A Christian's Road Home to Rome and Journey Onward
A post that’s relevant to our recent focus here on Baptism just came across the feed. From the Deacon’s Bench: The Sunday after the Epiphany is the Sunday of the baptism of Jesus. And on each of these Sundays, year after year, Benedict XVI administered the first sacrament of Christian initiation to a certain number …
Continue reading “Pope Benedict ordered change in baptismal liturgy before resigning”
Part of an ongoing series on Baptism In Depth. An important context for understanding what Baptism is and how the New Testament Church viewed it can be found in the Old Testament types (Greek τύποι, ‘examples’, ‘figures’) which New Testament authors saw to foreshadow Baptism. The two most important types for Baptism which the Apostles …
Continue reading “Types for Baptism in the Old Testament (Baptism In Depth)”
Today, while reflecting on the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary, I had a few more thoughts about the recent controversy over Substitutionary Atonement. Certainly there is a real sense in which the Atonement is substitutionary in the Catholic mind: For in the Sorrowful Mysteries, we are encouraged to think on Christ bearing the sufferings for …
Continue reading “Some more thoughts on Substitutionary Atonement”
I don’t have a lot of time for an update today, and am in no mood for argument; but this is an important day: the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the celebration of our Blessed Mother being assumed body and soul into heaven at the end of her earthly life, as …
[NOTE: This is not to be confused with Substitutiary Locomotion.] I suppose it’s time to raise my blowhole for a few moments. It’s been a hard few weeks, with yet another ugly head rising from the stump of my thesis, just as soon as I thought I’d dealt the death blow. I pray, once again, …
Part 2 of a series on Indulgences. Part 1. So last time, I showed you the basic idea of indulgences: First, that sin has temporal consequences, apart from the guilt which Jesus forgives by His grace — the misery that our sin causes for us and others, called the temporal punishment, which we still must …
As always, this turned out to be longer and more involved than I intended. So consider this part 1 in a series on Indulgences. And no, I haven’t forgotten about Baptism. The other day Pope Francis granted a plenary indulgence to those devoted faithful who would follow his tweets or other coverage of the World …
(Part of an in-depth series on Baptism. Part 1. Part 2.) When we left off, we were examining the Baptist view of Baptism, that it is merely a symbol, a sign of a work of grace that has already taken place in the believer by faith, an ordinance of the Church, not necessary for grace …
Continue reading “Does Baptism Regenerate? A Look at the Times It Didn’t (Series on Baptism)”
(Part of an in-depth series on Baptism. Part 1.) In this and ensuing posts I will examine in particular the view of Baptism held by Baptists and other evangelicals in their tradition: that Baptism is not sacramental but merely a symbol. I want to make every effort to be fair and consider the Baptist arguments …
Continue reading “The Baptist View of Baptism: Symbol or Sacrament? (Series on Baptism)”
So, my last post, in addition to being fascinating exegesis, had a point. I didn’t even realize the point at the time, but our dear brother Eugene has brought up an important question that just happens to fit with the direction I was moving in. May we thank the movement of the Holy Spirit! As …
Continue reading “Is Infant Baptism an Unscriptural Practice? Part 1: Understanding Baptism”