Brianna Kennedy @keylime98

If you’re RC, EO, etc and want to critique “Protestantism,” name the doctrine and name the tradition it belongs to. Wesleyan? Reformed? Anabaptist? Lutheran? “Protestants believe X” is usually a tell that you haven’t spent any time learning what the traditions actually believe.

When I was an atheist, I read "Joshua left none remaining" in the Bible. I was horrified. That is genocide! Now that I am a Christian, I understand the context. That is often cited as proof that the Bible commands genocide. But here's the problem: that's not how ancient Near Eastern war accounts were written. Egypt's Thutmose III claimed enemy armies were "annihilated totally" and "non-existent." Yet those same armies fought again later. The Moabite King Mesha claimed Israel had "utterly perished forever." Israel survived another century. Assyrian King Sennacherib claimed he killed his enemies and "not one escaped." History says otherwise. Ancient kings routinely used hyperbolic war language. We do the same today. If someone says the Warriors "obliterated" the Lakers, nobody thinks LeBron literally ceased to exist. So why do critics suddenly read Joshua with strict literalism while recognizing hyperbole everywhere else in the ancient world? The conquest was never about ethnic cleansing. It was about God's judgment on deeply evil pagan practices. And this is only the beginning of the discussion.

57% of the signers of the American Declaration of Independence were Anglicans. 50% of the signers of the American Constitution were Anglicans. You're welcome, America! Come on back to your Church...

"The Church is the new Israel!" 👉 One side: "No it is not!" 👉 The other side: "Yes it is!" Both answers overly simplify the full biblical narrative. The answer is in the middle. Firstly, it is absolutely true that Christians inherit the promises of Israel. Again and again, Paul describes believers as receiving the covenantal promise given to Abraham. On a personal level, have you ever quoted over yourself Isaiah 54:17? "No weapon formed against you shall prosper." Or Jeremiah 29:11? "For I know the plans I have for you, to give you a future and a hope." Do you know why it is fair game for you to do that? Because these verses in context are about Israel! And you inherit the promises to Israel. It is also true that Israel right now is still in a place of divine judgment. Even observant Orthodox Jews admit that the fact that they are in exile (Hebrew: Galut) is proof that the punishment inflicted by Hashem in year 70 is still in effect. But here is the missing puzzle piece. God made promises to Israel, the physical descendants of Jacob. And His word is true. And He will fulfill His word, as Paul wrote in Romans 11, "As it is written." This means that all the promises given to national Israel, to the Jewish people, WILL come to pass. Not without Jesus. Heaven forbid. But at His coming, when they see Him and recognize Him. This will be the start of the future Messianic Kingdom on earth. All Israel at that time will be saved in Yeshua. And every single promise made to the Jewish people, that some people ascribe exclusively to the church, will be fulfilled in them. This is the holistic biblical picture.

Patriotism and nationalism are basically synonyms. I loathe what gets called Christian nationalism but I intellectually loathe this dishonest reductionist name-calling. Actually make an argument.

Joel Rainey. ن @joelrainey

a week ago

Very helpful distinction provided by our Presbyterian brothers and sisters.

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The desire to become righteous before God is something man cannot turn off, no matter how "unchurched" or "secular" he becomes. It animates everything he does. And every self-destructive impulse you see in the western world is the result of people coming up with insane answers to the "what makes me righteous" question after rejecting the answer that Christianity gives. So when it comes to Muslim rape gangs, why are European leaders and progressives categorically unwilling to address the issue? It's because they believe that "not being racist" makes them righteous. That's what makes them good people, holy, acceptable to whatever concept of God they've cobbled together in their minds. Present them with the evidence and many will simply ignore it. They will act like you said nothing so they can resume cooing over the beauty of multiculturalism and prove to themselves, and their god, that they are not racist and thus righteous, unlike all the racist people who have such unjustified views towards Islam. Show the very faces of the girls who were raped to the most devout priests and priestesses of "not being racist" and they will literally laugh in their faces. They will boast of not caring. And they will boast of not caring because the righteousness they get from "not being racist" completely entirely 100% matters more to them than innocent girls being victimized. They would let five million innocents be raped before they would dare admit anything remotely approaching the "racism" that Islam is incompatible with freedom and peace and order and safety. They would let their own daughters be raped for the same reason. If you think I'm overexaggerating, consider how many people throughout history have sacrificed their own children to the gods they believed would favor them for doing so. Those people were made of the same flesh. They carried the same sinful nature. They are on the same quest for righteousness and forged the same dark paths on their journey. And until you see Jesus as the answer, there is no way to get yourself on safe footing. Until you believe that Jesus Christ is the sacrificial Lamb who won your salvation and gave it to you freely, then you will always be inclined to sacrifice the weak and lowly in order to accomplish whatever you think you need to accomplish to be pleasing in the sight of your god. So if you aren't a Christian but hate to see what has happened throughout Europe, and what is happening in America, the only way you can build a better future is through faith in Christ. Find a church. Hear the Gospel. Believe it. Understand that the only way to be pleasing to God is through the blood of His Son. The more we all believe that, the more we will all stop turning a blind eye to the blood of the innocent today.

@MimiSchizo I won't lie, the mitre bothers me because of this. And I'm a very high church Anglican that loves incense, icons, etc.

@SidtheSquid37 me too

That means you reject Jesus.

Maliq @MasterMaliq

a month ago

We Muslims don't reject Jesus. We only reject the claim that he is God.

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Riga Dome Cathedral in Riga, Latvia. Founded in 1211 by Bishop Albert of Riga, it is the largest medieval church in the Baltic states. Originally a Roman church, it became Lutheran following the Reformation and today is the cathedral of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia.

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@farmingandJesus Weekly, I am Anglican

@logos_asarkos Yes as an Anglican it can be frustrating watching the evangelical and the orthodox/papists constantly setting up the false dichotomy of holy baptism saves or faith alone saves. We Anglicans and Lutherans understand it is both.

@DrJordanBCooper @becomelutheran As an Anglican looking in from the outside, I can't help but notice that the LCMS seems salty that you are inarguably the greatest presence online for Confessional Lutheranism but outside of their synod.

List your favorite: Lutheran: Philip Melanchthon Roman Catholic: Thomas Aquinas Eastern Orthodox: John Chrysostom Oriental Orthodox: Elesbaan Anglican: Thomas Cranmer Presbyterian: J. Vernon McGee Baptist: Gavin Ortlund Methodist: John Wesley

You don’t have to be Orthodox to have the Grace of God. You have to be in Christ’s Holy Church to have the Grace of God. And, no one, except God, knows the borders of His Church. I don’t really believe Jay Dyer or his ilk are part of the Church. His priest and bishop are guilty of malfeasance.

Christuskirche in Rome, Italy. Christuskirche was built between 1910 and 1922, and is known as the first Lutheran church visited by a Roman pope. It serves as a parish of the Lutheran Evangelical Church in Italy.

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#OTD March 2, 1938: Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller, a founder of Germany’s Confessing Church, is sentenced to seven months in prison for opposing Hitler. He would later be sent to concentration camps for his resistance. Niemöller is best remembered for his famous words: “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

REMEMBERING MARTYRS: In February of 2015, 21 men were killed by ISIS on a beach in Libya. They could have saved their lives by accepting Islam, but knowing what awaited them, they chose Christ. Christians around the world continue to draw inspiration from their faith.

@barukalas This is wonderful. I've had a set of Anglican prayer beads for a long time that I've wanted to use but couldn't quite figure out a good system to incorporate prayers from the BCP as an Anglican and this is just what I needed. Thank you!!