Bluster without truth or substance

Responding to Andrew McCallum in comments below, Joseph Richardson not only misrepresented what “tradition” really meant in the New Testament, but he went further and congratulated himself for doing a fine job of things, and related it in a standalone blog post. Nevertheless, he showed himself to be making several crucial errors, and demonstrating a …

“Pope Leo the Great”

“Pope Leo the Great” (pope from 440–461 AD) probably gave a fuller impetus to the medieval papacy than any other pope from the first millennium. J.N.D. Kelly, “The Oxford Dictionary of Popes”, (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, ©1986) says of Leo: An energetic and purposeful pontiff, Leo infused all his policies and pronouncements, especially his …

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 …

“Everything outside Holy Scripture, not being of faith, is sin.”

Embryo Parson put up a recent blog post that I’ve wanted to share: The English Reformation and the Early Church Fathers: “We and our people – thanks be to God – follow no novel and strange religions, but that very religion which is ordained by Christ, sanctioned by the primitive and Catholic Church and approved …

‘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 …

Paul and the proper place of unity

At the end of a recent posting, I noted that Irenaeus wrote that “the church at Rome was ‘founded and set up by the two most glorious apostles Peter and Paul.’ (Against Heresies, 3.3.2).” It is clear from 1 Corinthians that Peter and Paul crossed paths from time to time, and they did so, among …

Paul ordained the second “pope”

Here is a primary source that will provide further illustration that the early church had no knowledge of any kind of “petrine primacy.” The “Apostolic Constitutions” was unknown in the West until the Middle Ages. Daniel O’Connor (“Peter in Rome”) dates the earliest form of the document in the early third century (that’s in the …

Earliest churches in Rome (2)

Acts 2: Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each …

Irenaeus on Succession

Turretinfan has been following (and answering) Steve Ray’s “Questions for Bible Christians.” He answers Question #35, here: http://turretinfan.blogspot.com/2010/02/unloading-35-loaded-questions-for-bible_13.html He’s completed the series. Interestingly, #35 touches on “apostolic succession: Here’s the question, and here’s my comment: When did it become okay not only to disobey the Church’s leaders, but to rebel against them and set up …