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The comments are numbered….

The winner can contact me (email, or Facebook) with either his wishlist or his address for me to send it to him or to tell me to pass it on to another.

Thank you for all the fun and participation.

Next week, I am giving away a bible to be followed the week after by a super-secret book.

Same rules. See you next Wednesday.

The Pfarrernotbund (English: Emergency Covenant of Pastors) was an organisation founded on 11 September 1933 to unite German evangelical theologians, pastors and church office-holders against the introduction of the Aryan paragraph into the 28 Protestant regional church bodies and the Deutsche Evangelische Kirche (DEK) and against the efforts by Reich-bishop Ludwig Müller and the German Christians (DC) since April 1933 to merge the German evangelical churches into one “Reich’s church”, that would be Nazi in ideology and entirely lacking any Jewish or Christian origins. As a Christian resistance to National Socialism it was the forerunner of the Confessing Church, founded the following year. (Start here and then find more to read)

It is my belief that when we read Genesis 1 as the ancient piece of literature that it is, we will find new understanding of the passage that will result in a clearer understanding of how the initial audience would have heard it. In the process, we will also find that many of the perceived conflicts with modern science will be able to be resolved. I have explored this in a recent book titled The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate (IVP) and the technical aspects of ancient Near Eastern literature and the Hebrew text will be explored in greater depth in a forthcoming monograph, Genesis One As Ancient Cosmology (Eisenbrauns).

You can read the essay here:

The Bible and Interpretation.

As for me, I’m going to here Walton lecture tonight. I’ll blog about it when I can.

Augustine was born into a late-fourth-century world that was ostensibly Christian. At least, that’s what Emperor Constantine had called it at the beginning of the century, and apart from a short reversion to paganism under Julian the Apostate (360–363), the empire had carried on as Constantine had decreed.

In the process of implementing this decree, however, Christianity had co-opted pagan time for its festivals and calendar, without scriptural mandate and in obvious contradiction to scriptural command and example; a number of pagan temples and sites had been rebuilt as Christian basilicas and churches; and orthodoxy, as defined by church councils, had replaced apostolic teaching and practice. Yet the level of acceptance of this modified Christianity was not as great as church historians would have us believe. At the personal level, paganism and what was termed Christianity coexisted, and only a set of confused boundaries separated the two.

Meanwhile, as the century closed, John Chrysostom, bishop of Antioch, railed against Christians who still kept Jewish holy days, a practice that had been outlawed by two prior church councils of that century in an effort to distance the church from Christianity’s Hebraic roots.

At the same time, the line between faith and philosophy in Augustine’s world was also becoming confused. Augustine’s own parents were a case in point, the two of them being at opposite ends of the spectrum. His mother, Monica, was a devoted Roman Catholic; his father, Patricius, was a pagan who wanted his son to have a classical education in philosophy.

While Patricius pushed his son in that direction, Monica made an obvious attempt to instill a knowledge of the Scriptures and church teaching into her son. But at this point in the young man’s life, philosophy won the day. The famous challenge of third-century theologian Tertullian, “What has Jerusalem to do with Athens?” (suggesting that faith and philosophy have nothing in common), would receive a robust reply at the hand of Augustine.

During the course of Augustine’s lifetime, the blurred boundaries between Christianity and paganism, and between faith and philosophy, were redrawn. Paradoxically, this created a world in which paganism seemed simply to disappear.

Augustine’s Poisoned Chalice.

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Description: In the Second-Temple period non-Jews were attracted to Judaism’s communal life, religious observance and theological imagination. On the Jewish side, this was matched by the development of several discrete patterns of universalism ways in which Jews were able to conceive of a positive place for Gentiles within their symbolic world. In this book Terence Donaldson collects and comments on all of the texts (to the end of the second Jewish rebellion in 135 CE) that deal with Gentile sympathizers, proselytes, ethical monotheists and participants in end-time redemption. In impressive detail, Donaldson identifies, defines, and describes these “patterns of universalism.”

Subjects: Methods, Historical Approaches, History, History of Judaism

Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology – Download free podcast episodes by Apologetics315.com on iTunes..

