The sister of Theodosius, Pulcheria, was next in line to the throne.  She was a supporter of the orthodox view of Christ’s two natures, and not only her, but also her husband Marcian.  Her husband became the new emperor and he fairly quickly convened another ecumenical council to settle the issue of Eutychianism and other Christological heresies. This council began in Chalcedon (in modern day Turkey) on October 8, 451.  Debate was intense and deep regarding the person of Christ, particularly his two natures. 

The Council of Nicea was decisive for addressing Trinitarian heresies. But following this meeting, other heresies continued to infect the Church. In today’s instalment of this series, we’ll look at how heresies regarding the doctrine of Christ were addressed.
In the late 300s and into the 400s, controversy raged about the relationship between the divinity and humanity of Christ.  The fact that he was both God and man wasn’t so much in dispute.  It was more about how these natures interacted.  So, for example, we find Nestorius in Antioch.  He taught that the human nature of Christ is separate and distinct from the divine nature.  Bishop Cyril of Alexandria exerted himself against this teaching.  Both Cyril and Nestorius had large groups of followers.
The Council of Ephesus was convened in 431 to sort this out.  It was actually the initiative of Nestorius.  He was convinced that an ecumenical council would see his teaching vindicated and Cyril convicted as a heretic.  It was supposed to be a meeting of the minds, but half the minds didn’t appear and they were the ones supposed to vindicate Nestorius.  Consequently, Nestorius was roundly condemned.  But he and his followers met separately and returned the favour.  They condemned and excommunicated Cyril and his followers.  All of this history resulted in the establishment of a “Church of the East,” which includes the Assyrian Church.  To this day, this church remains Nestorian, along with several others in the East.
Things blew up again with a monk from Constantinople by the name of Eutyches.  He taught that, after the incarnation, Christ had only one nature.  It was a single nature composed of a mixture of the divine and human.  Eutyches compared it to mixing wine with water.  Once the two are mixed, they become indistinguishable from one another.
Read More
Related Posts:

Foolish people have corrupted themselves and they do vile, rotten things.  The fool says in his heart that there is no God.  The psalmist observes that there are no good works among such people.  This serves to emphasize how this practical atheism isn’t an intellectual problem, but a moral one.  Humanity’s problem isn’t a lack of information, but a twisted, degenerate heart that results in reprehensible behaviour. 

You and I are atheists.  It’s true.  Let me explain.  We often think of atheism in terms of people who deny the existence of God, usually with their words and usually with some kind of intellectual reason to support their denial.  So how can I say I’m an atheist and so are you?  I mean, surely we believe he exists. I know I do and since you’re reading a Christian blog, it’s likely you do too. 
Here’s the thing:  atheism is more than a denial of God with our words.  It can also be a denial of God with our lives – with our thoughts, deeds, and words.  Atheism can also be a denial of God with what we do and what we leave undone.  Each time we sin, we actually deny God and his claims over our lives – effectively denying his existence.  All of us still have the remnants of the old nature, and we have to admit that those remnants stink with the rot of atheism. 
What we see in our lives is what we call practical atheism.  It’s not the intellectual atheism that has all sorts of arguments to refute Christian claims.  It’s a practical atheism which makes all sorts of rationalizations to excuse a life which fails to meet God’s standards.  This sort of atheism infects even Christians and it’s this sort of atheism that’s revealed by God as foolishness in Psalm 14:1, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”
The word ‘fool’ in this passage isn’t an insult.  It’s an objective description of a certain kind of person.  In the Old Testament, a fool is someone who acts foolishly in a moral sense.  The foolish are those who reproach the righteous and blaspheme God.  Strikingly, the foolish are also usually part of God’s covenant people.  They know better.
Read More
Related Posts:

For the Jews the greatest tragedy of all happened in September of AD 70.  The Romans got into Jerusalem and they destroyed and desecrated the temple.  In fulfilment of Christ’s prophecy in Matthew 24:2, not one stone was upon another.  The entire temple complex was razed to the ground, never to be rebuilt.  According to our Lord Jesus in Matthew 24, this was the definitive earthly expression of God’s covenant wrath against the unbelief of the majority of the Jewish people. 

