But today when someone pulls the "great tradition" card they almost always mean something like: "I don't buy that Anglicans are Protestant" or "I don't accept the Reformation or the Elizabethan Settlement as determinative for describing Anglican identity" or "I subscribe to a conciliar definition of 'Anglicanism' as opposed to a confessional definition."
Read moreSince Thomas Cranmer's 1552 Book of Common Prayer, and in all its revisions until the 1979 Prayer Book revision, the communion table was called a "table" or "holy table" so that is wasn't confused with an "altar" and the medieval Roman Catholic understanding of the sacrament. On an altar a sacrificing priest re-offers Jesus as a sacrifice.
Read moreThe necessity and effectuation of a substitutionary atonement was at the foundation of Donne's proclamation of the Gospel of our Savior: "He would not spare, nay he could not spare himself. There was nothing more free, more voluntary, more spontaneous than the death of Christ . . . And behold how that Lord that was God, yet could die, would die, must die for your salvation" [Death's Duel]. Sermon, 25th February 1631, no 192, Selected Prose, Penguin Classics, 1987].
Read moreIsaiah sorrowfully witnessed this sordid tendency of base and vile contempt for God strongly prevalent in his own time: "When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts . . . I will hide my eyes from you: even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen . . . See how the faithful city has become a harlot!
Read moreWhat about successful evangelists and church leaders? Still no, at least not as measured by the standards of fame and honor in this world.
Note that the disciples were straightforward in questioning Jesus (Matthew 18:1):
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
McIlvaine stated his revival principles in a letter to one of his parishes in his second year as bishop of Ohio. The parish, which had never enjoyed the regular services of a pastor, was clearly in need of wise and timely advice, as the teeming energies stirred by revival were producing startling results both favorable and unfavorable.
Read moreIt was more deeply about the creedal faith - our core Christian values. I personally heard two successive Presiding Bishops speak against the uniqueness and particularity of Jesus as the only means of salvation.
Read moreThe Orthodox Patriarch studied the twenty-one points of the Augsburg Confession and wrote a response: "Epicrisis on the Confession of Augsburg."
While agreeing with some Lutheran positions, the Orthodox reject many others.
Largely, the disagreement was over the role of "tradition."
Read moreWhen someone realizes that the central concern of Christianity is not our own faithfulness or obedience (do more and try harder religion), but belief and trust in a perfectly faithful God, their lives are changed forever!
Read moreIn 1 Corinthians 2.1-5, Paul contrasts Greek and Roman rhetorical practices with his own proclamation. Rhetoric is defined as the art of persuasion. Paul explains it as lofty speech and plausible words of wisdom (vv. 1, 4), or the wisdom of men (v. 5). His speech was defined not by the medium of the message but the message itself, not by clever speech but by a demonstration of the Spirit and power of God (4, 5). The difference is between persuasive speech and persuasive truth.
Read more