Larger Catechism

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October 4: WLC Q. 157

4 October, 2012 in October 2012 by davidtmyers | No comments

This Day in Presbyterian History:

Handling the Word of God Aright

Finding  historical sites on American Presbyterianism scarce, we turn to the Catechisms of the Westminster Standards, and for a change, to the Larger Catechism. Question No. 157 asks “How is the word of God to be read? and gives this answer, “The holy Scriptures are to be read with an high and reverence esteem of them; with a firm persuasion that they are the very word of God, and that he only can enable us to understand them; with desire to know, believe, and obey the will of God revealed in them; with diligence, and attention to the matter and scope of them; with meditation, application, self-denial, and prayer.”

We are assuming, dear reader, that you are a reader of Holy Scripture, indeed, that you have made it a habit to read the daily portions of Scripture noted each day in our blog, which will take you through the Bible in one year. But it is not enough to simply read, but we must read God’s Word, as the Catechism says, “with an high and reverent esteem of it.” The Bible is God’s Word to us and to our generation, to say nothing of the last or the future generations.  We must be firmly persuaded that it is the very word of God. Yes, human authors were inspired by the Holy Spirit, but what they wrote and indeed the very words they wrote were by God.  Our Reformed and Presbyterian churches believe in plenary and verbal inspiration.

As a result of the Bible being the Holy Word of God, only the Lord can enable us to fully understand it. This being the case, we should always approach the Word with prayer, asking the Author of it to illuminate our hearts to read and understand it.

Now, what is the motive in reading the Word of God? In one phrase, it is to “know, believe, and obey the will of God revealed” in it. Every once in a while, there is a newspaper article about the average American’s knowledge of the Bible.  It is appalling to realize the ignorance of the Bible, even among church folks. This is why this one year reading schedule and doing it chronologically is so important. Many Christians have never read the Bible through once in their spiritual lives.

Then our motive in reading it is to believe and obey the will of God revealed in it. It is God’s Word and will for our lives yesterday, today, and always. Paul spoke of it in 2 Timothy 3:16 as being for “teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness.” (NAS)  We need the solid doctrine of theology as our teaching. The reproof in the Bible tells us the wrong paths we have strayed  in faith and life.  The correction tells us the right path of life and doctrine. And the training in righteousness is a gradual process of holiness which all believers need until we get to heaven.

The manner of reading the Bible is summed up in a series of descriptive words, like “diligence, meditation, application, self-denial, and prayer.”  Diligence is needed, dear Christian.  We must not be content to be spiritual babes forever, but mature thinking Christians.  Meditation, or thinking carefully and seriously, is needed when we read the Bible.  In other words, take time to read the Word.  Too many believers spend more time reading the newspaper than they do reading the Word of God. Application is most needed.  What does the Word I have read today mean, and most important, mean to me, to where I am in my walk with Christ.  Self-denial and prayer tells us to humble ourselves under the Word of God and depend upon Him to reveal what our souls  need this day from God.

Words to live by:  It is estimated that countless Christians have more than one Bible in their homes today.  Sometimes they represent various stages of their spiritual life, like a new Christian, a growing Christian, or a mature Christian.  Sometimes they are various versions and translations, bought according to the recommendation of the church or this Bible teacher.  But this writer is not so much interested in how many Bibles you own, but rather in whether you read daily from one of them.  The Through the Bible section of this guide is designed to help you do that at least once a year, and hopefully every year for all of your lives.  Handling the Word of God correctly is a habit which you want to keep in your lives.

Through the Scriptures:  Haggai 1, 2; Zechariah 1, 2

Through the Standards:  The duties of Christians to the government

W.C.F. 23:4 

“It is the duty of people to pray for magistrates, to honor their persons, to pay them tribute or other dues, to obey their lawful commands, and to be subject to their authority, for conscience sake.  Infidelity, or difference in religion, does not make void the magistrates’ just and legal authority, nor free the people from their due obedience to them: from which ecclesiastical persons are not exempted, much less has the Pope any power and jurisdiction over them in their dominions, or over any of their people; and, least of all, to deprive them of their  dominions, or lives, if he shall judge them to be heretics, or upon any other pretence whatsoever.”

 

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September 16: Rev. Sheldon Jackson

16 September, 2012 in September 2012 by davidtmyers | No comments

This Day in Presbyterian History: 

Amazed by What he Accomplished in Life

The seals and the whales in Alaska were disappearing fast for the native people up in Alaska.  So the Rev. Sheldon Jackson, a Presbyterian missionary, travelled to Siberia to purchase reindeer to be introduced in Alaska for food, clothing, and transportation.  He would eventually bring over 1300 of them, and train the natives how to care for them.

