Dr Paul Allen

For Martin Luther , the work of Christ came to sinners outwardly in God ’s institutions and inwardly by the Holy Spirit and faith. Both the outward and the inward were necessary. He wrote: “Now when God sends forth his holy gospel he deals with us in a twofold manner, first outwardly, then inwardly. Outwardly he deals with us through the oral word of the gospel and through material signs, that is, baptism and the sacrament of the altar . Inwardly he deals with us through the Holy Spirit, faith, and other gifts. But whatever their measure or order the outward factors should and must precede. The inward experience follows and is effected by the outward. For he wants to give no one the Spirit or faith outside of the outward Word and sign instituted by him, as he says in Luke 16 [:29], “Let them hear Moses and the prophets.” Accordingly Paul can call baptism a “washing of regeneration” wherein God “richly pours out the Holy Spirit” [Titus 3:5]. And the oral gospel “is the power...

English: Ananias restoring the sight of Saint Paul (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel .” ( Philippians 1:17 )   Many Christians today decry the use of apologetics or evidences in Christian witnessing, feeling it is somehow dishonoring to the Lord or to the Scriptures to try to defend them.   But as our text indicates, the apostle Paul did not agree with this. The gospel does need defending, and he was set for its defense against the attacks of its adversaries. He also told his disciples that “in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace” ( Philippians 1:7 ).   The Greek word translated “defense” is  apologia , from which we derive our English word “apologetics.” It is a legal term, meaning the case made by a defense attorney on behalf of a defendant under attack by a prosecutor. Thus, the apostle is saying: “I am set to give an apologetic for the...

The Mennonites, and the Anabaptists in general, were an oppressed group that endured some serious persecution in the past, but they ended up surviving and even flourishing partly because of an invention of unparalleled importance that came out shortly before they were on the scene: the  printing press .  With the printing press, the Catholic church   was no longer in control of the distribution of the scriptures and anyone with some money and effort could print a copy of the Bible and distribute it to the masses.  Not only did the Bible get copied, but other ideas got distributed as well…and many of the unwelcome ideas produced no small response (take a look at pages 5-7 here ). Among the ideas that were not so welcome, the teachings of the Anabaptists were highly unwelcome in reformation-era Europe.  The Anabaptists were persecuted by both the Reformers and the Catholic Church for many ideas, like their repudiation of infant baptism and novel teaching of b...

English: German Anabaptist Balthasar Hubmaier (1485-1528); Gravure by Christoffel van Sichem Deutsch: Deutscher Täufer Balthasar Hubmaier (1485-1528); Stich von Christoffel van Sichem (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Europe's Hapsburg rulers were convinced that the Anabaptist sect was dangerous to the peace of the Empire. And with good reason: a peasant revolt, led by extreme Anabaptists , destroyed the peace of central Europe. The Hapsburgs determined to eradicate the Anabaptists from their kingdom. They drew no distinction between peaceable Anabaptists and radicals. In July, 1527, King Ferdinand's men arrested an Anabaptist leader who was halfway between the peaceable and radical factions. This was Balthasar Hubmaier. The authorities extradited him to Vienna where he was burned at the stake  on this day, March 10, 1528 . Three days later they tied a stone around his wife's neck and threw her into the Danube river to drown. But although he was dead, Balthasar's i...

Oil painting of a young John Calvin. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Calvin faced a charismatic crisis of his own in his own day. I want to look at how he addressed them. As the leading reformer in that day, whatever faced the church faced John Calvin . He had the dominant voice and people looked to him to address issues. The Anabaptists were a collection of subgroups which had elements of an inner word and inner witness of the Holy Spirit . They began to seek ecstatic visions and prophetic manifestations and miracles, etc. Then there were the Libertines who were one of the subgroups under the Anabaptists. They were antinomians. They abused Christian liberty and proved themselves to be, most likely, unconverted. Calvin called them a sect one hundred times more dangerous than the Roman Catholic church itself. They were lead by fleshly impulses and believed the Holy Spirit was adding new revelation to the Bible. They set aside the Scripture and wanted to follow the inner ...

Image via Wikipedia “On the surface,” Tim writes, “the Reformed and evangelical world seems divided between ‘Cultural Transformationists’ and the ‘ Two Kingdoms ’ views.” Although the Transformationists include disparate camps (“neo-Calvinists, the Christian Right , and the theonomists”), “they all believe Christians should be about redeeming and changing the culture along Christian lines.” “On the other hand, the Two Kingdoms view believes essentially the opposite—that neither the church nor individual Christians should be in the business of changing the world or society.” Here, too, there is a spectrum. Then you have the neo- Anabaptists who “much more pessimistic than Reformed 2Ks about the systems of the world, which they view as ‘Empire,’ based on violence and greed.” Yet 2ks and neo-Anabaptists both “reject completely the idea that ‘kingdom work’ means changing society along Christian lines. Both groups believe the main job of Christians is to build up the church, a counter-c...