Doug's Theology Page

Doug’s Theological Thoughts

  • Ignatius and the bishop

    Ignatius shows quite a different view but claims to be contemporaneous to the other texts. He presents a single bishop and multiple presbuteros (pastors/priests). In The Epistle of Ignatius to the Philadelphians Chapter 2, v 12, he writes: …attend to the bishop, and to the presbytery, and to the deacons…. There is some discussion of…

  • Polycarp and the Presbuteros

    Polycarp (in the Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians) describes the duties of the presbuteros (bishops) in Chapter 6. Once again, the focus is not on a monarchical bishop, but on a local pastor: And let the presbyters be compassionate and merciful to all, bringing back those that wander, visiting all the sick, and not…

  • Pastor, Priest, Bishop, Elder

    Hard to believe but the four terms Pastor, Priest, Bishop, and Elder are all used interchangeably in the NT to describe the same function/office. PastorThe English word Pastor is only used once in the KJV: Eph 4:11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and…

  • Clement of Rome

    Clement of Rome, Chapter 42, is one of the earliest references to bishops outside of the New Testament. The apostles have preached the Gospel to us from Or, “by the command of.” the Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ [has done so] from Or, “by the command of.” God. Christ therefore was sent forth by God,…

  • What is a Bishop?

    Key to Apostolic Succession (AS) is the bishop. The bishop has Biblical origins. The role is bishop in the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) and Eastern Orthodox Church (EOC) seems to be different than the bishop as described in the New Testament (NT) in several ways. In the EOC and RCC, bishops cannot be married. In…

  • Apostolic Succession in general

    As someone examining the claims of the Eastern Orthodox church (EOC), the claim to apostolic succession (AS) by the EOC is an interesting subject. Wikipedia defines AS as: Apostolic succession is the doctrine in some of the more ancient Christian communions that the succession of bishops, in uninterrupted lines, is historically traceable back to the…

  • Apostolic Succession in Sweden

    It seems to me that the case of Sweden in this regard is interesting. In 1524, Pope Clement VII, in Rome, consecrated Petrus Magni bishop. Petrus Magni returned to Sweden as bishop of Västerås. In his turn, Petrus Magni, who was one of the last Catholic bishops in Sweden, consecrated Laurentius Petri bishop in 1531…

  • Humanity in a Divine Organization?

    I’m struggling to come to terms with the controversies going around in the Orthodox Church. I’ve added links to the BLOGs on the left side of this page which show both sides. Combat and words are being thrown around that make the Calvary Chapel battles of the past 13 years seem tame in comparison. The…

  • Lutherans, Homosexuals, Minnesota and a Calvinist Prophet

    John Piper has stated in his BLOG that the tornados that struck the Twin Cities were God’s judgment on the Lutheran body meeting to decide the place of homosexuals in the ordained ministry in the ELCA church. The secular press has picked up the story.

  • Perpetual Virginity of Mary

    The claim has been made by some Orthodox that: For about 1,600 years the entire Church affirmed the ever-virginity of Mary. The notion that she did not remain a virgin was introduced by the Anabaptists and some Calvinists long after the Reformation was an established reality. I don’t believe that is historically accurate. The teaching…

  • Emergent Theology and Orthodoxy

    One of the podcasts on Ancient Faith Radio concerned the four (struggling for the right word here) “angles” on the church. What surprised me was the speaker dealt with not just Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox but with the Emergent Church. I had expected interaction with the other older traditions, but to hear them grappling with…

  • The Ancient Faith

    A couple of things have caught my attention recently. Ancient Faith Radio I’ve spent the last couple of days listening to podcasts from Ancient Faith Radio. Some great material on there ranging from Liturgies to seminars to preaching and teaching. Energetic Procession A buddy of mine, Perry Robinson, has a great BLOG on Orthodox subjects,…

  • Epigenetics and Original Sin Interesting thought? That there’s more to our inheritance than merely the set of genes that are passed down. Somehow our behavior is passed down as well. The old nature vs nurture argument has shifted dramatically in the direction of nurture and away from the old mechanistic view that it’s all in…

  • “Mystery” and the Bible

    Christians often misuse the word “mystery” to describe something that they can’t understand or more particularly something that the believe God has not revealed. The Greek word, “musterion”, translated in English as “mystery” meant something totally different. Rather than being something hidden to believers, a “mystery” is something which is only hidden now to unbelievers.…

  • Critiques of Wright

    I was asked about the following paper: http://www.thirdmill.org/files/english/html/nt/NT.h.Hill.Wright.html The question was “What do I think about this paper?” Well, since you asked, here’s my 2c worth… The good part is that the author of this paper has the core point of Wright correct. That’s not always the case with Wright’s critics. The central point is…

  • From the Mailbox…

    Wright comments that Saunder’s correctly understands that the New Perspective has at least one commonality with the Reformed tradition in that “it sees the Jewish Law as a good thing now fulfilled, rather than (as in much Lutheran thought) a bad thing now abolished.” As a theonomist, how do you think you would modify the…

  • Matthew for Everyone

    I am using the Matthew for Everyone commentary by N. T. Wright to prepare my weekly sermons. I am following the Revised Common Lectionary for text selection. The text for this week is from Matthew 25:31-46. Wright has an interesting way of dealing with this text. The usual way of reading this text is to…

  • EG: Unit 1, Day 1

    Sometimes I think that Christians use words deliberately intended to confuse people who don’t already speak their lingo. I went to a Halloween party at a local church which had a puppet show. There were a lot of non-Christians there but the puppets kept quoting scripture in a series of passages which meant very little…

  • EG: Memorizing Scripture

    I really respect people who can memorize. I can’t. I have very poor memorization skills. Because I am so back at memorization, I have some tricks that the EG materials don’t list. My best memory trick is to write out the verse on a whiteboard. I then erase words and practice saying the verse. I…

  • Experiencing Experiencing God

    Who Am I? I am a pastor of a small church in the upper midwest USA. We have a group of ladies that went through the Experiencing God materials this past summer and asked me to teach it at our Wednesday Night Prayer/Bible Study Meetings. Thus, I am facilitating a group of about sixteen people…

  • When is the end?

    One of the issues that this passage raises for me is that of timing. Is this describing the events of the Second Coming of Christ, which is yet future from us now, or is this describing the events of 70 A. D.? Apocalyptic language is much slippier than we often realize. We tend to read…

  • The ten virgins

    Finding the historical center This passage causes me much difficulty when I try to find its historical center. By that I mean, Jesus referring to something future from Him, but is it past, present or future to us? If it is describing something in the past, then there are lessons to learn from this, but…

  • Lectionary Text for week ending 11-6-2005

    Matt 25:1-13 The Ten Virgins (NASB) “Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. “Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. “For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil…

  • Experiencing God

    A group of the ladies at our church completed the book Experiencing God this past summer and had good things to say about it. I’ve started a BLOG to document my own journey through the Experiencing God materials. It’s at http://experiencinggodgroup.blogspot.com.

  • Kingdom Principles

    Jesus lays out the principles of Servant Leadership in this text. He starts with the obvious negative examples and then proceeds to tell the disciples how they should act. It appears in this text that the Pharisees set themselves up as judges over the religious conduct of Israel but they were unwilling to help those…

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