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Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.( I John 4:7-8)The Apostle John wrote his first epistle to those in the church who had been confused and demoralized by mystical, experience based christianity. The true knowledge of God is what John set out to re-establish, for the false teachers had been able to supplant the christian understanding of what it means to ‘know the Lord’ with their own sensual, pseudo spiritual version of “knowing...

GERMANY, September 21, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — The German Bishops have presented a new “Unified Translation” of the Bible that follows a significant modernization of the language and will be binding for all German-speaking areas starting in 2017. On Tuesday, the German Bishops Conference (DBK) presented in Fulda the fruit of many years of scientific work: a new edition of the so-called “Unified Translation" (Einheitsübersetzung) of the Bible into German. It’s called “unified” because, from the original published from 1962 onward, these editions are supposed to be used ecumenically, unifying Catholics and Protestants in Germany. The original aim, however, was thwarted...

The Didache - The Complete Text 1 There Are Two Ways 1:1 There are two ways, one of life and one of death! and there is a great difference between the two ways. 1:2 The way of life is this: First, you shall love God who made you. And second, love your neighbor as yourself, and do not do to another what you would not want done to you. 1:3 The meaning of these sayings is this: Bless those who curse you, and pray for your enemies, and fast for those who persecute you. For what reward is there...

Thomas Hobbes said “The Papacy is not other than the Ghost of the deceased Roman Empire, sitting crowned upon the grave thereof”. History has borne out this statement. The question of “authority” is at the heart of every discussion between Protestants and Roman Catholics since the time of the Reformation, and yet the Church of Rome (“Roman Catholicism”) bases all of its claims to authority upon “apostolic succession” … the notion that there was an unbroken succession of “successors” from the time of the Apostles till now. Bryan Cross has said “The Church always had the concept of apostolic succession.”,...

Are There Still Apostles Today? by Nathan Busenitz Are there apostles in the church today?Just ask your average fan of TBN, many of whom consider popular televangelists like Benny Hinn, Rod Parsley, and Joel Osteen to be apostles. (Here’s one such example [see page 22].)Or, you could ask folks like Ron, Dennis, Gerald, Arsenio, Oscar, or Joanne. They not only believe in modern-day apostleship, they assert themselves to be apostles.A quick Google search reveals that self-proclaimed apostles abound online. Armed with a charismatic pneumatology and often an air of spiritual ambition, they put themselves on par with the earliest leaders of the church.So what are Bible-believing Christians to think about...

Sunday, December 29, 2013 Against Rome's Apostolic Succession Argument by Bullinger (Part 1) Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575) was a Swiss Reformer and author of a popular writing entitled The Decades. This particular writing was influential in England, highly esteemed and used as a textbook of sorts for training English clergy. Included in The Decades is a section entitled Of The Holy Catholic Church, and included therein is Bullinger's refutation of Rome's apostolic succession argument (that Rome is the true church because of an historical succession of church authority that began with Peter). Here is the first part of Bullinger's argument: Second,...

On my personal blog, and through e-mail, I sometimes get reader requests for posts.  People often have interesting questions about a wide variety of issues, and I do what I can to try to tackle reader questions when I can.  One of my relatives sent me a question a little over a year ago, and seeing that I had the same question boiling around in my mind many years ago (before I figured it out), I’m thought I’d tackle it and clear up what is a somewhat common question.The question has to do with whether or not Jesus went...

A number of years ago, Albert Sundberg wrote a well-known article arguing that the early church fathers did not see inspiration as something that was uniquely true of canonical books.[1] Why? Because, according to Sundberg, the early Church Fathers saw their own writings as inspired. Ever since Sundberg, a number of scholars have repeated this claim, insisting that the early fathers saw nothing distinctive about the NT writings as compared to writings being produced in their own time period. However, upon closer examination, this claim proves to be highly problematic. Let us consider several factors. First, the early church fathers...

And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.(Acts 9:1-2) Saul of Tarsus hated Jesus. The up and coming Rabbi hated the followers of Jesus also.He was appalled by the rapid growth of the sect of Jews known as the ‘Nazarenes’. The constant preaching of the Nazarenes enraged him. The unlearned and ignorant ‘Apostles’ of the sect insisted that...

