Fred Sanders @FredFredSanders Twitter profile

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

WHO MADE THIS

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologiae mindmap as tree. From Rijksmuseum, 16th c print

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

2 years

The story offers several lessons. My favorite is that learning is just a profound mystery involving the whole person, and that nobody can say in advance or in the abstract how it may happen. Growth like this is possible (I testify), but the key is to be open to its manifestation.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

2 years

Once (2002) I had a student who hadn't learned to write well. We struggled 3 semesters in a row over composition, revision, everything. Inexplicable diction, rambling sentences, formless paragraphs, theses that tripped over their own dull incoherence. But then one day...

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

7 years

Mary had a little lamb, Eternally begot. For contra Arius, there was No time when he was not.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

Portland Origen

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

2 years

I can easily sing "How Deep the Father's Love for Us" w/a clear theological conscience. Always have. What do I do when I get to the line, "the Father turns his face away?" I instinctively interpret it charitably, in the high-trust environment of my local church.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

2 years

Million-dollar idea: Holy Spirit study Bible, with all the words inspired by the Holy Spirit printed in black.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

Him: The Bible isn't the word of God; Jesus is. Me: On what basis do you think Jesus is the word of God? Him: John 1 Me: Cool cool cool

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

Father, Son, & Spirit are the almighty God, having the identical divine power & authority over creation. If you take a formal relational structure of power & authority & import it into the life of God, using it to distinguish between Father & Son, you are going to have problems.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

5 years

@laurenncarterr Same!

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

Why call it reading the Bible on the couch when it's obviously sofa scriptura?

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

5 years

Who did this

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

4 years

The angel admonisheth the recluse: "Seest thou this toilet paper? Thou shalt not hoard it, nor any like unto it!" Recluse: "Nay, but mayhaps I shall wax diarrhoeal, having thereby great need thereof." Angel: "Thou fool, that is not even a symptom! Do thou better henceforth."

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

4 years

You've heard of Elf on the Shelf. What about

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

5 years

Actually, it's only ennui if it comes from the ennui region of France. Otherwise, it's just common boredom.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

Is @VanhoozerKevin making memes?

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

2 years

The oldest method of teaching Christian theology was to select an Old Testament text (say Psalm 8, Psalm 110, etc) and explain Christ from it. After they did this for a while it was so successful they pulled a bunch of it together and called it the New Testament.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

25 days

I love responsible grammatical-historical interp but also

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

When you're trying to study but you're just so huuungry.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

Every so often I get to teach the kids at church (K-5) the intro lesson before they head off to their main classes. Okay, "every so often" means when the Trinity rolls around in our sequence of Core Concepts. Here's the 5 minute lesson I taught this time: (1/14)

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

2 years

Her answer: she was an artist, and in her studio work that term she had really grown into her talents. That confidence somehow bled over into her writing, her self-presentation in prose. The good essay, though we had labored toward it, was a mere byproduct of bigger concerns.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

4 years

"My own desire to avoid undue length forbids me from giving a proper explanation..." --Augustine, on PAGE ONE THOUSAND THIRTY-TWO of City of God.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

7 years

I did not expect that the best theology I would read today would be in the strange genre of a Victim Impact Statement. "I can call it evil because I know what goodness is."

Jacob Denhollander

@JJ_Denhollander

7 years

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

2 years

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing people of very ordinary literary ability that they could write excellent Screwtape updates.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

5 years

Moral of the story is that scholarship is slow going, unless you want to be a jerk scholar and refute straw men.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

7 months

You call it reading my Bible on the couch but I call it sofa scriptura, lectio divana.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

4 years

So grateful for the writing ministry of J.I. Packer. Here's his exhortation, published in 1973 that I printed out and taped to my wall as I was writing a book in 2009. It is still accurate. "Learning to know God in Christ."

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

5 years

Moby Dick is a 625 page book that doesn't introduce the main protagonist until page 595. Hark.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

5 years

Priesthood of all believers, not self-priesthood of each believer.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

For those of us whose theological home base is Paul, pondering First John is wonderful but strange. There's no contradiction between John & Paul, but the voice is astonishingly different. One major difference: I John is not structured by the "once lost, now saved" schema.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

4 years

Christmas Trinity: Only the Son is incarnate, but the incarnation is the work of the whole Trinity. You can see why a distinction is helpful here: to recognize the undivided work of God toward us, but to specify the Son's incarnation exclusively.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

5 years

Actually, it's only nouvelle théologie if it's from the nouvelle théologie region of France. Otherwise it's just sparkling ressourcement.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

I want to study everything.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

2 years

Every time I'm asked to prove I'm not a robot, it's a robot who is asking.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

6 years

I found this note on my to-do list: "Get in touch w/Trinity." I stared and stared. You cannot imagine how long it took me to realize it was a reminder for me to call this one church.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

Can one of you Greek scholars help me with this text? Very mysterious...

