Category: Apologetics

Why we use the Apostles’ Creed at Grace Church of Philly

Why we use the Apostles’ Creed at Grace Church of Philly

                From time to time I hear concerns from well-meaning people questioning our use of the Apostles’ Creed. Most often it has to do not so much with the content, but with their personal history of having recited it in the Roman Catholic Church or a liberal denominational church.  Part of their conversion story is that in understanding the gospel of salvation by faith alone in Jesus Christ, they left a religious system that had corrupted and confused the gospel. We rejoice with them in their conversion and their choice to leave a faulty religious system.

However, in our use of the Apostles’ Creed and other ancient creeds we are reclaiming from corrupt religious systems what belongs to historic Christianity. Continue reading “Why we use the Apostles’ Creed at Grace Church of Philly”

The Politics of Jesus and Peter (1 Peter 2:13-25)

 


The Politics of Jesus and Peter (1 Peter 2:13-25)

A Christian living in the first century faced the challenge, as we do, of how to live as a Christian in a non-Christian world.  Those whom Peter addressed in Asia Minor were mindful that they were aliens of the dispersion, i.e. their loyalties belonged to the kingdom of Jesus, yet they were temporality dwelling in this foreign world as His people.

The Roman government was not a model of justice and increasingly it became oppressive toward Christians. The institution of slavery, though having a legitimate legal purpose for the payment of debts owed to society, had also become exploitative and oppressive. Even the husband-led structure of marriages had degenerated to the abuse and oppression of women.

Christians found themselves in situations where the natural response of the heart would be to either overthrow the institutions of society which had become corrupt or escape from these institutions to a safer place.

Strikingly, Peter offers direction to believers that overturns human expectations, opening up a new way of thinking and acting. Continue reading “The Politics of Jesus and Peter (1 Peter 2:13-25)”