Theological Musings
-
The Divine Council and The Communion of Saints
In this post I defend the doctrine of the Communion of Saints using Mike Heiser’s work on the Divine Council. * * * Dr. Mike Heiser in his book The Unseen Realm synthesizes what scholarship has known for some time about the way that Ancient Israelites, Second Temple Jews, and First Century Christians would have Continue reading
-
Penal Substitutionary Atonement: A Sub-biblical Distortion of the Gospel
As we approach passion week and the end of the Lenten season, I wanted to write about a topic that has long been important to me but which I have never systematically addressed: the doctrine of the atonement. The atonement is the doctrine that says that since Christ was crucified, died, was buried, descended to Continue reading
-
Why I am an (Anglo) Catholic.
I have a post published several years ago about why I am not a Roman Catholic. I largely concluded that I wasn’t a Roman Catholic (despite my affinity for RC liturgical practices and historic beauty) because I just could not assent to the necessary development of the monarchical episcopate. What I meant was that at Continue reading
-
Luke 22: A Lenten Reflection
I was listening to an episode of the Naked Bible Podcast the other day and they had on the show a guest who spent some time explaining the very enigmatic passage in Luke 22 when Jesus orders his disciples to purchase two swords and then, just a few verses later, orders them to put the Continue reading
-
My Personal Theology (updated February 2025)
It should surprise absolutely no one who knows me well that I spend way too much time putting myself and others in boxes. In fact, I once wrote a post in which I confessed the sin that is sometimes present in doing just that. In any case, since my return to historically orthodox Christian theology Continue reading
-
The Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians
Amanda got me the box set of the ESV Reader’s Bible for my birthday. They are the regular ESV translation but the typeset, the page thickness, and the binding all make the experience more like reading a normal book. And there are no chapter or verse divisions! Anyhow, rather than stopping to parse every verse, Continue reading
-
Servant of the Servants of God: Toward a Mutualist Ecclesiology
The article below is something I wrote recently defending my position that women are called to all offices in the church. I hope it proves edifying. Continue reading
-
A Meaningless Pandemic
And behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him (Revelation 6:8). Since the onslaught of COVID-19 began, and since dramatic actions unseen in living memory (the closure of schools and businesses as well as the edicts of local and regional governing authorities, backed by the Continue reading
-
Christian Marriage: Difference and Mutual Submission
Introduction I am writing this article to put forward an argument for mutual submission in marriage. I affirm that men and women are ontologically different from one another in complementary ways, but their differences do not justify a hierarchy in marriage. Before I dive in, I want to be clear about the following things: I Continue reading
-
The Temptations of Christ
Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Looking back over his shoulder, he walks from surety into the mouth of Hell. Alone, he trembles. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. Craving discernment, longing for clarity–he has Continue reading
-
My Approach to Sexual Ethics in Church
If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you know about my (re)conversion to an orthodox Christian faith beginning in February of 2013. While my last holdout was an affirmation of same-sex marriage as a legitimate Christian option, I was (by December 2014) finally able to say that I affirmed everything that the Continue reading
-
Benedictine Spirituality: Work, Prayer, and Study
Back in late September I went on a three-day retreat to St. Gregory’s Abbey in Michigan. St. Gregory’s is a Benedictine community of male vowed religious from within the Episcopal Church. There are currently seven monks living in the community, and of the seven four are priests. I went on this retreat with a lot Continue reading
-
Fall and the Coming Renewal (3)
Every year around this time I move from hating (but tolerating) the summer sun and heat to actively hating it. The reason for this (I surmise) is that this is the time of the year when school restarts, and it seems monstrous to me to have school starting while it is summer outside! In any Continue reading
-
OCD and Me: Some Explanations and Reflections
My goal as a blogger is to write one long-form article for the blog each month. Occasionally, I will also post quotes I find valuable or share poems I have written. As you are no doubt aware, I failed to post anything in May (or June; technically this post counts for June since I started Continue reading
-
How Rote Worship and Ritualistic Prayer Saved my Faith
A common attitude that I encounter in the low-church Evangelical subculture in which I am immersed is that real prayer or worship requires an authenticity rooted in coming to God “just as we are.” This is usually defined in opposition to more ritualistic prayer/worship praxes which are simply “dead religion.” Tellingly, it is not uncommon Continue reading
-
Lent 2017
We are getting close to the beginning of Lent (Ash Wednesday is just around the corner on March 1). Lent is a big time of the year for me. Liturgically, I don’t like it as much as Advent. I prefer the hopefulness and longing of Advent to the repentance and asceticism of Lent. I prefer Continue reading
-
Art and the Naked Body
I have been upfront on this blog about how my pornographic past, along with the purity culture of which I was a part, warped my sexuality in ways that are still damaging. Of the various effects my past has had on me, one is that it has so warped my desires that I have had Continue reading
-
Searching Hope: A Poem for the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord
His cries mingled with hers amid the longings of shepherds and angels and men from afar against the ascendant darkness, long vigilant for even the faint echo of a searching hope. For he was midwifed in the humility of flesh made once, long ago, in the first light of Creation now fallen into sin and Continue reading
-
The Virtuous Life: Benedictine Spirituality
Every few weeks or so I find myself chanting Vespers with an eclectic group (mostly mainline Protestants, but also a Catholic or two) of Christians. After we chant the evening office, we practice lectio divina, have a discussion of the Scriptures and a spiritual formation text, and then return to the oratory to chant Compline Continue reading
About Me
Gregory C. Jeffers
Anglican Christian | Husband | Father | Teacher | Scholar | Poet
G. C. Jeffers 