Zach Uram's Blog

Oh my meaty, swollen belly
Smacking my belly
It is a gut most swelly

Smack to the left and right
Smacking my belly
It’s outta sight

Smack it up and down
Smacking my belly
Brings me such renown

Oh what a sight
Smacking my belly
Gives me such delight

Smack it at night and day
Smacking my belly
I smack it without delay

Such sweet rhythm
Smacking my belly
It’s like a drum

As loud as a thunderclap
Smacking my belly
My belt I do unstrap

Smack it today and tomorrow
Smacking  my belly
It will never give me sorrow

I feel happy and free
Smacking my belly
I smack it with glee

I’ll smack my belly forevermore
Smacking my belly
The sound you cannot ignore

Smack it now and later
Smacking my  belly
It’s never a labor

 

by Zachary Uram (c) 2021

 

In the Garden
Man had fallen from grace
It doomed the human race

Man was lost
In hopelessness and pain
Sin and death would now reign

Because of divine love
There formed a plan
To save wretched man

A Savior was needed
A spotless Lamb
The great I AM

God the Son would come
To set mankind free
From his estate lowly

God chose
A humble Jewish girl
She was special

Mary served the Lord
She agreed to God’s fiat
In her womb the Messiah sat

A true miracle
This virgin most fair
The Christ child she would bare

In a remote city of Bethlehem
Mary and Joseph did sojourn
The world would soon turn

No room in the inn
Christ was born in a stable
This was no fable

The animals looked on
The God Man was alive
Our hope did survive

Rejoice I say
Behold Israel’s King
Let choirs of angels sing

Gloria Gloria Gloria
Hosanna in excelsis
Emmanuel – God with us

The very universe sings
A cosmic celebration
Of Jesus’s incarnation

Thirty-three years later
Christ would pay our penalty
From sin we’d be set free

Humiliated and brutalized
Such pain He endured for us
What an astounding witness

On the rocky hill of Golgotha
The time struck three midday
Such a loving display

Jesus bore God’s full wrath
Christ gave up His spirit
His life did He forfeit

Mary wept
Was this the last act
Did Christ succumb to Satan’s attack

No this was not the end
For on the third day Christ rose
It was us He chose

Death could not hold Him
The fabric of spacetime did bend
This was not His end

Christ conquered death
As He rose again so shall we
Who can fathom such a mystery

So repent
And believe the Good News
Your heart of stone you’ll lose

A new creation in Christ
Saved by grace through faith alone
In the Book of Life your name is known

Merry Christmas to all
On this day our salvation had begun
No more from God will you run

We look ahead to Calvary
Christmas mirth
Foreshadows our new birth

A single love story
From Mary’s womb
To the Easter tomb

Snow is falling
I hear carolers sing
It’s time for an awakening

Don’t delay
Trust in Christ alone
For us He did atone

You’ll receive the Comforter
In your heart He will dwell
Blessed assurance you cannot dispel

Walk by the Spirit
In all that you do
Rejoice you’re one of the few

by Zachary Uram (c) 2021

In my estimation, Sir Anthony Hopkins is the greatest actor of his generation! And one of the top 5 best actors of all time.

I recall watching him as an 8 year old child in 1984, he starred opposite Mel Gibson in The Bounty as William Bligh. He played captain of the Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty. It’s a far more authentic and accurate story of the mutiny on the Bounty. Even as a child I was impressed by his charisma and dedication to his role. This was my first Hopkins film I’d seen.

In 1991, came Hopkin”s performance in the film Silence of the Lambs as the brilliant, but utterly evil forensic psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter who became a serial killer. He was known for cannibalizing his victims (Hannibal the Cannibal as the press at the time said). This was an amazing performance by Hopkins opposite Jodie Foster. Foster gives a very strong performance as a young and inexperienced FBI profiler. Dr. Lecter relishes his interactions with her and toying with her psychologically. There’s is a strictly quid pro quo relationship And one where Hopkin’s character is the master, and Foster’s is the apt student. I don’t think I’ve come across a more sinister, yet multifaceted film character’s as Hopkin’s Dr. Lecter. Hopkins won a Best Actor Oscar for  his role in this film.

Hopkin’s would reprise his role of Dr. Lecter in the films Hannibal in 2001 and Red Dragon in 2002. These films were less subtle in their depiction of evil. There is more gore and less nuance. Yet Hopkin’s delivers extremely strong peformances in these films. He seems to relish being able to flesh out the role of Dr. Lecter more.

I saw him in 1992, he starred opposite Emma Thompson in Howard’s End which was set in Victorian England. This was an outstanding performance by Thompson (she won an Oscar). But Hopkins playing the amoral capitalist and was toe to toe with Thompson.

In  1993 I saw Hopkins in The Remains of the Day again opposite Emma Thompson. He plays an English butler who felt betrayed and his sacrifices for his aristocratic employer to be in vain. Thompson and he have a definite screen chemistry which, I believe, works so well in this film.

