All Articles For Contending for the Faith

We will now discuss the Reformed view of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. And, of course, it speaks for itself that, inquiring into the Reformed conception of this sacrament, we ask ourselves the question: what did John Calvin, the reformer of Geneva, say about this subject? And then we would remark, in the first place, that sometimes t is most famous of all reformers seemed to teach that the broken body and shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ must be identified with the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper, that there is an influence of Christ’ s...

Continuing where we left off in our preceding article, the Fathers Rumble and Carty, in Volume I of their Radio Replies, discuss the interesting subject of the elements in the Lord’s Supper, the bread and wine, and their change.  860. The elements do not change, for there is no chemical difference after consecration. 

We concluded our preceding article with the remark that what we had quoted of John Calvin from his “Institutes” in connection with his conception of the Lord’s Supper ought to be sufficient. However, while reading from this amazing work of the reformer of Geneva, I came upon certain remarks which I would like to pass on to our readers, in addition to what we quoted in our preceding article. All these quotations are from Book IV, Chapter XVII. 

According To The Fathers (Continued)  In this article we will conclude our quotations from Philip Schaff’s “History of the Christian Church,” to show to our readers how the church, during the early periods of the new dispensation viewed the doctrine of the inspiration of the Scriptures. In Vol. III the author discusses the Third Period, A.D. 311-590. In paragraph 118, pages 606 ff., he continues to call attention to Sources of Theology, Scripture and Tradition. 

In our preceding article we had begun to call attention to the fact that the Roman Catholic conception of the catholicity of the Church of God is superficial and contrary to the Word of God. And we noted, among other things, that Rome would maintain its catholicity by calling attention to the fact that the church, wherever it exists, must count a multitude of members among all the peoples of the earth which is striking to the eye. Rome, therefore, must be the true church because it is greater than any sect in particular, probably greater than the total membership...

Hagenbach, writing on the opinions of the Latin theologians, during this period, and before Augustine, writes as follows: During this period, as well as the preceding, the theologians of the Western church were more favorable than those of the Eastern, to the Augustinian doctrine. Even Arnobius speaks of a connatural infirmity, making man prone to sin. Hilary, and Ambrose of Milan, taught the defilement of sin by birth; Ambrose appealed especially to

In our presentation of the Protestant view of the Church, we must also call attention to the marks of the Church. What are these marks of the true church of Christ? Why are these the marks of the church? What is meant by the true church, and what is the distinction between the true church and the false church? Must we maintain that there is only one true church (the Protestant Reformed Church) and that all other churches are false? There are those, also in our churches, who would maintain this, although the undersigned must confess that he has heard...

It is a venturesome and delicate undertaking to write one’s own life (the undersigned believes that our readers will be interested in an account of Augustine’s life, particularly with a view to the Pelagian controversy, as set forth by Philip Schaff in his history of the Christian Church, Vol. III, 988 ff.), even though that life be a masterpiece of nature or of the grace of God, and therefore most worthy to be described. Of all autobiographies none has so happily avoided the reef of vanity and self-praise, and none has won so much esteem and.

According To The Confessions 

We now continue with our quotation from Philip Schaff. (Vol. III, 988 ff.), on the life of Augustine. Augustine, the man with upturned eye, with pen in the left hand, and a burning heart in the right (as he is usually represented), is a philosophical and theological genius of the first order, towering like a pyramid above his age, and looking down commandingly upon succeeding centuries. He had a mind uncommonly fertile and deep, bold and soaring; and with it, what is better, a heart full of Christian love and humility.