Bridge of Reason

  The Roman Catholic Church stands or falls on the doctrine of apostolic succession. It is from this doctrine that the Church claims its supreme authority. Now, the Roman Church is not the only church to believe this doctrine, but they are the only church to claim unique and complete authority from it. The Catholic apologetic website, Catholic Answers says that the Roman Church, unlike ‘separate’ churches, can lay claim to being the true church by means of apostolic succession. What is apostolic succession? Apostolic succession is the idea that bishops in the Roman Church are the successors of the apostles to whom Jesus gave the authority, to go into all the world and preach the gospel. It presupposes that the original twelve apostles ordained others to be apostles through the laying on of hands. In doing this, they conferred upon them the same authority they had been given. These apostles (bishops) then ordained others, who in turn ordained others, who in turn… well you get the id...

"Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture make up a single sacred deposit of the Word of God" [1] At the time of the Reformation, the Church of Rome taught that the Word of God consisted of both the written word (The Bible) and the unwritten word (Tradition). It held that both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition were both infallible and of equal value. The Roman Catholic Church believes the same today. What does the Roman Catholic Church mean by tradition? The website Catholic Answers says that: Divine Tradition comes from God, either through the written word of the Bible or through the oral teaching of Christ himself or his apostles. Because it is revealed by God, divine Tradition may not be altered by men. [2] The Reformers vehemently denied that this ‘divine Tradition’, said to be found within the Roman Catholic Church, was in anyway comparable with God’s written word. For them, the Bible was the true only rule of faith for the Christian. The Protestant Church believes the ...

Some time ago I posted a question on social media. The question I asked was this: ‘Which is more important Orthodoxy or Orthopraxy?’ The response was interesting, but not surprising. Apart from a couple of people who answered ‘huh?’, most people answered orthopraxy! Why Orthopraxy? When defined, the words orthodoxy and orthopraxy literally mean right belief and right action. So, my question revealed that most of those who responded thought right action to be of more importance than right belief. Now I believe that when people saw my question, they presupposed what I was really asking was, which is more important doctrine or people? The answer then in their minds would be obvious, it is people. In juxtaposing orthodoxy and orthopraxy and then asking a person to choose, I set up a false dichotomy because, orthodoxy and orthopraxy are of equal importance. They need each other. Right belief (orthodoxy) informs right action (orthopraxy). The problem comes when we have one without ...

  Christianity needs to progress. To survive it must change; it must be relevant. Therefore, we should not expect 21 st century Christianity to look and sound like 16 th century Christianity, or indeed 1 st century Christianity. Thus, saith the so-called Progressive Christians. Now I can go along with Christianity needing to change according to its historical context, but I am not singing from the same hymn sheet as the Progressives. The change I speak of regards methodology, that is how we communicate the gospel; not the message, for I believe the content of the gospel cannot change.  Not so the Progressives. They believe that doctrine evolves. Therefore, the historic creeds of the Church or the five solas of the Protestant Reformation have little or no relevance to modern day Christianity. Believers, they say, do not unite under the banner of historic Christian doctrine, rather they are connected by simply claiming to be Christian. According to this kind of thinking, a ...

  I had recently become a Christian and was travelling with a group of my new friends to something called Spring Harvest. They were excited about this week away in Lincolnshire and assured me it would be life changing. I thought to myself, can my life really be changed by a week in Skegness? But they were right. It was during that week that I heard two men speak, both of whom I had never heard of before. I hung on their every word, and when one of them asked those who would like to give all in following Christ, I rushed to the front. The names of these men were Steve Chalke and Tony Campolo. I cannot recall anything Steve Chalke said that week, and very little of what Tony Campolo said, apart from his stories (he is a master storyteller), but I do remember leaving Skegness believing both men to be giants of my new found faith. Today, I wouldn’t see them as such. At best, I would consider them to be believers who have veered from Biblical truth, and that they are now purveyor...

  So far we have given a brief description of the five solas, which underpinned the Protestant Reformers dispute with the Roman Catholic Church. The five, namely Sola Scriptura, Solus Christus, Sola Fide, Sola Gratia and Soli Deo Gloria were all important pillars but it is to be noted, that four of these five principles flow from the one. Sola Scriptura. Sola Scriptura – Scripture Alone Sola S criptura, known as the formal cause of the Reformation , is the doctrine that the Scriptures are the unique , final , supreme authority for the life and faith of the Christian . And it is this foundational doctrine that upholds and supports the other ‘solas’. Martin Luther said: We must make a great difference between God's Word and the word of man. A man's word is a little sound, that flies into the air, and soon vanishes; but the Word of God is greater than heaven and earth, yea, greater than death and hell, for it forms part of the power of God, and endures everlastingly. 1 The...