In 1995, I saw Hopkins in the film Nixon playing the American President. I read a good  bit about Nixon and Watergate and I felt Hopkins captured his deep seated insecurity and fearfulness. Another top 10 performance.

Hopkins did steady work in a variety of films throughout the 90s and through the 00s and 10s. He also did some fine TV work, most notably in 2016-2018 series Westworld.

Fast forward to 2020 and we find Hopkins in the film The Father. He gives a deeply moving and emotionally complex performance of a man who is losing his memory and thus his entire identity as he inexorably succumbs to dementia It’s a sad seeing the ravages of age, but Hopkins infuses dignity into the character and defiance. As someone who suffers from severe mental illness, including psychosis, I could relate to Hopkin’s characters tenuous grip on reality at times. At age 81 when the film was shot, Hopkins won a second Best Actor Oscar for  his role,  making him the oldest person to win an acting Oscar.

At age 83, Hopkins continues to be a highly sought after and in demand actor, who shows no signs of slowing down! I look forward to more work from him. What an amazing and brilliant acting career he’s had.

I would like to add that I’m very inspired by Hopkins celebrating recently 46 years of sobriety from alcoholism. My dear mother is a recovered alcoholic, so I’m intimately acquainted with how damaging addiction can be. It was through his experiences at becoming sober at an AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) meeting that the former devout atheist Hopkins came to believe in God. My mother also found sobriety by attending AA meetings and with the help of her Christian faith. Hopkins repented of his sins and trusts in Christ alone now.

Hopkin’s addiction started because of theatre life. As he said, “that’s what you do in theater, you drink.” “But I was very difficult to work with, as well, because I was usually hungover.”

But by 1975, his social drinking had given way to frequent heavy drinking. His drinking had spiraled out of his control.

“I was hell-bent on destruction,” Hopkins said. “It was like being possessed by a demon, an addiction, and I couldn’t stop. And there are millions of people around like that.”

“I was heading for disaster, I was drinking myself to death. I’m not preachy but I got a message, a little thought, ‘Do you want to live or die?’ I wanted to live and suddenly relief came and my life has been amazing.”

During an AA meeting in 1975, a woman asked him a simple straightforward question: “Why don’t you just trust in God?” Hopkins was desperate and thought to himself, “Well, why not?” Slowly things began to change in his life. “I could not stop [drinking], but I just asked for a little bit of help and suddenly, pow. It was just like, bingo,” Hopkins recalled.

His deep cravings for alcohol literally vanished overnight, “never to return again.” And he’s believed in God ever since. This is truly miraculous and shows God’s power if we submit to Him.

Hopkins has a hopeful message for those struggling with addiction: “Don’t give up. Just keep in there. Keep fighting. Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid. That sustained me through my life.”

Hopkins advice to high school and college students:

“If you chase the money, it’s not gonna work. And if you chase success, it’s not gonna work.” “You know, I meet young people, and they want to act and they want to be famous,” Hopkins explained. “And I tell them, when you get to the top of the tree, there’s nothing up there. Most of this is nonsense, most of this is a lie. Accept life as it is. Just be grateful to be alive.” “I believe that we are capable of so much,” Anthony said to the students. “From my own life, I still cannot believe that my life is what it is because I should have died in Wales, drunk or something like that. … We can talk ourselves into death or we can talk ourselves into the best life we’ve ever lived. None of it was a mistake. It was all a destiny.”  Before getting saved, Hopkins was a hardcore atheist. But now he feels sorry for atheists, comparing a life of disbelief to “living in a closed cell with no windows.” “I’d hate to have to live like that, wouldn’t you?” Hopkins asked poignantly.

By the way, Hopkins is also an accomplished musical composer! Here is André Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra performing a waltz which Hopkins wrote.

 

Christ was born in a manger
One frosty night

Only straw for a bed
What a plight

The heavenly hosts proclaimed
Gloria in excelsis Deo

In His crib
Christ’s face did glow

The animals kept watch
As the holy infant slept

How could this be
His secret Joseph and Mary kept

This eternal Son dreamed
Of what He’d do one day

The Emmanuel – God with us
The holy couple did pray

The Messiah came out of love
For mankind lost in sin

He would one day make
A propitiation

On the Cross
He’d give His life

As a ransom for us
To end our eternal strife

Christ was a sinless substitute
He won us second birth

His sacrifice
Was one of infinite worth

On the third day
The light streamed out the tomb

Like a newborn baby
From the womb

Jesus was resurrected
The greatest event in all spacetime

Such a monumental  moment
A victory so sublime

Death had lost its sting
The grave had been denied

The God Man lived
He who was prophesied

Because of that moment
We can live forevermore

Our path is certain
Our eternal fate secure

Are you tired of darkness
Of living in sin so black

Repent in your heart today
There’s no going  back

Believe the Gospel
It is your only hope

Don’t trust in man
Or even a pope

You are a new creation
The old life is gone

Your depravity and wickedness
Is truly done

So walk in the Spirit
And live for Christ each day

Because of sovereign grace
You don’t have to dismay

 

