that previous post, the reader should be familiar with the points I made in this […]
There is no question more important for the Christian than the question of how we are saved. But the Scripture answers this question in apparently various ways as does the Catholic Church from the beginning until now. Examples of answers from Scripture include:
This is a guest post by Jeremy de Haan. Jeremy was born and raised in the Canadian Reformed Churches. He received a Master of Divinity degree from the Canadian Reformed Theological Seminary in Hamilton, Ontario in 2016, and with his family was received into full communion with the Catholic Church at Easter, 2017. He tells […]
This is a guest post by Jeremy de Haan. Jeremy was born and raised in the Canadian Reformed Churches. He received a Master of Divinity degree from the Canadian Reformed Theological Seminary in Hamilton, Ontario in 2016, and with his family was received into full communion with the Catholic Church at Easter, 2017. He tells […]
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 […]
On February 25, 2015, Dr. Lawrence Feingold, Associate Professor of Philosophy & Theology at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in Saint Louis, Missouri, and author of The Natural Desire to See God According to St. Thomas and his Interpreters and the three volume series The Mystery of Israel and the Church gave a lecture titled “Purgatory” to the […]
On April 16, Tim Challies, a Reformed pastor at Grace Fellowship Church in Toronto, Ontario, and co-founder of Cruciform Press, published a post titled “The False Teachers: Pope Francis.” That generated much discussion, as one might imagine. I responded to it in comment #335 of “Does the Bible Teach Sola Fide?” One of the criticisms […]
John Hendryx is a PCA member who studied at Reformed Theological Seminary and owns and edits Monergism.com, a well known Reformed website and online Reformed library and bookstore. He has posted an article claiming that the sixth session of the Council of Trent (AD 1547) is at odds with the Second Council of Orange (AD […]
In most cases when St. Irenaeus comes up in Protestant-Catholic discussion, the focus is on the papacy, apostolic succession, or the relation of Scripture and Tradition. Here, however, I examine what St. Irenaeus has to say about justification. His teaching on this subject is ecumenically relevant not only because the doctrine of justification was at […]