Today I’m starting a new church history series. Taking my inspiration from Mark Noll’s Turning Points, we’ll be looking at some of the key events of the last 2000 years. Some of these might be well-known to you, but others maybe not so much.
We’re starting today in the first century, not long after the time our Lord Jesus walked on the earth.  During this period, the Romans occupied Judea.  There’s evidence of that throughout the New Testament.  We hear of centurions, governors, garrisons, coinage, and much more.
Understandably, the Roman occupation of Judea was not something the Jews readily accepted.  In fact, there were both passive and active forms of resistance to the occupation.  But resistance was on a relatively slow boil until the late 60s.
In AD 66 there were tensions over taxes.  The Romans demanded more from the residents of Judea.  When they weren’t willing to pay up, the occupiers took drastic action.  Governor Gessius Florus plundered the temple treasury in Jerusalem to make up for the shortfalls.
That created an uproar in Jerusalem and beyond.  It was one of the catalysts for the Jewish Revolt, a stretch of seven years of bloody fighting.  The Jewish Revolt got off to a promising start, giving hope to the Jews that finally the Romans would be sent packing.  But in AD 67, the Jewish Revolt started circling the drain.  That year Roman General Vespasian showed up with four legions of soldiers – that’s about 20,000 infantry and 1200 cavalry.
The following year the Roman Emperor Nero died and Vespasian returned to Rome.  Eventually, in AD 69, Vespasian became Roman Emperor.  He continued the campaign against the Jewish rebels.
Vespasian’s son Titus became the Roman commander in the field.  In April of AD 70, Titus besieged Jerusalem, causing horrific suffering in the city due to famine.  Those Jews who were caught sneaking out of the city were crucified on the ridges surrounding, being made a public example and warning.
Read More
Related Posts:

In practice we don’t always hate the world (sinful rebellion) as our enemy.  In practice, we don’t always act as if God is our friend.  If we did, we would always want to do his will.  

Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.James 4:4
With these words James presents a stark contrast between two different relationships.  There’s your relationship with the world and then there’s your relationship with God.  The two ought never to be of the same sort.  One way or another these two relationships should always be radically opposed.
Now we could consider what it means to have friendship with the world.  We could look at what that involves and all its different permutations.  If this were a sermon, I’d definitely do that.  However, in this brief meditation, I want to go a different route.  If what the Holy Spirit says is true (which it is), then we ought to be able to flip the terms around in his formulation.  When we do that, we discover something remarkable.
What I mean is this:  if “friendship with the world is enmity with God,” then the reverse follows as also true.  It is also true that “enmity with the world is friendship with God.”  Moreover, anyone who wishes to be an enemy of the world is a friend of God.  When we put it like that, two key questions still need to be answered.
First, what would it mean to be an enemy of the world?  Enmity with the world means a relationship of hostility or hatred with the world.  And what is meant by “the world” here?   It refers to everything associated with humanity’s rebellion against God.  “The world” is all the different ways in which sin manifests itself amongst human beings.  Being an enemy of the world really means being hostile towards sin.  Rather than embracing or coddling sinfulness, you hate it and long to see it destroyed.  Being an enemy of the world means you harbour no affection for the rebellion which has the potential to destroy you and other human beings.  This is the way it ought to be for those redeemed by Christ.
Read More
Related Posts:

In his love, God does send his church out into the world to proclaim the gospel.  But as we do that, we have to make it clear that the good news God sends in his love is only so good because the bad news is so bad:  God is holy and just and he will not overlook sin.  He will punish it eternally.  He has an infinite love for his own holiness, justice, and glory.  Once the Holy Spirit helps a sinner to understand that, he’ll repent and turn to Christ and experience God’s love in the most beautiful way possible.