by Zachary Uram (c) 2021

After being thought up by Karl Marx in the 19th century, communism came to the forefront in the early part of the 20th century in Russia. Lenin led a so-called workers revolution (the noble proletariat) who was going to centralize the economy and abolish capitalism in favor of socialism, abolish private property, and replace the thousand plus years of Christianity with godless atheism. What was achieved was a totalitarian state where the State replaced God. And the Party replaced religion. The former Russian territories became the Union of Soviet Socialist States (USSR). The Soviet state absolutely crushed religion, anything associated with the bourgeois rule such as culture, religion, learning, the arts and literature. Everything would be remade in accordance with communist dictates.The practical effect was the total erosion of  human rights and personal freedom and liberties. There were problems with the Tsarist rule of Russia, serious problems even. But the solution was not to replace one problem with a system which was exponentially worse.

The Bolsheviks, led by Lenin,   killed around 2-3 million people in the Bolshevik revolution and ensuing civil war between 1917-1922. Many priests, bishops, professors, teachers, artists were murdered in cold blood. 

 

Under the leadership of Stalin, who assumed power after Lenin died, tens of millions of people would die. I quote this article:

In his acclaimed book “The Great Terror: Stalin’s Purge of the Thirties,” Anglo-American historian Robert Conquest said: “We get a figure of 20 million dead [under Stalin], which is almost certainly too low and might require an increase of 50 percent or so.”

Quotes attributed to Stalin reflected his utter disregard for human life. Among other bons mots, he allegedly declared: “Death is the solution to all problems. No man — no problem,” and “One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic.”

Part of the problem with counting the total loss of life lies with the incompleteness and unreliability of Soviet records. A more troubling dilemma has to do with the fact that many some deaths – like starvation from famines – may or may not have been directly connected to Stalin’s policies.

In any case, if the figure of 60 million dead is accurate that would mean that an average of 2 million were killed during each year of Stalin’s horrific reign – or 40,000 every week (even during “peacetime”).

If the lower estimate of 20 million is the true number, that still translates into 1,830 deaths every single day.

 

In Communist China, Mao Zedong killed 42-105 million people. 11 million due to the great famine he caused with the collectivization of all farms in China, and over 7-45 million due to the Great Leap Forward. And another 20-30 million deaths due to the decade long Cultural Revolution. A further 27 million died in the Laogai camps.These deaths were largely due to famine, execution, and forced labor, as well as economic and environmental destruction were solely the fault of the Chinese Communist Party. According to this article, 130 million dead in the 20th century due to Communism. Most of these deaths were through government induced famines and associated diseases which accounts for 100 million deaths. Another 30 million died in communist led wars and rebellion such as in Korea and Vietnam. However I found another article which states that: 

According to the late Rudolph Rummel, the demographer of government mass murder, estimated the human toll of twentieth-century socialism to be about 61 million in the Soviet Union, 78 million in China, and roughly 200 million worldwide. These victims perished during state-organized famines, collectivization, cultural revolutions, purges, campaigns against “unearned” income, and other devilish experiments in social engineering. In its monstrosity, this terror is unrivaled in the course of human history.

 

Nearly 2 million died in the Killing Fields of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, the Communists who led the civil war. But there have been other killings by Communist regimes, such as the nearly 2 million killed in China’s continued occupation of Tibet. You can read further figures in the Wikipedia article.

Academics have debated the exact numbers, but new research shows the previous death tolls due to communism in China under Mao were significantly understated and the real totals are much higher. So the 130-200 million dead globally due to Communism is likely more accurate than not.

More people died due to Communism than any other power, ideological system, government, or movement in world history! Yet even today China is still Communist and thanks to a booming economy is flexing its muscles and aims to be a world superpower. It would not be as benevolent as America has been as a superpower. China’s Communist Party seems hellbent on world domination. They’re using their economic might, but in the future that could easily shift to a conventional war whether over Taiwan or North Korea or some other trigger. China is NOT our friend. They have been our enemy and they will continue to be our enemy until the Chinese people manage to finally free themselves from the heavy yoke of Communism! 

Today China is a surveillance society, citizens are tracked and their every action, transaction, purchase, achievement quantified and assigned value in the social credit system. It is George Orwell’s prophetic book 1984 come to life in all its sinister evil! 

 

Further I should note that these death figures for China did not take take into account the forced abortions. According to this article, in the past 50 years alone there have been a staggering 336 million forced abortions in China. There were also during that time period 222 million forced sterilizations in China. So the true death total due to Communism could easily top half a billion lives! This Communist regime in China is utterly Satanic and we should do everything we can to oppose this great evil. 

It disgusts me that our Western countries trade heavily with China when we should be imposing economic sanctions on them for crimes against humanity! And for the 2nd time in the past 13 years China will be hosting the Olympics! The US boycotted the Olympics when it was held in the Soviet Union, yet our politicians and business leaders cowtow to China’s bloody regime all for the money they make!! The Chinese Communist Party heavily persecutes Christians in China to this day. We need to demand our leaders change how they deal with China. This must be organized at European Union, US, Canada, and NATO levels. I honestly don’t think anything will change until China is in a war with us. They’re already waging an effective cyber-war against us!