Sheldon Jackson was born in 1834 in Minaville, New York. He graduated from Union College (1855) and Princeton Theological Seminary, graduating in 1858. The following year he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister.

After marriage of Mary Voohees in 1858, they applied to the Presbyterian Foreign Mission board for passage in Siam or Columbia, but we turned down—get this!—for “lacking in physique.”  Jackson was only five feet tall.

So Rev. Jackson and his wife began their ministry, teaching in a Choctaw Indian boarding school in what was later Oklahoma, beginning on September 16, 1858.  He spent only one year there, contracting malaria, which greatly weakened his health.  But he was not done serving his Lord.

Until 1877, he ministered in  ten states and territories of the West.  How was this possible?  He simply followed the westward extension of the railroad, coming to a make shift town, visiting every house witnessing of Christ, seeing converts, organizing them into small missions and churches, and move on to the next railroad town.   He organized over 100 missions and churches, including several educational institutions, in this way.

But it was in Alaska that his greatest work for Christ took place, especially among the native Alaskans.  The Lord opened up this territory in a unique way.  A close friend of President Benjamin Harrison, Jackson was appointed the First General Agent of Education in Alaska, and told to educate the native tribes of the territory.  He followed the practice of using contracts to accomplish it, only his contracts were with religious denominations.  In all, he divided up the vast area and  invited in the Baptists, Anglicans of Canada, Methodists, Moravians, Congregationalists, Quakers, Lutherans, Covenant, Roman Catholics, Russian Orthodox, to join the Presbyterians already starting schools in the territory.  It worked admirably until 1893 when Congress began to get uneasy about subsidizing religious bodies  for their work of education!

He also laid the groundwork for the territory to be recognized at a state later on in history.  His critics were amazed at what he had accomplished, and among those accomplishments, of traveling over one million miles for the Lord.  He passed away in 1909, but not before being elected as Moderator of the General Assembly in 1897.  With all his official governmental service, he was still the evangelist, having preached over 3000 sermons on missions.

Words to live by: There is a monument on a bluff in Sioux City, Iowa, which was erected by the Presbytery of Iowa in 1913.  It commemorates the prayer meeting which the Rev. Sheldon Jackson held with two other home missionaries. They looked out to the unchurched west, and went out to win those western areas for Christ.  It is this writer’s conviction that the church today needs to look around, see their spiritually lost cities, towns, and neighborhoods, and go out with a renewed zeal to take the gospel message to them. Only such a conviction as that, will result in another spiritual awakening so desperately needed for our land.  Will you be one of the ones who will pray for this?  And go too?

Through the Scriptures:  Ezekiel 19 – 21

Through the Standards:  The fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayer, according to the Larger Catechism

WLC 194 — “What do we pray for in the fifth petition?
A.  In the fifth petition, (which is, Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,) acknowledging, that we and all others are guilty both of original and actual sin, and thereby become debtors to the justice of God; and that neither we, nor any other creature, can make the least satisfaction for that debt: we pray for ourselves and others, that God of his free grace would, through the obedience and satisfaction of Christ, apprehended and applied by faith, acquit us both from the guilt and punishment of sin, accept us in his Beloved; continue his favor and grace to us, pardon our daily failings, and fill us with peace and joy, in giving us daily more and more assurance of forgiveness; which we are the rather emboldened to ask, and encouraged to expect, when we have this testimony in ourselves, that we from the heart forgive others their offenses.”

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September 8: WSC Q. 85

8 September, 2012 in September 2012 by davidtmyers | No comments

This Day in Presbyterian History:  

Faith Wholly and Only in Christ

With nothing of great significance in historic Presbyterianism on this  date of September 8, we return to the heart of evangelical and Reformed religion, that is, “What is faith in Jesus Christ?”  That question and answer is number 85 in our Westminster Shorter Catechism.  It answers “Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as  he is offered to us in the gospel.”

The Confession, first of all, clearly tell us by the change of topics from that which has gone before, that we are in a new section of the subordinate standards.  Being convicted by the law of God and shown to be sinners, facing nothing but the wrath and curse of God for that sin, and those sins, we now see what God requires of us, namely, faith in Jesus Christ. This is the path unto salvation, indeed, this is salvation itself. Here is eternal life for all those who rely upon  Jesus Christ for eternal life.

We are told first that it is “a saving grace.”  Not only is it a divine disposition of undeserved favor towards us, it is a divine gift in us, an inclination in our soul by the Holy Spirit working in us. In every sect and cult which has ever been in existence, there is the fundamental idea that human beings earn salvation, rather than simply receiving the free favor of God for that salvation.  Eternal life is never deserved or earned, according to the Scriptures.  This is a saving grace.

