Search results for: “baptism of christ”
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Baptism of Aethelbert
Today (June 2) is the day King Aethelbert of Kent was baptized into the Christian faith by Augustine of Canterbury in the year 597. Bede tells us that Aethelbert “was the third English king to become High-King (Bretwalda) of all the provinces south of the river Humber, but he was the first to enter the…
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"When I accept Christ… I am in Communion with the Entire Trinity" (Schaeffer)
Francis Schaeffer had a powerful doctrine of the Christian encounter with the triune God. I’ve explored it here and here. One of the most remarkable characteristics of his teaching on the subject is how it consistently combined two virtues: simplicity and depth. Over and over in his teaching on the Trinity, Schaeffer uses the phrase,…
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Review of Christopher Bass, That You May Know
There is only one biblical foundation for a Christian’s assurance of salvation: that God the Son came to be our propitiation and advocate. Only when faith is solidly founded there can a believer go on to apply these rigorous tests: Is my belief correct enough? Do I live a holy life? Do I love other…
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Answers to Your Questions on Baptism
“How do you explain the apparent contradiction between John 7:39 and 1 Corinthians 12:9? In John 7:39 we are told that we must have faith before the Spirit is granted, while in 1 Corinthians 12:9, we are told that faith is a special gift not had until the Holy Spirit is received.” The answer to…
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Top Five Christian Comic Books
I sometimes promote myself as the “world’s greatest systematic theologian cartoonist,” because it’s a pretty safe boast. If I ever meet another professional theologian who’s also a published cartoonist, I’ll have to adjust my bragging to something like “one of the two greatest.” But while I might be the only theology prof to publish cartoons,…
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Christ Did Something or Other
“Robertson believed that Christ did something or other, which, somehow or other, had some connexion or other with salvation.” This was the judgment of John Duncan on the theology of preacher Fred W. Robertson. It was a rather sharp-tongued remark, and Duncan never put it in print himself. Instead, the comment made it into a…
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Christian Imagery
This is an article that appeared in the Christmas Day edition of the Orange County Register back in 2001. It was written by award-winning religion reporter Carol McGraw (now of the Colorado Springs Gazette) and featured a large illustration by the Register’s staff illustrator Lisa Mertins. It was a fun Christmas morning piece, and is…
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A Christ Worth Christmas
The Glory of the Manger is a great little book of Christmas meditations by Samuel M. Zwemer (1867-1952), the “Apostle to Islam.” The whole book is available online (a 730k pdf here, and a bunch of his other writings here) Zwemer’s most famous book was called The Glory of the Cross, and this Manger book…
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How He Worked for Christ: R.A. Torrey
Like all reasonable people everywhere, I always expected to be a super-hero when I grew up. I figured it was just a matter of time before my latent superpowers manifested themselves. But my sixteenth birthday came and went, no superpowers. My eighteenth birthday came and went, no superpowers. By that time, I would have settled…
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Union with Christ and Two Types of Christians
It seems to me that there are basically two types of Christians. I know that’s a silly statement to make, since there must be dozens of meaningful categories to sort Christians into: doctrinal, denominational, sociological, temperamental, left-handed, and so on. But what I have in mind is the central issue of soteriology, the doctrine of…
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The Joy of the Lord
Luke 3:21-22, the baptism of Christ: “the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove…” Brothers and sisters, we are reading here about the Holy Spirit, so what is there for me to say? Lift up your hearts: the Holy Spirit is as mysterious as the wind…
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“I Give Myself, Becoming Man, the Spirit”
Athanasius of Alexandria occasionally put his own words in Christ’s mouth. But I think it was okay. Athanasius was an interpreter of Scripture who understood that responsible theological exegesis means asserting that it is possible to know what God means by a given passage of Scripture. On a few occasions, he went a step further…