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A Journey Through church history

After many, many months of working on this in between COVID and other “life events” that kept me busy, I’ve finally released the Third Edition of my book, 40 Day With the Fathers: A Journey Through church history! The Third Edition includes: a foreword by Paul Pavao (author of Decoding Nicea), updated content and also a new chapter about the Council of Nicaea explaining what did (and didn’t) happen there. “I cannot imagine there is a better way to get familiar with 350 of the most important years of church history in seven hours spread over 40 days.” — Paul Pavao, author of Decoding Nicea If you are unfamiliar with my previous editions...

Fasting: A spiritual and physical discipline

The topic of fasting often comes up in online discussion groups that I'm a part of, more often in Protestant circles where the practice is more often sidelined in low churches. So let's take a look at the practice of fasting from a practical and historical view, as it seems to be a spiritual discipline which has been pushed aside in many churches today, with prayer, worship and bible reading taking more precedence in a Christian's life instead (not that those are bad things to do!). Why fast? There are many reasons to fast, and recent studies have shown a lot of health benefits that can be derived from fasting. But on the spiritual side of life, there are also...

Is Halloween a Pagan Holiday?

It's that time of year when you begin to see various articles and debates online about Hallowe'en, and whether it's entirely pagan in origin and the church "stole it"; or if it's something that Christians should even have any part in. Table of Contents Origins of the holiday Aren’t there pagan roots? What about “Trick or Treat”, costumes and pumpkins? In conclusion To some people, the answer is a straightforward “no”, while others say it falls into the realm of Christian freedom and personal discernment. But what about if you're unsure or somewhere in the middle of those two positions, how should you decide what is the right thing to do?...

Lent Day 19: Cyprian: On the Unity of the church: 10-18

Day Nineteen: St. Cyprian: On the Unity of the church: 10-18 Who: Third century bishop of Carthage (in modern Tunisia), and martyr from Africa What: A letter to encourage the unity of the church against schisms and heresy during massive Roman persecution Why: A disturbance had happened in the church because of a priest called Novatian — a schismatic of the third century, and founder of the sect of the Novatians. Cyprian wrote to counter this and argues that there can only be one united church, and the Novatian breakaway was a false church and that Novatian was an antipope.When: Around 249 AD You can find today’s reading on page 97 here: lentfatherscomple...

Francis Chan turns towards a more historical and ancient view of Communion

...erview of church history: “I didn’t know that for the first 1,500 years of church history, everyone saw it as the literal body and blood of Christ … And it wasn’t until 500 years ago that someone popularised the thought that it’s just a symbol and nothing more. I didn’t know that. I thought, ‘Wow, that’s something to consider.’” This part isn’t too far from reality, really, though a little over-simplified. But I understand his zeal and excitement about this discovery of his, as I went through the exact same mind-blowing realisation around five or so years ago when I first delved into the writings of the Early church Fathers and was force...

Melchizedek to Jesus: The Divine Thread of Bread and Wine

...This past Sunday at church, we were looking at Genesis 14 in the sermon. There’s a lot going on in this chapter with nine different kings all at war fighting one another, and Abram and Lot somehow mixed up in the middle of it (this is before Abram is renamed to Abraham). Sodom gets invaded, Lot gets taken captive (along with everyone else) and then Abram mounts a daring rescue with 318 of his men! It’s really quite action-packed for such a short chapter. I don’t know about you, but I always think of Abraham as this kindly old man, not some tribal warrior ready to go all “Taken” on his enemies (Gen 14:14–16). Abraham, probably It’s in the mids...