This faith in Jesus Christ speaks of receiving and rest upon Jesus Christ alone for salvation.  Both of these verbs are the acts of faith in Christ Jesus.  We first of all “receive” Jesus Christ.  John 1:12 speaks of “as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe on His name.” (NASB)     We must receive Christ.  Then we speak of “resting” upon Him alone for salvation.  It is faith alone which is the key phrase in the Scriptures, to say nothing of the Protestant Reformation.  It is faith plus nothing.  If even a scintillate of works, righteous works are found in the formula, than we are left with the terrible idea that Christ did not finish the work of redemption during His perfect life and sacrificial death on the cross.  Paul says it all when in Galatians 2:21, he writes, “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.” (NASB)  It is as we renounce our own righteousness, and so laying hold on Christ, relying upon him, putting all confidence in Him, and in Him alone, for eternal life.

How do we receive and rest upon Christ?  Is is only “as he is offered to us in the gospel.” He is the Sin-bearer, Substitute, fully satisfying God’s justice against sin, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and the Savior of mankind.  This is the one in Whom we can trust for our salvation.

Words to live by:  Think of all things which Christ means to you for a moment.  What came to your mind and heart when He first revealed Himself to you?  What answers did He give to your questions at that time?  What solace did He offer to your troubled heart then?  Think about how He was offered in the gospel to you in time past.  Then rejoice anew in the gospel message which you received and rested upon at that time, or even period of life.  And memorize this catechism answer, for it can be a powerful reminder of the salvation which you experienced when you possessed faith in Jesus Christ.

Through the Scriptures:  2 Chronicles 26 – 29

Through the Standards: The first petition of the Lord’s Prayer, in the Larger Catechism

WLC 190 — “What do we pray for in the first petition?
A.  In the first petition, (which is, Hallowed be thy name,) acknowledging the utter inability and indisposition that is in ourselves and all men to honor God aright, we pray, that God would by his grace enable and incline us and others to know, to acknowledge, and highly to esteem him, his titles, attributes, ordinances, word, works, and whatsoever he is pleased to make himself known by; and to glorify him in thought, word, and deed: that he would prevent and remove atheism, ignorance, idolatry, profaneness, and whatsoever is dishonorable to him; and, by his over-ruling providence, direct and dispose of all things to his own glory.”

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February 20: WSC Q. 7

20 February, 2012 in February 2012 by davidtmyers | No comments

This Day in Presbyterian History: 

A Comforting Truth for all Christians

With no Presbyterian person, place, or event on this twentieth of February available from our circles, we return to our magnificent shorter catechism to a question and answer which provide unspeakable comfort to the people of God. It is question and answer 7 which deals with the decrees of God. Our Confessional fathers wrote, “The decrees of God are his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.”

We should not stumble at the word “decrees.” Oftentimes it has evil associations when used for or by mankind, but never when used of God. The decrees of God are defined as “His eternal purpose.” We speak here about the plan of God for both eternity and time. When we understood this is what is intended, the idea of a divine decree becomes, as one commentator put it, “less contested and detested.”

It is interesting that there is some difference between the Shorter and Larger Catechisms. The former, which is our emphasis on this day, would speak of “purpose” in a singular sense. It is “purpose,” not “purposes.” The decrees of God in the Shorter Catechism are represented in their unity. But when we move to the Larger Catechism, we see the decrees of God being spoken of in their plurality, as the fathers speak of “the acts of the counsel of his will.” There is no contradiction here. God’s decrees are one and also many, or one whole of many parts which are involved in the eternal plan.

Then we come to the heart of the matter, namely, that which is most comforting to believers, is that “God has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass for His own glory.” And He has done this not only in creation and providence, but also in redemption. Future studies during this historical devotional will be found on these aspects of the decrees of God.

For now, we receive comfort that this catechism is true. Proverbs 16:9 has been the life text of many a believer that “the heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.” We are to use our God-given sanctified minds to plan our ways on this earth. And so we set down our yearly and monthly and daily goals, according to the best wisdom which we have. But then we set them apart for God’s will, knowing and trusting that Jehovah God will establish our steps, either by the closing of doors or the opening of other doors. How many times have believers looked back on their lives and seen these divine steps which could only have come from the God of all grace! Especially is this true in the matter of our salvation. Salvation is of the LORD!

Words to Live By: Praise God today, and always, that God is in control of all persons, places, and things. We may not always see it with our eyes, but our hearts can rejoice that what the Bible declares about His sovereignty is true.  Indeed you can look back and see that God’s Word was best with respect to you and your family.  Take one or two of these backward looks, and give thanks to God for it.

Through the Scriptures: Numbers 11 – 14

Through the Standards: The Sinfulness of Mankind, as seen by the Confession

WCF 6:3
“They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed; and the same death in sin, and corrupted nature, conveyed to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation.”

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