Women of the Reformation

The Reformation was well under way when the Westminster Confession of Faith was written. October 31, 1517 - Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the church door at Wittenburg . The Westminster Confession of Faith was written over 125 years later. Yet - Scriptural authority, sufficiency, perspicuity and inerrancy had kept the fires of reformation burning. We pause now... in our study of the Confession to look at the Reformation - that precursor to Westminster - to look at the Reformation, and particularly women of the Reformation.

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 worl

d 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.


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.

I pray that I may be as steadfast as these women who supported the Reformation. Happy Reformation Day!

October 31, 2005  |  Permalink   |  Comments (0)   |  TrackBack (2)

The Imperative of Scriptural Preaching

I know.... it's Thursday morning and I should be setting up the coffee for our morning Bible Study. But, if you know me, you know I can't stay away from searching for that last little tidbit to bring to study. I found a good one today. The Imperative of Preaching hits me on two levels. The first, the sufficiency of Scripture - as it relates to our study of the Doctrine of Holy Scriptures. The second, serving on the Pulpit committee, being reminded of the absolute requirement that preaching be expositional - verse by verse, chapter by chapter. Forcing us to be Christians who are passionate for Christ and Scripture.

Let me offer a quote - than read the rest.

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.

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."

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.

Sorry if the coffee is late - good reminders are an addiction.

October 28, 2005  |  Permalink   |  Comments (0)   |  TrackBack (0)

New Testament for Men?

This is the latest from Thomas Nelson.

Chapter 1, sec. 5 of the Westminster Confession of Faith says:

We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the Church to an high and reverent esteem of the holy Scripture. And the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole (which is, to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation, the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God: yet notwithstanding, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our heart.

High and reverent esteem of the Holy Scriptures is lacking in offensive material such as this!

October 26, 2005  |  Permalink   |  Comments (0)   |  TrackBack (0)

The Books of the Bible

On a more positive note than my last post - I came across a beautiful way to memorize the books of the Bible. It starts:

GENESIS tells how it all began 
The world, redemption, sin and man.

In EXODUS we plainly see 
How God can set His people free.

LEVITICUS shows the way to God 
Only through sacrifice and blood.

In NUMBERS the tribes in order stand -
Ready to take the promised land

In DEUTERONOMY sons are trained -
The land they lost must now be gained...... (click for more)

October 25, 2005  |  Permalink   |  Comments (0)   |  TrackBack (0)

Westminster around the Web

We continue to work through Chapter 1, "The Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures", learning more about the inspiration and sufficiency of Scripture. Let's start our tour around the web this week with a look at the meaning of : "All scripture inspired by God.", than move on to "'God told me', and the Sufficiency of Scripture". We'll wrap up our tour with some links to a complete discussion of why the Apocrypha is not the inspired Word of God and is excluded from the canon; and then, fun links to how-to memorize the books of the Bible.

Let's start with an awesome view of God's inspired Word. Inspiration, literally means God breathed. John MacArthur says it best in his sermon on 2 Timothy 3:16-17:

"All scripture is inspired by God." That's where we get that word "inspiration." Now this is pasa graphe theopneustos. The word theopneustos is God breathed, it's translated inspired here. It means God breathed. If you didn't have any air you couldn't speak. If you couldn't bring out air you couldn't vibrate your vocal chords, you couldn't make any sound, couldn't form your words. What this is saying is God breathed out Scripture. God spoke it. It is the very breath of God. And not just in the sense of breath but in the sense of blowing out breath in a way that goes past the vocal chords, vibrates the vocal chords, past the mouth which forms the enunciation and God produced exactly what He wanted said. God spoke it.

In "God told me", and the Sufficiency of Scripture, Mark Dever, pastor of Capital Hill Baptist Church and Executive Director of 9Marks Ministries relates this:

I was dumbfounded (a pretty rare occurrence).This fellow had just told me that his supervisor had assigned him the task to make a master-plan for a new church plant, and that when he prayed about it God told him just to use the words of Jesus. Let me be clear. He said that God told him that in his planning for this new church, he was only to consult, reflect upon, quote the words of Jesus.

This fellow was a full-time employee of a Christian organization. He was evidently himself a Christian. Too, unlike other employees of this organization, he had a Masters of Divinity. And that from an evangelical seminary. He had been then, we are to assume, carefully trained in the Bible and theology. We should also assume that he had provided credible and helpful leadership to a local church somewhere, if he was now in the very responsible position that he was in. And it was this person who stood there and told me in all sincere piety and simple trust that God told him only to consult the words of Jesus when planning for a new church.

When we look to discern God's will for us, for our church, for our families does God talk directly to us? In the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture we have studied that the Bible is clear and sufficient for our instruction, with the help of the Holy Spirit. Yet we often hear (all to often) that God is talking directly to our brothers and sisters as they try to discern the will of God. As Ann asked, are we limiting God? This is an important doctrine - again, comments are open.

There were a couple of questions about the Apocrypha. Being raised a Protestant I too am not familiar with these extra-biblical writings. Here's a link to a very complete history and answer to The Apocrypha from A Puritan's Mind.

Lastly, do you know the books of the Old and New Testament in order? Did you when you were young, or have you never learned? Well, here are a couple of links to help you out. Singing is a great tool in memorizing. Here are a few songs to help you memorize. Look for the one that is set to the tune "Ten Little Indians". That's the one I remember the most. Ready to move on? Here is a link to a visual memory system that will have you saying all 66 books in order. (Warning: you need a sense of humor to appreciate this technique). Now you are ready for a quiz. This website will give you a number of games and quizzes to test your skill.

Long tour around the web this week. Thanks to all of you for your great questions and discussion - it keeps me busy searching for answers!

