Paradigms, Tradition, and the Lexicon, Part 2

Or, Jason Stellman’s “already-existing apostolic tradition” In his article The Tradition and the Lexicon, Bryan Cross says: In general, Protestants think differently about how to go about interpreting Scripture than do Catholics. When trying to understand the meaning of a passage in Scripture, Catholics have always looked to the Tradition; we seek to determine how …

Paradigms, Tradition, and the Lexicon, Part 1

Or, Jason Stellman’s “already-existing apostolic tradition” Bryan Cross and Jason Stellman have got a problem. Modern Biblical scholarship is locating the content of their “Tradition”. And it’s not what they think it is. First, let’s see what Bryan says about it, and let’s quote him precisely so he doesn’t get ticky about it. In his …

‘What is the church?’ Ask first ‘What does God intend for man?’

What is God’s intention with respect to man? That’s a key component in answering the question “what is the church?” While keeping the Reformed confessions in mind, G.K. Beale, in his A New Testament Biblical Theology: The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic ©2011) says this: My thesis …

What is ‘the church’? What was ‘the church’?

“The Lazy Man’s Way” In asking the question “what is the church?” in the context of 2000 years of church history, we have to also ask the question “what was the church?” And in asking the question “what was the church?” we have to also further ask the question, “what was the church at different …

More on the nonsensical distinction between “Mortal Sins” and “Venial Sins”

There is still a bit of a discussion going on, in a thread that’s several months old, between a Protestant writer Curt Russell, and Bryan Cross, on the topic of sin. More specifically, it involves the nonsensical distinction between “mortal sins” and “venial sins”. I know, I know, the interlocutor is “Curt” Russell”, not “Kurt” …

On Being Guided in All Truth

Over the last week or so, I’ve been watching the massive thread on “the Doctrine of the Church” over at Greenbaggins. It started as a simple comment by Lane Keister to the effect that “Confessions of the church carry much more weight than an individual person’s opinion, even if they are not on the same …