by | Jan 28, 2011 | Bible, Church, Theology, Worship
This post is a continuation of On the Efficacy of the Sacraments and Word, Spirit, and Dry Bones, in which I have been trying to get my head around the differences between Lutheran and Reformed understandings of the relationship between the Holy Spirit, the Word of...
by | Jan 28, 2011 | Bible, Books, Church, Preaching, Theology, Worship
In a previous post, I quoted Charles Hodge’s argument that the Spirit of God alone gives efficacy to the Word and to the sacraments: There is, therefore, a strict analogy, according to the Reformed doctrine, between the Word and the sacraments as a means of...
by | Jan 22, 2011 | Books, Church, Theology, Worship
I have been studying up on the sacraments for ordination exams, and, in Charles Hodge’s Systematic Theology, I came across an interesting contrast between how Lutheran and Reformed Christians understand the efficacy of the sacraments that I did not previously...
by | Jan 23, 2008 | Books, Church, Theology, Worship
A. A. Hodge on the sacraments as “seals” of the covenant. I found it helpful: The sacraments were designed to ‘apply’—i.e., actually to convey—to believers the benefits of the new covenant. If they are ‘seals’ of the covenant, they...
by | Sep 29, 2007 | Bible, Church, Theology, Worship
Several months ago, I wrote two posts about the connection of the outward signs of circumcision and baptism to their respective inward realities: circumcision of the heart and baptism of the Spirit. You can read those posts here: Part 1 and Part 2. In the first post,...