When in 1618 the Reformed theologian J. H. Alsted (1588-1638) declared that the Protestant doctrine of justification is that "article of faith by which the church stands or falls" (articulus stantis et candentis ecclesiae), he was only repeating what all Protestants had learned from Martin Luther and what all true Protestants and evangelicals still believe. […]
Geoffrey Wainwright, a leading scholar on the Ecumenical Movement, states: [The Ecumenical Movement is the] name given in modern times to the concerted drive toward the attainment or restoration of unity among Christians and their communities throughout the world…. Derived from the Greek oikoumene, meaning the inhabited earth, ecumenism refers to the efforts of Christians […]
In the March 7, 1998, issue of the Los Angeles Times, the "Religion" section featured an article entitled, "L.A.-Area Seminary Teachers Gather to Ponder the Truth." For the fourth year, the Skirball Institute on American Values drew five seminaries together for discus-sion: St. John's Seminary of the Los Angeles Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church, […]
How is it possible that the most holy night of our Lord's life has given rise to dissension and disunity in Christendom? How can it be that our Lord's Sacred Meal has become the cause of turmoil, confusion, and a splintering of fellowship among Christians who trace their theological ancestry to Rome, Wittenberg, Geneva, or […]
Has the term “evangelical” become hopelessly diluted? All words, including those that serve as shorthand theological labels, are subject to the shifts of linguistic evolution. As every student of lexicography knows, word definitions are forged not only upon the anvil of etymology but are tempered in the crucible of contemporary usage. Thus, to determine what […]
In the first week of October 1997, a coalition of individual Roman Catholics and Evangelical Protestants issued a joint statement of their common understanding of the Christian Gospel titled "The Gift of Salvation." It was an earnest attempt to state the message of salvation in language acceptable to heirs of the Protestant Reformation and to […]
"For the Lord esteems the communion in his church so highly that he counts as a traitor and apostate from Christianity anyone who arrogantly leaves any Christian society, provided it cherishes the true ministry of Word and sacraments."- John Calvin, Institutes 4.1.10. Does God have a prayer? This strikes us as a provocative question because […]
