“Everything in Scripture is equally true, but not everything is equally important. The fact that Jesus rose from the dead is more important than the fact that He went to Capernaum—although both are equally true” (Mere Fundamentalism, p. 3).
Words Everywhere
“The Scriptures are given to us in words, and interpretations of those words arrive packaged in words. If God can’t make Himself clear to me in the book that He wrote, how can I expect that fallible (or purportedly infallible) humans can do so . . . More about this anon, as I would have …
The Acid Test
“The only RCs and EOs worth teaming up with in any venture are the ones who don’t mind a Protestant being one” (Papa Don’t Pope, p. 179).
As the Body Without the Spirit is Dead . . .
“To take the elements of bread and wine, and separate them from the sacramental action, the sacramental participles, is a mistake of the first order. It is to remove the animated thing from the animating principle, thereby killing it, and then worshiping it as though it were alive by itself” (Papa Don’t Pope, p. 175).
In the Participles
“But Jesus did not tell us to watch and adore. He told us to take and eat, take and drink. And in our obedience, Christ is with us. Christ inhabits the obedience, and the bread and wine are not obedient. Christ is in the participles, in the eating, and in the drinking” (Papa Don’t Pope, …
Not Monolithic
“When you actually start reading in the early church fathers, one of the first things you discover is that they are all over the map, just like us” (Papa Don’t Pope, p. 170).
No Need to Hang our Head
“I am not advocating simple causation and simple-minded causation for that matter, as though I was trying to put the eight ball into the corner pocket. But cultural influences include the general faith of the people, and the fact remains that during their centuries, Protestants built a world-class civilization, too significant to be patronized” (Papa …
Or Chao Chen!
“The communion of saints means that the body of Christ is a glorious and unified mystery. It means I am one with all the saints in heaven, just as I am one with all the saints alive today in China. But if I were crossing a street, saw a truck with no brakes hurtling toward …
What We Don’t Get to Assume
“It would not rock my Protestant world at all if I died and went to heaven, only to discover that at some point in my worldly sojourn, Mary had stumbled across some aspect of my story and prayed for me. ‘Oh, my. Look at that poor sap there.’ But for me to ask her to …
The Problem Is What You Assume, Not So Much What You Say
“When I ask my friend Bob to pray for me because I have an appointment with the surgeon tomorrow, I do not have to assume any superhuman powers on the part of Bob in order to make the request of him. I know he heard me, because he was right there, and he heard the …