I was reminded in my reading recently of how fast we can meander from the clear teaching of Scripture – even with the best of intentions. This is especially true if we isolate ourselves from other grounded believers and start to feel like we can wing it alone. I was reading about one of the apostolic fathers in church history. That’s the title that’s usually given to the church leaders of the early second century – those whose lives either overlapped the lives of the last apostles and were directly influenced by them, or were close associates with someone who knew an apostle first hand. One such apostolic father was Ignatius of Antioch.
Ignatius was an elder (Bishop) in the church at Antioch in the early 2nd century. He had a passion for unity in the church and he wrote on the subject often. However, in his zeal for unity, he began making an unbiblical distinction between elders and bishops and identified them as two distinct and separate roles within the church. In his zeal to preserve unity, he Read more…
Here’s a pop quiz question. If you were at NCBF last week when I asked this, you already know the answer, so you’re exempt. Who said this (one hint – it was penned in the mid-18th century – mid 1700s)?
The spreading of books is always a means of increasing the awakening in any place. It cannot be that the people should grow in grace, unless they give themselves to reading. A reading people will always be a growing people.
The answer is at the end of this post, but no fair cheating by scrolling right to it. I enjoy reading church history and especially biographies or biographical sketches of those whom the Lord has used in various ways to accomplish what He wants to accomplish in the church and the world. I always come away encouraged because the men and women in church history that we read about are just like us. They have baggage that they bring into the Christian life, just like me. They struggle with remaining sin just like I do. They don’t always have their theological ducks in row, but the Lord uses them nonetheless. I’m sure that I have my own theological blind spots, I just don’t know what they are. If I did, they would be theological see spots, not theological blind spots. In short, the Lord used those that He used because Read more…
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