During the Reformation, few doctrines were as controversial as those of the sacraments. While the Roman church taught seven sacraments (baptism, confirmation, penance, the Mass, ordination vows, marriage, and the anointing of the sick), the reformers affirmed only two as having the scriptural mandate to be considered sacraments: Baptism and the Eucharist. As Basel Reformer…

The reformers rejected the sacramental doctrine that many of them inherited from the Roman Catholic Church, which taught that the elements of the ceremony infused grace into the recipient, working independent of their faith, or lack of faith. Instead, Reformed theologians such as Zurich pastor Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531) taught that the sacrament was the sign…

While most view the Reformation in terms of the Protestant break from the Roman Catholic church, the magisterial reformers were also forced to contend with the emergence of the Radical Reformation, which they believed to be equally in error. One of the key points of contention was the doctrine of baptism, with Anabaptist groups arguing…

Within the ecclesiology of the medieval church, the duties of deacons were broad, and their work as assistants to the priests extended from the stewardship of church funds and the distribution of alms to the administration of the sacraments and other liturgical roles. For many of the reformers, this role narrowed. As seen in this…

  “I shall cite evidence to show that they [extraterrestrials] have long since invaded and that their effects can be uncovered by historical research.” —Michael J. Crowe, The Extraterrestrial Life Debate Do you remember your first encounter with Star Wars? I recall lightning-fast ships traversing a distant galaxy, odd-looking aliens socializing at a rough cantina, and…

Throughout the history of the church, the biblical idea of “elders” or “presbyters” has been understood in numerous ways, and it has been used to justify levels of oversight stretching from the communal rule of single congregations to the supervision of a single bishop or archbishop concerned for the spiritual wellbeing of large territories. As…

Outer space stirs the inner soul. Might the unfathomable distances, incomprehensible beauty, and magnificent elegance of the universe we view on a starry night communicate a divine call to us? Might the feelings of awe and reverence elicited within us by the Milky Way constitute God’s still small voice within our soul, beckoning us to…

Tonight, as on every night, powerful instruments of research receiving radio and light waves search out stars far away. They are looking for something new, something unusual: they are looking for planets circling those stars. The number of such “exoplanets” discovered in the past two decades or so has reached almost 4000. New planet-hunting telescopes…

In comparison to many modern exegetes, the Reformers had a broader hermeneutical lens when reading the Old Testament, and were more open to finding types, figures, and applications for their particular contexts in the Old Testament. This can be seen in the interpretation of Ezekiel 34:1-31, where Lutheran theologian Martin Chemnitz (1522-1586), like many of…

“Dimidium” sounds like a rare metal, yet it is a planet far away, circling its sun “Helvetios”. Dimidium—more technically called 51 Pegasi b—has something very special to its credit. It is the first planet ever discovered to be circling a sun like ours beyond the solar system. Swiss astrophysicists from Geneva made the breakthrough, hence…

The gap theory helped many Christians in the nineteenth century bridge the chasm between traditional interpretations of Genesis 1-2 and the emerging fossil record. Few people still read the Bible that way, but it was once championed by Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847), the Scottish churchman and eloquent gospel preacher. On the other side of the Atlantic,…

For reformers such as Martin Bucer (1491-1551), a true response to the Word of God involved incorporation into the church, the body of Christ on earth. Soteriology and ecclesiology were inseparable, and the Christian life could not be undertaken without becoming part of into the community of believers. Integration in the body evidenced true faith,…