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Lent: Day 10 - Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans

...way, the heretics taught that the bread and wine were not the flesh and blood and were condemned for it, which obviously has implications on those today who hold these to be merely symbols, if there's any weight to Ignatius's words or to early doctrine. It's something to ponder on at the very least. The closing chapters are similar to the other letters: they praise the bishop and the church for their faith and for being steadfast against the heresies Ignatius condemns. Whilst the previous letters all say the same thing about listening to the bishop and to not do anything apart from him, this letter goes one further and says that, “he who does anything withou...

Lent Day 20: Cyprian: On the Unity of the Church: 19-27

...tentional heretics risk unforgiveness and their souls; hence why it is written, he says, “hold fast to what you have, so that no one may seize your crown” (Rev 3:11). Speaking more about the crowns we attain, Cyprian delves into confessing sins and how that the mere act of confession doesn’t save us or give us the “full desert of the crown”, but “it initiates our dignity” which is why Jesus said, “the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matt 24:13). Everything we do and say during our Christian walk in this life is a “step by which we ascend to the summit of salvation”, and not the summit itself, which is why we need to watch oursel...

Lent Day 29: Athanasius: Life of Anthony: Chaps. 81-94

...the Arian heretics. Athanasius interjects here to say that two years after Anthony saw these things, the “plunder of the churches took place, when [the Arians] violently carried off the vessels” from the churches along with “the heathens” who they also conscripted to help them. But Anthony encouraged his brothers and told them that things would be put right and everything would be restored in the end, and to avoid the teaching of the Arians in the meantime, “for their teaching is not that of the Apostles, but that of demons and their father the devil”. How Anthony was used by the Lord Here it is stated that although many great signs and wonders wer...

Lent Day 37: Leo the Great: Letter XXVIII (called the "Tome")

...lmost all heretics are overthrown. The Creed He goes on to quote the statements of the Creed, which is confessed by all the Churches, to make his point and contrast with what Eutyches said and taught, which was commonly accepted as the fundamentals of the faith: He is God from God , Almighty from Almighty, and being born from the Eternal one is co-eternal with Him; not later in point of time, not lower in power, not unlike in glory, not divided in essence: but at the same time the only begotten of the eternal Father was born eternal of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. Leo goes through many instances in the New Testament, from the Gospels to Paul's...

Creedal Christians: The Apostle's Creed

...f certain heretics” (Comm. §3) to try and tackle false beliefs. He does also make it clear that saying Jesus went to hell would be the wrong interpretation, and “grave” would be better understood. This phrase is then not seen again until around 650 AD in any other version. The second phrase, or clause, which is an addition is: the “communion of saints”. This seems to have been a point of confusion to many for a number of years, as those who venerate Saints see it as confirming that doctrine, whereas others see it as merely expressing the need to have “communion” (ie. Eucharist) together; others still saying it speaks more to affirming the wider b...

Did a Roman Catholic priest perform 'invalid' baptisms for years?

...be of the heretics, and repudiated as unrighteous by us… (Augustine, On Baptism VI, 36:70) The current events swirling around this issue have the potential to cause people to doubt their faith and salvation, due to the guidance issued by the Vatican back in June 2020, which stated that “the ‘We’ formula was invalid and that anyone who was baptised using it must be re-baptized using the proper formula”. This flies in the face of what was already discussed, written about, and settled, during Cyprian (250) and Augustine’s time (400) concerning the very same predicament. If we read more of Augustine’s work, On Baptism Against the Donatists, it’s...