Are Mormons Developing Toward Greater Orthodoxy?

Today I ran across this fascinating piece over at First Things by Richard J. Mouw: “Mormons Approaching Orthodoxy” (“Orthodoxy” here is what we might call “small-O orthodoxy”). In this, Mouw, the former president of Fuller Theological Seminary, makes observations about his relationship with Mormons that resulted from his participation in years of Evangelical-Mormon dialogue, which he uses to interpret statements made by…

Early Pentecostal Speaking in Tongues was About Foreign Languages

The following two excerpts are from the revised text of Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy: Finding the Way to Christ in a Complicated Religious Landscape, which is due for publication by Ancient Faith Publishing in December 2016 (see the full Table of Contents here). The chapter on Pentecostalism from which these sections are drawn is completely new for this edition. The “Parham” mentioned in…

What’s in the Revised Orthodoxy & Heterodoxy? Here’s the TOC

I’m getting pretty close to done with my edits for the revised, expanded version of Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy, which is now available to order. The final word count will be about 125,000 136,000 words, which makes it about 75% 90% larger than the first edition (which was about 72,000 words). Now that I’m almost done we’re in the editorial stage, I can…

Dec 2016: The Orthodoxy & Heterodoxy Revised, Updated & Expanded Edition

And here’s the answer to the question that gets asked of me nearly every day now: God willing, Ancient Faith Publishing will release the revised, expanded and updated edition of Orthodoxy & Heterodoxy in December 2016. What’s new? Besides being more than 50% larger and also being retooled to speak not only to the Orthodox but also the non-Orthodox, here are some…

Why Should Pentecostals Become Orthodox Christians? A Short Answer

The following is adapted from the working text for the revised, expanded edition of Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy: Finding the Way to Christ in a Complicated Religious Landscape, which is available as an updated podcast, with a new episode available weekly. The first edition of the book from 2011 is still available. This passage is adapted from the concluding passage of the all-new…

Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy 2.0 is now here. Here’s an excerpt.

Update: New episodes are now available at this link. As I’ve announced on social media and elsewhere, I’m in the process of producing an updated, revised, and expanded version of Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy—both the podcast and the book. New episodes of the podcast begin airing on Ancient Faith Radio on November 22. This new podcast series (and book!) represents a full revision,…

One Quote from St. Ignatius Converted this Guy to Catholicism?

I happened upon this article today. Here’s an excerpt: Like St. Paul before him, St. Ignatius, in his capacity as Bishop of Antioch, is writing with authority against those who break off from the Church founded by Christ. Anyone, says Ignatius, who walks in heresy—that is, against the teachings of Ignatius and the other appointed Bishops—is, alarmingly, “out of sympathy with the…

Why Would a Calvinist or a Baptist do Confession?

A friend shared this article today, in which one of the writers at The Gospel Coalition (a generally Reformed bunch of Evangelicals) laments the lack of confession in (his?) church: It is puzzling to see one of the defining marks of a Christian’s identity quietly disappear from a church’s worship. I’m speaking, of course, about confession – a time when the church…

The Rejection of Universalism in the Triodion

One of the big problems with an Orthodox Christian embracing universalism is that he has to reject a large portion of the liturgical tradition of the Church in order to do so. The eternality of the punishment of the wicked is ubiquitous in the services of the Church. This may be less apparent if one does not have access to frequent church…