I attended the International Call Summit, October 28 -30 hosted by Lou Engle and Stacey Campbell. Over 20 participants for other nations were gathered who are interested in holding a Call in their nation. This summit was very informative as we were filled with the DNA of the CALL and encouraged to follow through with what God has placed on our heart. On October 30th I flew to Chicago to attend the last two days of Pastor John Mulinde’s prayer summit. We met on Saturday to discuss in more detail and make preparations for the CALL Uganda to be held May 29, 2010. I will arrive in Uganda on January 6 and will be living in Uganda to partner with Pastor John Mulinde as we prepare and mobilize this Sacred Assembly, similar to the one described in Joel 2. I ask you to keep theCall Uganda and our team in prayer and if possible to fast one day a week or month, along with us, in preparation for the Call Uganda on May 29, 2010.

Lou Engle’s The Call Going To Uganda in 2010? « Kit’s Blog.

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For the next several weeks, I plan on giving away several books using the following method:

To enter, leave a comment. It has to be at least two words – mainly because it is a Wordpress thing. If you can get away with a one word comment, go for it.

Enter as many times as you want.

What?!!??

That’s right – I encourage you to break my blog. Leave as many comments as you want, and each one is an entry. You leave one comment – that’s one entry. You leave twenty comments, well, that’s twenty entries. If you leave 100 comments, well…you get the idea.

The first book up is John Walton’s, The Lost World of Genesis One, in honor of my trip to Indianapolis to hear his lecture on Thursday. So, the contest is over Thursday evening at some point.

They tell me that at some point, you can bog down the bandwidth, and I really want to see it happen.

Up coming will be one NLT bible – winner picks either a Study Bible, Life Recovery, or Mosaic, and a super secret book trying to get into paperback.

By the way, I shain’t respond as it might mess up the calculations when I use the program to pick the winner.

Remember, you can comment as many times as you want – each comment is an entry – until Thursday (3/18) evening.

Don’t subscribe!

The Episcopal Church confirmed its first openly lesbian bishop on Wednesday, six years after its first openly gay bishop took office.

“I am profoundly grateful for the many people … who have given their prayers, love, and support during this time of discernment,” Bishop-elect Mary Douglas Glasspool said after learning she’d won support from the majority of her church’s standing committees and diocesan bishops.

“I am also aware that not everyone rejoices in this election and consent,” she continued, “and will work, pray, and continue to extend my own hands and heart to bridge those gaps, and strengthen the bonds of affection among all people, in the Name of Jesus Christ.”

Glasspool, 56, was elected bishop of the Episcopal Church’s Los Angeles diocese in December. Before taking office, she needed to win the consent of a majority of the church’s standing committees and diocesan bishops.

Episcopal Church confirms first openly lesbian bishop – This Just In – CNN.com Blogs.

U.S. General David Petraeus said on Wednesday that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was fomenting anti-American sentiment due to the perception of U.S. favoritism towards Israel.

Speaking to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Petraeus explained that “enduring hostilities between Israel and some of its neighbors present distinct challenges to our ability to advance our interests in the area of responsibility.”

“Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of U.S. partnerships with governments and peoples [in the region],” Petraeus said.

His comments follow a week of tense relations between Israel and the U.S. following Israel’s announcement of plans to build 1,600 housing units in East Jerusalem, which was made public while U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was visiting the country.

Read the rest here:

U.S. general: Israel-Palestinian conflict foments anti-U.S. sentiment – Haaretz – Israel News.

I had the distinct and gratifying pleasure to have lunch with Michael Halcomb at last years SBL in New Orleans. Michael immediately strikes you as someone with a passion for the things of God. Have you checked out his website? But, like usual, there is a problem.

Not only does he have his blog, he has spent a lot of time and effort in creating and maintaining three other websites. Greek, Aramaic and Theological German.

I am trying to (re)learn Greek from scratch and Michael’s site has helped immensely.

And for the brave, there is Aramaic.

And those who hate beautiful language, there is theological German.

On each site is a variety of tools such as diagrams, podcasts, songs and even flashcards.

Free.

So, if you get a chance, visit him.

By way, please pass this along, as these sites are really helpful and should be utilized by more people.

Genesis, in the first chapter of the Old Testament, is the biblical story of the creation of Earth and life and tells the story in the form of a seven-day period. This essay is not about the seven days (here we will assume that the “days” are allegorical); this is about what Genesis says happened on each of those seven days of creation.

He goes on to aligns science and religion in creative ways.

(as a reminder, you can continue to enter mine as any times as you want.)

The New Living Translation Break Through to Clarity Bible Contest and Giveaway

Visit www.facebook.com/NewLivingTranslation and click on the tab that says “Sweepstakes”

Fill out a simple form, take a quick Bible clarity survey, invite your friends to join and you’ll be entered to win one of our exciting prizes.