 

I feel compelled to also mention the fact that recent polling shows over half of Millennials in America have a positive view of Communism, and are totally ignorant of its bloody history! This is a result of our Leftist public schools indoctrinating students. This is utterly un-American and should be opposed in the strongest possible terms. Democrats in America now have repackaged socialism calling it the innocuous sounding “democratic socialism”. But it’s the same sinister path to a Communist takeover of America! Here is an eye opening article on 15 ways America has succumbed to Communism. We must take bold action now before it’s too late. As President Reagan said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.”

I have seen the rise of fascism and communism. Both philosophies glorify the arbitrary power of the state… But both theories fail. Both deny those God-given liberties that are the inalienable right of each person on this planet, indeed, they deny the existence of God. — President Ronald Reagan

 

I agree with President Reagan. Communism fell in Russia and if we all work hard it would fail in China as well. As China continues to rape, murder, imprison, beat and oppress Christians it will come under God’s Wrath! MARANATHA!

Here is a wonderful and insightful 2 hour documentary on the horrors of Communism.

In grievous sin man was lost
To redeem him what would it cost?

God became man
It was all according to His plan

The God Man came
To cast out demons and heal the lame

But the real reason Christ came was love
He had mercy on us from above

The virgin Mary would bear Jesus the Lord
He would save us from sin and the Satanic horde

The Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary, for 9 months she bore the Christ child
This holy infant so tender and mild

A humble stable in Bethlehem held the newborn babe and His divinity
A donkey and lamb kept watch in this precious nativity

Jesus would be our sinless sacrifice
He hung on the cross while, for His garments, the soldiers played dice

For our vice and depravity
Christ would suffer most acutely

He was crushed for our iniquity, and endured God the Father’s full wrath
Jesus chose this path

He cried out, “It is finished!”, and gave up His spirit. Such was the death of the Son
But Jesus was not defeated. This hill of Calvary is where our salvation was won

Death could not hold Him. Now rang the celestial bell
He descended into Hell

Christ preached to the lost, and set the righteous of old free
No longer would His Elect be eternally condemned for our iniquity

Three days later Christ’s rocky tomb shone with bright light
Behold, the Lamb of God was resurrected by His might

The grave could not hold the living Word of God
Satan and death were defeated, the Messiah we shall praise forever and laud

Because of Christ’s resurrection, we the spiritually blind shall see
By God’s amazing grace through faith we are saved and set free

We must be born again you see
It’s a fundamental change in our reality

We are given second birth
This is cause for much rejoicing and mirth

In Christ we are truly a new creation
This fills me with thanksgiving and elation

So sing Hallelujah and be always ready for the Lord’s return
He will rapture His Church before the world will burn

Trust in Christ alone and preach the Gospel of sovereign grace
Let all people hear the Good News, until that happy day we shall see Him face to face

 

by Zachary Uram (c) 2021

 

We are born lost in sin you see
Totally wicked
We are mired in depravity

Our heart is desperately wicked
That is the truth
Sin is our bed

God chose us to redeem
From the foundation of the world
What a marvelous dream

Not elected based on anything in us
It was simply God’s good pleasure
For His purpose

Christ died at Calvary
His propitiation was complete
This is salvation history

He died for a select few
Only the Elect
The others He did eschew

We were quickened by the Holy Ghost
It was grace we could not resist
We have nothing of our own to boast

This grace was irresistible
God loved us so
We are no longer miserable

We’re given a heart of flesh
We are made new
Our new life starts afresh

Our salvation cannot be lost
Christ will keep us on the right path
Persevering until our mortal life is past

by Zachary Uram (c) 2021

The Apocrypha (απόκρυφα means “hidden”) is a set of books written between approximately 400 B.C. and the time of Christ. These books are Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (also known as Ecclesiasticus), and Baruch. 

The Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant churches all have Bibles with varying lengths. These different canons include 39 books of the Old Testament for the Protestant canon, 46 books of the Old Testament for the Roman Catholic canon, and up to 54 books of the Old Testament for the Orthodox canon. Thee 7 additional Old Testament books in the Roman Catholic  canon is known as the deuterocanonicals or Apocrypha. We Protestants reject the Apocrypha.

The Apocrypha teaches several erroneous doctrines:

The pre-existence of the soul.
The belief that the kind of body one now has is determined by the character of his soul in a previous life: “Now I was a goodly child, and a good soul fell to my lot; Nay rather, being good, I came into a body undefiled” (Wisdom of Solomon 8:19-20).

This was a common belief among heathen peoples, but certainly it is contrary to the biblical view that the soul of man is formed with him at conception (Psa. 139:13-16; Zech. 12:1).

