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World history, as most Westerners interprets it, very much revolves around nations like France, Russia/Soviet, Britain, Italy and USA. These corners of the Earth, undeniably, have played major roles in the development of mankind. BUT, there seems to be a gap in the historical knowledge of several, otherwise well educated, Westerners concerning what took place during the period of approximately 1620-1720 on European soil. A lot of people seem aware that Britain at that time was not really, yet, the world's leading power and that France, Spain, Austria and Holland excersised much of influence over world affairs. However, during this...

America was Methodist, once upon a time-Methodist, or Baptist, or Presbyterian, or Congregationalist, or Episcopalian. A little light Unitarianism on one side, a lot of stern Calvinism on the other, and the Easter Parade running right down the middle: our annual Spring epiphany, crowned in bright new bonnets. The average American these days would have ­trouble recalling the dogmas that once defined all the jarring sects, but their names remain at least half alive: a kind of verbal remembrance of the nation's religious history, a taste on the tongue of native speakers. Think, for instance, of the old Anabaptist congregations-how...

President Bush may follow in the footsteps of his brother Jeb and convert to Catholicism, several European papers are reporting. In the wake of the president’s visit to see Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican, Italian newspapers, citing Vatican sources, said Bush was open to the idea of converting to Catholicism. The Italian newspaper Il Foglio referred to such talk about Bush’s possible conversion and stated that “anything is possible, especially for someone reborn like Bush.� Noting that Tony Blair converted to Catholicism after leaving office as Britain’s prime minister last year, the paper also stated that “if anything happens,...

Every nation could be described as a manifestation of a unique trait of character and most countries furthermore nurture, give emphasize to and celebrate this national identity of theirs. Some examples of such key national characters (please DO comment if you feel inclined to); USA: Liberty Italy: Creativity France: Refinement India: Spirituality Germany: Self-discipline Finland: "Sisu" (a Finnish term meaning "To have guts") Britain: Elevatedness Denmark: "Hygge" (a Danish word meaning "Good-naturedness", of mind as well as of deed) Spain: Passion China: Cultivation Russia: Chaos - just joking, I would actually say "Heart" (in the sense of having a big...

An Apostolic Pentecostal is a person that believes in speaking in tongues - glossolalia - as proof that a person has received the Holy Ghost. Pentecostals are people who believe in dramatic demonstrations of the Gifts of the Spirit, such as prophecy or the interpretation of tongues. Pentecostal Oneness believers reject the concept of the Trinity and are convinced salvation relies upon the literal form of baptism; dunking rather than sprinkling and repentance of one's sins. People who are not familiar with Pentecostalism may think that the following descriptions are exaggerated and shocking, however the things depicted in this article...

As a 17-year-old boy, I had looked for truth and answers in this world and found none. Then, to my own amazement, I found myself completely won over by the bold, unashamed witness of a group of committed Christians on my high school campus. People could have tried to be cool and win me over, but it would have never worked. I'd had enough of "cool" in the crazy home I was raised in to make me choke. I had pretty much seen it all, and nothing to me was lamer than people trying too hard to be cool. The...

CHRISTIAN READER, I CANNOT suppose thee to be such a stranger in England as to be ignorant of the general complaint concerning the decay of the power of godliness, and more especially of the great corruption of youth. Wherever thou goest, thou wilt hear men crying out of bad children and bad servants; whereas indeed the source of the mischief must be sought a little higher: it is bad parents and bad masters that make bad children and bad servants; and we cannot blame so much their untowardness, as our own negligence in their education. The devil hath a great...

From First Part, Question 1, Article 8: "Hence sacred doctrine makes use also of the authority of philosophers in those questions in which they were able to know the truth by natural reason, as Paul quotes a saying of Aratus: "As some also of your own poets said: For we are also His offspring" (Acts 17:28)." "Nevertheless, sacred doctrine makes use of these authorities as extrinsic and probable arguments; but properly uses the authority of the canonical Scriptures as an incontrovertible proof, and the authority of the doctors of the Church as one that may properly be used, yet merely...