With each fan number milestone a new prize will be given away.

Grand Prize

Apple iPad 64G and a Life Application Study Bible
Awarded when the NLT Fan Page hits the fifth milestone
Retail Value: $829.00

2nd Prize

32G iPod Touch and a Life Application Study Bible
Awarded when the NLT Fan Page hits the fourth milestone
Retail Value: $300.00

3rd Prize

Kindle DX and a Life Application Study Bible
Awarded when the NLT Fan Page hits the third milestone
Retail Value: $489.00

4th Prize

Apple iPad 16G and a Life Application Study Bible
Awarded when the New Living Translation Fan Page hits the second milestone
Retail Value: $499.00

5th Prize

Apple iPad 32G and a Life Application Study Bible
Awarded when the NLT Fan Page hits the first milestone
Retail Value: $599.00

Now, I’ve done my Christian duty and forgiven them by entering the contest and I hope, for their souls’ sake, that they go ahead and declare me the winner. No pressure. I just, you know, would hate to think that they let a chance to make up for running a contest on the same day that I am go by.

True story.

Click to Order

I like Witherington’s James and he does a great effort in showcasing Jude. In doing so, he creates a commentary with both the background and a small effort applied to the Greek, bringing out both to detail the uniqueness of each letter.

One thing on his exposition of Jude which strikes me as odd, is that while he willingly allows for echoes or direct thought quotations from the Deuterocanon, he singles out Jude’s use of Enoch as something different. Instead of aligning himself with nearly every other scholar, Witherington instead allows for that a unity between Jude and not necessarily 1st Enoch, but the oral tradition behind that section of 1st Enoch which it and Jude has in common.

Witherington goes far into bringing Jude from a virtual New Testament Apocryphal status into a rather useful light for understanding the theology of apostasy.

Launching into James with almost anti-Lutheran fervor, he quickly declares the ’strawry epistle’ for what it is – the New Testament’s conclusion to the Wisdom literary tradition. Connecting this ‘back of the book’ epistle, as he did with Jude, to the words of Christ, the picture emerges of just how close the New Testament documents are to Christ and the Gospel tradition. Witherington does something most do not when look at James – he skips Paul as the primary point of comparison, and lets the work be measured squarely against the Gospels.

Scholars have called the Epistle of James a Christian revision to a Jewish work, but Witherington moves beyond that and provides evidence  that this epistle is drowning in Christology, explicitly such as James 5.6 (which connects to the Righteous One in Wisdom 2.1-20) and implicitly to the whole of Jesus’ teachings in various and diverse ways. He provides a short commentary based on this theory, and paints the picture well.

One thing about this work which at once intrigues me and off puts me a little is the author’s reliance upon his previous works, especially in dealing with his writings on rhetoric in the New Testament. Seemingly, and if not knowing Witherington’s views here, one would think that he sees the New Testament as nothing more than various collections of rhetoric. This is not a downside; on the contrary, this should engage the reader into exploring this facet of the New Testament writers as more educated than previously believed.

BW3’s handling of the works-faith issues which often times surround those who interpret Paul and James is done well, although at times, it seems like he is forcing the two together without really examining dissenting opinions. Granted, this is not always necessary, and Witherington does is to present his own argument for the unity of the New Testament writers by using social-linguistic tools instead of theological.

He closes our James and Jude, before moving on to 1st Peter, with a summary and some additional points, one of which is to consistently cast James in the light of a Jewish(-Christian) sage not letting the reader forget that the author of this epistle is the brother of Christ.

In taking 1st Peter as actually written by the Apostle Peter, Witherington draws comparisons between Christ, James, Paul and the old fisherman in drawing out sapiential rhetoric. In what is characteristic of BW3’s style, he gives a short commentary on several key aspects of 1st Peter, more notably the first chapter. Keep a bible near you, opened, as you read with Witherington, or you will miss what he is trying to tell you. At this point, the author states something rather personal,

The longer I work with the New Testament, the less and less satisfactory it seems to me to divide theology and ethics from one another, as if they are discrete subjects. (314)

Witherington’s right, you know. Ethics is not about legalism, and just knowing about God and Christ is simply not enough. There has to be a moment in your life when you realize just what knowing about God and Christ entails and requires. Some call this ethics; others call this holiness; still others call it legalism. No matter, theology and ethics, as BW3 so rightly puts it, is centered upon Christ.

