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In case no one has ever actually read what Luther wrote. Some additional background is available at the link provided.****** Out of love for the truth and from desire to elucidate it, the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology, and ordinary lecturer therein at Wittenberg, intends to defend the following statements and to dispute on them in that place. Therefore he asks that those who cannot be present and dispute with him orally shall do so in their absence by letter. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. 1. Our Lord and Master Jesus...

Oldline Protestant denominations make for a competitive peer group, but the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is on track to claim the top spot for fastest declining major U.S.-based church last year. Total membership declined from 411,140 in 2017 to 382,248 (-7%) while average worship attendance declined from 139,936 to 124,437 (-11%) according to numbers reported for 2018. Baptisms dropped from 4,344 to 3,782 (-13%) while the number of other additions (including transfers in) declined from 7,441 to 6,969 (-6.4%). At the current rate, the denomination will shrink by another 50 percent within a decade. This annual rate of decline...

Today the Church remembers with thanksgiving the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. Historically, this day was understood to mark her dormition, or "falling asleep," which was most anciently regarded as her natural death and burial. From early on, however, the Church considered that she who conceived and gave birth to the very God of very God, by His Word and Holy Spirit, was also resurrected and ascended into heaven, in both body and soul, soon after her death. There is no word of Holy Scripture to teach these traditions as doctrine, but we should not be too...

In vitro fertilization is the process of joining a woman’s egg (ovum) and a husband’s sperm in a lab rather than inside a woman’s body... When the egg is fertilized by the sperm, the result is a living embryo, which is then implanted in the woman’s womb so that it can develop like any other baby. Evangelical Christians differ on the moral acceptability of this procedure. My own position is that, in principle, the teachings of Scripture present no moral objection to a married couple using IVF (as long as no human embryos are destroyed in the process), because it...

Rev. Thomas Brown, who is married to a fellow priest, was ordained as a bishop of the diocese of Maine in the Episcopal Church June 22. Immediately following his ordination, Brown referred to God as a "she" twice in the Nicene Creed. "She is worshipped and glorified. She has spoken through the prophets," the just-ordained Bishop Brown said, referring to the Holy Spirit. ...

An Arizona pastor who has said he prayed for the death of former President Obama and praised the 2016 mass shooting at Florida’s Pulse nightclub has become the first person banned from entering Ireland,

Becoming Catholic Question: I had reason to hope my niece was going to convert to the Catholic faith. But there were so many obstacles the Church set up that discouraged her. She was asked to go to classes, and they told her that her marriage was not valid and she would need an annulment. Further, it was necessary to wait until Easter, etc. The nearby evangelical church set up no such obstacles, and she was able to join at once and be considered a member. I hear so much talk of evangelization today, but I share my niece’s frustration....

praying for more By Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com and Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com | Posted January 27, 2019 at 07:00 AM | Updated January 28, 2019 at 10:22 AM 0 shares 19 Comments Mullica Hill Baptist Church, Mullica Hill. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) I was looking for a sign from God. Not a literal sign from the Almighty, though if He happened to enlighten me with something I wouldn't mind. No, I was looking for an actual sign -- in front of a church. Most church signs...

The Episcopal Church of my youth, in a memory now fading around the edge but still vivid at the core, was a place of binary judgments. In those days now long gone, there was right and there was wrong and never were the twain to be conflated. GodÂ’s Commandments, which concretized Christian principles, were not offhandedly suggestive. They were starkly dispositive. Old-school sermons pushed home the point that there was His way and the dark way and, pace the triangulators, not much at all in the way of a via media. When it came to moral conundra, as some of...

The biggest thing that Evangelicals can learn from Catholics is how to worship. This might seem like an odd thing to say because many Catholics who leave the Church to join an Evangelical congregation often mention the “dead” character of Catholic worship as one of their main reasons for leaving. It’s true that a shoddy execution of the liturgy, combined with content-free homilies, and a lack of vibrant fellowship, can make a parish seem lifeless. However, liturgy, when celebrated reverently, can also give worshipers a connection to the sacred that is just not available through the type of worship service...

A former Pentecostal bishop has admitted stealing nearly $160,000 by fraudulently soliciting loans from parishioners and religious associates in New Jersey. Steven Parrott of Newark pleaded guilty Friday to misconduct by a corporate official.