Some time ago a parishioner asked me whether God loves everyone. She was discussing this with a friend. The friend insisted that God doesn’t love everyone — he only loves believers. My parishioner’s gut reaction was to disagree. This was my response:
That’s a question I’ve been thinking about for many years.  I used to agree with your friend.  But through further study, I’ve come to a different view.
The problem is that there are Scripture passages which speak of God’s wrath and hatred towards the wicked — Psalm 11:5 comes to mind. But there are other passages which speak about God’s all-encompassing love for his creation — Psalm 145:9 is an example of that, also John 3:16.
Scripture tells us that “God is love” (1 John 4:16).  Love is an attribute of God.  All of God’s attributes are true of him eternally.  But that raises a question:  love always requires an object, so who did God love before creation?  The answer is with the persons of the Trinity.  Eternal, holy, infinite love existed between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  When it comes to the love of God, that’s where we need to start.  This intra-Trinitarian love is ultimate and primary.
When it comes to his creation, God does have a universal love for all that he has made in general.  But we can also speak of a love that God has for all human beings in virtue of the fact that they are created in his image.  John Calvin spoke about that in his Institutes. But just like a husband can love his neighbours while also having a special love for his wife, God loves elect human beings in a special way.  They become beloved children of the Father, and part of the bride of Christ for which he died.
So what about what Scripture says about God’s wrath and hatred for the wicked in places like Psalm 11:5?
Read More
Related Posts:

According to Calvin, image-bearing is what leads God to love and it is also what should lead us to love. That has implications, and not only for dealing with garden-variety jerks. In our current climate where the church is facing so much hostility from the world, we need this teaching more than ever. If we would only look around us and see all other people as God’s image-bearers, we would find something to love.

It isn’t easy to love a jerk. Someone who’s quiet, meek, and kind—no problem.  But the person who annoys us, whether through habit or personality? The person who pushes all our buttons, perhaps even intentionally? The selfish and insensitive clod?
Yet the Lord commands us to love our neighbor as we do ourselves (Matt. 22:39). That Christian love is “not irritable or resentful” (1 Cor. 13:5). Instead, it “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Cor. 13:7). This is the love that leads us to “do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Gal. 6:10).
But how do we do that with someone we might think to be unworthy of our love and good deeds? How do you love a jerk? You might say, “Take a look in the mirror.” Humbly realizing that we’re all unworthy jerks could indeed be a good place to start. However, in his epic Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin explored this practical issue in the Christian life from a different angle. His advice, drawn on sound biblical teaching, is worth a listen. If you want to look it up and read the whole section for yourself, it’s in Institutes 3.7.6. I’ll be quoting from the Lewis-Battles edition.
Calvin begins by acknowledging that most people would be unworthy of our love if they were judged according to merit.  But that isn’t how Christians are to think. Says Calvin,

But here Scripture helps in the best way when it teaches that we are not to consider that men merit of themselves but to look upon the image of God in all men, to which we owe all honor and love.

He goes on to affirm that with members of the household of faith this obligation is intensified by virtue of the fact that God’s image has been renewed and restored in them by the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, what remains of the image of God after the fall into sin and before regeneration is itself reason enough to show love to all by doing good. Calvin concludes,

Therefore, whatever man you meet who needs your aid, you have no reason to refuse to help him.

Calvin then anticipates a series of objections. Someone might say, “But he’s a stranger!” to which Calvin would reply that this is irrelevant.  With the image of God, you have something in common that instantly binds you together. Or someone might say, “But he’s loathsome and a good-for-nothing!”  Calvin replies,

…but the Lord shows him to be one whom he has deigned to give the beauty of his image.

Read More
Related Posts:

I’ve heard many stories of believers being ushered into heaven with the singing of loved ones gathered around their death-bed. That’s how I’d want to go too, if I had a choice. But singing isn’t only for death, it’s also for life. When we make a habit of singing every day, whether we’re up to our necks in mud or not, God is praised and we’ll be encouraged.