One thing that I have noticed, except in dealing with the facets of human sexuality and duty to Empire, Witherington doesn’t delve into the required ethics, although in his discussion of 1st Peter he starts to. He begins to discuss community ethics – relationships between husband and wife, believer and non-believer, and slave and master. He makes an excellent point that by addressing the wife and the slave, it immediately elevates them into a human position unlike other literature at the time which refused to address the subordinate. In doing so, he brings to light the biblical ethic of the choice of the individual to either obey or not obey. Because 1st Peter addresses the cultural subordinate, the author feels that this begins the process of equalizing genders and social positions. He makes a solid point which I hope will be addresses in the second volume.

1st Peter is by far the best of the work so far. It goes deep into Witherington’s own thought world, dealing with ethics and the theology upon which the ethics were based. Not only is Christology covered, slightly, but so is the theology of empire, community, and interpersonal relationships.

Go. Buy. This. Book. Please.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1jhgrMo1WE

Who are Concerned Nazarenes?

In August, 2008, Tim Wirth, a former drummer in several rock bands, helped coordinate an event featuring author Ray Yungen (“A Time of Departing”, and “For Many Shall Come In My Name”), at the Piqua Church of the Nazarene in Ohio. Since joining the church, he’d become deeply concerned about emerging church philosophy that had crept into the Nazarene denomination – and wanted to alert others to the emergent movement. Tim met Don and Sue Butler, long-time Nazarenes, who shared the same concerns – and Concerned Nazarenes was launched.

After several meetings and conversations with the Butlers, it was evident that the Holy Spirit had impressed upon their hearts to alert Nazarenes around the world to the emergent agenda. Shortly after this, Nazarene evangelist Beverly Turner joined Concerned Nazarenes and gave the movement a voice. Beverly shared the verse that would become the Concerned Nazarenes’ anthem: “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3)

Concerned Nazarenes has grown to include Nazarene pastors and evangelists across the United States – each grieved by the spiritual demise of our much-loved denomination under the influence of the emergent movement. Concerned Nazarenes is a grassroots movement that serves to give voice to all those in the church that share our dismay at the direction in which the emergent movement is striving to guide Nazarene beliefs and practices. In 2009, more than 500 Nazarenes across the United States delivered a petition to our General Superintendents, seeking clarification of their stance on the Emergent Church movement. Our fervent hope and prayer is that the General Superintendents will respond by purging our denomination of the emergent cancer before it is too late.

You can find more here:

Concerned Nazarenes -- Home.

I do view some in the Emergent Church differently than those which practice the CP movement, you know, like IHOP, etc…

Welcome to the Jewish World…

Foundation Stone is redrawing the map in Jewish Education. With innovative programs such as our Tel Yavne Prototype Excavation (TYPE), De’Ara Seminars and Educational Materials, and Media Resource Kits, we are anchoring traditional texts to the artifacts, maps, and locations that form the context for Jewish identity. Now that’s a mouthful. Feel free to explore – we welcome your contributions and insight – as together we empower the next generation…

You can find the website here:

Home.

I recently had the privilege of guest lecturing at the University of Texas on the topic of the Resurgence of Mission & Reformed Theology in America. Eileen Delao-Flynn, Professor and Religion writer for the Austin American-Statesman, was kind enough to extend me the invitation to address her Journalism & Religion class. The entire lecture would be too long to reproduce here. However, I have included a section on “Resurging Calvinism” below.

Resurging Calvinism « Trials, Testing, and Transformation.

Moroccan activist Kacem El Ghazzali was recently subjected to Facebook’s TOS when a group he had created, entitled “Jeunes pour la séparation entre Religion et Enseignement” (youth for the separation between religion and education), was promptly removed.  El Ghazzali emailed Facebook, but received no response.  Two days later, his personal account had been deleted from Facebook as well (the movement also has a blog, hosted on Blogger).  He says that while the group was live, he received emails from Muslims who opposed the group, as well as other groups he had created.

Global Voices Advocacy » Facebook Removes Moroccan Atheist Group and its Founder.

3:37 PM One of the tribes I hope against hope to be able to revisit either now or in July are the warlike Gujis who live next to the Burjis. Since my preaching tour in Gujiland a couple of years ago I’ve developed an even greater appreciation for Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and His teachings about peace-making, love of enemy, and kingdom ethics. I say this as one who formerly sympathized with the religious right and its false gospel of neoconservative ideology. (Phyllis Schafly once said, “The atomic bomb is a marvelous gift that was given to our country by God.” At one time I would have found nothing objectionable in her statement.) The Bible I read speaks of radical reconciliation. My evangelical theology assures me that no tribal conflict is beyond the reach of the redemption that is found in Christ Jesus. Please pray that I will be able to revisit this precious tribe whom God loves and for whom His Son died.

