Posted by David Bosshard on April 8, 2010
DISPUTATION OF DOCTOR MARTIN LUTHER
ON THE POWER AND EFFICACY OF
INDULGENCES
OCTOBER 31, 1517
Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light, the
following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg, under the
presidency of the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and of
Sacred Theology, and Lecturer in Ordinary on the same at that place.
Wherefore he requests that those who are unable to be present and
debate orally with us, may do so by letter.
In the Name our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
1. Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said Poenitentiam agite,
willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance.
2. This word cannot be understood to mean sacramental penance, i.e.,
confession and satisfaction, which is administered by the priests.
3. Yet it means not inward repentance only; nay, there is no inward
repentance which does not outwardly work divers mortifications of the
flesh.
4. The penalty [of sin], therefore, continues so long as hatred of self
continues; for this is the true inward repentance, and continues until
our entrance into the kingdom of heaven.
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Posted by David Bosshard on March 22, 2010
By Edmund Chan
The Architecture of Theology
Theology is a vast and rigorous discipline. The historicity and complexity of Christian theology as a discipline is captured by J. I. Packer’s succinct statement:
For eighteen centuries Christian thinkers have pursued a discipline – variously called first principles (so Origen), wisdom (so Augustine), theology (so Thomas Aquinas), Christian philosophy and doctrine (so Calvin), dogmatics (so Reformational and Catholic teachers since the seventeenth century), and systematic theology (so American protestant teachers since the nineteenth century) – that seeks a full and integrated account of all Christian truth. Books developing this discipline have borne a variety of titles – enchiridion (handbook), ekdosis (exposition), sententiae (opinions), summa (full statements), commentarius (survey), loci communes (topics of shared concerns), institutio (basic instruction), medulla (marrow, as in bones), syntagma (arrangement), and synopsis (overview), among others – and have been put together in many different ways.1
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Posted by Pastor Pat on December 21, 2009
At Waukesha Bible Church in GLORIA we are currently teaching through The Writings of the Apostolic Fathers. Our DVD series is taught by Bart Ehrman. He is a professor of note at Chapel Hill in North Carolina. He is a religious liberal. In seeking to educate ourselves as to what a religious liberal is I came across this article by Paul A. Hartog. It is a good read and helps clarify the idea that religious liberals are not biblical Christians. Although there is value to Ehrman’s presentation, he is a liberal who is not neutral in the presentation of the material. He does aggressively seek to undermine the authority and integrity of the biblical text in identifying who and what Jesus is and does.
http://www.faith.edu/seminary/faithpulpit.php?article=./faithpulpit/2001_03