The Vatican is planning an unprecedented public display of the relics of St. Peter, as the Year of Faith comes to a close. The display was announced by Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the president of Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, in an article appearing in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. The archbishop did not supply any details of the plans. The tomb of St. Peter, located under the altar of the Vatican basilica, was unearthed during excavations in the mid-20the century. In 1968, after extensive research and testing, Pope Paul VI announced that relics of St. Peter had been...

According to Joel Osteen – Pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, these first century apostles are wrong and outdated and he has come out boldly to infer indirectly that Apostles Paul, Peter, and John whom wrote much of the New Testament were wrong and need to be corrected and rebuked.When asked directly if people whom are openly practicing homosexuals are accepted into the Kingdom, Joel Osteen responded with “Absolutely, anybody is.”We all need to listen carefully to the words that this “man of God” speaks as he goes on interviews so we too can find the errors in the...

Our Lady Untier of Knots,Marian Image Beloved by Pope Francis Our new Pope Francis has a very special devotion to Our Lady Untier of Knots. Many have never heard of this devotion, but it's a great one...going all the way back to the second century.  Before describing "Our Lady Untier of Knots," I'd like to share a recent experience from my own life as it relates to this special Marian devotion: Recently at Fisher More College, during the offertory of our High Mass for the feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas, a student tapped me on the shoulder, "Dr. Marshall,...

Most amazing about the twelve disciples is that Jesus selected them at all. Who are the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ? They were just ordinary men with an extra ordinary calling. Among them were fishermen, a hated tax collector and an impulsive political zealot. Jesus Christ deliberately passed over those who were aristocratic and influential. He chose men from the lower class of society. God chooses the humble, the lowly, the meek and the weak so that there’ll never be any question about their source of power. As their lives changed, the world changed as a result. The twelve disciples...

Featured Term (selected at random):JUDAS ISCARIOT Son of Simon, the only Apostle who did not come from Galilee. His special interest was money, so he was in charge of the common fund of the Apostles (John 13:29). It was an unfortunate assignment, according to John. He referred to Judas as "a thief . . . who used to help himself to the contributions" (John 12:6). Moreover, Judas remonstrated sharply with Jesus for allowing Mary Magdalene to anoint his feet with a costly ointment, arguing that the money should have gone to the poor (John 12:1-8). His inordinate greed motivated him...

<p>They were unlikely leaders. As the Bible tells it, most knew more about mending nets than winning converts when Jesus said he would make them "fishers of men." Yet 2,000 years later, all over the world, the Apostles are still drawing people in.</p>

An amateur archaeologist and film maker claims to have identified what could be the remains of some of Christ's 12 disciples in a first century burial chamber buried beneath a block of flats in Jerusalem. A team led by Simcha Jacobovic, a Canadian documentary director, used a robot to photograph a number of limestone burial caskets, found below a block of flats, which may provide an unprecedented glimpse into Christianity's earliest days. But the potential significance of the discovery is almost certain to be overshadowed by controversy, with Mr Jacobovic using it as new evidence to bolster his widely disputed...

The Apostles and the Priesthood ~ Part 3 In the cold of winter and the darkness of night, the Incarnate Word descended from heaven and lay in a manger, so that we could see and hear and touch the love of the invisible God. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life—the Life was made manifest, and we saw It, and testify to It, and proclaim to you the Eternal Life which was with the...

The Apostles and the Priesthood ~ Part 2 In the last Circular Letter, we began our meditation on the priesthood, giving particular attention to the Apostles upon whom the Church is founded. These great men and their successors serve down through the centuries as our bridge to the living Jesus. Through the Sacraments which they administer to us, Jesus, God-among-us, is made present in His Person and action. It is Jesus working in and through the priest who forgives our sins and nourishes our souls with His Body and Blood. Through the priest, Jesus consoles us with His word...

In my previous essay I tried to show how two of Jesus' teachings bear on the issue of whether He condones homosexual behavior. These were words directly from His mouth that deal with our question indirectly. In this article I plan to discuss an indirect way He addressed the direct issue, as well as a direct way He dealt with the matter directly. Yes, Jesus had a surprising amount to say about homosexuality. Jesus' commission: The Apostles speak for Him It must have seemed like a good idea at the time: to print the "Words of Christ in Red." But...