If we look back through church history, we see many pivotal points where the orthodoxy of the scripture comes into a head on collision with false teaching. From a door in Wittenberg, to the battle of inerrancy in the late 20 th century. While the church has dealt with false teaching from the beginning, a major force shook the church in the 3 rd century. As Gonzalez points out, this creeping of false doctrine, "may be seen in the Arian controversy”. (Gonzalez p.182) A bishop in Egypt, had begun to propagate, “that the Word was not coeternal with the Father” (Gonz al ez p.184)  He was literally arguing against the eternal existence of the Son of God. He and his followers would attempt to convince others of this teaching that, “there was a time when He [the Son] was not”, and it was this phrasing which would become their motto. In the past doctrinal errors, the church would argue with, and “win such a debate was through solid argument and holiness of life.” (Gonzalez p.181) b...

The name that was given to the church as it entered the “new age” of non-persecution was Christendom, or the Constantinian era.  It is given this name because it was Constantine that began this shift early in the third century. It is also given this name because “most of it's history the church has lived in this Constantinian era” González (p. 131) Christendom was a new occurrence in the life of the church. It was the first time in its existence that it went from persecuted to prominence in the culture.  This lack of persecution caused the church to experience many changes in the way that its members were treated, and this had both positive and negative effects. For one, the Christian church now, as ironical as it is, had something to lose. Christians who were once ready to give their lives to follow Christ found it harder to give up their newfound conveniences.  It is stated that even though Constantine had  “Repeatedly, even after his conversion, he took part i...

Deuteronomy 8:3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the  Lord  doth man live. In Deuteronomy 8:3 God has pointed out to the children of Israel that it was Him that had met their needs. He even allowed them to get to a point of suffering in order to show His miraculous power in giving them Manna. This was done to help show Israel that they must depend wholly on Him, for when they were unable to provide, He would. We can still draw application from this scripture. There are times that God allows us to go through specific things in order that He can show Himself powerful in our lives. It is not just these temporal needs that we can see provided for, but it is a call for us to quite literally live on His Word. It is the bases for every promise that we have and must be t...

“Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” Ephesians 4:29 It is in Ephesians 4:29 that we find the ending phrases of a list that Paul has given to the church at Ephesus. He had spent the first three chapter showing the believers there Who they are in Christ. It is the entrance to chapter 4 that we find the one command, one way that we can walk worthy of our new “family name”, as it were. That command is to dwell in love, and Paul will continue the next few passages and chapter on how this is to be played out in their lives. If they are living in love, then no corrupt communication will come from their mouths, only that which is good and will minister to the hearer. This is no different for us today. We have the scriptures that point us to who we are, and Whose we are, in Christ. This should play out in love and unity with one another, and will be directly seen in the way that w...

The phrase “Semper Reformanda” which has come to mean, “always to be reformed” or “always reforming” has become quite popular in our day, especially among the reformed resurgence movement. This phrase is held by many as a motto for their faith and rejection of what is seemingly a watered down for of religion that has been promoted in the United States over the last 100 years especially. While it may be true that we are to be “always reforming” in our personal lives, that is to say we are to be daily conforming to the image of Christ, as a church we must ensure that it is the scriptures that are the bases for any reform in which we are participating. We can set a dangerous precedent by allowing a “reformation” of our beliefs to be the driver of any change in our beliefs. This was never the intent of those that coined the phrase. Michael Horton points out that, “the Latin verb reformanda is passive, meaning the church is not “always reforming” but is “always being reformed”. ( Source ) H...