{"id":2543,"date":"2025-12-17T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/conspiracyclothes.com\/nowheretorun\/?p=2543"},"modified":"2025-12-17T18:33:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T23:33:44","slug":"announcing-my-new-book-the-deformation-examining-reformation-theology-through-the-lens-of-the-early-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/conspiracyclothes.com\/nowheretorun\/announcing-my-new-book-the-deformation-examining-reformation-theology-through-the-lens-of-the-early-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Announcing my new book, The Deformation: Examining Reformation Theology Through the Lens of the Early Church."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We often comfort ourselves with a particular story. We picture the Reformers\u2014Luther, Calvin, and others\u2014as restoring the original gospel after centuries of Roman Catholic corruption. And it is true that the Catholic Church had departed in significant ways from the teaching of the apostles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the Reformers didn\u2019t restore what the early church taught.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In trying to correct Roman Catholic theology, they significantly overcorrected, and in many cases ended up with brand new ideas that the earliest Christians outright rejected in their writings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For most of my life, I accepted the standard narrative without question. But a few years ago, I began asking a simple but dangerous question: What did the earliest Christians actually believe?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wasn\u2019t looking for medieval monks. I wanted to hear from the men who knew the Apostles\u2014men like Clement of Rome, Ignatius, and Polycarp\u2014or those who lived just a generation later, like Irenaeus and Justin Martyr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The doctrines I had been told were the \u201cbedrock of orthodoxy\u201d\u2014doctrines like Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, and Penal Substitutionary Atonement\u2014were completely absent from the first 300 years of the church. In fact, when many of these ideas did<\/em> appear in the ancient world, they weren\u2019t taught by Christians. They were taught by the Gnostics<\/strong>, the very heretics the early church battled against.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This discovery led to my new book, The Deformation: Examining Reformation Theology Through The Lens of the Early Church.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Fresh and Honest Look<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Deformation<\/em> invites readers to take a fresh and honest look at several foundational teachings of the Reformation\u2014such as total depravity, penal substitutionary atonement, the meaning of \u201cworks of the law,\u201d the role of free will, and the interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through careful examination of Scripture and consistent reference to early Christian thought, I demonstrate that many of these doctrines were not a recovery of ancient Christianity, but a significant departure from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a glimpse of what is inside:<\/p>\n\n\n\n