Category Archives: Christology

Tuesday Round Up

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(1) Simonetta Carr is the author of a series of biographies published by Reformation Heritage Books in which she introduces young readers to some of the most famous Reformers of the Christian Church such as Augustine of Hippo, John Calvin, Althanasius, and John Owen. She is kicking off her book blog tour today at Christina Langella’s Heavenly Springs blog. Also, enter to win a giveaway contest for your little ones!

(2) “Round yon virgin mother and child…” What do sharks and the virgin birth of Christ have in common? Did you ever hear about the virgin born bonnethead shark in Nebraska in 2001? Here’s a very interesting article.

The Earliest Testimony of the Church: Jesus Is God

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Jaroslav Pelikan:

The oldest surviving sermon of the Christian church after the New Testament opened with the words: “Brethren, we ought so to think of Jesus Christ as of God, as the judge of living and dead. And we ought not to belittle our salvation; for when we belittle him, we expect also to receive little.”

The oldest surviving account of the death of a Christian martyr contained the declaration: “It will be impossible for us to forsake Christ . . . or to worship any other. For him, being the Son of God, we adore, but the martyrs . . . we cherish.”

The oldest surviving pagan report about the church described Christians as gathering before sunrise and “singing a hymn to Christ as to [a] god.”

The oldest surviving liturgical prayer of the church was a prayer addressed to Christ: “Our Lord, come!”

Clearly it was the message of what the church believed and taught that “God” was an appropriate name for Jesus Christ.

—Jaroslav Pelikan, The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Vol. 1: The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600) (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971), p. 173.

HT: JT