October 21, 2005  |  Permalink   |  Comments (0)   |  TrackBack (0)

The Sufficiency of Scripture

The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequences may be deduced form Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men. - Westminster Confession of Faith

BUT.... we ask, what if a man never heard the gospel or read the scriptures? What of men who believe sincerely in another religion that has a god, but not Jesus Christ? What of Moses and others in the Old Testament who did not have the completed Scripture?

We will face these questions once again as we progress through the confession. In the meantime, let me point you to an article by J.I. Packer Salvation sans Jesus - where he answers the questions of universalism and inclusivism. Are the Scriptures sufficient for salvation or does God provide other means that are sufficient in themselves?

October 20, 2005  |  Permalink   |  Comments (0)   |  TrackBack (0)

Shorter Catechism Reflection

We are studying Chapter 1 "The Word of God", and at the same time, memorizing the first three questions of the Westminster Shorter Catechism . We haven't had time to talk about question one but, standing on it's own - it is the basis of our entire study.

Question 1 asks: "What is the chief end of man?" The answer: "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever."

It may seem to be an obvious question and answer to those of us steeped in the reformed tradition. But from Gene Edward Veith let me ask this question:

What is the difference between these two statements?:
I did my work for God's glory.
I did my work and to God alone be the glory.

The answer to this question gets to a key difference between Calvinistic and Roman Catholic theology. Any thoughts? I'm opening comments for this post.

October 17, 2005  |  Permalink   |  Comments (0)   |  TrackBack (0)

God's Sovereignty

Lots of links and resources for you this week. What a wonderful discussion we had at Bible Study. Lots of thoughtful comments and great insights.

John Piper's article on suffering and God's sovereignty was mentioned - here's the link: Mercy for the Living (thanks Jessica). Another good article in World is Tsunami Atheism.

The audio of John Piper's lecture on The Suffering of Christ and the Sovereignty of God has just been released as well. I think we are hitting the jackpot (is that a Christian term??). I plan on listening to it this weekend.

Keep checking the Resources - I'll be adding new things this weekend, including a link to the Trinity Hymnal and "How to make a PodMod" (you had to be at Bible Study to know this one).

October 15, 2005  |  Permalink   |  Comments (0)   |  TrackBack (0)

Westminster around the Web

Still on Chapter 1 of the Westminster Confession of Faith where we are dealing with Scriptual Authority, Scriptural Sufficiency and the Doctrine of the Word of God. Is this doctrine settled, old or stuffy? Well, let's tour the Web and see who's blogging about these issues.

No doubt you've heard of the Jesus Seminar. A group of scholars who got together to prove (they said they were objective) that Jesus didn't really say anything that is reliable. That's old news.

Now we have The Davinci Code, by Dan Brown. A fiction novel that claims it is fiction, but at the same time claims it is factual when speaking of the historical Jesus, the gospels, and history of the New Testament. Dan Brown uses non-cannonical sources to prove his points, but dismisses the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Mark D. Roberts, pastor of Irvine Presbyterian, and a Ph.D in New Testament from Harvard has blogged about both the Jesus Seminar and The Davinci Code. Now he is blogging a wonderful series called, Are the New Testament Gospels Reliable? If you've been faced with questions - this is a good place for the laymen to start.

Another blog I'd like to recommend is Reformation 21, this is the blog of The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. They have insightful posts that are Reformed, current and often touch on Westminster issues. Currently Rick Phillips is taking a tour through B. B. Warfield's writings on divine revelation. If you haven't gotten to Warfield yet, these posts will give you a deeper understanding on how God has revealed himself to us. The post I really like is Modes of Revelation.

That's it for today's tour of Westminster on the Web.

October 14, 2005  |  Permalink   |  Comments (0)   |  TrackBack (0)

On Holy Scriptures - Chapter One

Hymn for Week 1: Standing on the Promises
This hymn speaks of the promises of God's Word as the eternally firm and unchanging foundation on which we can rest our faith. In the midst of doubt and fear these promises "cannot fail."

Scripture for Week 1: 2 Timothy 3:16: All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

Catechism for Week 1: Westminster Shorter Catechism, Questions 1-3

Suggested helpful reading is posted under Resources on the top menu.

October 11, 2005  |  Permalink   |  Comments (0)   |  TrackBack (0)

Studying Doctrine as a Spiritual Activity

As we begin our study of the Westminster Confession of Faith we are going to be talking about the major doctrines of the Bible. What are doctrines? A doctrine is what the whole Bible teaches us today about some particular topic.

The first chapter of the Westminster Confession deals with the Doctrine of the Word of God. Studying the major doctrines in the confession must be done in a manner prescribed by Scripture. Scripture tells us how we should study God's word. Psalm 119:18 says, "Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law." We should pray that God opens our understanding.

Word and Spirit are intertwined in this first chapter. The Confession says, "Nevertheless we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word. "As we approach our study we should study with prayer. It is the Holy Spirit who will help us rightly understand Scriptural doctrines. Let us begin our study this week with prayer for insight and understanding.

With this introduction - we should also allow for praise for what we've learned. Each week as we progress I will try to find a hymn using the Trinity Hymnal that you can sing (or hum) throughout the week as a form of praise for God's word and instruction that week.

One of the most valuable aspects of serious study is remembering what we've learned. What could be better than Scripture? Each week I will list one verse that would be beneficial to commit to memory. In addition I will list the Westminster Shorter Catechism questions and answers that are helpful to review and commit to memory.

Prayer, praise, rejoicing, scripture memory and catechism review are all things we can do to help us seeek God, understand His purpose and will for us, and bring God glory. May we truly say at the end of our study, "The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart." Psalm 19:8

October 10, 2005  |  Permalink   |  Comments (0)