Archives for July 2013

Ten Basic Facts About the NT Canon that Every Christian Should Memorize

by Michael J. Kruger, President and Professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.

#1: “The New Testament Books are the Earliest Christian Writings We Possess”

#2: “Apocryphal Writings are All Written in the Second Century or Later”

#3: “The New Testament Books Are Unique Because They Are Apostolic Books”

#4: “Some NT Writers Quote Other NT Writers as Scripture”

#5: “The Four Gospels are Well Established by the End of the Second Century”

#6: “At the End of the Second Century, the Muratorian Fragment lists 22 of our 27 NT books”

#7: “Early Christians Often Used Non-Canonical Writings”

#8: “The NT Canon Was Not Decided at Nicea—Nor Any Other Church Council”

#9: “Christians Did Disagree about the Canonicity of Some NT Books”

#10 “Early Christians Believed that Canonical Books were Self-Authenticating.”

Adopted Sons and Daughters — Kim Riddlebarger writes:

“I once heard a Roman Catholic apologist put it like this: ‘Protestants use a courtroom model, while we use a family model.’ In other words, the Reformation emphasis supposedly shifts the focus to being saved ‘from’ God, instead of emphasizing being saved ‘for’ God. God is primarily understood as a stern judge, not as a loving father.

“This would be a powerful argument, if it were true.” KEEP READING

Carl Trueman writes:

There is an important distinction which is absolutely vital to good theology and to a healthy Christian life. It is also a distinction which seems to have been missed by large numbers of people on both the left and the right of the theological spectrum. It is the distinction between childish and childlike. KEEP READING

Why is the charismatic movement thriving in Africa? — Conrad Mbewe:

“I think that one reason why the Charismatic movement in Africa has been like a wild bushfire is because it has not challenged the African religious worldview but has instead adopted it. It has simply baptised it with Bible verses and Christian words that previously meant something totally different.”

This jogs my memory about a book I read quite a while ago, The Essence of the Reformation by Kirsten Birkett. She argued that, even though the gospel had come to Europe, Christianity was syncretised with the paganism that already existed there. The Protestant Reformation, Dr. Birkett argued, was a decisive confessing and forsaking of this unholy marriage of Christianity and paganism.

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