I Will Change Your Name

Forgiving God: A Testimony

What Do Divorced People Feel?

Salvation: Quadrant 1
What is salvation? In my last post I proposed the below chart as a way of answering that important question. In this post I will comment on the first quadrant (1).   Past Justification Present Sanctification Future Glorification

A “Comprehensive” Perspective on Salvation
What is salvation? Seems like a simple question. Maybe, but maybe not.  There are certainly uncomplicated aspects to answering the question, but a “comprehensive” picture is an integrated one that explores the question from various angles. The question may seem simple because it has often been answered simplistically. Or, perhaps better, it has often been answered with a focus on one dimension or aspect of salvation. And, in addition, it is often answered without a salvation history or redemptive history perspective, that is, the cosmic and communal dimensions of salvation have often been ignored or neglected in defining “salvation.”

All Saints Day
When the Byzantine Emperor Leo V (866-911) wanted to dedicate a church to his recently deceased and godly wife, the Patriarch denied this requested.  Consequently, he dedicated it to “all saints” which, he assumed, would include his wife. Thus was born the Eastern festival celebration of “all saints” on the first Sunday after Pentecost. In the West the origins of “All Saints” day is Pope Boniface V’s dedication of the Roman Pantheon (“all gods”) as a church dedicated to the Mary and the martyrs on May 13, 610 (which was the date of a pagan festival regarding the dead). The date was moved to November 1 by Pope Grego

Alexander Campbell’s Demonology Lecture in Nashville (1841)
Returning to some of my historical interests (which is probably not shared by many ), I have always been fascinated with Alexander Campbell’s take on the “spiritual system” as he called it, particularly demonology. Campbell presented a major addresson the topic of demonology to the Popular Lecture Club in Nashville, Tennessee on March 10, 1841 (published in the Millennial Harbinger [October 1841] 457-480). He also conducted an extensive correspondance with M. Winans on the topic in 1841-1842 as Winans responded to the lecture. The lecture

Who is Wise and Understanding Among You (James 3:13)?
The letter of James, full of practical and proverbial wisdom, appears in the context of a factious struggle between wealthy and impoverished members of James’ faith community. The tension between the rich and the poor pervades the epistle and is one of the central themes that the letter addresses. James encourages the community of faith to recognize God’s preference for the poor (James 2:5), the spirituality of a life of benevolence and inclusion (James 1:27; 2:8-9), the practicalities of living under the will of God rather than the drive for wealth (James 4:13-18), and the godliness of paying fair wages as well as the hideousness of hoarded wealth (James 5:1-6).