Christians recognize the value of singing. God’s Word teaches us not only to praise him with our songs, but also to encourage one another with singing (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16). There’s just something God has put into music that it can have such a powerful positive effect on our state of mind.
This is even recognized in the world. William McRaven was the commander of US Special Force Command when he gave an oft-quoted speech at a university graduation in Texas in 2014. He spoke of his experiences in becoming a US Navy SEAL. This special forces selection and training is regarded as being the toughest in the world. Many don’t make it through and those who do are not only tough physically, but mentally.
McRaven spoke about his Hell Week at Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL (BUD/S) training:
The ninth week of SEAL training is referred to as Hell Week. It is six days of no sleep, constant physical and mental harassment and one special day at the Mud Flats. The Mud Flats are an area between San Diego and Tijuana where the water runs off and creates the Tijuana sloughs—a swampy patch of terrain where the mud will engulf you.
It is on Wednesday of Hell Week that you paddle down to the mud flats and spend the next 15 hours trying to survive the freezing-cold mud, the howling wind and the incessant pressure from the instructors to quit.
As the sun began to set that Wednesday evening, my training class, having committed some “egregious infraction of the rules” was ordered into the mud. The mud consumed each man till there was nothing visible but our heads. The instructors told us we could leave the mud if only five men would quit—just five men and we could get out of the oppressive cold.
Read More
Related Posts:

“And now, my good mother, I beg you to show yourself as a virtuous woman in your afflictions, and bear patiently and joyfully  this trial that God has sent you, knowing that it is the good will of God against which no one can resist, even if he would.  Live the rest of your days in the fear of God, remembering me, and how I served my God till death.”