More than once during these talks I referred to Luther and what always occurred to me as his destructive influence. I pointed out that even in such an admirable book as Rohan Butler's “The Roots of National Socialism” the spiritual origins of Nazism and Luther's influence had not been given the necessary importance. Then I was asked if I would be prepared to elaborate to them—about a dozen of the very senior boys, that is—my own views on Luther and Lutheranism. I agreed—with the proviso that they would be my own views and nothing else. Admittedly, I had read more...

I am a Catholic who is trying to understand Protestant history and teachings, in order to better understand the history of Christianity. There is one issue that I do not understand. According to Protestant teachings, if a person becomes saved, are his future sins forgiven? Can a person lose his salvation? If not, can assurance of salvation become a license to sin? If Ted Haggard had gone to be with the Lord early last year, while in the process of getting a "massage" from his male "friend", would he have gone straight to heaven?

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - The Episcopal Church isn't the only mainline Protestant group shaken by open conflict between theological liberals and conservatives. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is facing similar trials, with traditionalist congregations planning to bolt and a conservative denomination preparing to take them in. About 30 of the nearly 11,000 Presbyterian congregations have voted to leave the national church since the denomination's national assembly session in 2006, according to The Layman, a conservative Presbyterian publication that has been tracking the breakaways. Denominational leaders say they could lose an additional 20 congregations as a result of this latest rupture. The...

TONY Blair told Pope Benedict XVI he will "dedicate himself" to peace in the Middle East and towards inter-religious dialogue in a private meeting between the pair in the Vatican yesterday. The 25-minute meeting came amid further rumours that Blair will become a Roman Catholic as soon as he leaves office this week, and as reports suggested he is set to be appointed a Middle East envoy. In a statement released after the meeting, the Vatican said there had been a "frank" assessment of the international situation, including such "delicate" themes as the Middle East conflict and the future of...

Cologne, Germany - German Muslim leaders have robustly criticized a forthright 'position papier' issued last November by the EKD, the umbrella body for 23 Lutheran churches in Germany. In characteristically Protestant fashion, the document suggested Muslims should be more critical about themselves and it starkly set out why Lutherans disagree with Islam. Coming at a time when Germans were heavily preoccupied with an alleged Islamic threat, the paper caused strains that have still not been overcome between EKD and Islamic leaders. Ayyub Axel Koehler, chairman of the Council of Muslims, and Bekir Alboga, spokesman for the DITIB religious authority, were...

There is a cold hour just before dawn, when the light is the colour of lead, when the past seems a little closer and a lot more real than it does in the clearer light that comes later in the day. --SNIP-- On that day, IRA gunmen burst into a string of houses that lay along my route to the conference centre and shot dead 14 British officers and intelligence officials. The Ireland of those days was inured to brutality on all sides but there was something about these killings that shocked the Dublin public. Maybe it was the curiously...

THESE reasons are so strong that the most solid of your party have taken ground elsewhere than in the ordinary mission, and have said that they were sent extraordinarily by God because the ordinary mission had been ruined and abolished, with the true Church itself, under the tyrannv of Antichrist. This is their most safe refuge, which, since it is common to all sorts of heretics, is worth attacking in good earnest and overthrowing completely. Let us then place our argument in order, to see if we can force this their last barricade. First, I say then that no one...

Martin Luther, Founder of the Reform, Speaks on Mary In his sermon of August 15, 1522, the last time Martin Luther preached on the Feast of the Assumption, he stated: There can be no doubt that the Virgin Mary is in heaven. How it happened we do not know. And since the Holy Spirit has told us nothing about it, we can make of it no article of faith . . . It is enough to know that she lives in Christ. The veneration of Mary is inscribed in the very depths of the human heart. (Sermon, September 1, 1522)....

On the 6th of November, Sweden – and Gothenburg in particular – remembers perhaps its most famous and successful King: Gustav II Adolf, who reigned from 1611 until his death in 1632. Monday will be the 374th anniversary of his death (aged just 37) on the battlefield in Lützen in Germany during the Thirty Years War. He is the only Swedish King to have been honoured with the title “The Great” (“Den Stora”) and the anniversary of his death is an official Swedish flag day. Related Articles 'Swede's body found' in Ireland 3rd November 2006 Viking treasure found on Gotland...

