Knox Confession 1560 # 9

Chapter 9 - Christ's Death, Passion, and Burial

That our Lord Jesus offered himself a voluntary sacrifice unto his Father for us, that he suffered contradiction of sinners, that he was wounded and plagued for our transgressions, that he, the clean innocent Lamb of God, was condemned in the presence of an earthly judge, that we should be absolved before the judgment seat of our God; that he suffered not only the cruel death of the cross, which was accursed by the sentence of God; but also that he suffered for a season the wrath of his Father which sinners had deserved. But yet we avow that he remained the only, well beloved, and blessed Son of his Father even in the midst of his anguish and torment which he suffered in body and soul to make full atonement for the sins of his people. From this we confess and avow that there remains no other sacrifice for sin; if any affirm so, we do not hesitate to say that they are blasphemers against Christ's death and the everlasting atonement thereby purchased for us.
 

Knox Confession 1560 #8

Chapter 8 - Election

That same eternal God and Father, who by grace alone chose us in his Son Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world was laid, appointed him to be our head, our brother, our pastor, and the great bishop of our souls. But since the opposition between the justice of God and our sins was such that no flesh by itself could or might have attained unto God, it behooved the Son of God to descend unto us and take himself a body of our body, flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone, and so become the Mediator between God and man, giving power to as many as believe in him to be the sons of God; as he himself says, "I ascend to my Father and to your Father, to my God and to your God." By this most holy brotherhood whatever we have lost in Adam is restored to us again. Therefore we are not afraid to call God our Father, not so much because he has created us, which we have in common with the reprobate, as because he has given unto us his only Son to be our brother, and given us grace to acknowledge and embrace him as our only Mediator. Further, it behooved the Messiah and Redeemer to be true God and true man, because he was able to undergo the punishment of our transgressions and to present himself in the presence of his Father's judgment, as in our stead, to suffer for our transgression and disobedience, and by death to overcome him that was the author of death. But because the Godhead alone could not suffer death, and neither could manhood overcome death, he joined both together in one person, that the weakness of one should suffer and be subject to death--which we had deserved--and the infinite and invincible power of the other, that is, of the Godhead, should triumph, and purchase for us life, liberty, and perpetual victory. So we confess, and most undoubtedly believe.

Knox Confession 1560 #7

Chapter 7 -
Why the Mediator Had to Be True God and True Man

We acknowledge and confess that this wonderful union between the Godhead and the humanity in Christ Jesus did arise from the eternal and immutable decree of God from which all our salvation springs and depends.

Knox Confession 1560 #6

Chapter 6 - The Incarnation of Jesus Christ

When the fullness of time came God sent his Son, his eternal wisdom, the substance of his own glory, into this world, who took the nature of humanity from the substance of a woman, a virgin, by means of the Holy Ghost. And so was born the "just seed of David," the "Angel of the great counsel of God," the very Messiah promised, whom we confess and acknowledge to be Emmanuel, true God and true man, two perfect natures united and joined in one person. So by our Confession, we condemn the damnable and pestilent heresies of Arius, Marcion, Eutyches, Nestorius, and such others as did either deny the eternity of his Godhead, or the truth of his humanity, or confounded them, or else divided them.

All I can say is WOW!

  BBC TO COMPARE HOMOSEXUALITY TO THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST!

By Ken Silva pastor-teacher on Mar 9, 2013

By Ken Ham
Yes, you read that title correctly: the British Broadcasting Company will be airing a radio Easter message that compares the treatment of practicing homosexuals to the Crucifixion of Christ. (Read more about the announcement at this link.) The host of the program will be Benjamin Cohen, the founder of the gay UK publisher PinkNews.
Now, Cohen has written an article titled “Like Jesus on the cross, the gay community know what it is to be abandoned.” He explains his view of the Crucifixion and how he believes it relates to the gay agenda. As you’ll see, his reasoning shows a complete lack of understanding of the Bible’s atonement message and why Christ came to earth as a man:

The story of Jesus is one that is inextricably tied up with the notion of him being an outcast and being both abandoned and rejected by his own people, the Jews. Jesus was abandoned because of something he said he couldn’t help, being born the son of God, the messianic figure for the redemption of the Jewish people and ultimately of mankind. Yet he was persecuted for it, treated as a traitor and ultimately executed.