Praying for the dead.
“Wherefore he made the propitiation for them that had died, that they might be released from their sins” (2 Maccabees 12:45).
Roman Catholics cite this passage to find support for their dogma of praying for the dead to be released from purgatory, but the effort is vain. Obviously there’s no New Testament passage to support the notion.

Alms for Sins:
The Apocrypha suggests that one may atone for his sins by the giving of alms: “It is better to give alms than to lay up gold: alms doth deliver from death, and it shall purge away all sin” (Tobit 12:9).
 

The Morality of the Apocrypha
The moral tone of the Apocrypha is far below that of the Bible (66 book canon). Some examples:
 

Suicide Noble? The apocrypha applauds suicide as a noble and manful act. Second Maccabees tells of one Razis who, being surrounded by the enemy, fell upon his sword, choosing “rather to die nobly” than to fall into the hands of his enemy. He was not mortally wounded, however, and so threw himself down from a wall and “manfully” died among the crowds (14:41-43).

Magical Potions: It describes magical potions which are alleged to drive demons away (Tobit 6:1-17).
 

Tobit 6:5-7, “Then the angel said to him: Take out the entrails of this fish, and lay up his heart, and his gall, and his liver for thee: for these are necessary for useful medicines. 6 And when he had done so, he roasted the flesh thereof, and they took it with them in the way: the rest they salted as much as might serve them, till they came to Rages the city of the Medes. 7 Then Tobias asked the angel, and said to him: I beseech thee, brother Azarias, tell me what remedies are these things good for, which thou hast bid me keep of the fish? 8 And the angel, answering, said to him: If thou put a little piece of its heart upon coals, the smoke thereof driveth away all kind of devils, either from man or from woman, so that they come no more to them.”

Is it true that the smoke from a fish’s heart, when burned, drives away evil spirits?  Of course not.  Such a superstitious teaching has no place in the word of God.

Murder Applauded: The murder of the men of Shechem (Gen. 34), an act of violence which is condemned in the Scriptures (cf. Gen. 49:6-7), is commended and is described as an act of God (Judith 9:2-9).

The Apocrypha also has Historical Errors

• Judith 1:5, “Now in the twelfth year of his reign, Nabuchodonosor, king of the Assyrians, who reigned in Ninive the great city, fought against Arphaxad and overcame him.”
• Baruch 6:2, “And when you are come into Babylon, you shall be there many years, and for a long time, even to seven generations: and after that I will bring you away from thence with peace.”

The book of Judith incorrectly says that Nebuchadnezzar was the king of the Assyrians when he was the king of the Babylonians.

Baruch 6:2 says the Jews would serve in Babylon for seven generations where Jer. 25:11 says it was for 70 years.  “And this whole land shall be a desolation and a horror, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.”

These, along with various other considerations, lead only to the conclusion that the Apocrypha cannot be included in the volume of sacred Scripture. ..Apocryphal Books Do Not Claim Inspiration: It must be observed that the apocryphal books, unlike the canonical books of the Old Testament, make no direct claims of being inspired of God.
Not once is there a, “thus says the Lord,” or language like, “the word of the Lord came unto me, saying …” In fact, some of the documents actually confess non-inspiration! In the prologue of Ecclesiasticus, the writer states:
“Ye are entreated therefore to read with favour and attention, and to pardon us, if in any parts of what we have laboured to interpret, we may seem to fail in some of the phrases.”…

The Hebrew canon of the Jews never included the Apocrypha. Jesus and the New Testament authors never directly quote the Apocrypha. Neither do they introduce it with labels that would suggest inspiration, such as “as it is written” or “as the Scripture says.” Many echoes and allusions have been detected in the New Testament, but no direct quotes or obvious paraphrases appear in the New Testament. Jerome (who translated the complete Bible into Latin, the Latin Vulgate) did not believe the Apocrypha were canonical. Augustine however did believe them to be canonical. The Council of Carthage (AD 397) sided with Augustine, but the two views remained in the church until the Reformation period. During the Reformation period the Roman Catholic church called the Council of Trent (1546) included most of the books of the Apocrypha. It’s important to note that, contrary to what  many Roman Catholic apologists claim, Rome had NO FIXED CANON until Trent.

Here we see 3 Reformed documents commenting on the nature of the Apocrypha:

Thirty-nine Articles (1571), article 6: “And the other Books (as Jerome saith) the Church doth read for example of life and instruction of manners; but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine.”

Belgic Confession (1561) 6: “The church may certainly read these books and learn from them as far as they agree with the canonical books. But they do not have such power and virtue that one could confirm from their testimony any point of faith or of the Christian religion. Much less can they detract from the authority of the other holy books.”

Westminster Confession of Faith (1647) 1.3: “The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon of the Scripture, and therefore are of no authority in the church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved, or made use of, than other human writings.”

As we have seen there are numerous problems with the 7 Apocryphal books and they are clearly not inspired Scripture. We can read them, but cannot base doctrine on them!

