Second Quarter
AprilWhat We Believe About the Bible"The Old Testament is not contrary to the New; for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to Mankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and Man, being both God and Man."
(The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, 1563) What We Believe About the Bible"Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation."
(The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, 1563) F.F. Bruce on The Canon"When we speak of the canon of scripture, the word 'canon' has a simple meaning. It means the list of books contained in scripture, the list of books recognized as worthy to be included in the sacred writings of a worshiping community...
"The word 'canon' has come into our language (through Latin) from the Greek word kanon. In Greek it meant a rod, especially a straight rod used as a rule; from this usage comes the other meaning which the word commonly bears in English -- 'rule' or 'standard.'... "Before the word 'canon' came to be used in the sense of 'list,' it was used in another sense by the church -- in the phrase 'the rule of faith' or 'the rule of truth.'... "The 'canon' of scripture is understood to be the list of books which are acknowledged to be, in a unique sense, the rule of belief and practice." (F.F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture) What We Believe About the Bible"God, the Supreme Judge, not only took care to have His word, which is the 'power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth' (Romans 1:16), committed to writing by Moses, the Prophets, and the Apostles, but has also watched and cherished it with paternal care ever since it was written up to the present time, so that it could not be corrupted by craft of Satan or fraud of man. Therefore the Church justly ascribes it to His singular grace and goodness that she has, and will have to the end of the world, a 'sure word of prophecy' and 'Holy Scriptures' (2 Timothy 3:15), from which, though heaven and earth perish, 'one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass' (Matthew 5:18)."
(The Helvetic Consensus Formula, 1675) |
MayJay Neugeboren on EzraEzra tells the story of how the Jewish people came up out of the Babylonian exile... (and) how (their) renewal is continually being sabotaged, from without and from within: by the enemies of the Jewish people, and -- more dangerous and deadly -- by the corruption and immorality of the Jewish people themselves...
What we have, then, in the Book of Ezra is the story of two efforts to renew national and religious life, and though the first (the rebuilding of the Temple) seems of greater worldly moment, the second has greater issue, for it contains within it those elements that possess the possibility of sustaining the Jewish people in all circumstances -- with or without the existence of the Temple, in exile or in the Holy Land... What is remarkable about Ezra is his ability to move -- both in his life and in his work -- from the most personal to the most practical. Just as the Book of Ezra moves from long lists and genealogies to intense passages of private grief, so in Ezra's life he moved from impassioned speeches to the people of Israel concerning purity and impurity -- speeches that cause the people to weep, as Ezra himself weeps -- to the most specific and practical measures. He is able to bind the large historical and spiritual imperatives to the most ordinary, immediate and essential human needs. (Jay Neugeboren, Congregation) John Wesley on the story of EstherWho knoweth. It is probable that God has raised you (Esther) to this honor for this very season. We should, every one of us, consider for what end God has put us in the place where we are. And when an opportunity arises to serve God and our generation, we must take care not to let it slip.
(John Wesley, Wesley's Notes on the Bible) Leslie Fiedler on a part of Job"Before her disappearance into the silence of the text, however, (Job's wife) has triggered the wrath of her husband, suggesting that her response to the monstrous succession of disasters which have befallen him is not just one more calamity, but the last straw. It is a convincing scene, rendered with the utmost economy, though I did not fully understand it until I had lived long enough to learn at first hand that perhaps the worst effect of seeming-ly gratuitous household calamity is turning the survivors against one another; as they project the guilt they cannot help feeling for having survived onto whomever they most dearly love, or whoever merely happens to be closest at hand."
(Leslie Fiedler, Congregation) C.S. Lewis on the Psalms"What must be said is that the Psalms are poems, and poems intended to be sung: not doctrinal treatises, nor even sermons. Those who talk of reading the Bible 'as literature' sometimes mean, I think, reading it without attending to the main thing it is about; like reading Burke with no interest in politics, or reading the Aeneid with no interest in Rome. That seems to me to be nonsense. But there is a saner sense in which the Bible, since it is after all literature, cannot properly be understood except as literature; and different parts of it as the different sots of literature they are. Most emphatically the Psalms must be read as poems; as lyrics, with all the licenses and all the formalities, the hyperboles, the emotional rather than logical connec-tions, which are proper to lyric poetry. They must be read as poems if they are to be understood."
(C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms) |
JuneC.S. Lewis on the Psalms"The most valuable thing the Psalms do for me is to express that same delight in God which made David dance. I am not saying that this is so pure or so profound a thing as the love of God reached by the greatest Christian saints and mystics. But I am not comparing it with that, I am comparing it with the merely dutiful 'church-going' and laborious 'saying our prayers' to which most of us are, thank God not always, but often, reduced. Against that it stands out as something astonishingly robust, virile, and spontaneous; something we may regard with an innocent envy and may hope to be infected by as we read."
(C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms) Jesus on Himself in the Old Testament"These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled."
(Luke 24:44 NASB) C.S. Lewis on Psalms of Praise"I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete until it is expressed... The Scottish catechism says that man's chief end is 'to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.' But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him."
(C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms) What We Believe About the Bible"In this Holy Scripture, the universal Church of Christ has all things fully expounded which belong to a saving faith, and also to the framing of a life acceptable to God... We judge, there-fore, that from these Scriptures are to be taken true wisdom and godliness, the reformation and government of churches; as also instruction in all duties of piety; and, to be short, the confirmation of doctrines, and the confutation of all errors."
(The Second Helvetic Confession, 1566) Augustine on The Bible and Us"Let your Scriptures be my chaste delight... O Lord, perfect me and reveal those pages to me! See, your voice is my joy; your voice surpasses all abundance of pleasures... May the inner secrets of your words be laid open to me when I knock. This I beg by our Lord Jesus Christ... in whom are hidden all the treasurers of wisdom and knowledge. These are the treasures I seek in your books."
Augustine, Confessions |