Dave Black Online.

• Difficult Days: A Lenten Meditation
• Glenn Beck Attacks the Churches and Threatens Religious Liberty
• God Loves the Real World
• The Fruit of Glenn Beck’s Spirit

I ask you to check out a few of those comments here, as they will truly show you what the spirit of Glenn Beck really is about.

In course of our discussion on the fate of the unbelievers and the sinners, we came upon Revelation 21.24 which was quoted as saying:

And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. (Rev 21:24 NKJV)

I was quoting:

The nations will walk in its light, and the kings of the world will enter the city in all their glory. (Rev 21:24 NLT)

The difference, it seems plays a large part in how we interpret this verse. I will allow Philip Comfort, author of New Testament Text and Translation Commentary – which I believe is an essential tool for understanding these issues – explain:

The words τῶν σωζομένων (“of the saved ones”) come from Codex 1 (according to Tregelles and Alford), which Erasmus used in making his Greek text. These words eventually became part of the TR and were translated into the KJV and the NKJV. This interpolation may be the correct interpretation in the sense that these “nations” might be another description of the believers – for 21.27 says that none can enter into the city whose name is not in the Lamb’s book of life. But it may not be the correct interpolation, if John was speaking of the “nations” as those people who live on the new earth and benefit from the New Jerusalem (see 22.2) but are not included among the redeemed. Either way, Erasmus’s interpolation has had a long tradition because of its place in the TR and the KJV.

A few things. Erasmus, who is to be honored for his work in rescuing the bible and giving it to the commoner, was not perfect. He was working with a few manuscripts and under the sword, so to speak.

Codex 1 dates from the 11th or 12th century.

This is an interpolation by interpretation, but by historical correction. Throughout the bible, and more so Revelation, Kings of the Earth and Nations are a particular class of people, as we have already explored.

If you read this plainly, must be impressed to follow Comfort’s understanding of the variant-less meaning.

One of the recent interpretations on John 3.5 follows this route:

John 3.3 is talking about being born again. John 3.5 is talking about a natural birth (water) and a spiritual birth (spirit) based on the modern application of water to the water sac of a newborn.

The problem is two-fold, really:

First, Christ makes a statement in vs 3, which in verse 4, Nicodemus asks for understanding. In v5, Christ restated verse 3 in an expansion. This is not talking about something new.

The next problem is the application of water to the breaking of the water as we understand it today. We have to realize that neither John nor Christ had been to medical school in the 21st century. Further, biblical, idiomatic, descriptions of birth never included water. It is reading a modern notion into the text if you were to apply the water of birth to the water of which Christ is speaking.

First, we turn to the book of Wisdom (of Solomon) which is of the community from which the writers of the New Testament sprang. The author, like John, is an Hellenized Jew.

I also am mortal, like all men, a descendant of the first-formed child of earth; and in the womb of a mother I was molded into flesh, within the period of ten months, compacted with blood, from the seed of a man and the pleasure of marriage. (Wisdom 7:1-2 RSV)

Note this post here, by Suzanne, before you go further. Note as well that Dr. Gayle’s comments alerts us to a Greek’s description of birth. (If you have ever seen a child birth, you know that it is more by blood than by water, after all, the cord delivers the mother’s blood to the baby, not water.)

We then turn to the Gospel in question, to see how the author handled the situation of birth:

who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (Joh 1:13 NASB)

Further, in verse 6, we have that Christ plainly says that those who are born of flesh are flesh. No where in the biblical texts, or supporting documents, do we find that a birth is said to be of water.

The NET’s note on this reads:

Or “born of water and wind” (the same Greek word, πνεύματος [pneumatos], may be translated either “spirit/Spirit” or “wind”).

sn Jesus’ somewhat enigmatic statement points to the necessity of being born “from above,” because water and wind/spirit/Spirit come from above. Isaiah 44:3-5 and Ezek 37:9-10 are pertinent examples of water and wind as life-giving symbols of the Spirit of God in his work among people. Both occur in contexts that deal with the future restoration of Israel as a nation prior to the establishment of the messianic kingdom. It is therefore particularly appropriate that Jesus should introduce them in a conversation about entering the kingdom of God. Note that the Greek word πνεύματος is anarthrous (has no article) in v. 5. This does not mean that spirit in the verse should be read as a direct reference to the Holy Spirit, but that both water and wind are figures (based on passages in the OT, which Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel should have known) that represent the regenerating work of the Spirit in the lives of men and women.