Munich - Pope Benedict XVI, 79, arrived in his Bavarian homeland Saturday, entering the city of Munich to begin a six-day programme of preaching and prayer, combined with an emotionally- charged tour of well-remembered places from his earlier life. Police kept a watchful eye on the crowd that packed the city's central Marienplatz square for a welcome home and prayers at the foot of the Pillar of Mary, a 368-year-old monument to the Virgin Mary. Until he left in 1982 to become the Vatican's top doctrine official, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was archbishop of Munich, and he was to stay the...

Infertile couples desperate to conceive children are turning increasingly to fertility specialists for help. Yet, widespread use of assisted reproductive technology (ART) has led to a completely unforeseen consequence: the creation of the world’s largest population of frozen human embryos. That reality has ignited a vigorous moral debate among scientists, politicians, theologians, and parents about what should be done with the surplus store of nascent human life.The challenge for pro-life evangelicals is to develop systematic moral reasoning that can be applied to a range of issues including embryo adoption, human embryonic stem cell research, ART, “therapeutic cloning,” genetic engineering,...

Folks, I want to add some further, yet brief reflections that I think are connected to those I did about the Holy Trinity last week (here and here). I belief there are a few connections between the process which resulted in the Trinitarian settlement in the 5th century AD, the settlement of the Canon of Scripture, and the Protestant idea of sola scriptura. First, let's define a few key terms: Sola scriptura is a Latin phrase meaning "Scripture Alone" and refers to the foundational Protestant tenets that the Bible, and the Bible alone is to be the sole rule of...

NEW YORK, JULY 22, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Far from fading away in the shadow of modernity and prosperity, religious fervor is, in fact, growing. This is the argument of an article, "Why God is Winning," published in the July-August issue of the magazine Foreign Policy. The authors, Timothy Samuel Shah and Monica Duffy Toft, explain that one of the most recent confirmations of their thesis was the win last January of the Hamas party in the Palestinian elections. After the election, one supporter of Hamas replaced the flag flying over the parliament with a banner proclaiming Mohammad. Soon afterwards the violent...

To the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, and Bishops of the Catholic World in Grace and Communion with the Apostolic See. The race of man, after its miserable fall from God, the Creator and the Giver of heavenly gifts, "through the envy of the devil," separated into two diverse and opposite parts, of which the one steadfastly contends for truth and virtue, the other of those things which are contrary to virtue and to truth. The one is the kingdom of God on earth, namely, the true Church of Jesus Christ; and those who desire from their heart to be united with...

DAN Brown’s bestseller, The Da Vinci Code, was first published in 2003. By April 2005 it had sold 17 million copies in 44 languages and it is still selling well, as any traveller by plane, bus or train will confirm. It is a novel of the popular, conspiracy theory type. The central thesis is that “the Church” has covered up the fact that Mary Magdalene married Christ. Christ’s divinity was a myth invented by Roman Emperor Constantine in the 4th century AD and the pair had descendants. Brown suggests that Mary Magdalene’s character was unjustly impugned by “the Church” in...

15 March 2006, 12:02 Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin: ‘Light-weight’ Christianity is a way to nowhere Moscow, March 15, Interfax - Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, vice-chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, is convinced that liberal Protestantism seeking to keep step with fashion and to become comfortable for people holds out no promise. “I believe it is a way into nowhere. People will leave ‘light-weight’ Christian communities. Indeed, you come to church not for justification of your sin but for spiritual purification and changed life,” Father Vsevolod said in the interview published by the NG-Religii newspaper on Wednesday. Speaking about...

Articles from Hilaire Belloc's Survival and New Arrivals and the attack of the Church by "Bible Christians". From Dave 1) There is the most antiquated and moribund of the series, the Biblical attack: that is, the comparison of Catholic doctrine, morals, and practice, to their disadvantage, with the words of Holy Writ, regarded as a final authority in the Literal meaning of every word there found:[1] the words of the said document also to be treated as all sufficient, and anything not there plainly recorded or enjoined to be branded false. This, which is called in the United States the...