 

 

Here is a quick summary of the way that the Church Fathers interpreted that verse “Thou are Peter and upon this rock….” (Matthew 16:18)

Archbishop Kenrick, who was one of America’s extraordinary bishops, was opposed to the doctrine of papal infallibilty and at the First Vatican Council in 1869 he voted against it. He wanted to deliver a speech against the proposed doctrine at the Council but instead he ceased to attend the Council meetings. He published his speech in Naples the following year. It is important because he lists the five different patristic interpretations of Matthew 16:18.

Let’s look at how the Church Fathers line up over this verse:

• “That St. Peter is the Rock” is taught by seventeen (17) Fathers.
• That the whole Apostolic College is the Rock, represented by Peter as its chief, is taught by eight (8 ) Church Fathers.
• That St. Peter’s faith is the Rock, is taught by forty-four (44) Church Fathers.
• That Christ is the Rock, is taught by sixteen Fathers (16)

Archbishop Kenrick summarises:
“If we are bound to follow the greater number of Fathers in this matter, then we must hold for certain that the word “Petra” means not Peter professing the Faith, but the faith professed by Peter.” 

This is an important point by Archbishop Kenrick and it should be given its full weight. It is Roman Catholic doctrine that where there is something disputed the choice must be made for the consensus of the Fathers, the consensus patrum. You can look this up and check that I have it accurately in Friedrich, Docum ad illust. Conc. Vat. 1, pp. 185-246  As to who Archbishop Kenrick was. Please see the Catholic Encyclopedia here.

Peter’s confession as the rock was the majority view in the Early Church:

“In a remarkable pamphlete printed in fac-simile of manuscript and presented to the fathers almost two months ago, we find five different interpretations of the word “rock”, in the place cited; “the first of which declares (I transcribe the words) “that the church was built on Peter; and this interpretation is followed by seventeen fathers, among them, by Origen, Cyprian, Jerome, Hilary, Cyril of Alexandria, Leo the Great, Augustine.
 

“The second interpretation understands from these words ‘on this rock will I build my church’, that the church was built on all the apostles, whom Peter represented by virtue of the primacy. And this opinion is followed by eight fathers – among them, Origen, Cyprian, Jerome, Augustine, Theodoret.
 

“The third interpretation asserts that the words, ‘on this rock’, etc, are to be understood of the faith which Peter had professed – that this profession of faith, by which we believe Christ to be the Son of the Living God, is the everlasting and immovable foundation of the church. This interpretation is the weightiest of all, since it is followed by forty-four fathers and doctors; among them, from the East, are Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Alexandria, Chrysostom, Theophylact; from the West, Hilary, Ambrose, Leo the Great; from Africa, Augustine.
 

The fourth interpretation declare that the words ‘on this rock’, etc, are to be understood of the rock which Peter had confessed, that is, Christ – that the church was built upon Christ. This interpretation is followed by sixteen fathers and doctors.
 

The fifth interpretation of the fathers understands by the name of ‘the rock’, the faithful themselves, who, believing Christ to be the Son of God, are constituted living stones out of which the church is built.
 

From this it follows, either that no argument at all, or one of the slenderest probability, is to be derived from the words, ‘on this rock will I build my church’, in support of the primacy. Unless it is certain that by ‘the rock’ is to be understood the apostle Peter in his own person, and not in his capacity as the chief apostle speaking for them all, the word supplies no argument whatever, I do not say in proof of papal infallibility, but even in support of the primacy of the bishop of Rome. If we are bound to follow the majority of the fathers in this thing, then we are bound to hold for certain that by ‘the rock’ should be understood the faith professed by Peter, not Peter professing the faith.”
— Archbishop Kenrick in “An Inside View of the Vatican Council”

 Most Roman Catholics are surprised to find that the majority of the Early Church Fathers taught the other interpretations of Matthew 16:18. This information was compiled by Catholic scholars prior to Vatican I.

 Thus we see that it is clear the majority view of the Early Church Fathers was that the Rock was Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ or that the Rock is Christ Himself. The view that the Rock represents Peter is a minority view. This just shows how selective Roman Catholics are with data which doesn’t fit their position.

Contrary to what Roman Catholics and Orthodox apologists assert, the doctrines of grace (the 5 points of Calvinism — TULIP) did not originate in the 16th century! They were believed by the Early Church.  They may not have used the exact terminology which later writers would employ, but it’s clear from the quotes below that they absolutely believed in them.

The following quotes are taken from the Appendix of Michael Horton’s Book, “Putting Amazing Back into Grace.” They have no citations.

TOTAL DEPRAVITY

Barnabas (A.D. 70): “Learn: before we believed in God, the habitation of our heart was corrupt and weak.”

Ignatius (A.D. 110): “They that are carnal cannot do the things that are spiritual…Nor can the unbelievers do the things of belief.”

