The Reformed Ninja

If a person thinks they can attain righteousness, life, and salvation by establishing in themselves a faith that is resolute, they will only return again to (a trusting dependence on) the impassioned working of their own heart and mind. And so while it is true that we stress mortification of all sin, Christianity teaches that it is precisely the inability to accomplish such casting off of lingering passions that characterizes fallen, worldly existence. For us, the moment when all calculation and effort are seen to be futile is itself the point in which the Gospel of Christ is realized in the disciple as saving faith, as true entrusting. Thus, we assert a concept of faith, not as an attitude of constancy or sincerity that the disciple assumes or generates toward Christ, but as the Spirit’s gracious inworking and unfolding of Christ's Gospel Word and power in the disciple as eternal Life. In this we emphasize the givenness of living faith, centering Christ’s Gospel on His directing o...

Two principle quotations from Irenaeus give the strong appearance of a high Mariology. The question remains: How high? Let us first give the two quotations: 1. “Eve was disobedient; for she did not obey when as yet she was a virgin. And even as she, having indeed a husband, Adam, but being nevertheless as yet a virgin... having become disobedient, [Eve] was made the cause of death, both to herself and to the entire human race ; so also did Mary, having a man betrothed [to her], and being nevertheless a virgin, by yielding obedience, become the cause of salvation, both to herself and the whole human race .” (Irenaeus, Against Heresies , Book 3, Chapter 22, Paragraph 4) 2. “And thus, as the human race fell into bondage to death by means of a virgin, so is it rescued by a virgin ; virginal disobedience having been balanced in the opposite scale by virginal obedience.” (Irenaeus, Against Heresies , Book 5, Chapter 19, Paragraph 1) The first thing to note is the use of typology and recapitu...