RT @rcanglican: True humility is neither negative self talk nor merely thinking about others, but learning that God is the subject and obje….

RT @rcanglican: In Luke 14 Jesus challenges us to consider how to rest, how to cease our striving to be seen, and how to avoid pseudo-humil….

RT @RonOffringa: To call Mary the incarnation of the Holy Spirit is unequivocal blasphemy, but I do understand the motive. The issue is, wh….

St. John’s is the only ACNA church in Utah, led by my friend Fr. James Linton. They’re in the process of planting more churches in the area. If you want to support work like this to reach an area suffused with Mormons and Atheists, donate here:

As St. Augustine says, only the Scriptures are infallible. They are the only unerring source of truth. I cannot bind on someone else what the Scriptures themselves do not bind. I don’t have the authority to do so. To insist otherwise is, again, blasphemy.

People often see me in my cassock and ask why I’m not Roman. The most common comment on my @rcanglican videos is “Submit to Rome.” Why am I not Roman? To be Roman requires submitting to dogmas that cannot be proved by Holy Writ.

There is no biblical evidence for the immaculate conception of Mary. There is no biblical evidence for the assumption of Mary. Even if one were to hold to these doctrines, they cannot bind them on the consciences of others. They were unknown to the early Church.

Where the Pharisees added laws to bind those under the Law, the Romans have added dogmas to bind those under the Faith. To be Catholic is to hold to the whole faith, once handed down to the saints (Jude 3), without adding to or subtracting from it.

As Anglicans, while we can leave some room for personal pieties, we refuse to teach anything as necessary for salvation except that which can be proved by Holy Scripture. The Romans don’t do this. They allow for extra-biblical revelation to add dogmas that bind the faithful.

Look, Mary is incredibly important. Many Protestants have downplayed her role, her honor, and her example to their detriment. All generations will call her blessed. She is the God-bearer. She is a picture of the Christian life. And yet, the Romans have gone too far.

She, the Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are not another Trinity. There are echoes of the Holy Trinity in creation, but this is not one of them and to insist that it is is not biblical. To appropriate the language of “I AM” to Mary is again, heresy.

As for what follows in their conversation, the Son of God does not receive the Virgin’s requests as commands. Again, this is blasphemy. She is not mother from eternity and she calls herself not the superior of the Lord, but the handmaid of the Lord (Luke 1:38).

The kenosis of the Spirit is his hovering over us until Christ is formed in us. He is willing to pray prayers within us when we don’t know what to say (Rom 8:26). When we lack love he pours it in our hearts (Rom 5:5). He is the reason we are called little Christs (1 John 2:20).

He hovers over the water at the beginning (Gen 1:2), he hovers over Mary at the fullness of time (Luke 1:35), and he hovers over us that Christ might dwell in us and we be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:14-19).

To call Mary the incarnation of the Holy Spirit is unequivocal blasphemy, but I do understand the motive. The issue is, what happens with her is what happens with us. She is a picture of the Christian life. Here’s what I mean:.

RT @rcanglican: Have you actually kicked the tires of Christianity? #Christianity #Faith #Jesus #Investigate #duedilligence #cars #carshopp….

As Lewis says, the command to be perfect is real, and if we surrender ourselves to him, he will make us gods. He will keep his promise to make us like himself.

Jesus’ issuing of commandments must be taken seriously. He isn’t issuing them only in order to emphasize our weakness (though this is part of it), but in his keeping of them he shows us true humanity and in his giving of his Spirit he gives us the ability to do them.

I have concerns with Comer (his theology proper in particular) but on discipleship and following Jesus I don’t see many issues. He’s speaking into a subculture of American Christianity that sees the Gospel only as a set of truths to affirm, not a way of life.

Discipleship is obviously only one paradigm the Scriptures use to apply the truths of the Gospel (adopted sonship, bride, union, putting on, slavery, etc. are other ways), but the only reason discipleship could be conceived of as Law is apart from the work of the Spirit.