Justin Martyr (A.D. 150): “Mankind by Adam fell under death, and the deception of the serpent; we are born sinners…No good thing dwells in us…For neither by nature, nor by human understanding is it possible for me to acquire the knowledge of things so great and so divine, but by the energy of the Divine Spirit…Of ourselves it is impossible to enter the kingdom of God…He has convicted us of the impossibility of our nature to obtain life…Free will has destroyed us; we who were free are become slaves and for our sin are sold…Being pressed down by our sins, we cannot move upward toward God; we are like birds who have wings, but are unable to fly.”

Clement Of Alexandria (A.D. 190): “The soul cannot rise nor fly, nor be lifted up above the things that are on high, without special grace.”

Origen: “Our free will…or human nature is not sufficient to seek God in any manner.”

Eusebius (A.D. 330): “The liberty of our will in choosing things that are good is destroyed.”

Augustine (A.D. 370): “If, therefore, they are servants of sin (2 Cor. 3:17), why do they boast of free will?…O, man! Learn from the precept what you ought to do; learn from correction, that it is your own fault you have not the power…Let human effort, which perished by Adam, here be silent, and let the grace of God reign by Jesus Christ…What God promises, we ourselves do not through free will of human nature, but He Himself does by grace within us…Men labor to find in our own will something that is our own, and not God’s; how can they find it, I know not.”

UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION

Clement Of Rome (A.D. 69): “Let us therefore approach Him in holiness of soul, lifting up pure and undefiled hands unto Him, with love towards our gentle and compassionate Father because He made us an elect portion unto Himself…Seeing then that we are the special elect portion of a Holy God, let us do all things that pertain unto holiness…There was given a declaration of blessedness upon them that have been elected by God through Jesus Christ our Lord…Jesus Christ is the hope of the elect…”

Barnabas (A.D. 70): “We are elected to hope, committed by God unto faith, appointed to salvation.”

Ignatius: “To the predestined ones before all ages, that is, before the world began, united and elect in a true passion, by the eternal will of the Father…”

Justin Martyr: “In all these discourses I have brought all my proofs out of your own holy and prophetic writings, hoping that some of you may be found of the elect number which through the grace that comes from the Lord of Sabaoth, is left or reserved [set apart] for everlasting salvation.”

Irenaeus (A.D. 198): “God hath completed the number which He before determined with Himself, all those who are written, or ordained unto eternal life…Being predestined indeed according to the love of the Father that we would belong to Him forever.”

Clement Of Alexandria (A.D. 190): “Through faith the elect of God are saved. The generation of those who seek God is the elect nation, not [an earthly] place, but the congregation of the elect, which I call the Church…If every person had known the truth, they would all have leaped into the way, and there would have been no election…You are those who are chosen from among men and as those who are predestined from among men, and in His own time called, faithful, and elect, those who before the foundation of the world are known intimately by God unto faith; that is, are appointed by Him to faith, grow beyond babyhood.”

Cyprian (A.D. 250): “This is therefore the predestination which we faithfully and humbly preach.”

Ambrose Of Milan (A.D. 380): “In predestination the Church of God has always existed.”

Augustine (A.D. 380): “Here certainly, there is no place for the vain argument of those who defend the foreknowledge of God against the grace of God, and accordingly maintain that we were elected before the foundation of the world because God foreknew that we would be good, not that He Himself would make us good. This is not the language of Him who said, ‘You did not choose Me, but I chose you’ (John 15:16).”

LIMITED ATONEMENT

Barnabas (A.D. 70): “[Christ speaking] I see that I shall thus offer My flesh for the sins of the new people.”

Justin Martyr (A.D. 150): “He endured the sufferings for those men whose souls are [actually] purified from all iniquity…As Jacob served Laban for the cattle that were spotted, and of carious forms, so Christ served even to the cross for men of every kind, of many and various shapes, procuring them by His blood and the mystery of the cross.”

Irenaeus (A.D. 180): “He came to save all, all, I say, who through Him are born again unto God, infants, and little ones, and children, and young men, and old men…Jesus is the Savior of them that believe; but the Lord of them that believe not. Wherefore, Christ is introduced in the gospel weary…promising to give His life a ransom, in the room of, many.”

Tertullian (A.D. 200): “Christ died for the salvation of His people…for the church.”

Cyprian (A.D. 250): “All the sheep which Christ hath sought up by His blood and sufferings are saved…Whosoever shall be found in the blood, and with the mark of Christ shall only escape…He redeemed the believers with the price of His own blood…Let him be afraid to die who is not reckoned to have any part in the cross and sufferings of Christ.”

Lactantius (A.D. 320): “He was to suffer and be slain for the salvation of many people…who having suffered death for us, hath made us heirs of the everlasting kingdom, having abdicated and disinherited the people of the Jews…He stretched out His hands in the passion and measured the world, that He might at the very time show that a large people, gathered out of all languages and tribes, should come under His wings, and receive the most great and sublime sign.”

Eusebius (A.D. 330): “To what ‘us’ does he refer, unless to them that beleive in Him? For to them that do not believe in Him, He is the author of their fire and burning. The cause of Christ’s coming is the redemption of those that were to be saved by Him.”

