“This is true in the realm of science, so believers must assert the account of a six-day creation in Genesis, and reject the various mythologies surrounding evolution, and do so root and branch (Rom. 5:14; 1 Tim. 2:13-14). Few things are as funny as the spectacle of grown men asserting a family resemblance between a …
A Long River
“With this in mind, the point is to recall the reader to the ancient biblical faith, which, as it has fought faithfully down through the ages, has acquired many different names as the war progressed — Catholics, Waldensians, Huguenots, Calvinists, Methodists, Puritans. Some names have been corrupted and lost, and others made irrelevant by the …
Where is the Olive Tree?
“And this is why we remember the words of Irenaeus who said, and said well, that ‘where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church.’ Where is the olive tree? The answer of Scripture is plain: Where there are olives” (Mother Kirk, p. …
Boast Not Against the Branches
“The church at Rome has many ancient glories, but what does it have the Jerusalem did not have? . . . Now in response to this, Rome would maintain that she is far more than just a particular church in a particular city, that she is not just a branch on the tree, but rather …
Another Table of Contents Problem
“Put simply, my challenge contains two questions. Has the Roman Catholic church made infallible pronouncements throughout her history? And may we have an infallible and complete list of them? (Mother Kirk, p. 32).
A Theology of the Table of Contents
“The problem with contemporary Protestants is that they have no real doctrine of the Table of Contents. With the approach that is popular in conservative evangelical circles, one simply comes to the Bible by means of an epistemological lurch. The Bible ‘just is,’ and any questions about how it got here are dismissed as a …
No More Inspired Than the Maps and Concordance, But Still Authoritative
“But when we open our Bibles, before we come to the Word of God at Genesis 1:1, we come to the word of the Church at the Table of Contents. No one holds that the Table of Contents is part of inspired Scripture; rather it points to inspired Scripture, in a similar way that John …
A False Dilemma
“Of course this should not be taken as anything like approval of any form of sacerdotalism. But if a man is going to base his worship around ceremonies and traditions of human devising, then it makes far better sense, humanly speaking, to opt for the traditions that were invented in the fourth century, as opposed …
The Church at the First is the Church at the Last
“But the problem with Eastern Orthodoxy, and also with Rome, is not their antiquity. The problem is that they are not old enough — they are not part of the Ancient Church, characterized in all ages by the righteousness of faith. Abel lived under a different administration of the grace of God than did Moses, …
Cain Was the Eldest
“The Church which Christ purchased with His blood is not the only thing which is ‘of old.’ Scripture shows us the serpent has been lying from the beginning (1 Jn.3:8; Rev. 12:9). The truth is ancient, but within the experience of our race, lies are almost as ancient. The antithesis between true righteousness and self-righteousness, …