Tag: Bible

  • Faith Alone: The Cornerstone of The Reformation

    Justification by faith alone (Sola Fide) is the lynchpin of the Protestant Reformation. It will stand or fall on the basis of this doctrine. The essence of Sola Fide is the teaching that we are not saved by the merits of any of our good works, but rather we are saved on the merits of…

  • The Sufficiency of Scripture

    Both Catholics and Orthodox deny the perspicuity and sufficiency of Scripture alone. Scripture is divinely inspired, the New Testament authors wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We Reformed affirm Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone). This ensures the true gospel is not obscured. We recognize the perspicuity and total sufficiency of Scripture. Scripture is the…

  • Dr. Greg Bahnsen’s Seminary Level Lectures on Presuppositional Apologetics

    The late Dr. Greg Bahnsen was a student of the father of Presuppositional Apologetics, Dr. Cornelius Van Til. Bahnsen has impacted my own apologetics methodology the most than any other apologist. This is the description of the course on Bahnsen Institute’s page: Dr. Bahnsen delivered this seminary-level course in Brooklyn, NY in 1995, the 100th…

  • Always Reforming

    Sadly, my experience with the Reformed is that most of them exist in a bubble, and dare not think outside their confessional strictures. Like myself, a truly Reformed person affirms the normative principle of worship, not the overly restrictive regulative principle. Reformed have made no progress in eschatology since the 1600s. Biblical theology is premillennial…

  • Salvation: Monergism vs Synergism

    The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches are semi-Pelagian. Salvation in these churches is synergistic—man cooperating with God. Man is saved, in part, through his own efforts. Man, not God, chooses the time of his salvation. Roman Catholics and Orthodox are Arminian in soteriology. They exalt man’s so-called “free will”, and believe it is essential…

  • Paradise Lost?

    Roman Catholicism teaches that there are two types of sin: venial sins which don’t merit the loss of salvation, and mortal sins which merit the loss of salvation. This distinction is not biblical. The result of this teaching is that a typical Roman Catholic will vacillate between being saved and damned hundreds, or even thousands…

  • Real Presence: Real or Not

    The Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches teach that when the priest says the words of consecration, the bread and wine transform into the physical body and blood of Jesus. This is known as the Real Presence of Christ in the communion gifts. The Roman Catholic church dogmatizes this process under the rubric of transubstantiation. It…

  • A Case Study in Idolatry: Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism

    In Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, the clerical and laity worship Jesus’ mother Mary. They also worship certain dead people, whom they designate as “Saints”. We know from Scripture that all believers in Christ are saints. Their veneration of the saints and hyper-veneration of Mary constitute a clear case of idolatry. Christ alone is the…

  • Determining Doctrine

    During the time of the Apostles, when Scripture was being written, the Apostle Paul warned us (the Church) against error creeping in if we weren’t vigilant. Sadly even within the New Testament period, heresy was being introduced into the visible Church. Many new heresies arose during the 3rd to 5th centuries, particularly false teachings about…

  • From Darkness to Life: Roman Catholicism in My Family

    Both sides of my extended family have been Roman Catholic for at least hundreds of years. My parents were raised Roman Catholic. My Daddy was an altar boy in the Latin Mass (before Vatican 2). Through God’s mercy and sovereign grace, my parents are Elect. In college they repented of their sins, and believed the…