Rather than a story of how things ought to be, Esther shows us how someone was faithful in the world as it is: painful, fear-filled, and potential hopeless. Only God offers a way out. Perhaps He has us right where He wants us to be a part of His bigger redemption story.
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Melito of Sardis’ Christ-Centered, Historical-Grammatical Hermeneutic
Guest Post by Stephen Lorance
In a recent paper presentation of Irenaeus’ textual worldview I sought to articulate his Christ centered hermeneutic, which includes, as Patristic scholar John Behr notes, an understanding that Christ “by being explained ‘according to the Scriptures’, becomes the sole subject of Scripture throughout.”[1] At the conclusion, a student from a mainline seminary asked a piercing question. Specific to his context, this student wanted an apologetic for classmates and faculty that have conflated meaning with the historical-grammatical at the expense of the theological. In essence, living in a historical-grammatical world, how could he argue that a Christ-centered interpretation doesn’t run roughshod over the “literal interpretation?”
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Ants, Augustine, and Preparing for Spiritual Winter
The ongoing heath crisis and cultural and legal events have sent many Christians into confusion and chaos. It has challenged and exposed my deeply rooted problems in American Christianity. Many are choosing to lash out in anger. Others turn to fear. While others double down on politics as their last hope to maintain life as they know it. However, Augustine (354-430) has some great wisdom on Proverbs chapter 6 that turns the familiar passage used to prod lazy Jamestownians and Pilgrims off their 17th-century log couches into a ballad of spiritual preparation.
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The Old Redemption Story: Illustrations from the Book of Ruth
The book of Ruth begins in brokenness. The time of the Judges had seen people go from obedient and devoted followers of God to fickle and nameless wanderers who came to Him temporarily in their times of greatest distress. The first chapter records how one family even leaves God’s “Promised Land” to seek life elsewhere. The book of Ruth is short but deep. We see suffering, but we see restoration. The hope of the Gospel is very much alive even centuries before the arrival of the Messiah. This outsider and foreigner teaches us what it’s like to be an insider with God. In the midst of broken times, we are reminded that God knows us by name. When we are tempted to look back at how things used to be, we learn that there is nothing better behind us than the God before us. For all of us whose paradise has ever been broken, let’s make Ruth’s God of restoration our God too! Where He goes, we go.
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Jesus’ Other Word from the Cross
On Good Friday, as we turn our attention to the cross and often attend to the “words” Jesus spoke from it, one saying recorded in John has always brought me pause:
John 19:26-27 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!”
Jesus’ appeal of forgiveness for his enemies, his cry of forsakenness, and the exclamation, “It is finished!” these have always opened up the richness of the gospel! But what are we to do with this strange, even difficult word?
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Responsibility and Unity in Evangelism from the Early Church
The desire to expand the church through evangelism is not a new concept that began with the modern missions or evangelical movements. It is as old as the church itself. Much writing from the early church on the topic focuses on the dual aspects of urgency and unity. They found great beauty in the miracle of a world-wide fellowship that brought together all nations, but they believed the good news entrusted to them had to be spread quickly before it was too late.
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Henceforth all the Johns Shall Speak of Christmas
Chrysostom believed the dawn’s early light of that first Christmas morning should inspire a world holding its breath for redemption. Radiant beams illuminated souls where it had been always night and never morning. Finally, all humanity could live with hope in this post-Christmas era.
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Augustine, Aquinas, and our God of Love
I recently completed the comprehensive exams for my academic program. (Don’t worry, they were even more ‘fun’ than they sound). At the end of the verbal portion, one of my professors asked a surprising question: “How do you teach the trinity to your children?”
We had spent the last hour analyzing the East/West divide on the Trinity, parsing the importance of the periochoresis and filioque, and discussing how the divine monarchy informs present and past Trinitarian debate. But his last question, though out of line with the conversation, pressed to the heart of the matter.
In it was a subtle reminder that the Trinity is not an academic concept to be picked apart by ‘professionals’ in a sterile environment; rather the personal reality of our God engages our entire life, even our most fundamental relationships, and it is God’s personal identity we are called to teach to our children (Deut. 6:7).
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“Because We Need Him:” Historical Sermon Illustrations from Matthew 9:12
“But when Jesus heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.” – Matthew 9:12 (NASB)
“I try to be as good as I can”
From Charles H. Spurgeon’s “The Great Physician and His Patients,” 1865
Read MoreA minister, when he had done preaching in a country village, said to a farm-labourer who had been listening to him, “Do you think Jesus Christ died to save good people, or bad people?” “Well, sir,” said the man, “I should say he died to save good people.” “But did he die to save bad people?” “No, sir; no, certainly not, sir.” “Well, then, what will become of you and me?” “Well, sir, I do not know. I dare say you be pretty good, sir; and I try to be as good as I can.”