LIBERALISM IS A SIN "Liberalism is the dogmatic affirmation of the absolute independence of the individual and of the social reason. Catholicity is the dogma of the absolute subjection of the individual and of the social order to the revealed law of God. One doctrine is the exact antithesis of the other. They are opposites in direct conflict." (Ch. 6). "Protestantism is now a dead dog; Liberalism a living lion going about seeking whom be may devour. Its dreadful doctrine is permeating society to the core; it has become the modern political creed and threatens us with a second revolution,...

Orthodoxy and Creationism Fr. Deacon Andrey Kuraev Translated by Alexey Chumakov / Dr. Steven Bushnell / German Sinitzyn Content: Introduction. Roots of Western Creationism. Orthodoxy and Science. Inconsistency of Protestant Creationist Views. Conclusion. An Afterword. Appendix: Man Enters The World. Creation of Man. Notes to the chapter ‘Man Enters The World.’ Introduction Numerous new books have recently been published in Russia that criticize the theory of evolution. For the most part these are the translated works of American Protestant "Creationists." In so far as Darwinism was well established in schools and institutes as a favorite theory of the Soviets, this...

The rough, dusty roads are traversed by women with veils. Nearby in the state's capital, the original inhabitants are building a mosque. "There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger," chant a group of children. A scene straight out of the Middle East, Asia or Africa? No, it's in the second largest Roman Catholic country in Latin America: Mexico, in its turbulent southern state of Chiapas. ... "Among the Indian people there is a deep-seated religious identity, marked by syncretism, and a longing for hope in the different manifestations of the sacred," he added. The teachings of...

According to some of my tightly wound theological buddies, as a Protestant Christian, I’m not supposed to say anything favorable about a Catholic, especially … a Pope. Oh well, I’ve got to give honor where honor is due, so pardon me, brethren, if I praise the former pontiff’s past achievements. Even though I disagree with Catholicism’s soteriology, and from a fashion and function standpoint I don’t get their funky hats or the Elvis-like papal robes, or their elaborate walking sticks, I’ve got to admit that I appreciate John Paul II’s accomplishments for the human collective and his unwavering moral convictions...

The Church—Why Bother? There is no healthy relationship with Jesus without a relationship to the church. by Tim Stafford | posted 01/06/2005 9:00 a.m. The Barna Research Group reports that in the United States about 10 million self-proclaimed, born-again Christians have not been to church in the last six months, apart from Christmas or Easter. (Barna defines "born-again" as those who say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important today, and believe they will "go to heaven because I have confessed my sins and have accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior.") Nearly all born-agains...

One of the many nefarious parts of the great facade that has been erected by the doctrinal and liturgical revolutionaries in the past four and one-half decades is episcopal collegiality. This very important cornerstone of the great facade introduced a novelty that masked real differences among the world's bishops in the quite mistaken belief that it is better to demonstrate to the faithful and to the world a united front of episcopal solidarity than for one bishop to criticize one of his brother bishops or to take policies that put other bishops in a bad light and/or force them to...

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico has broken a decades-old tradition of rejecting U.S. aid workers, granting permission for the first group of U.S. Peace Corps volunteers ever to work here. Mindful of national sensitivity over U.S. influence, though, the government plans to keep the group out of public view. Still, for a country that has kicked out or criticized U.S. experts in the past - and for one touchy about being viewed as underdeveloped - it's a big change. The first 15 volunteers, scheduled to arrive this summer, won't be performing the Peace Corps' usual tasks in construction, rural schools,...

Documentary was shown on various PBS stations this week... (you know PBS--will be on again, surely--got to get something out of those tax dollars spent). It's worth taping... Very good portrayal in my opinion...but downplayed his theology, mainly highlighting the social consequences of what Luther discovered in the Bible. Understandable when telling about such an important historic figure in just 2 hours.Personally, I think, but for Luther's courage, there would have been no eventual United States of America...and we'd live in a very different world...Here's the speil from PBS's site: Martin Luther (#101) "Driven to Defiance/The Reluctant Revolutionary" Driven to...