Among the Reformation martyrs was the author of the Belgic Confession, Guido de Brès. He served as a pastor in present-day Belgium during the Spanish Inquisition. Eventually he was captured by the authorities and spent a long time languishing in a dirty, sewage-filled dungeon in Valenciennes. Nevertheless, as he lived out his last days somehow he was able to find the strength and resources to write several letters. One of them was a letter to his mother. I’m pleased to be able to share this letter with you, as it gives a personal glimpse of this brother and father in the faith.
Last Letter from Guido De Brès to His Mother
The grace and mercy of God the Father, and the love of his Son our Lord Jesus Christ, be for your eternal salvation.
My dear and beloved mother, when I consider what a sorrow my imprisonment is to you, and how hard to bear because of the enormous maternal love you have always had for me, I cannot keep my heart from becoming sad nor from greatly trembling within me.  And certainly I can say from experience that it is a hard parting that takes place between a mother and her child.  But the parting would be much harder if a man would leave his God and give up eternal life.  I am somewhat relieved of my sadness when I think of my calling and the cause of the Son of God which I have upheld before men.
It seems to me that I hear Jesus Christ, my Master, speaking with a loud voice and saying to me, “Whoever shall love his father and his mother more than me, he is not worthy to be one of mine” (Matthew 10).  Then he says to me, “Truly I say to you that every one who has given up home, or parents, or brothers or children for the kingdom of God shall receive much more in this age, and in the age to come eternal life” (Matthew 19).  Such words cause me to put all other things aside, and my heart leaps for joy.  When I think of the certainty and truth of the one who has spoken thus, I can say with St. Paul, “I esteem all things as dung and consider them for loss, for the excellence of the knowledge of my Lord Jesus Christ.”
You too, my beloved, must rise above your sorrows with the consideration of the good will of God, who wants to bring glory to himself through this poor, fragile body.  Restrain your grief remembering how it has pleased God to call me to his service against all human expectation.  Recall how, before I was born, you were going through Mons to hear a certain Italian Jesuit, who was preaching in the streets.  You said then, praying to God, “My God, if it could be that you could give me such a child, even maybe the child that I am carrying, to preach your Word.”  You said it and God heard your prayer.  Because he is rich and merciful, and because he can do all things more abundantly than we dare to ask, he gave you more than you asked for.  You asked that the child you were carrying could be like that Jesuit.  He became a Jesuit alright – but not of the new sect that people call “Jesuit.”  In order to make me a true imitator of Jesus, the Son of God, I was called to the holy ministry, not to preach the doctrines of men, but the pure and simple Word of Jesus and his Apostles.  This I have done up to the present with a good and pure conscience, seeking nothing else than the salvation of men, not my own glory nor my own profit.
Witness the zeal of God which has been in me, accompanied by many crosses, afflictions and sufferings, and not for a small number of days, but for many years.  To all these things you ought to return for your comfort, and you should consider yourself fortunate that God has given you the honour to have carried, nurtured, and reared one of his servants – who will receive the crown and glory of martyrdom.  Then it is not for you to object, if my God wants to now receive me as a pleasant-smelling sacrifice and strengthen the elect by my death.
I myself am joyful and I pray that you will join with me, knowing that all will be for my great good and salvation.  I submit myself to what it pleases him to do to me, knowing that he will not do anything that is not just and fair.  He is my God and Father, having only good will toward me and the power to deliver me, if he finds it good to do so.  Therefore, I rest in that knowledge.  If he has found it pleasing to take me from this poor life now, I shall be taken in the prime of life, having laboured diligently and sowed in the Church of his Son.  He has already allowed me to see the fruit of my labours and trials, having blessed and made my ministry so fruitful that the Church will feel the effects for many years after my death.  I am happy to see that which my God has permitted me to see.  There is yet much good seed that I sowed, which is still in the ground, but after being watered with my blood, it will grow and manifest itself amazingly.  What more then should I now desire, since the will of my God has been done, and I am ready to reap in heaven in glory and incorruption the fruit of that which I have sowed on earth with tears in my eyes?  And I hope that the many people which I have won to my Lord Jesus through the Gospel will be my glory and my crown in the last day.
I am going along the way where all the prophets passed, and the Apostles, even the only Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, and thousands of martyrs who shed their blood for the witness of the Gospel.  It is the voice of Christ who says, “Enter by the narrow way, for I say unto you that many will try to enter and will not be able.”  It is the narrow way of which Ezra speaks, which is not wide, and under which is a great river and a fire which devours those who stumble and fall.  This road leads to a city filled with blessings, where the children of God have want of nothing.  What should it profit me if I should travel with the world along the broad and spacious way, only to fall at the end into ruin and eternal perdition.  I know well that if I should renounce my good Lord Jesus and return in my impurity and pollution to this life, the world would embrace me and respect my person.  But it would not be pleasing to God to renounce my Saviour, to put idols in his place, and put profane things in the place of his precious blood.  I have served him for more than twenty years, and never has he failed me in anything, showing to me always a love which surpasses the understanding of men.  Beyond this great benefit, he gave himself to the inglorious death on the cross in order to give me eternal life.  What then?  Should I leave the living to find refuge among the dead?  Should I give up heaven for the earth?  Eternal things for temporal?  Abandon the true life for bodily death?
He who alone is my strength and my rock will keep me from it, and himself will be my shield and defense and the strength of my life in my weakness and infirmity.  I can say with St. Peter, when Christ asked him after many of his disciples had abandoned him, “And you,” he said, “do you not also wish to go as the others?”  Peter replied, “Lord, to whom should we go?  For with you are the words of eternal life.”  The Lord my God will not permit me to leave with the world the fountains of living water, in order to dig cisterns which do not hold any water, as God so rightly said by his prophet Jeremiah of his people Israel.  I believe with conviction that I am not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.  I can say with Moses that I would rather be afflicted with the people of God, than to enjoy for a time the pleasures of sin.  I would rather esteem the favour of Christ as greater riches than all the treasures of the world, for I look to the reward, and trust that the power of faith will not fail me in my need.  For by it I have already overcome the world and all my adversaries.  The Apostle has showed me how the faithful ones of the Old Testament, having the same faith, surmounted their afflictions.  He speaks of some as being regarded as drums to be beaten, who refused to be delivered, hoping for a better resurrection, and of others who were mocked and battered.  They were arrested and put in prison.  They were stoned. They were sawn in two.  They were tempted.  They were put to death with the sword.  They wandered about dressed in the skins of sheep and goats.  They were destitute, afflicted, and tormented, of whom the world was not worthy.  They wandered about in the deserts, in mountains, and dens and caverns of the earth.  All these holy people have overcome the world through their faith at death, and stand as victors though people killed them.
Read More
Related Posts:

But God also created two human beings on that same day.  He created them in his image, with the capacity to do such amazing things as selectively breed animals.  Sometimes this breeding was purely for utilitarian purposes, but at other times for purposes that can only be described as artistic, bringing out certain features that appear beautiful. 

Our family has had several dogs over the years, but I think Monty is the best.  He’s a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, presently about 8 months old.  He’s smart and easily trained.  Monty is loving, sociable, playful, and always eager to please.  But even more than that, the other day I was admiring him and the thought occurred to me:  this dog is a work of art.  But if that’s the case, who is the artist?
You might be tempted, as I was, to answer with God.  After all, didn’t God create all the animals?  If dogs are animals, then God must have created dogs too.  That answer might make sense for anyone who believes what the Bible says about creation.  But things are actually not that simple.  Let me explain how God didn’t create dogs, yet is still ultimately responsible for their existence.
When God created “the beasts of the earth” on the sixth day, there were no Cavalier King Charles Spaniels among them.  In fact, there were no Cocker Spaniels, English Springer Spaniels, or any spaniels at all.  There were no German Shepherds, Labradors, or any other dog breed we’re familiar with today.  When God created the land animals at the beginning, he created a pair of four-legged creatures which are the ancestors of all the dogs we know today.
Read More

It’s better to follow the approach of the apostles and early church in the book of Acts.  They simply preached the gospel along with the call for people to repent and believe in Jesus Christ.  The word “love” isn’t used at all in the book of Acts, and we certainly don’t hear the apostles telling unbelievers that God loves them.  In his love, God does send his church out into the world to proclaim the gospel.  But as we do that, we have to make it clear that the good news God sends in his love is only so good because the bad news is so bad:  God is holy and just and he will not overlook sin. 

A parishioner asked me whether God loves everyone. She was discussing this with a friend. The friend insisted that God doesn’t love everyone — he only loves believers. My parishioner’s gut reaction was to disagree. This was my response:
That’s a question I’ve been thinking about for many years.  I used to agree with your friend.  But through further study, I’ve come to a different view.
The problem is that there are Scripture passages which speak of God’s wrath and hatred towards the wicked — Psalm 11:5 comes to mind. But there are other passages which speak about God’s all-encompassing love for his creation — Psalm 145:9 is an example of that, also John 3:16.
Scripture tells us that “God is love” (1 John 4:16).  Love is an attribute of God.  All of God’s attributes are true of him eternally.  But that raises a question:  love always requires an object, so who did God love before creation?  The answer is with the persons of the Trinity.  Eternal, holy, infinite love existed between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  When it comes to the love of God, that’s where we need to start.  This intra-Trinitarian love is ultimate and primary.
When it comes to his creation, God does have a universal love for all that he has made in general.  But we can also speak of a love that God has for all human beings in virtue of the fact that they are created in his image.  John Calvin spoke about that in his Institutes. But just like a husband can love his neighbours while also having a special love for his wife, God loves elect human beings in a special way.  They become beloved children of the Father, and part of the bride of Christ for which he died.
So what about what Scripture says about God’s wrath and hatred for the wicked in places like Psalm 11:5?
Read More