5 Great Sermons from Church History - #2 John Chrysostom's Easter Sermon
This is the second installment of a five-part series called, "5 Great Sermons from Church History." See the first here. This is not meant to indicate that these are the greatest or the best sermons, or even the five most important in the history of the church. However, these sermons were selected based on historical significance, content, accessibility (both good translations and comprehensibility), and each as exemplary of the particular era in which it occurred. Given the scope, the five sermons stretch over the entirety of church history. Extreme redaction is unavoidable with such a project. Each of the entries will take a similar approach, namely: Brief background on speaker and sermon, redacted block quote to capture the heart of sermon, and brief commentary on the whole sermon.
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The Dead Writer Sings the Loudest: A Call to Read Works of Historical Theology
"Should I read historical theologians in my personal discipleship time?"
Of course, any writer at historicaltheology.org will answer with a resounding “yes!” Yet, the vast majority of Christians never consider the 2000 years of thoughts and scriptural reflections from those saints, hermits, and religious vagabonds who went before them.
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5 Great Sermons from Church History - #1 Gregory the Theologian on the Grandeur of God
This is the first installment of a five-part series called, "5 Great Sermons from Church History." This is not meant to indicate that these are the greatest or the best sermons, or even the five most important in the history of the church. However, these sermons were selected based on historical significance, content, accessibility (both good translations and comprehensibility), and each as exemplary of the particular era in which it occurred. Given the scope, the five sermons stretch over the entirety of church history. Extreme redaction is unavoidable with such a project. Each of the entries will take a similar approach, namely: Brief background on speaker and sermon, redacted block quote to capture the heart of sermon, and brief commentary on the whole sermon.
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Take Up and Read
“Tolle lege. Tolle lege.” Augustine heard a voice, perhaps of a child nearby, saying, “Take up and read. Take up and read.” He took this as a command from God, and therefore opened his Bible to Romans 13. From that day forward, Augustine would profoundly shape how believers read and understand the Bible. While the turn-to-a-random-passage and read approach is not encouraged, in this case it had incredible ramifications down to the present day.
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The Development of Theology: A Review of J.N.D. Kelly’s Early Christian Doctrines
Like many parents today, I am fighting what seems to be a losing battle with my kids, trying to keep them from the wonders of technology. Whether it’s on-demand shows or games and apps on the iPad, my kids live in a world where they can take all this technological entertainment for granted. I, on the other hand, clearly remember coding on my Apple II and waiting for cartoons to come on at a certain time of the week. Having experienced the development of technology over the past three decades, I have a much deeper appreciation of current technology, and, I hope, a wiser approach as to how to best use it.
In many ways, Christians today can be no different than my kids. They might be aware of their church’s Statement of Faith. They might even recite the Apostle’s Creed or the Nicene Creed in a church service from time to time. But for so many, these truths are something they take for granted, a theological package they’ve been handed, which they no idea where it has come from.
It is in this context that J.N.D. Kelly’s Early Christian Doctrines [1] is so helpful.
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Patrick of Ireland: Prepared to Proclaim
The life of Patrick exemplifies what the Apostle Paul describes in 2 Corinthians, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows” (2 Cor 1:3-5, CSB). The Lord used the sufferings Patrick endured to draw him to faith in Christ, and it was these same sufferings that the Lord used to prepare Patrick to proclaim the glories of his grace.
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Augustine the Pastor
Augustine, perhaps church history’s most towering figure, didn’t think his work would be remembered. In his widely read and celebrated autobiographical Confessions, he wondered: “But to whom am I telling this story? Not to you my God; rather in your presence I am relating these events to my own kin, the human race, however few of them may chance upon these writings of mine.”
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Christ, Christmas, and Chalcedon
Questions fill the air at Christmas: What’s on your list? Where is the party? What’s the greatest Christmas movie ever? (It’s a Wonderful Life.) What’s the worst? (A Christmas Story.)
But there’s another question that we should reflect upon during this season:
“Who do you say that I am?”
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Irenaeus and the Ecclesiastical Constitution of the Church
In our day, there has been a revival of discussion surrounding church membership and other aspects of church polity. But are these matters simply modern inventions? How did the early church think about these matters?
Writing in the 2nd century AD, Irenaeus bishop of Lyons combated the Gnosticism of his day in his most famous work, Against the Heresies. Throughout his work, he appeals to sound reasons and the Scriptures to combat the Gnostic teachings of Valentinus, Marcion, and other heretics. However, Irenaeus shows himself to be not only a theologian but also a devoted churchman.
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