What was it that Christ was referring to, that Nicodemus should have known?

“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. (Eze 36:25-27 NLT)

I believe that this is more here than a discussion on baptismal regeneration, as it appears that Christ is speaking about entry into the New, eschatological, Israel, but the point of this post is to speak to the idea that ‘water’ refers to the first birth. Not only does the construction of the passage prevent that, but so too does the biblical narrative and the cultural surroundings which never once recorded the idea that birth is of water.

(As a side note, read Doug’s post on how this might refer to the Virgin Birth)

Like male privilege, White privilege, and the like, the easiest way to recognize Christian privilege is probably by considering a few examples.

• An American Christian can affix a Jesus fish to his or her car without having to give vandalism a second thought. And yet, I do not get to place any sort of symbol promoting science, reason, or atheism on my car for fear of vandalism or assault. The same goes for t-shirts.
• The state of Florida actually exempts faith-based day-care centers from state inspection and licensing while requiring both of secular day-care centers.
• Christian billboards are commonplace, but atheist billboards are typically met with vandalism, protests, and calls to the billboard owner.
• Public school teachers may come under fire for criticizing religion but are expected to criticize every other form of idiocy.

Christian privilege is nonconscious in that the person who has it does not think about it because he/she doesn’t have to. Here’s how Austin Cline put it:

A nonconscious ideology is analogous to the water fish swim in: fish don’t think of the water as wet because this environment is all they know — it structures their experience of life itself. Water simply is. Members of privileged groups don’t have to think about their environment because, for them, that environment simply is. They don’t have to be concerned about others’ opinions because it’s safe to assume that most think like them.

What is Christian Privilege?.

I have to wonder, is their an atheist privilege in some sectors as well?

Trevon Wax, an author of a wonderful little book, has a series of posts on the subject of Luther who fought to correct abuses and Zwingli who fought desperately to destroy Christianity:

In one excellent post, Wax writes,

Zwingli believed, based on logic and human reason, that a human body could not be present in more than one place; Luther challenged him to take Christ at his word. If Jesus said he was physically present, then logic and human reason should be forced to correspond to the everlasting words of Christ – not the other way around. In Luther’s eyes, Zwingli was seeking to modify the natural reading of Christ’s words in order to make it compatible with human reason.

“I do not ask how Christ can be God and man and how His natures could be united. For God is able to act far beyond our imagination. To the Word of God one must yield. It is up to you to prove that the body of Christ is not there when Christ Himself says, ‘This is my body.’ I do not want to hear what reason says. I completely reject carnal or geometrical arguments…”

Luther did not understand Zwingli’s reticence to accept a physical presence of Christ in the Eucharist. He believed that just as the body of Christ was necessary for salvation, so a physical presence of Christ was important for the Lord’s Supper. Luther saw Zwingli’s attempt to “spiritualize” the presence of Christ as a backhanded way of denying Christ’s true humanity.

I note that in one of those quotes about this infamous meeting, Zwingli goes on to contribute salvation to the Greek sages based on their consciences. His salvation was one of human reasoning and could very well have done without the Cross of Christ, it seems.

You can find more posts from Trevon, here:

1. Luther versus Zwingli at Marburg: Why the Fuss?

2. Luther on the Lord’s Supper

3. Zwingli on the Lord’s Supper

4. Humanity and Physicality

5. Humanity and Omnipresence

6. Flesh and Spirit

7. Marburg’s Conclusion

Related Articles:

Book Review: Understanding 4 Views on the Lord’s Supper
The Case for Open Communion
Spurgeon on the Lord’s Supper

HT

The view that baptism relates primarily to justification and essential for the forgiveness of sins was the predominate view that continued far past the early Patristics continued until the Reformers (I’ve researched many hours and I’m yet to find an opposing viewpoint before Zwingli, but I surely welcome corrective data if its out there). With the implications of the Reformation period in mind, however, it makes logical sense that such a shift of focus would occur since this period began thinking of salvation by faith alone.

via The Function of Baptism Throughout Church History: Part 3 « Tolle Lege!.

How is it that only Zwingli, 1500 or so years removed from the Apostles, suddenly understood baptism?

For more information, check out this article.