Along with Martin Luther, John Calvin is perhaps the most well-known Protestant revolutionary/reformer. Born in 1509, Calvin was a mere eight years old when Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of Wittenberg Cathedral. As a teenager, Calvin must have witnessed firsthand the disintegration of religious world around him: the crumbling of the Catholic…
Yes, I know, that is quite a provocative and scandalous headline for a post, isn’t it? It’s one thing to take issue with Ken Ham’s claims about science or his interpretation of Genesis 1-11, but should we really question his belief in the resurrection of Christ? Isn’t that to essentially do the very thing so…
Despite my labeling Martin Luther’s movement as the Protestant Revolution, Luther was not originally looking to actually start a religious revolution. He truly wanted to reform very real abuses in the Catholic Church. Yet as things turned out, eventually his fiery personality (not to mention his rather vulgar tirades) led to, not only a full-out…
Similar to his understanding of authority and Scripture, Luther’s understanding of salvation was also affected by his over-reaction to the admittedly distorted teaching of the Catholic Church of his day. The Catholic Church was teaching that although salvation came through grace and faith in Christ, that there were certain things that human beings could (and…
Last summer, when I came out with my book, The Heresy of Ham, I made it a point to send a copy to Ken Ham at the Creation Museum. Not surprisingly, I never heard back from him. But every now and then I wonder if he leafed through my book—his most recent blog post is…
Yesterday, I began to talk about Martin Luther’s view of Scripture, and pointed out that there was a fundamental flaw with it. I’d like to elaborate on that a bit more. Some of this might sound a bit redundant from the last post, but I think it is worth emphasizing. Luther: The Precursor to Enlightenment…
When a young college professor named Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door at Wittenberg Cathedral in 1517 in hopes of opening the door to debate over a variety of perceived abuses within the Catholic Church, no one knew that, in actuality, he had opened the floodgates to a whole lot more. Now,…
In most overviews of Western civilization, the typical progression not only incorrectly lumps over one thousand years of culture and history under the umbrella of the “Middle Ages,” it also tends to then portray both the Italian Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation as simultaneous events that both stemmed out from the Middle Ages. This is…
One final thing needs to be mentioned regarding the day to day life and faith of the common man during the High Catholic Age. What I’m about to say can be related to virtually every age and every people, so this is not unique to one particular time period. Nevertheless, it has to be said…
Currently, I am devoting a lot of time to finishing up my translation of the Major and Minor Prophets of the Old Testament. One of the things I am including in my translation are short introductions to each prophetic book that will hopefully help the reader understand what that particular prophetic book is about. Consider…