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

5 years

Best book cover. Really nails it, great job everybody, you should all be proud of adding value like this.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

2 years

I remained cautious, cross-examining her in oral exams. To my delight, she was articulate about the essay's contents, truly master of the argument & its elements! So I asked her, how had she done this? She knew exactly what I meant (we had both suffered through earlier essays).

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

I suppose you could call the person of the Trinity "parts," as long as you don't mean "parts." But if you really mean "parts," then you're definitely wrong and shouldn't call them that. Actually, don't call them that anyway. This concludes our helpful lesson.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

2 years

I read through them serially. Freshman fall & spring, sophomore fall, & now this masterpiece. Laying them all out on the desk, I could see a plausible story: steady progress fixing prose mechanics for 1.5 years, plodding upward. The inexplicably good paper was no quantum leap.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

5 years

I just typed “Wellum, God the Son Incarnate” and autocorrect changed it to: “Well, I’m God the Son Incarnate” so now I need a new phone.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

5 years

I'll be therrrre for yoooou (clappity clap clap clap)

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

4 years

Coming in September: All the things I've been thinking about the Trinity & soteriology for a few years now. Very excited to have this coming out from Eerdmans.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

4 years

I have a perfect Wesley joke.

Church Curmudgeon

@ChrchCurmudgeon

4 years

Confession: I have an Augustine joke.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

7 years

When Matthew says "This fulfilled...'Out of Egypt I called my son,'" (2:15), you have to decide whether Matt's (a) a semi-literate superstitious dummy bad at proof-texting or (b) way ahead of you. Choose (b).

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

2 years

She turned in a sophomore essay that drew together all the elements of writing in service to a great, creative insight. My heart sank. Writers don't just invent themselves. It had to be plagiarism. Late at night, I went over to the office for hard copies of her previous papers.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

First copy arrived! My new book, Fountain of Salvation, has an official release date of Sept 2 from Eerdmans.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

4 years

Just had to rewrite a whole page (450 words!) because I was being a jerk. Check attitude, check sources, repent, pray for God's mercy and ask him for help, revise, revise, revise.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

Q: Why are there no second-generation Arians? A: Because they deny the first generation.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

5 years

Apparently in early November 1955, Billy Graham and CS Lewis met in Cambridge, as arranged by some guy named John Stott who joined them.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

5 years

This has happened to me twice in the last few months. I'm writing an essay, and I need to bring in a contrasting view to clarify my point. I correctly identify an author who takes a view opposite to my own ( =they are wrong!). I quote their key claims & show how they're wrong.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

Teaching the little children about the Trinity tomorrow morning for 3-5 minutes. Prayers appreciated!

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

Theology is the science of confessing the measureless God and then measuring all things by him.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

4 years

If every book of philosophy and theology included an appendix in which the author's mom held forth, I would read those appendices.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

6 years

Respect for the 19th-c. teen poet who was writing "My Jesus I Love Thee" and decided to include the So Victorian It's Actually Extremely Metal line "when the death-dew lies cold on my brow."

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

2 years

There's quite a bit of Trinity commotion going on online; some of it good, interesting, & necessary. But I just want to remind everybody that this is 2022, the same year that these 3 excellent books appeared. Calm, clear, profound, Protestant instruction on foundational matters.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

5 years

Extreme Presbyterianism: The Babies Baptize YOU

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

5 years

"Deified" is a palindrome.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

"Classical" theism means listening to Mozart and thinking about God. So simple, and obviously a pure act.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

9 years

"I don't want a lot for Christmas... All I want for Christmas is you." Sick burn, Mariah.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

2 years

The formula "from the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit" (a Cappadocian summary of the biblical pattern) is so helpful for staying Christ-centered! Memorize the formula, dwell on it, & watch it do its work in your understanding.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

5 years

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a student with an essay to write will begin with a sentence surveying what all people have believed throughout history since the dawn of time.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

2 years

Athanasius: If the incarnation were mainly for the purpose of manifesting the Son of God to humanity, the Son could have used "some greater theophany" than an embodied one. Unembodied manifestation would have been clearer. But his mission was to take up our nature & save us.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

9 years

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

2 years

Gordon Fee, 1934-2022. Just from a trinitarian perspective: Not only did he write ample & definitive books on Pauline pneumatology & Christology, but he deliberately & persistently used the word "Trinity" in Biblical studies proper, since at least the 90s.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

2 years

Toddler shouting "Mine!" over every square inch of the place, but not in a Christlike way.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

5 years

Also not like the Trinity. But not bad at all.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

6 years

Today I met a Wesleyan theologian whose middle name is Prédestin.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

Edgar Allan Poe was a Boston-born creator of short stories, best known for macabre and suspenseful tales described as Gothic fiction. E.A. Poe died in Baltimore in 1849. His greatest poem, The Raven, is famous for the line...* ________________ *To the tune of "Mary Did You Know."

