The Castle Church Door

For anybody who's interested, there's an ongoing discussion in another thread concerning John 6 and the eucharist.

I’ve been sparring with Perry Robinson over at Green Baggins. http://greenbaggins.wordpress.com/2008/06/25/a-word-from-dr-richard-b-gaffin-jr/steve hays said,June 29, 2008 at 7:46 amPerry,Let’s not lose sight of what’s at issue in the debate over Enns. Enns and his supporters are taking the position that God sometimes inspires errors, that Bible writers sometimes intend to make true assertions which we now know are false.How is the case of Caiaphas relevant to that issue? He ...

Perry Robinson has been a very busy boy, popping up on Evangelical blogs to market Eastern Orthodoxy. He’s done so at Green Baggins, and he’s done so at Parchment & Pen. I attempted to post a reply, but my comment was “truncated per site policy.”I take it that Patton wants to pitch his blog to the attention span of a kindergartner. Well, it’s his blog, so he’s welcome ...

According to Perry Robinson:“Added to this is the fact that various councils claim for themselves divine inspiration.”“The cessation of the apostolic office wouldn’t imply a lack of divine inspiration in the church, which is exactly and explicitly what the ecumenical councils that Protestants profess fealty to claim for themselves.”“But I would need to be infallible to judge in a way that was normatively binding on the consciences of ...

In another thread, LVKA offers the following argument for applying non-grammatical-historical interpretations to scripture, but not to other documents: “The First Ecumenical Council does not need a typological or Christological interpretation: because it *IS* a Christological statement. And it doesn't need a spiritual or allegorical interpretation either: the Dogamtical statement that Jesus is God is intrinsically tied up with our Chr. spirituality: ‘If Christ is ...

In another thread, Anne posted a passage from Ignatius of Antioch that Roman Catholics often cite in support of their view of the eucharist. I thought I'd repeat and expand upon my response to Anne here, since some people might find it helpful. In my experience, this passage from Ignatius is one of the most commonly cited patristic passages among Roman Catholics. Here's the passage: "They abstain from the Eucharist ...

LVKA said:"And the problem with interpretation is not whether it's literal or figurative, but whether it's condoned by Tradition or not."Like the Tradition of the ante-Nicene fathers who interpreted scripture in opposition to the veneration of images? Or the Tradition of the early Christians who prayed only to God, not to the deceased or angels? Do you agree with the Marian beliefs of the earliest Christians, such as ...

I recently got drawn into hand-to-hand combat with a couple of orcs who invaded the shire of a Presbyterian hobbit:http://greenbaggins.wordpress.com/2008/06/04/some-questions-for-pete-enns/Here is my side of the exchange:steve hays said,June 16, 2008 at 6:29 pmKen Hendrickson said,“In the first place, Sola Scriptura is directly contradicted by 2 Thess 2:15, which commands that we hold fast to the TRADITIONS which were taught by the Apostles, even those which were only taught ...

1. The right of private judgment involves two distinct issues which are often bundled into one:i) The subjective source of private judgmentii) The objective standard of private judgment.Regarding (i), every professing believer, whether he’s a low churchman or high churchman, has to exercise his individual judgment. That’s inescapable. The high churchman is no exception to this necessity. It’s not as if the low churchman is an autonomous individual ...

Perry Robinson has weighed in on sola Scriptura:http://energeticprocession.wordpress.com/2008/06/21/the-naked-book/“If Scripture is the only infallible rule of faith, who is the judge that is to apply the rule?”Must there be a uniform answer to that question? “And what authority does such a judge possess?”This assumes the “judge” in question must possess some sort of “authority” to apply the rule of faith. Why should we assume that?“It seems to me that ...