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…”

– Read it all here.

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.”

Audio here.

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.

Video from BBC News.

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.)

Trinity now and then

Mark Thompson makes some interesting observations on the Trinitarian thought of the Church Fathers…

“Patristic trinitarian thinking had a more overtly doxological element than much modern writing in this area. Writers such as Athanasius and Augustine, not to mention the Cappadocians and later Eastern writers, were very aware that they did their theologising in the presence of God and in service of the church. It was not, and could never be, a simply abstract and intellectual endeavour…”

– read it all at Theological Theology.

The story of ‘Amazing Grace’

The John Newton Project’s Marylynn Rouse helps tell the story of John Newton’s hymn Amazing Grace in this 15 minute feature on Vimeo. (h/t Gary Ware.)

Paul and Mission in a Pluralistic World

“Religious pluralism, which has become new to us in western culture in recent times, was not new in the broader historical background of the New Testament era. It was, in fact and in particular, a distinguishing mark of the Graeco-Roman culture of the world in which the heralds of Jesus went forth to proclaim him as the unique Lord and Christ…”

– Bishop Paul Barnett looks at the world in which Paul preached the gospel.

Knox/Robinson for today

“You might be unfamiliar with the term ‘Knox/Robinson’, but you may well have come across the substance of these two men’s teaching if you’ve ever looked into the doctrine of church.

Observers of Anglicanism in Sydney have often remarked on a confident and distinctive approach to the nature and purpose of church, led by such men as Howard Mowll, TC Hammond, Marcus Loane, Donald Robinson and Broughton Knox. The source of this approach is undoubtedly the teaching of Donald Robinson and Broughton Knox at Moore College from the early 1950s until the early 1980s, though both men denied they were teaching anything unusual and could point to others who were saying similar things.

For us, nearly thirty years after the last published piece by either of them, how should we respond to the theological legacy of Donald Robinson and Broughton Knox? …”

– Read Mark Thompson’s paper at The Briefing.

The Lure of Rome

Dr. Robert Godfrey, Professor of Church History at Westminster Seminary California, speaks about why some evangelicals and other Protestants in the US are becoming Roman Catholics.