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

6 years

“God absolutely delights in himself, absolutely rests in himself, and is absolutely self-sufficient. His life is not a process of becoming, not an evolution, not a process of desiring and striving, as in the pantheistic life, but an uninterrupted rest, eternal peace.” Bavinck

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

1 year

Page proofs, page proofs; it's getting real!

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

Bonus action shot!

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

I've studied hundreds of pages of commentary on Ephesians 3:14-19 (Origen, Chrysostom, Aquinas, Goodwin, Calvin, M. Barth, Cohick, Allen, etc.) and one thing I'm noticing is that Jesus loves me and lives in my heart.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

4 years

Q: "Is the Trinity a hierarchy?" A: Nope. There is order between Father & Son (for instance) that is structured & irreversible, because the Son is from the Father rather than vice versa. (1/2)

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

6 months

I've just turned in the manuscript for my book on union with Christ w/ @BakerAcademic . Very excited to have finished the writing phase. 50k words & so much more to say. Much editing & production & time ahead before it'll get to an audience, but hurrah!

Union with Christ and the Life of Faith · Fred Sanders

Forthcoming, 2025. This book is completed and in the hands of the publisher. The Christian doctrine of salvation is essentially about union with Christ. In this volume of the Soteriology and Doxology...

fredfredfred.com

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

4 years

Jehoiachin, you're on mute. NO, YOUR MIC IS MUTED AGAIN.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

Obvs much more could be tweeted about any of this, & my suggestions for further reading would be "almost anything old." I just wanted to make the brief case in public for folks again. Not trying to re-litigate 2016. Trying to re-litigate the whole Bible & Christian tradition.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

2 years

Happy to announce a short book on the Holy Spirit, coming this October:

The Holy Spirit: An Introduction (Short Studies in Systematic Theology)

www.amazon.com

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

16 days

The Scandal of CT spelling Mark Noll wrong.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

1 year

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

What we see in the incarnation is the coeternal/ coequal/ coessential 2nd person of the Trinity, in the form of a servant. He eternally stands w/the Father on God's side of all authority, & w/us on the creaturely side.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

What does characterize that Son, showing him to be eternal Son of eternal Father, is his generation or begottenness from the Father. He is coequal, coeternal, & coessential, but he is Son: of, from, in a relation of eternal origin. That's the key point of the revelation of "Son."

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

2 years

Does this line from the 1990 song drift too close to suggesting that Father & Son are separable, at odds, broken up? A bit. But if I've heard good trinitarian theology at church, I know in advance not to hear the line that way.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

4 years

In an attempt to bring @scottrswain some of the attention he deserves for his high-quality Twitter work, I've remixed some of his recent tweets as New Yorker cartoons. They really pop.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

4 years

Also not like the Trinity

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

The error is especially tempting if you start w/a theology of what sonship is in general in the Bible, and then claim it must apply to the unique Son. Sons are younger than dad, have moms, start out smol, obey, etc. None of these characterize the unique Son.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

9 months

I'm pro-beauty; even majored in art. But "look who has the loveliest buildings" is exactly the criterion you would expect an unregenerate person to use in evaluating Christian traditions.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

6 years

"Jesus died praying." -Ratzinger

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

Know what Bugs Paul?

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

4 years

Truer now than when he first spoke them. The man was a prophet. Literally unbelievable.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

4 years

Spent the morning cancelling numerous things for reasons pandemically coronaviral. Sad about each cancelled event; many regrets all around; so many good plans scuttled. But speaking as an introvert, I just have to say YOU GUYS THE UNBELIEVABLE RUSH!!!

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

1 year

Paul just writing "in Christ" wherever he wants to drop in the entire message of salvation.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

5 years

Ah yes, I see a new book here on creation as sacrament. Also swell & dandy is mission as incarnation. Also hospitality as perichoresis. Also baptism as creatio ex nihilo. Also providence as indwelling, rebirth as aseity, & all the theology words as all the other theology words.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

I ran across another case of somebody saying, "how can 3 be 1, and 1 be three; who knows, mystery etc." I don't think people do this on purpose, but notice the moves they have to make: reduce the doctrine to math by subtracting the actual nouns involved.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

2 years

I learn things every time I study the Bible.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

3 years

Rereading is repairing previous reading. A first reading of anything complex or important is rarely right enough.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

4 years

We need a Disney Princess who can explain the inseparable operations of the Trinity ad extra.

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Fred Sanders

@FredFredSanders

5 years

The unbaptized emperor in your heart bids you be pro-nice rather than pro-Nicene. Refuse him. Leave no Arius unslapped in the ecumenical council of your soul, brethren.

Derek Rishmawy

@DZRishmawy

5 years

The spiritual and tropological reading of the St. Nicholas Controversy should prompt us as Believers to recognize how we must punch the Arian in our own souls.

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