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Support Israel? OK, which Israel?

...enturies, had some things to say on violence and joining the military in general. They weren't all in total agreement; some were complete pacifists, whereas others seemed to advocate non-violence but permitted self-defense. I'll just put a few quotes to make the point, but you can read more here about what they had to say, and by looking at the links at the end of this article for more info. We refrain from making war on our enemies, and [we] cannot bear to see a man killed, even if killed justly. — Justin Martyr He who holds the sword must cast it away and that if one of the faithful becomes a soldier, he must be rejected by the Church, for he h...

Why do bad things happen to 'good' people?

...disciples had a similar question in John 9:1-3 when they came across a man who had been born blind, and asked Jesus whose fault it was - the man's or his parents? I find this particularly interesting as the man was born blind, yet they wonder if it was his fault - how could that be? It definitely highlights some interesting theology of the day if there was a general assumption that sin was always someone's fault - like a punishment, even if you were born like that! Jesus simply responds that it was no ones fault, but it was so that "God’s works might be revealed in him" (v.3). This man's blindness was not a divine punishment, but rather just something that...

Lent Day 22: Athanasius: Life of Anthony: Chaps. 11-20

...Day Twenty-two: St. Athanasius: Life of Anthony: Chaps. 11-20 Who: Bishop of Alexandria; Confessor and Doctor of the Church; born c. 296; died 2 May, 373 AD. He was the main defender of orthodoxy in the 4th-century battle against the Arianism heresy. Certain writers received the title “Doctor” on account of the great advantage their doctrine had on the whole Church, Athanasius especially for his doctrine on the incarnation. What: The biography of Anthony the Great’s life, which helped to spread the concept of Christian monasticism, particularly in Western Europe. Why: From the letter’s own prologue: “The life and conversation of our holy Father,...

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

...Eutyches had read all these things closely, “then he would not speak so erroneously as to say that the Word became flesh in such a way that Christ, born of the Virgin's womb, had the form of man, but had not the reality of His mother's body”, which sounds a lot like Docetism, the heresy which was around much more a couple of centuries earlier. Instead, and in contrast to this, the commonly accepted doctrine on the nature of Jesus is explained by Leo as being, “without detriment therefore to the properties of either nature and substance which then came together in one person, majesty took on humility, strength weakness, eternity mortality...”. In theolo...

Lent Day 40: Leo the Great: Sermon LXXII: ON THE LORD'S RESURRECTION, II

...f mankind had fallen”, our merciful God had purposed in himself to make a way to reconcile “His creatures made after His image [...] through His only-begotten Jesus Christ”. Leo goes on to say that if we had not fallen from how God made us, we'd have been happy; but now we can be happier if we remain in what he has remade us to be through his Spirit. Jesus was “excluded [from] all taint of the sin which has passed upon all men”, that taint being “weakness and mortality, which were not sin, but the penalty of sin”. The “Redeemer of the World” suffered these things for our sake, “that they might be reckoned as the price of redemption”. In...

What did Jesus actually sacrifice?

...Sometimes the question, or accusation/criticism maybe, is posed by atheists and critics of Christianity that Jesus didn’t really sacrifice anything because he is God and also because he got his life back three days later. So where’s the sacrifice if you know that what you give up will be given back, and given back even better than you previously had it? It’s an interesting question, and one that should cause us to stop and think about what we, as Christians, say to non-believers in case the question is ever given to us. Most people will say Jesus  gave up his life for us – but is that such a big deal if he knew he’d have it back in three days; and th...