Amidst all the stimulating discussion here about the Catholic doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity, it ocurred to me that it would be instructive to point out that both Martin Luther and John Calvin -- the progenitors of two of the three major branches of the Protestant Reformation -- both held firmly to this Catholic teaching. For your consideration, let me add here some pertinent quotes from these two Protestant leaders. I'd respectfully ask our Evangelical and Fundamentalist friends here to think carefully about these quotes and consider just how far modern-day Protestantism has drifted from its 16th-century moorings, not to...

So you think that evangelizing your family and friends, coworkers and neighbors is an impossible dream? Think again. God wants to work through you, regardless of your circumstances — in your office, your home, your social circles, your parish — to search out and rescue those who have drifted or are starting to drift away from the Faith. All He needs to work with is a willing heart. Here are a few lessons from the life of St. Francis de Sales about how God can make you His coworker in the vast drama of salvation.

This written debate on sola scriptura between Patrick Madrid, publisher of Envoy Magazine, a leading Catholic journal of apolgetics, and Douglas Jones, editor of Credenda/Agenda Magazine, a Reformed evangelical Protestant journal, appeared recently in Credenda/Agenda. It was agreed that Doug would select and frame the debate theme, he would have the first *and* last comment in the exchange, and each response would be limited to no more than 115 words.

Americans have a wide choice of worries to worry about. We can worry about terrorists, war in the Middle East, snipers, job security, teen shooting sprees, the stock market, political leadership, badly educated kids, political correctness, civil liberties, disease-carrying mosquitoes, environmental degradation, sexually active preteens, sexism, racism, reverse discrimination, lawsuits. Just name it. Probably it is a recognized worry. The above are worries we know about. Graver worries remain unknown to the vast majority. Authors write books to inform us so that we are not taken unawares. In a current national best seller, "Wealth and Democracy," Kevin Phillips warns against...

ABSTRACT: What do Protestants think we believe about Scripture? That it is second to the Church and that the Church teaches things quite independent of it. They think that we, like the Pharisees condemned by Jesus, confuse human tradition with divine revelation, “teaching as doctrines the precepts of men, . . . making the word of God void through your tradition” (Mk 7:7, 13). Their information is mistaken, but their motives are high. In fact, given this mistake, their criticism is admirable. But we must now look at the mistake. Protestants come in two different sizes: traditional, or orthodox, Protestants,...

The Beauty of the Truthby Thomas Storck "Beauty is truth, truth beauty," - that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. - Keats, "Ode on a Grecian Urn" As the good denotes that toward which the appetite tends, so the true denotes that toward which the intellect tends. - Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae When I converted to the Catholic faith early in 1978 at the age of 27 I was motivated by only one thing: my conviction that Catholicism was true, that Catholicism's account of reality was in fact the way things really are. But...

Protestant America by Joseph Sobran Today I write in an unaccustomed vein. I speak as a member of a minority group, though maybe not in the usual aggrieved style of minority group members. I am a Catholic in a Protestant country. Even if Protestants are no longer a numerical majority, they have made this country what it is, and its culture remains thoroughly Protestant. What does it feel like to be a Catholic in Protestant America? It feels wonderful. On the whole, Protestants must be among the world’s most decent people. I feel grateful to live among them, and it’s...

SHOULD WE TAKE everything in the Bible literally? Author and journalist H.W. Crocker III says no. His new book Triumph: The Power and the Glory of the Catholic Church (Forum, 2002) accuses Protestant fanatics of destroying Christendom, through their obsessive Biblical literalism, thus paving the way for Nazism, Bolshevism and other bloodthirsty cults of the post-Christian era. It took guts to write this book. With the media vilifying Catholics on a scale not seen since Nero’s Rome, Crocker has dared to pen a panoramic, 2000-year history of the Church that makes no – absolutely no – apologies or concessions to...