The Calvinist International
A debate arose among Reformed divines in the 1620s and 30s, particularly in England, over the issue of baptismal regeneration. A variety of interpretations of passages like Titus 3:5 and 1 Peter 3:21 were proposed and there was debate over how to interpret Augustine and even Calvin on this issue. In the past it was […]
A core principle of Reformational sacramentology was that the “presence” of the Lord was in the rites themselves as performed rather than (statically) in the elements themselves, and was to be accessed by faith. Or, to put it another way: that Christ was exhibited and offered objectively in the rites, but was appropriated subjectively by […]
I’ve touched on the extra patristicum, er, extra calvinisticum before, here. The important idea in this connection is that the divine nature of Christ is omnipresent but his human body cannot be. This is a corollary of Chalcedonian Christology, viz. that the integrity of Christ’s two natures must be maintained in their hypostatic union in the person […]
The Protestant Reformers regularly referred to the sacraments as visible words–that is, they communicate the same gospel and promises as the written word, but in a different form, one that could be handled, touched, tasted. And yet the sacramental elements are not self-explanatory. For that reason, they must be joined with the Word, such that […]
After some delay, we continue with Calvin on Galatians 3.26-7. In the first installment, we saw the central importance to Calvin of union in the consideration of what it means to be sons of God. But Paul seems to say that this comes about by baptism. So: is it the case that “being baptized” is […]
In Galatians 3.26-7, Paul makes what seems prima facie to be a startling transition: “[F]or in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (ESV). Note that second connective “for”: Paul is talking about faith, and then, all of a […]
It is a commonplace of Reformed sacramental theology that the Lord’s Supper cannot be efficacious apart from faith. There is nothing automatically efficacious about ritual action in and of itself. Here is a curious proof for this suggestion from a wider biblical perspective than the texts traditionally used in sacramental discussion: In the messianic second Psalm, […]
In De mysteriis 6.31-3, Ambrose of Milan exegetes Christ’s washing of the disciples’ feet in John 13, and particularly his exchange with Peter: 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”8 Peter said […]
A. A. van Ruler Address delivered in Hilversum, the Netherlands, on April 23, 1942, to the local chapter of the Confessional Union. Translated by Ruben Alvarado In the church, there are people and there are things. It is beyond all doubt true when one says, the church – that is all believers taken together, the […]
Next month marks the 480th anniversary of the Wittenberg Concord, a document that resulted from discussions about the sacraments between German Lutherans and the Reformed of southwestern Germany and western Switzerland. It is the result, in other words, of the search for consensus among various parts of the Protestant world, intended to be an affirmation […]