Article XII. Of Good Works. ALBEIT that good works, which are the fruits of faith, and follow after justification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of God’s judgment; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith; insomuch that…
A few months ago, with a measure of frustration, I observed a social media debate between two Anglicans, one of whom is a staunch Calvinist, and one of whom is a staunch Arminian. As is typical in such debates, the main issue was whether or not one could every truly know if one is saved….
Section II. — Scriptural Proof. I. SENSE of the word Justification. The word which we render just or righteous (namely, δίκαιος, or in the Hebrew צַדִּיק) has two principal significations: the one popular, the other accurate. In its popular signification, it is nearly equivalent to good, holy, pious, (ἄγαθος, εὐσεβὴς, חָסִיד); and is used commonly…
“Take the picture of my mother, exhibited as an ‘Arrangement in Grey and Black.’ To me it is interesting as a picture of my mother; but what can or ought the public to care about the identity of the portrait?” – James McNeill Whistler The pages of the history of art open to Whistler’s Mother….
One of the hallmarks of many “nondenominational” denominations within the United States and Great Britain is the eschewing of any manner of distinctive clerical uniform or vesture when ordained ministers lead Christian worship. The rationale behind these abstentions is that such clothing sets the minister “apart from the people,” smacking of clericalism, unduly calling attention…
Anti-Methodism and Theological Controversy in Eighteenth-Century England: The Struggle for True Religion. By Simon Lewis. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. 224 pp. $85 (cloth). Peter B. Nockles notes in The Oxford Movement in Context that there is a “myth” that the eighteenth-century Church of England saw a “collapse of High Churchmanship” (6). In a…
(a fable for children and others) for Ellie “A king—long years ago, When nights were long and dark And forests thick and dangers oh! So dangerous—lost his spark, Lost his remarkable spark Of joy. A meadowlark . . .” Part One: In Search of Meadowlarks Catherine had a friend. Her friend was Emma May. They…
Article XI. Of the Justification of Man. WE are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith, and not for our own works or deservings: Wherefore, that we are justified by faith only is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort, as more…
The chaste moon cackles over fields of white and pours its pregnant wrath upon a black crepe sky where seems the sun will never rise nor fill its run on this, the longest night. Beneath her blushing falseness tramps a lone and lonely hireling; bit with frost in callouses and cuts, near lost to winter’s…
Continuing to read in Knots Untied, Ryle has this to say about the Articles’ “studied moderation about things nonessential to salvation, and things about which good Christian men may differ.” (2) Let us mark, in the next place, as we read the Articles, their studied moderation about things nonessential to salvation, and things about which good Christian…