Ma's Blog

I'm finally joining the wonderful world of blogging. The main purpose for this blog is to provide links and commentary on some great Bible studies, doctrinal issues and current and end-time events.

I will mainly be compiling links and information from other sites, but my hope is that like-minded sisters (and brothers) in the LORD will be edified and encouraged.

So first up....

I ran across a 49 part teaching on the history of the church by James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries on Lane Chaplan's blog.

You can find Lane's original post here.

I have become a huge fan of his apologetic work since being introduced to reformed theology last year. His eschatology is not premillenial, usually deal breaker for me, but he is so good at what he does, I've decided to let it slide;)

The study is about ten years old give or take and the sound quality is HORRIBLE, but I am finding it worthwhile to trudge through.


He is also going through a bit of early church history in his most recent Dividing Line podcasts. It seems that he is getting ready to debate Catholic apologist Robert Sungenis in the fall. The program that aired on the 13th was very good.

This is my first foray into early church history since coming out of the Roman Catholic Church. White says that the early church fathers weren't necessarily Reformed Baptists (which he is) but they certainly weren't Roman Catholics either! I am really trying to listen to these with a fresh perspective and of course with the Holy Scriptures as the sole rule of faith.

What I think is important to remember, and what I am learning so far in this study is that the same issues that were of debate in the early years of the Christian faith are still very much in debate to this day. Those who walked and talked with our Lord didn't always get it:

Luke 18:
³¹Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.
³²For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on:
³³And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.
³⁴And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.

Now many would argue that this was before Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but we find in that even in the God chosen Apostles themselves that there was not always absolute unity:

Galatians 2:
¹¹But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.
¹²For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
¹³And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.
¹⁴But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
¹⁵We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,
¹⁶Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
¹⁷But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
¹⁸For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
¹⁹For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
²⁰I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
²¹I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

So can we trust eyewitnesses or hand picked Apostles or tradition or visions or good feelings? NO. Here is a famous 3:16 passage, and it is not the one everyone thinks of first:

2Timothy 3:16:
All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness (17)That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

All that being said, I do think it is a worthwhile pursuit to have some familiarity with the high points of Church history and I'm finally ready to go there.