One of the problems with Cohen’s statement is that the gospel accounts of Christ’s earthly ministry don’t center on rejection and abandonment. They are concerned with Christ’s purpose for coming to earth—to offer salvation to sinful man through living a perfect life, dying in our place, and rising again three days later.
What’s more, Christ and His disciples called people to repent and believe. You see, Scripture tells us that homosexual behavior is sinful—so Cohen’s comparison isn’t remotely valid. (For more on what the Bible says about homosexuality, read Pro-Gay Theology: Does the Bible Approve of Homosexuality?) Cohen continues:

Jesus in the Gospel is confronted by the Temple authorities because of his claims of being the son of God. In Mark, the High Priest asks Jesus: “Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?”, a question from Jesus’s perspective he had to answer in the affirmative. This led to the acquisition [sic] of blasphemy, subject as it happens to the same punishment as homosexuality in Temple times, execution. How different a situation is this to the questions and ultimatums given by some parents and some faiths to young gay people? Could Jesus have escaped his crucifixion by denying who he believed he really was? In my view, religion should be about bringing families together, not tearing them apart. Families and faiths should accommodate gay people not rejecting them or trying to paint them as deviants.

You know, the irony in all of this is that just about the only time secularists are willing to give credence to Christ’s claims that He was the Son of God is when it serves their own agenda. Cohen completely misunderstands Jesus’s attitude toward the sacrifice He was about to make for man’s sin, as he seems to believe that Christ unwillingly went forward with His Crucifixion. However, Christ wanted what the Father wanted, as demonstrated in His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane: “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39). Jesus Christ, speaking of laying down His life, said, “No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father” (John 10:18). Jesus Christ rejoiced that through suffering He would redeem us, as Hebrews 12:2 testifies that “Jesus, the author and finisher of ourfaith . . . for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross.”
Another problem with Cohen’s thinking is that none of it is based on the Bible—it’s all from his “view.” The changing opinions of people cannot be the basis for what we think. The Bible has to affect our thinking in every area. Sadly, Cohen is trying to use the Bible, specifically Christ’s atoning work on the Cross, to justify sin. That’s the work of an unbelieving, rebellious heart.
I sincerely urge you to pray that Cohen and others who hold his viewpoint repent of their error and believe the gospel of Christ before the day of judgment.
And pray for the potential millions of viewers who will watch this shocking program that they will not be led astray by those  who treat God’s Word like those in 2 Peter 3:16: “ . . . which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.”
Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken
I thank Steve Golden for his assistance in composing today’s blog post.

For Emergents and the so-called Church of Christ

JELLY-FISH CHRISTIANITY

By Ken Silva pastor-teacher on Mar 10, 2013 in Current Issues, Devotions, Features

I’ve been known here at Apprising Ministries to refer to the apostatizing evangelical community as evanjellyfish. I actually adapted that from what another minister had said in the 90′s.
Well as you’re about to see from J.C. Ryle (1816-1900), we were quite late to the party:

The consequences of this widespread dislike to distinct biblical doctrine are very serious. Whether we like it or not, it is an epidemic which is doing great harm, and especially among young people.
It creates, fosters, and keeps up an immense amount of instability in religion. It produces what I must venture to call, if I may coin the phrase, a ‘jelly-fish’ Christianity in the land–that is, a Christianity without bone, or muscle, or power.
A jelly-fish, as everyone who has been much by the seaside knows, is a pretty and graceful object when it floats in the sea, contracting and expanding like a little delicate transparent umbrella. Yet the same jelly-fish, when cast on the shore, is a mere helpless lump, without capacity for movement, self-defense, or self-preservation.
Alas! it is a vivid type of much of the religion of this day, of which the leading principle is, ‘No dogma, no distinct beliefs, no doctrine.’ We have hundreds of ministers who seem not to have a single bone in their body of divinity!
They have no definite opinions; they are so afraid of ‘extreme views,’ that they have no views at all. We have thousands of sermons preached every year, which are without an edge or a point or a corner–they are as smooth as marble balls, awakening no sinner, and edifying no saint!
We have legions of young men annually turned out from our universities, armed with a few scraps of second-hand philosophy, who think it a mark of cleverness and intellect to haveno decided opinions about anything in religion–and to be utterly unable to make up their minds as to what is Christian truth. Their only creed, is a kind of ‘nothingism.’
They are sure and positive about nothing! And last, and worst of all, we have myriads of respectable church-going people, who have no distinct and definite views about any point in theology.
They cannot discern things that differ, any more than color-blind people can distinguish colors. They think . . .

everybody is right–and nobody is wrong,
everything is true–and nothing is false,
all sermons are good–and none are bad,
every clergyman is sound–and no clergyman unsound.

