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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
*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 […]
Yesterday (May 24) was the feast day of St. Vincent of Lérins, a soldier who became a monk at the monastery in Lérins, 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 […]
