"Try a personal Communion service to enrich your relationship with God." "Supper for One," an article in a leading evangelical magazine, advocates supplementing private devotions with Communion. "I didn't have wine or unleavened bread around the house, but I did have water or juice and crackers….Communion helped me focus blurry thoughts in the morning." The […]
To be a Christian is to be united to Jesus Christ, the source of all life. This life of communion with Jesus begins at the font where we were cleansed from our uncleanness and made whole in him. His suffering and resurrected flesh restores our impure and unclean flesh to wholeness and wellness. As we […]
Sometimes discussions on ecclesiology are difficult and tense. History instructs us that the line between compromise and irascibility is a fine one. Maintaining both truth and brotherly kindness calls for "wisdom from above which is first of all pure and then peaceable" (Jam. 3:17). In the early days of denominational definition, polemics struggled like Jacob […]
In Reformed theology Baptism is a means of grace; that is, an institution God uses to grow our faith. Yet how many Christians really see their Baptism as an important element of their Christian identity and growth? Neither Magic nor Mirage Calvin warned that when we study the Sacraments-whether Baptism or the Lord's Supper-we must […]
I never would have guessed that I would end up as an adult convert to Lutheranism. And I further would not have imagined how central the doctrine of the Lord's Supper would be to my conversion. My conception of denominations was typically evangelical. My understanding of Lutheranism was very vague. I respected the Lutheran church […]
On January 5, 1527, at 3 o'clock Saturday afternoon, Felix Manz was drowned to death in the icy waters of the Limmat River by order of the Zurich City Council. He had been identified as "one of the real beginners and chief promoters" of the Anabaptist movement. By his own admission he had (re)baptized a […]
Both Luther and Zwingli had crucial points to make in the debate over the Lord's Supper, but in my judgement, it was John Calvin who best resolved the question. Calvin began by agreeing with both sides on certain matters. He agreed with Zwingli that Christ is ascended and that his body is in heaven. He […]