They are ‘tossed to and fro, like children, by every wind of doctrine;’ often carried away by some new excitement and sensational movement; ever ready for new things, because they have no firm grasp on the old; and utterly unable to ‘render a reason of the hope that is in them.’
All this, and much more, is the result of that effeminate dread of distinct doctrine which has been so strongly developed, and has laid such hold on many pastors in these days.
I turn from the picture I have exhibited with a sorrowful heart. I grant it is a gloomy one; but I am afraid it is only too accurate and true. Let us not deceive ourselves. Distinct and definitive doctrine is at a premium just now. Instability and unsettled notions are the natural result, and meet us in every direction.
Cleverness and earnestness are the favorite idols of the age! What a man says matters nothing–however strange and heterogeneous are the opinions he expresses! If he is only brilliant and ‘earnest’–he cannot be wrong!
Never was it so important for believers to hold sound systematic views of truth, and for ministers to ‘enunciate doctrine’ very clearly and distinctly in their teaching.

From E-nklings, Eustified = Justified (Justification)

Eustified

When you listen to an audio book your ear catches words and phrases (even the whole story) in a different outlook than when you sit down and read it yourself, either silently or even out loud with others. Many times it's like watching a movie over and over again, like my sister and Westside Story. I still know all the songs, by the way.

At any rate, I was listening to the audio version of The Silver Chair and once I got over the performer accenting a long vowel at the end of Aslan's name, I noticed something about another name that I had not noticed before. Perhaps it's mere coincidence. Perhaps it has nothing whatsoever to do with Lewis's choice of names or the narrative as it develops, especially in Dawn Treader. But here it is nonetheless. When Eustace Scrubb's first name was called out by Jill Pole several times, "Eustace! Eustace. Eustace!" I heard the letters bubble up in my head, albeit spelled a different way: Justus. For those of you don't sprechen sie Latin, that's Justus, as in Justified, as in Justification. Although it can also be pronounced: "You-stus" with the "y" sound (in Latin). In fact, in Latin it would be properly spelled with an "I," as in Iustus. Since there was no "J" in Latin.

Moving on from grammatical nerd land. Once I heard Eustace's name pronounced in that manner, a great number of things came to mind. What if Lewis had intentionally named him that way? Could he have made that sort of philological trick on purpose knowing (at least as much as an author knows where the story is going while writing) where the story might take this snotty boy? Is there more to this than merely a name that fits the personality of this character? I think there is.

Remember where he began the story. There once was a boy named Eustace Scrubb and he almost deserved the name. He was a rather arrogant and annoying sort of boy. The kind you'd like to wallop but rather not waste the time it would take, or the bruise it would yield your knuckles to box his ears. But, as it is in many cases, great arrogance is born of greater ignorance. Such was the case with Eustace. For he had not read the right books. And it showed. But Narnia has its way with people, one way or another. Either they reject it as a fool or they go from fool to favor. Eustace was an altogether different boy by the end of Dawn Treader, something even noted at the beginning of The Silver Chair.

Something happened to him on that island in the Eastern seas. His outward nature finally reflected his inward reality; he became what he had been all along - a dragon. Until, that is, Aslan undressed him of his sinful skin, laid him naked into a baptismal pool and clothed him in new life. Clothed in Aslan, to paraphrase St. Paul. Yes, the Eustace from the beginning of Dawn Treader compared with the Eustace at the end, was quite a new boy (or rather, a new man). He had been "un-dragoned." He went from needing Iustus (Justification) to living in Iustus. He had been Eustified. Something only Aslan can do, as Eustace quickly found out.

And that's really the way it is for all the children who come into Narnia, whether they are in the books or reading the books. Eustace is one of those identifiable characters - at first you hate him, even pity him a bit but almost can't help but laugh at his not-so-subtle sarcasm. A part cast very well in the recent movie by the way. But he's also one of those prototypical characters. There's a little bit of Eustace in all of us. Both the Eustace before and the Eustace after Aslan, after the un-dragoning. We are in need of being Eustified. We too need to be un-dragoned. That's precisely what Baptism gives us: the justification won for us by Christ on the cross. And now we live "simul Eustace et peccator." Something happened to you in that water. Jesus happened. And something continues to happen in you each new day, call it the daily drowning of your old dragon (or your old Gollum to mix mythical metaphors!).

As it was with Eustace, so it is for us too. Justified by the Great Lion himself, Judah's Lion. He roars and the devil flees. He paws and claws your dragon nature away from you. His breath gives life, even the Holy Spirit. Who lives ever pointing us to this Lion, who is also the Good Shepherd. The Shepherd who becomes the Lamb to lay down his life for his sheep. In Christ, the Lion and the Lamb are one, at peace - laid down together on the cross, laid in the tomb and inviting you to breakfast after the resurrection. In Christ all your dragons are slain, both now and forever. We too have been changed, from the former Eustace to the new Eustace, Iustus, Justus. Eustified in Christ.



P.S. Thanks to Kaleb for suggesting the "simul Eustace et Peccator."