BCP’s 350th!
“I love my historical anniversaries. (Regular readers will know this, as do members of my church!) Anyway, 350 years ago today, on 19 May 1662, The Act of Uniformity received the royal assent in England. This enforced use of the Book of Common Prayer. … Today I want to share a little about the famous 1662 BCP, as it’s often called for short.”
– Sandy Grant gives thanks for the BCP – at The Briefing.
1662 and all that
A talk given by John Richardson –
“1662 and all that: How the Prayer Book changed the Church of England, and how the Church of England Changed the Prayer Book
An address given in our Benefice to mark the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer
On March 21st 1556, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer was burned at the stake in Broad Street, Oxford. A metal X still marks the spot where you can, if you’re very careful, briefly pause in the middle of the traffic. The charges against him of treason and heresy both merited the death penalty…”
Nehemiah Found!
“Among the Dead Sea Scrolls, scholars found fragments (and, in some cases, fuller scrolls) of every biblical book except for Esther and Nehemiah. Until now…”
– George Athas at Moore College has news of an interesting find.
Happy Birthday, New Bible Dictionary
“This month marks the 50th anniversary of The New Bible Dictionary, first published by IVP back in May 1962. Initially edited by James D. Douglas, it featured contributions from a host of evangelical scholars, including Australians like Leon Morris, Donald Robinson, Edwin Judge, Alan Cole, Broughton Knox, and more recently, Peter Jensen and David Peterson…”
– Over at The Briefing, Sandy Grant gives thanks for a most significant and enduring resource.
Is the Reformation over?
At last month’s Together for the Gospel conference, Carl Trueman spoke at a breakout session on ‘Why the Reformation isn’t over’. He gives five reasons why the Reformation matters in our churches today –
“The Centrality of the Cross, the Centrality of the Word, the Centrality of Assurance, the Centrality of the Pastor, and the Centrality of more than just the gospel.”
Titanic: A Glasgow church recalls Pastor John Harper
In the icy water, Pastor John Harper asks a man if he is saved, and gives him his life jacket.
And more details from Baptist Press.
7 Lessons from the German Liberal Theologians
“Despite standing in the shadow of the Reformation, many German Protestant theologians abandoned the historic truth claims of biblical Christianity due to the mounting popularity of Enlightenment rationalism.
In so doing, they shipwrecked their own souls while simultaneously devastating the faith of millions of others…”
– Nathan Busenitz draws some sobering lessons from the German Liberal Theologians –
- The way to reach skeptics with the gospel is not by watering down the gospel.
- True religion can be lost in just one generation.
- German liberalism does not represent merely a divergent form of Christianity, but – in actuality – a completely new religion.
- The liberals honoured doubt as being noble and intellectually honest. In reality, doubting God’s word is a heinous sin.
- German liberalism teaches us that ideas have consequences, and that bad ideas have very bad consequences.
- The social gospel of the liberals is still alive and well in many mainline Protestant churches.
- Higher criticism, in particular, is built on the notion that the wisdom of man trumps the revealed wisdom of God.
– Very relevant to the Anglican Communion. Read it all at The Cripplegate. (h/t Tim Challies.)
A significant anniversary
February 19th marks the 200th anniversary of the departure from Massachusetts for Burma of Adoniram and Ann Judson. Sandy Grant has the story at The Briefing. (Image via Mission Partners.)
Earliest New Testament fragment discovered?
Dr Daniel Wallace, at Dallas Theological Seminary, offers a little tantalising information about a recent manuscript discovery –
“It was dated by one of the world’s leading paleographers. He said he was ‘certain’ that it was from the first century. If this is true, it would be the oldest fragment of the New Testament known to exist. …
Not only this, but the first-century fragment is from Mark’s Gospel.”
– Read his post here. (h/t Tim Challies.)