by Christine on October 20, 2005
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?
by Christine on October 17, 2005
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.
by Christine on October 15, 2005
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).
by Christine on October 14, 2005
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.
by Christine on October 11, 2005
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.
by Christine on October 10, 2005
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
