Sinful Saints Revealed. How is that for the title of our show today? It sounds like a bad headline from a trashy newspaper found in the check out line in a second rate grocery store. Sinful Saints Revealed. Really?
Did you know that the word “saint” means many different things depending on who you are talking to? Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions have a formal understanding of saints, including canonization established first in the 10th Century. It may surprise many that sinlessness is not a requirement for sainthood in any tradition.
With the advent of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th Century, the whole notion of Saints was turned on its head. Anyone who is truly a Christian is considered a saint. If this sounds confusing, it really doesn’t have to be. In his first letter, the Apostle Peter tells us, “You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5). Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name. (Psalm 30:4)
To avoid digressing down this ages-old theological side road, we can all admit that no matter what words are used to describe Christians: Christian Leaders, Clergy, and or other public figures in Christendom, we can have a tendency to fall into hero-worship or to villainize them. Both lack the honesty characterized in Biblical Revelation, where Saints are sinners, and both sides are glaringly revealed.
Today we will look at a couple of people who might be considered in the informal subjective lineup of Protestant Fathers. It is easy to make them bigger than life, forget their frailties, and feel insignificant by comparison. But their stories are excellent and worthy of knowing to motivate us to be encouraged by the saints and reminded why they needed a Savior too.
Our storyteller today is one of my favorites from the other side of the pond.
Welcome back to Church Hurts And, Englishman, Londoner, Pastor, Scholar, and Tour Guide from heaven, Ben Virgo.
ChurchHurtsAnd.org
Finding My Parents with Tim Dyson
Fiction Meets Life with Michael Phillips
Inside a Book Doctor with Dr. Steve Halliday
Creatively Faith with Hope Harrison
Filling In the Ruts with Daren Young
Shoe Dog Decisions with David Corsi
Making the Links with Wally Armstrong
Nightmare Before Christmas with Dave Stevens
Standing Stone Ministry with Jim & Debbie Hogan
How to Christmas with Dr. Perry Downs
Catholic, Celibate and Real with Msgr. Paul Dudziak
Children, Agony and Praise with Jana Alayra
Liturgy, Crisis and Culture with the Very Reverend Father Chip Edgar
Practical, Political Correctness with Dr. Dan Lind
Education, Learning and Growth with Dr. Perry Downs
Country, Christ, and Classics with Ben Virgo
Justice, Race and Relatives with Wm. Difenderfer, Esq.
Never Broken, Never with Zack Collie
Change, Absolutes and Church with Richard Dahlstrom
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Hello Heaven Podcast
Cast The Word
Let Me Be Frank | Bishop Frank Caggiano’s Podcast | Diocese of Bridgeport, CT
The Kingdom Power Fellowship Podcast
The Bible Recap
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)