The Council of Trent (1545-63) defined Rome’s response to the challenge of the Reformation. Three great problems stand out in the teachings of Trent: the doctrines of revelation and justification, and the church’s worship. Trent’s position on each of these demonstrates why the Reformation was necessary at the time. But it is often said…
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On 4 September 2016, Pope Francis canonised Mother Teresa as a Catholic ‘saint’ at a Vatican ceremony. This article by Tim Challies was published online in November 2003 (http://www.challies.com/articles/the-myth-of-mother-teresa?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork). Mother Teresa (known also as Mother Teresa of Calcutta) was born in what is now called the Republic of Macedonia in 1910. Born to Albanian…
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You might think that there is absolutely nothing to link the death of Jesus Christ with the death of Lenin in 1924. But there is just one thing: in both cases, the authorities of the day were troubled over their respective bodies. More than that, in both cases the question of the body has…
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Atheists tend to say their non-belief in God is something that does not need to be defended. Christopher Hitchens has said, ‘I don’t believe in God and I don’t need to justify this, just as I don’t need to give reasons for my non-belief in the tooth fairy’ (God is not great, Atlantic Books;…
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In December 2013, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) published a statement on its website, entitled Race and the Priesthood, explicitly disavowing doctrines taught by Mormons in the past, that people of black ancestry were under a curse. Although the statement was clearly intended to improve the LDS Church’s image,…
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One of the greatest privileges of my life is to have been a member of a church and to be in fellowship with the same people over a period of time. We have seen one another’s children grow up with all the difficulties and joys that brings. We have seen one another in good…
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Barbara Marx Hubbard, a New Age leader, wrote prolifically on the evolution of a unified human consciousness and Carl Jung envisioned psychotherapy as a means of facilitating it. During the twentieth century, some sought this goal through altered states of consciousness achieved by meditation (contemplation), drugs or even contact with the spirit world. And,…
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Paul once said that he went to the third heaven: ‘I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven — whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows’. ‘And I know that this man was caught up into…
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