Dear Church, Happy Birthday!
Dear Church, It is hard to believe that you are another year older. Not just any individual Christians that may have been born on this day. No, I am talking about the Church as a corporate body. On the day of Pentecost approximately 1988 years ago, you were born. The Holy Spirit came down and baptized your spiritual forefathers, and amazing things followed. You grew rapidly against unbelievable odds. Yet it wasn't you that accomplished this. Anyone looking back through history can plainly see that you would not have made it without God's grace. Early Contention Consider, for example, the early heresies that you had to contend with. Sabellianism denied the personhood of each Person of the Trinity, relegating them to different faces that God takes on at different times. This early heresy was a threat to you in your theological infancy, but by God's grace, you overcame it. Not long after this, you had to deal with Arius. This was probably the biggest threat to you in your ea...