Snippets: Edward viii, Divorce and Remarriage

On the 10th of December 1936, Edward VIII, King of the United Kingdom abdicated from the throne. The reason - his relationship and intention to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee was deemed morally unacceptable by his subjects. Less than a 100 years ago, the British people were unwilling to accept a monarch who in their eyes was an adulterer.

The Heresy of Christian Nationalism Part 1: Identity, a Historic Survey

Christian Nationalism is a theological position that is currently heavily being debated in Protestant circles. The recent book "The Case for Christian Nationalism" by Stephen Wolfe has garnered popular attention in a wide array of conservative Christian circles, particularly in the Reformed tradition. However, his particular manifesto is only one approach of many in seeking to include the state into the realm to be transformed by Christianity. Proponents of Christian Nationalism are often Rationalist in their approach with a view that they can sufficiently deduce eternal truths through human reason. This is often combined with a high view of nature, particularly the notion that one can deduce through reason what would have been good in the Edenic created order prior to the Fall.

Tertullian, Montanism and the Sufficiency of Scripture

Tertullian is an interesting figure in the history of the early Church. He laid the groundwork for several Christian doctrines that are heartily affirmed by the Christians including the primacy of Scriptural authority, perspicuity of Scripture and the principle of Scripture interpreting itself. He wrote several works defending Biblical theology against the various gnostic and heretical movements that were popular in his days. He is the first writer to use the phrase Trinitas (Trinity) to refer to the Godhead. Some of his doctrinal positions were recovered in the Protestant Reformation like the priesthood of all believers and a rejection of icons in worship. Regardless, Tertullian is not officially considered a saint by any of the mainstream apostate denominations like Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy despite their tendency to claim the early church fathers for themselves. Nor, are his works widely read among Protestants. Tertullian is often relegated to the status of a secondary or subordinate among the church fathers.

Traditionalist Historical Metanarratives and the Sufficiency of Scripture

Historical Metanarratives are central to how we view history. They help us make sense of the past, find continuity with it and justify our beliefs, juxtaposed against the grand scheme of things. Hence different factions engage in much effort to defend their Metanarratives against those of their opponents. Christian traditions are not exempt from this reality and it is in the light of this that we see the recent factionalism in Christianity over various Metanarratives and sadly many Christian historians and theologians have engaged in the revisionism. On the one end you have the leftist revisionists who wish to read anachronistic frameworks into the past and "cancel" those with differing views based on present understandings of morality. Likewise, you have right wing revisionists who wish to either read the "good ole days" narrative or want to completely ignore serious issues and transgressions in major figures of the past, so as to bolster their ideal of Traditionalism and Elitism.

Charlemagne and the Problem of Fake Zions

Thus is the end of the cause to establish “Christian” realms, an engagement in futility for of it we have no command, being required by Christ and the Apostles to live as pilgrims and martyrs, bearing witness for Christ in a world that will soon be burned with fire. Charlemagne’s dream was to build Zion on Earth, and many a revisionist seeks to read that into the annals of history. However every attempt to establish a Zion, only leads to the formation of a counterfeit, a distraction from the true Zion we Christians are part of and told to build. Charlemagne’s Kingdom wasn’t a kingdom based on righteousness, but one of corruption, wickedness, murder and lust.

The Council of Jerusalem and the Curious Case of Infant Baptism

It should at least raise suspicion that not a part of his refutation of the Judaizers is stating that the gentiles already practice circumcision in Baptism. If the Apostles understood covenant theology as the Reformed Paedobaptist does, why was this omitted completely? However, something similar is mentioned in Acts 21 in a discussion between James and Paul. Here we are told that Paul taught Jews living among the Gentiles to forsake circumcision, specifically of their children (v21) and not follow Jewish customs. Interestingly, its not recorded that he did so with the teaching that their children among the gentiles were to be baptized instead!

Felix Manz: The First Protestant Martyred by Magisterial Protestants

On the cold winter morning of the 5th of January in the 1527th year of our Lord, a crowd gathered around the Limmat river in Zurich, Switzerland. They had gathered to witness the execution of Felix Manz, a fellow reformer with Ulrich Zwingli. His crime, he refused to have his infant child baptized and performed baptisms of adults who had professed faith in Christ. Manz would be the first of a long line of Anabaptists who would be murdered by Magisterial Protestants over the years.

Nobla Leycon: A Waldensian Poem

We see daily the Signs to be accomplished,
And that in the increase of evil, and decrease of good.
These are the perils which the scripture mentioneth,
In the Gospels and St.Paul's Writings:
As also, that no man living can know the end.

And therefore we ought the more to fear, as not being certain,
Whether we shall die to day or tomorrow.
But when the day of judgement shall come,
Every one shall receive their full reward.
Those that shall have done either well or ill.

A Tribute to the Huguenots : Remembering 1542

In Memory of my bretheren Slain for Christ, In the wee hours of the 24th of August, the year of our Lord 1542, Roman Catholic mobs descended upon Protestants in the Kingdom of France. Mass genocide of French Calvinists called Huguenots took place in the over ten French cities, primarily in the capital of Paris, …