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The Westminster Confession of Faith is building towards some very difficult and hard doctrines. We have come to know and love the authority, sufficiency, inspiration, necessity, clarity, inerrancy and infallibility of Holy Scriptures in Chapter One. Now we move onto finding out who God is. Once we know (or try to know) God, His nature, His attributes, His essential properties - we move to understanding the Trinity. All this builds to the Doctrine of God's Eternal Decree - a very hard doctrine.
But let's take our time and come to know God, love the Trinity, learn of his absolute perfection. These steps towards understanding who God is, is just as important as our understanding of Holy Scripture. These doctrines will function as a foundation for our understanding as we move forward.
Memory Verse for Chapter 2: Matthew 3:16-17
And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Westminster Shorter Catechism Questions 4-6
Hymn: Holy, Holy, Holy - page 100 Trinity HymnalQ. 4. What is God? A. God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. Q. 5. Are there more Gods than one? A. There is but one only, the living and true God. Q. 6. How many persons are there in the Godhead? A. There are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.
The Reformation that began with Martin Luther 488 years ago must continue today. We must always be reforming - seeking first the kingdom of God - and His righteousness. We must base our reform on sola Scriptura - the authority of Scripture.
The Confession points to our source - Scripture. Luther called us back to our foundation - the Word of God. Let's not forget what came before us, the creeds, the councils, the work of the church. But let our authority be known - for the
"better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the Church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing; which maketh the holy Scripture to be most necessary." (WCF 1:1)
Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? - Psalm 88:12 Let us not forget!
Thursday, we watch the film Luther and than move on to Chapter 2 - Of God, and of the Holy Trinity. I hate to move on, but much awaits us we look the "one only living and true God". Shorter Catechism assignments, memory verse and hymn will be discussed in the next post. Happy Reformation Week!
Women reformers in sixteenth-centruy England played a prominent role in furthering the Reformation. They showed by their faithfulness, in the face of death, their determination to help further the spreading of the true message of Scripture. Let me highlight some research shared by Dr. Susan Felch at the Henry H. Meeter Center for Reformation and Calvin studies.
Ann Boleyn - Henry VIII's second queen is written up in Foxe's Book of Martyrs. She was a steadfast patron of the Protestant movement in England. She encouraged the translation of the Bible and gave money to William Tyndale and Thomas Cranmer. She was later executed.
Katherine Parr - also a queen of Henry VIII. She was a writer and a translator. She translated Erasmus' Paraphrases of the New Testament, a text that was to become required in Reformed English churches. She also wrote a prayer book with themes like original sin, Christ's atoning death and the doctrine of the Elect.
Anne Vaughan Lock - an 11 year old girl who witnessed the execution of Stephan Cobb. She was being tutored by Stephan Cobb and continued her education with zeal after his execution. Later she became close friends with John Knox, Scotland's leading reformer. This led her to Geneva where she translated some of Calvin's works. She went on to write Meditation of the Pentitent Sinner. John Knox respected Anne and her husband. He depended on them for safety and comfort. Knox has written how their support and protection helped the reformation spread throughout Scotland and England.
Lastly, let me highlight Lady Jane Grey. You might know her as the reluctant queen, or the the nine day queen. Let me quote from Historia ecclesiastica (a terrific blog):
Michael Haykin summarizes:
...the heroes of the Reformation are not simply the remarkable cadre of theologians that emerged at that time, men like Martin Luther, Huldreich Zwingli, Heinrich Bullinger, Thomas Cranmer, and John Calvin. But the faith that these Reformers sought to explicate and promote gripped the hearts of many who were not vocational theologians. Jane Grey was such a one. Only a day or so before her death, Jane wrote in her Greek New Testament a letter for her younger sister Katherine, who was fourteen. She was seeking to encourage Katherine to turn from the fleeting pleasures of this world to embrace Christ and find a treasure that is eternal. She wrote:
“I have sent you, good sister Katherine, a book, which although it be not outwardly trimmed with gold, yet inwardly it is more worth than precious stones. It is the book, dear sister, of the laws of the lord: It is His Testament and Last Will, which He bequeathed unto us wretches, which shall lead you to the path of eternal joy, and if you, with a good mind read it, and with an earnest desire, follow it shall bring you to an immortal and everlasting life. …as touching my death, rejoice as I do and consider that I shall be delivered of this corruption and put on incorruption, for as I am assured that I shall for losing of a mortal life, find an immortal felicity.”
Here we see the typical Reformation love of the Scriptures: “it is more worth than precious stones.” And central to this love of the Scriptures is Jane’s clear understanding as to why they were given: to lead sinners—those whom Jane calls “us wretches”—“to the path of eternal joy” and “immortal and everlasting life.” Finally, she has an assurance of salvation, a basic datum of New Testament Christian experience that had been recovered by the Reformers.
I pray that I may be as steadfast as these women who supported the Reformation. Happy Reformation Day!If we ask why she had such an assurance, a final document that she wrote, also on the eve of her execution, tells us. She wrote the following three sentences in her prayer book, the first in Latin, then one in Greek and the final one in English: “If justice be done with my body, my soul will find mercy with God. Death will give pain to my body for its sins, but the soul will be justified before God. If my faults deserve punishment, my youth at least, and my imprudence, were worthy of excuse; God and posterity will show me favour.” She has assurance of salvation because she stands justified before God, she has been made right with God, and thus is now confident of his favour.
Let me offer a quote - than read the rest.
He goes on to say that modern evangelical Christians are plagued by the ideology of "Christianity is Life, not doctrine". "In other words, it's not about what you believe, hot how you work out the plan."The congregation can learn numerous lessons from expository preaching. A church that has expository preaching will be a church filled with Christians passionate for Christ and scripture (in addition, to understanding the congruency of the Bible, the contextual basis of a passage, and holistically looking at scripture.) This can only happen if preaching is placed as the primacy of the church. In other words, only if preaching is the centrality of worshipping corporately together will we find ourselves surrounded by doctrinal purity. I’m tired of preachers imagining they have an audible word from God; as if God spoke to them as he did to Moses. Expository preaching brings us back to the sufficiency of scripture. It is the dependence on scripture and the inspiration the Holy Spirit has provided through men who wrote scripture.
Sorry if the coffee is late - good reminders are an addiction.God does speak to us. It’s right in front of us and pastors have failed to look. It is of course Scripture. The supreme rule of faith and life is before us and pastors have chosen to tickle people’s ears.We need Men who realize the plight and disposition of man and the light of the gospel; moreover, we need men who understand the imperative of preaching as the means of grace toward their congregation.