Yearly Archives 2015

Hussite History

Hussite History

19 November 2015 | 1 Comment

  The reform movement in which Jan Hus (1369 – 1415) was a major figure was undoubtedly a major factor in the historical process that led a century later to the Protestant Reformation. The theological and spiritual conflicts were deeply connected to political and nationalist issues: The relationships between the political rulers: Wenceslaus (Vaclav) IV, the King of Bohemia; Sigismund, his half-brother, King of Hungary and later also King of Germany. The context of the great papal schism, which reached its climax with 3 claimants to the papacy in the last years of Hus’s life (1409 – 15). Hus made
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Abuses of the Eucharist: A Western Catholic Confession

Abuses of the Eucharist: A Western Catholic Confession

17 November 2015 | 1 Comment

Issues concerning the Eucharist played a central role in the conflict that broke out in Bohemia in the first years of the fifteenth century between Jan Hus, a reforming priest, and the civil and ecclesiastical authorities. In fact the reforms advocated by Hus were wider than the Eucharist, but the dispute over communion from the chalice became the top symbolic issue. After the death of Hus, the chalice became a symbol for the Hussites, and often decorated their weapons of war. However, the theology and the practice of the Eucharist had already suffered various forms of distortion and of narrowing
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Judeans & The Bnei Menashe

Judeans & The Bnei Menashe

7 July 2015 | No Comments

My TJCII UK colleague, Jonathan Allen, posted the following in his blog last month (see http://www.messianictrust.org.uk/frothing/index.php?art=15-06-26): Conflict and Identity in Romans: The Social Setting of Paul’s Letter,
Philip F. Esler, Fortress Press, 2003, page 66 Supporting Hodge’s arguments, Philip Esler affirms that “before the destruction of the temple in 70 CE the law and the temple were twin foci of the Judeans … separating the two is not easy.“ Making the good point that one of the essential differences between those living in Judea and those living in the Diaspora was that the former had the temple on their doorstep, so
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Eschatology

26 January 2015 | No Comments

Father Peter Hockens’ final talk at the Kiev conference went something like this… Everything that we have heard in this consultation so far – the complementarity of Israel and the nations, the Church as the union of Jew and Gentile through the cross of the Messiah, the ingrafting of the Gentiles into the natural olive tree of Israel, the need of Jews and Gentiles for each other – all this now needs to be applied in the area of eschatology. TJCII as a vision for Jewish and Gentile reconciliation in Messiah requires the reconciliation of the Jewish and the Christian
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Messianic Jews: Constructive Relationships

Messianic Jews: Constructive Relationships

22 January 2015 | No Comments

One of the big challenges from listening again to the Jewish voice concerns the relationship of Israel to the nations. There is much in the New Testament to indicate that this distinction did not lose its significance with the death and resurrection of Jesus. For example, the twelve are told by Jesus that “at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Matt. 19: 28). In his book La Promesse the late Cardinal Lustiger of Paris
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