Why did Luther react so violently to Zwingli on the one hand and the Anabaptists on the other? He wasn’t because he insisted on his own formula for the real presence or baptism. As Jaroslav Pelikan pointed out in his 1968 Spirit versus Strcuture , “when Luther was confronted with a position that was less precise than his own about the real presence in the eucharist, but was no less firm than his about the doctrine of grace, he was... Read more
Doug Bandow wrote the following for the American Spectator Online back in January: “Dina Guirguis of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy testified last week before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the House Foreign Affairs Committee: ‘Egypt’s native Christians . . . .are the Middle East’s largest Christian minority but in the past decade have faced an alarming escalation of violence as state protection has dwindled.’ Yet when the Copts attempt to protect themselves, as in the... Read more
A number of students writing on John 13 have noticed the oddity that Jesus washes the disciples feet – an act of hospitality in preparation for a meal – but then they never eat. It’s a feast interrupted. I suspect that has something to do with the interaction between John and Revelation. For John, the wedding feast doesn’t start until the harlot is overthrown. Jesus washes His disciples in preparation for that feast yet to come. Read more
A student notes that foot-washing is an act of hospitality, in places like Genesis 18 and elsewhere. It is also required of priests entering the tabernacle. These amount to the same thing. Priests are given water to wash as they are welcomed into Yahweh’s house. Purity rules are, perhaps, not rules of exclusion but an act of welcome. Read more
Jesus kept all the laws. He never broke the Sabbath. He fulfilled the purity rules, I blurted out in class a few days ago. How? a student want to know. How does Jesus keep purity rules? Here’s my best, belated shot: Levitical purity rules are rules of cleansing. Just as the force of the slavery laws is not “Woohoo! We get to keep slavery!” but “here’s how you go about freeing slaves, just as you’ve been freed; so also the... Read more
“Sacramental union” between the “sign” and the “thing” can and has been used to separate: Because there are two entities, sign and union, it’s possible that there is one without the other. In classic Reformed theology, “sacramental union” usually has exactly the opposite import: Because of the sacramental union, the sign is never a “bare” or “vain” sign; because of the union, God is sincerely offering the thing when He offers the sign. The 1562 Hungarian Confessio Catholica highlights another... Read more
In an article in SJT , Paul Rhodes Eddy summarizes the results of recent scholarship on the origins of Manicheanism. Since the publiscation of the Cologne Mani Codex in the 1970s, the standard views of the origins of the movement have “been decisively overturned.” The new evidence, Eddy argues, “It appears to contain Mani’s own autobiographical comments amidst later redactional elements. It reveals that Mani grew up in a Jewish-Christian Elchasaite baptist sect. While Mani certainly reacts against certain aspects... Read more
In 1598 English Protestant John Rainolds (Reynolds) published a dialogue he had engaged in with Catholic John Hart. One line of argument linked the transition from Israel’s Old Covenant ceremonies and worship with a challenge to Roman “Judaizing.” It was a popular argument, going back at least to passages in Calvin (Necessity of Reforming the Church; Reply to Sadoleto) and repeated in many writers of the sixteenth century. I think this style of argument and protest was far more central... Read more
How can we baptize those who cannot believe and obey? asks the Large Emden Catechism (1551), written by John a Lasco for the churches in Emden, Friesland, in 1546. When he fled to England, Jan Utenhove translated it into Dutch in 1551. The answer is that the grace of God, which was “declared to infants under the old covenant, embraces them now, without any change or decrease” (q. 237). Note that: The children of believers are “embraced” in the grace... Read more
If baptism were denied to infants, would the grace of God be diminished by the coming of Christ? So asks Calvin in his 1545 Catechism. His answer: “Yes; for the sign of the bounty and mercy of God toward our children, which they had in ancient times, would be wanting in our case, the very sign which ministers so greatly to our consolation, and to confirm the promise already given in the Command.” Read more
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