Julius (A.D. 350): “The Son of God, by the pouring out of His precious blood, redeemed His set apart ones; they are delivered by the blood of Christ.”

Hilarion (A.D. 363): “He shall remain in the sight of God forever, having already taken all whom He hath redeemed to be kings of heaven, and co-heirs of eternity, delivering them as the kingdom of God to the Father.”

Ambrose (A.D. 380): “Before the foundation of the world, it was God’s will that Christ should suffer for our salvation…Can He damn thee, whom He hath redeemed from death, for whom He offered Himself, whose life He knows is the reward of His own death?”

Pacian (A.D. 380): “Much more, He will not allow him that is redeemed to be destroyed, nor will He cast away those whom He has redeemed with a great price.”

Epiphanius (A.D. 390): “If you are redeemed…If therefore ye are bought with blood, thou are not the number of them who were bought with blood, O Manes, because thou deniest the blood…He gave His life for His own sheep.”

Jerome (A.D. 390): “Christ is sacrificed for the salvation of believers…Not all are redeemed, for not all shall be saved, but the remnant…All those who are redeemed and delivered by Thy blood return to Zion, which Thou hast prepared for Thyself by Thine own blood…Christ came to redeem Zion with His blood. But lest we should think that all are Zion or every one is Zion is truly redeemed of the Lord, who are redeemed by the blood of Christ form the Church…He did not give His life for every man, but for many, that is, for those who would believe.”

IRRESISTBLE GRACE

Barnabas (A.D. 70): “God gives repentance to us, introducing us into the incorruptible temple.”

Ignatius: “Pray for them, if so by they may repent, which is very difficult; but Jesus Christ, our true life, has the power of this.”

Justin Martyr (A.D. 150): “Having sometime before convinced us of the impossibility of our nature to obtain life, hath now shown us the Savior, who is able to save them which otherwise were impossible to be saved…Free will has destroyed us; we are sold into sin.”

Irenaeus (A.D. 180): “Not of ourselves, but of God, is the blessing of our salvation…Man, who was before led captive, is taken out of the power of the possessor, according to the mercy of God the Father, and restoring it, gives salvation to it by the Word; that is, by Christ; that many may experimentally learn that not of himself, but by the gift of God, he receives immortality.”

Tertullian (A.D. 200): “Do you think, O men, that we should ever have been able to have understood these things in the Scriptures unless by the will of Him that wills all things, we had received grace to understand them?…But by this it is plain, that [faith] is not given to thee by God, because thou dost not ascribe it to Him alone.”

Cyprian (A.D. 250): “Whatsoever is grateful is to be ascribed not to man’s power, but to God’s gift. It is God’s, I say, all is God’s that we can do. Yea, that in nothing must we glory, since nothing is ours.”

Arnobius (A.D. 303): “You place the salvation of your souls in yourselves, and trust that you may be made gods by your inward endeavor, yet it is not our own power to reach things above.”

Lactantius (A.D. 320): “The vistory lies in the will of God, not in thine own. To overcome is not in our power.”

Athanasius (A.D. 350): “To believe is not ours, or in our power, but the Spirit’s who is in us, and abides in us.”

Jerome (A.D. 390): “This is the chief righteousness of man, to reckon that whatsoever power he can have, is not his own, but the Lord’s who gives it…See how great is the help of God, and how frail the condition of man that we cannot by any means fulfill this, that we repent, unless the Lord first convert us…When [Jesus] says, ‘No man can come to Me,’ He breaks the proud liberty of free will; for man can desire nothing, and in vain he endeavors…Where is the proud boasting of free will?…We pray in vain if it is in our own will. Why should men pray for that from the Lord which they have in the power of their own free will?”

Augustine (A.D. 370): “Faith itself is to be attributed to God…Faith is made a gift. These men, however, attribute faith to free will, so grace is rendered to faith not as a gratuitous gift, but as a debt…They must cease from saying this.”

PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS

Clement Of Rome (A.D. 69): “It is the will of God that all whom He loves should partake of repentance, and so not perish with the unbelieving and impenitent. He has established it by His almighty will. But if any of those whom God wills should partake of the grace of repentance, should afterwards perish, where is His almighty will? And how is this matter settled and established by such a will of His?”

Clement Of Alexandria (A.D. 190): “Such a soul [of a Christian] shall never at any time be separated from God…Faith, I say, is something divine, which cannot be pulled asunder by any other worldly friendship, nor be dissolved by present fear.”

Tertullian: “God forbid that we should believe that the soul of any saint should be drawn out by the devil…For what is of God is never extinguished.”

Augustine: “Of these believers no one perishes, because they were all elected. And they were elected because they were called according to the purpose–the purpose, however, not their own, but God’s…Obedience then is God’s gift…To this, indeed, we are not able to deny, that perseverance in good, progressing even to the end, is also a great gift of God.”

What we’ve seen is that the foundational doctrine of Reformed Protestants was believed by the Early Church Fathers. The Reformation was a recovery of the doctrine which had been lost over the centuries. It was truly a return to the undiluted Word of God!