A gay San Francisco pastor, who has historically fought for gay rights in the Lutheran Church, was arrested on charges of possession of child pornography, according to the San Francisco Police Department. The Reverend Steven Sabin, pastor at Christ Church Lutheran at Quintara Street and 20th Avenue, was arrested November 15 on three felony charges. Sabin, 59, was arraigned November 21 and pleaded not guilty to one count of distribution of child pornography and two counts of possession or control of child pornography, according to a spokesman for the San Francisco District Attorney's office. Private defense attorney Art Lipton is...

A group of Ohio religious leaders criticized lawmakersÂ’ efforts to pass protections for unborn babies Thursday during a pro-abortion protest at a church in downtown Columbus. The event at Trinity Episcopal Church, coordinated by the Ohio Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, included Christian and Jewish leaders who oppose a bill to prohibit abortions after unborn babies have a detectable heartbeat, about six weeks of pregnancy.The state House passed the bill in November, and the Senate is considering it this week. It is expected to pass the Republican-controlled legislature. HAPPENING NOW: Faith leaders organized by @OhioRCRC are speaking against bans on...

Even those who accept that unjust laws must be observed until they are repealed say that the actions of Russian officials in Naberezhny Chelny against a Baptist minister are intended not to enforce the law but to intimidate Evangelical Baptists... A week ago, police in that Middle Volga city arrested Baptist minister Leonid Povorov for baptizing believers in public without securing advanced permission from officials even though they had not given him notice, brought the pastor in shackles to the courtroom, and imposed a 20,000-ruble (330 US dollar) fine. Both locally and at the national level, Baptists have protested these...

An atheist minister in a Christian denomination got to keep her job leading a congregation after several years of turmoil that could have led to a “heresy trial” later this month, the Toronto Star reported. The Rev. Gretta Vosper — with the theologically liberal United Church of Canada — said in a Friday interview she’s free to minister at West Hill United Church in Toronto after a confidential settlement with the denomination, the paper reported.

The identity statement of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) states it is “a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world. As part of the one body of Christ we welcome all to the Lord’s Table as God has welcomed us.” But congregational reporting numbers made available in the annual Disciples of Christ yearbook show that the denomination continues to welcome fewer people to that table – so few that its ability to minister as a nationwide Christian denomination is imperiled in the immediate future. Church membership shrank to 411,140 in 2017 (down from 497,423, or 17 percent, from 2014),...

If you want fresh evidence that Donald Trump has turned American politics upside down, here it is: Former Gov. Christie Whitman, a lifelong Republican, is so appalled by him that she wants Democrats to take over the House. "I'm hoping we lose the House, that would be a good thing," she said Friday. "Congress could stand up to him and could be dialing back a lot of this. They have ceded too much to this president." But be careful, she says. Don't kill the moderate Republicans, they are the ones who can help steer the country back to safe ground....

Bob Jones University is what most would call a fundamentalist school. No one, however, should think that it has low academic standards or is anti-cultural. The heavy emphasis on producing Shakespeare’s plays, the gallery of great religious art, as well as an exact replica of the Jerusalem Chamber of Westminster Abbey tell us otherwise. One thing nearly all of us Protestants who have visited this beautiful and well-presented gallery cannot help noticing is the heavy preponderance, not only of Roman Catholic artists, but also of specifically Catholic themes. When Bob Jones, Jr. was challenged with the question, “Why do you...

In the past five or six years, I have known several people who have left Reformed Christianity for Eastern Orthodoxy. Their reasons for making that decision varied. Some were mesmerized by the beauty of the Divine Liturgy. Others found Eastern Orthodoxy (hereafter EO) to offer a greater appreciation for mystery and religious experience than what they had known as a Protestant. All of them, however, were attracted by and eventually convinced of EO’s claim to be the original church founded by Christ. While I do not agree with their decision, I sympathize with their desire to be part of the...

Protestants cannot and must not view these events with a kind of detachment or distance, for numerous reasons. First, we cannot forget that each and every revelation of abuse is the revelation of a life-altering (and sometimes life-shattering) event for the victim and a faith-crippling moment for friends, family, and countless others. Second, given the plethora of recent sexual scandals in Evangelical churches and seminaries, the Catholic catastrophe should remind us that perhaps only the lack of an equivalent hierarchy has spared Evangelical churches from similar, systemic sin. “Our” scandals are more fragmented only because our churches are more fragmented.