The Reformation: A Theological Look - MP3

I recently had the privilege of being a guest on the Apologetics.com radio show.

Below is a synopsis and links were you can find the show. It can also be dowloaded from itunes under the Apologetics.com podcast.

The Glorious Reformation: The Apologetics.com Radio show for Reformation Day 2008.

The Glorious Reformation: Apologetics.com’s annual Reformation Day show answers the question, does the Reformation really matter after 500 years? A global shift in Christian thought began in 1517. What had at one time been a Christian worldview applied to all of life and thought had become a shifting web of marginally Christian ideas used to support pagan ideology and vacant humanism devoid of eternal significance. Martin Luther sounded an alarm loud and long with reverberations that are still felt today from the worship in our churches to the halls of justice. Is a theocentric theology still permissible in an anthropocentric world? Why the constant urge to replace the Holy Scriptures as the sole infallible rule in matters of faith and practice with the judgements of the religious community or individuals that claim prophetic authority? Is God’s intent to save those that are good enough to save themselves or those that have nothing of themselves which makes them in any sense worthy? Is the grace of God merely hypothetically salvific or actually effectual to save those that are lost? Is Justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone a message that has seen its day? Or one that with the Reformers we should say “semper reformanda”, always reforming? Staff members Christopher Neiswonger and Lindsay Brooks are joined by special guests Pastor Kent Moorloch of Communion Prebyterian Church of Irvine www.communionpres.org, Doug Eaton College Pastor of the 1st Southern Baptist Church of Downey and www.christiantheology.wordpress.com, and Lane Chaplin power blogger of www.lanechaplin.com.

The Glorious Reformation: The Apologetics.com Radio show for Reformation Day 2008.

Reformation Radio Show

Oct. 31, 1571, It was a Wednesday morning and everything seemed normal. Business was going along as usual in the German province of Saxony. In fact, most people were most likely not focusing on this day since the following day was "All Souls Day". A day when Frederick the Wise would bring in religious relics for the city to see, and offer the people a chance to buy indulgences. But little did the world know that an unknown emaciated Augustinian monk with a hammer and a piece of paper with 95 thesis was on his way to the Castle Church in Wittenberg. And God was going to use this hammer to shake the world and call light out of darkness.

This weekend I had the privilege to be a guest on the apologetics.com radio show in Los Angeles with host Chris Neiswonger. The topic was the reformation. We spent the majority of the time discussing the five solas of the Reformation.

Sola Scriptura - Scripture alone
Sola Christus - Christ Alone
Sola Gratia - Grace Alone
Sola Fide - Faith Alone
Soli Deo Gloria - To the Gloria of God Alone

If you would like to listen to the program you can download the mp3 version at the Apologetics.com radio page. Just scroll to the bottom and you should see a link for there. You can also go download it as a podcast in itunes. Simply search for Apologetics.com.

Happy Reformation Day!

Doug

James White on Sola Scriptura (Video)

This is a closing argument by James White in a debate on the issue of Sola Scriptura.

On Francis Beckwith's Move to Roman Catholicism

Here is a thoughtful post by a friend of mine on Beckwith's Move To Rome.

My conversation with Francis Beckwith about his return to Roman Catholicism.

Misdirected Worship

"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me."
-Exodus 20:2-3-

A very favorite book among Catholics is entitled, "The Glories of Mary, Mother of God." It's author is St. Alphonsus Liguori. The translator dedicates the work to Mary, "the Queen of Angels and of Men," with "all veneration and respect," and says it is "designed to increase the number and fervor of her worshipers." Here is the table of contents:

How great should be our confidence in Mary, Queen of Mercy.

How great our confidence should be in Mary as our mother.

The great love borne us by Mary our mother.

Mary is the refuge of repentant sinners.

Mary is our life, since she obtains us the pardon of our sins.

Mary is our life, because she obtains our perseverance.

Mary renders death sweet to her servants.

Mary is the hope of all the children of Adam.

Mary is the hope of the sinner.

Mary's readiness to assist those who invoke her.

The power of Mary to defend those who invoke her in temptations.

Necessity of Mary's intercession in order to obtain salvation.

Mary is a powerful Advocate.

Mary is a compassionate Advocate.

Mary is mediatrix of peace between God and sinners.

Mary is ever watchful to support our miseries.

Mary preserves her servants from hell.

Mary succours her servants in purgatory.

Mary conducts her servants to heaven.

The greatness of Mary's mercifulness and goodness.

The sweetness of the holy name of Mary in life and in death.

In "The Psalter of the Virgin" we find the last two Psalms of David thus thrown into parody, and applied to Mary instead of Jehovah: "Sing unto our Lady a new song: let her praise be in the congregation of the just. Praise our Lady in her holiness; praise her in her virtues and miracles; praise her, you choirs of patriarchs and prophets; praise her, you army of martyrs; let everything that has breath praise our lady!"

(William S. Plumer, "The Ten Commandments" 1864)

Tertillian, Baptism, and Roman Catholic Last Rites

It is always interesting to track down certain rituals that are practiced under name Christian which have no founding in scripture in order to find out where they originated. One specific ritual worth looking into is the Roman Catholic practice of giving someone on their deathbed their last rites.

To find out where this practice came from we have to go back to Tertillian who was a theologian who lived during the second and third century AD. Tertillian was as materialist. Not the kind of materialist we think of today, but the kind of materialist who believes that even spirit, including God himself, is material even though it was clearly a higher more refined type of material. This is close to what Mormons believe even today.

This played heavily into his views on baptism. Tertillian believed that the more refined spirit matter could bond quite well with the lower types of matter such as water. So when a person was baptized, the Holy Spirit would bond with the water and somehow wash the person clean who was being baptized. Thus making baptism part of regeneration.

Tertillian also believed that children should not be baptized. This is why many Baptist like to point to him in the early church. But the reason he did not think children should be baptized had nothing to do with Baptist beliefs as they are held today. Tertillian believed that once you were baptized you could no longer sin. If you did sin willingly, you would loose your salvation and have no chance of getting it back. Thus you should not baptize children because they are certainly going to sin as they grow up. So Tertillian suggested that a person wait until they were about 30 years old before being baptized.

Many people in the church were influenced by Tertillian’s beliefs, but they realized that people would still sin even after the age of 30. In order to protect people from sinning and losing their salvation, the church started performing deathbed baptisms. This is why Constantine was not baptized until the end of his life, if you’ve looked into his history.

Needless to say the Church eventually began to see more scripturally regarding baptism. This correction began to put baptism in a more biblical light which corrected the practice. But something the latin Church never let go of was the need to continue doing some ritual at the deathbed, and this is from where the practice of last rites comes. It all stems from Tertillian’s bad theology regarding baptism.

Doug Eaton