All Articles For Marking the Bulwarks of Zion

Prof. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Introduction In the last article (September 1, 1999) I introduced our readers to John Cassianus and Faustus of Riez. These were the two men who, while Augustine was still living, made serious objections to Augustine’s views. They did not like Augustine’s sharp and unequivocal defense of sovereign grace rooted in eternal predestination. Three remarks are necessary before I spell out the specific views of these two men. In the first place, these men did not write personally to Augustine and express disagreement with his position....

Prof. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Introduction Though Gregory was born from wealthy and noble parents, he renounced the world with its luxuries and became a monk in a monastic order which he himself had set up. Because of his learning, his expertise in government diplomacy, his great piety, and his apparent humility he was chosen as pope by popular acclaim. He was the first real pope in the history of Roman Catholicism; and from his chair in the papal see at Rome he extended his influence over all of the...

Prof. Hanko is professor emeritus of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Jerome Bolsec, as we saw last time, was an enemy of the truth of sovereign predestination. When he went so far as to interrupt a worship service in Geneva in order to oppose the preaching of that truth, he was arrested by the civil authorities for disturbing the peace. The Venerable Company of Pastors in Geneva urged the city Council to examine Bolsec’s doctrinal positions, and to seek the advice of other cantons in Switzerland to arrive at the truth of the matter. As...

Prof. Hanko is professor emeritus of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Introduction Shortly after Dordt a heresy arose which cast a long shadow over subsequent history of doctrine. It originated and was found primarily in France, but it spread to England, where it had great influence. It is a heresy with which much of the church is burdened even today. It is the heresy of Amyraldianism, with its special emphasis on a universal grace found in the preaching of the gospel, in which God expresses His desire to save all who hear the gospel. It...

Prof. Hanko is professor emeritus of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Introduction Moïse Amyraut held to a position in France that was a serious and significant modification of Calvin’s teachings and a rejection of the strong pronouncements of the Synod of Dordt. His views were never consistently condemned by the French Reformed Churches, and Amyraut himself was never censured. The result was the demise of the Reformed Church in France as a truly Calvinistic church. Amyraut’s teachings had wide influence. We briefly turn to this matter in this article. John Cameron and Developments in Scotland...

Prof. Hanko is professor emeritus of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Introduction A controversy arose in the Scottish Presbyterian Churches of Scotland in the early part of the eighteenth century. It has been called the Marrow Controversy. It gets its name from a book, first published in 1645, called The Marrow of Modern Divinity. Although this book, written by a man named Edward Fisher, was republished in 1648 and 1649, it never had a great deal of influence until, under rather peculiar circumstances, it became a subject of bitter debate that had to be settled...

Prof. Hanko is professor emeritus of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Introduction While the Marrow Controversy was raging among the Presbyterians in Scotland, and the church in that land was struggling with the Arminianism present in Marrow theology, England was developing its own kind of Arminianism within the Anglican Church, sometimes called the Church of England because it was the one denomination approved by the crown and of which the king was the head. Arminianism had been present in the Anglican Church from its beginning and had been, more or less, tolerated within the church....

Prof. Hanko is professor emeritus of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Introduction One of the great battles in which the church is engaged today is the battle to defend the doctrine of creation against evolutionism. If it were only secular and unbelieving science that promoted evolutionism as an explanation of the origin of the creation, the church would not be unduly threatened; nothing of any value for the church comes from unbelief. But the church itself has sold out to this destructive heresy. One cannot find a major denomination that has not made its peace...

Prof. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Introduction In the last two articles I talked about the battle between Augustine on the one hand, and Cassianus and Faustus on the other, over the doctrine of sovereign grace. This battle continued after the death of these men for 100 years, until official decisions were made by the synod of Orange (529) and approved by Pope Boniface II. But even these decisions of Orange did not settle the matter. There continued to be defenders of Augustine and defenders of Semi-Pelagianism for another 300 years....

Prof. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. In our previous article (Jan. 1, 2000) we saw that Rabanus, the archbishop of Mainz, repudiated Gottschalk’s view of the sovereignty of grace in salvation; that Gottschalk courageously accused Rabanus of holding views which were Semi-Pelagian; and that the synod of Mayence condemned Gottschalk. The controversy, however, did not die with Gottschalk’s imprisonment, for he had supporters who not only agreed with his views but protested the scandalous treatment he received. Later synods therefore were forced to deal further with the matter. Synod of Valence...