A Strenuous & Stern USMC Rebuke for Non-Anglicans: Holy Week 2012

Must we be this forceful?
Anglicans, by nature and disposition,
are kind and genteel.  Yet,
there comes a time for force.

As a liturgical Churchman without an apology, one Reformed Churchman, a Confessional scholar, a sage Churchman and published author--who will not be named--is quite correct. While he suggested a few things, no BCP-man would agree with the suggestion that Lent is a mere 40-50 day affair. Not now, not ever, henceforth or forever. Horrors no!

Eegads, with Morning (MP) and Evening Prayer (EP), 365/52/24/7, we confess our manifold sins and wickednesses.  There is good cause for these confessions.

Ask our spouses, children, grandchildren or fellow employees.  Every disciplined BCP-Churchman well knows it, by experience.  "We have erred and strayed from Thy ways like lost sheep.."  Non-Anglicans have no concept of the daily confessions of the dutiful, yet they suggest that "Lent is some 40-dayish affair."  Rather, we live with Lenten themes throughout the year.  It's the stuff of daily living.

99.5%, perhaps 99.9%, of the United States knows nothing of these things, including liberal if not conservative Anglicans.  Yet, following the BCP rubrics of the "order" for daily and evening prayer, we know otherwise.  Lent informs 352/52/24/7.

What does "Christianity Today," an evangelical magazine founded by Billy Graham, a hothouse for American evangelicals, know of these things?  Or, Carl Henry, another Anabaptist, a later editor of the magazine?  A Baptist? Or Kenneth Kantzer? 

What do the evangelical journalists at "World Magazine" know of these things? 

Or John Piper?  Or, Southern Baptist Anabaptist Ed Stetzer?  Or Al Moher (who appears to have discovered Dordt in the 1990s)?  As you might tell, not in any mood to listen to any Americans on the matter.


Or, at Ligonier Ministries, what does RC Sr. know of these things?  Or his son, Junior, tossed and excommunicated from the RPGNA?  RC Jr., in Virgina, in a quasi-theocratic at St. Peter's, was tossed for arrogances and for abusing his congregation. (We anticipated that, actually...but nuff there.)  RC Sr, nor Jr,  wasn't reared on old BCP doctrines and pieties.  They weren't and aren't old school Anglican Churchmen.  Their monthly magazine shows few, if any signs, of such involvements. Hence, there are justifiable rebuffs to those--throughout the entire nation, east to west, north to south--who know nothing of these doctrines and pieties, including the Reformed (who, honourably, are more educated than Anabaptists and evangelicals).

Or, what do the Professors at WTS or RTS know of these things?   The varied Drs.?  Bob Godfrey?  Mike Horton, who once flurted with the BCP?  Vern Poythress?  Richard Gaffin?  R. Scott Clark? John Frame, eegads, horrors no?  Carl Trueman?  Kim Riddelbarger?  Or, other denizens of White Horse Inn?  (Never mind the White Horse Inn hosted Anglicans.)  The names could be expanded.  What do they know of Anglican Churchmanship?  Any of them?  Never mind liberal Anglicans, I'm talking about disciplined, classical, confessional, historic and old school Prayer Book men, 352/52/24/7, that is, Cranmer-men.  While that may be an old model, it was a modelled-model and lived by by 1000s of old school clerics.

Never mind T4G, ACE or the Baptyerians?  What about Together for the Gospel, hosted by the Anabaptist Mark Dever?  Or another Anabaptist Al Mohler?  Forget Mahaney, the nearwise-sunk Baptacostal (with cause).  Or, horrors, Driscoll?  Or, the consummate Baptyerians, Ligon Duncan and R.C. Sproul?  Again, 99.5%, if not 99.9% of Americans, know ANYTHING, ZERO, and ZIPPO about the daily disciplines of the old BCP.  Hence, when they talk about Lent, they must be dismissed immediately.  Short version, they're ignorant.

We earnestly submit they know nothing about old school Anglican doctrines, worship, and daily pieties...352/53/24/7.

They have nothing, of warrant, to say about Lent and Easter, in the larger scope of discussing the liturgical calendar.

What do the Reformed Professors know of this daily worship and piety? (Dr. Philip Edcumbe Hughes, Church of England, WTS, a godly and former Professor...alas, an honourable, scholarly, tweedy, cigar-smoking, Biblical, English, Prayer Book and Anglican Churchman towering over the likes of youngsters like Frame and Poythress...both of whom had no Anglican backgrounds.) 

Never mind so-called evangelical seminary Professors, e.g. Carson.  What do the divines at Trinity Divinity School know of these doctrines, worship and pieties?  These disciplines, lections, rhythms, collects and pieties?  Who can follow the modern worship dicta arising amongst "evangelicals?"

The time for a strenuous rebuke is ordered up.

Lent is 365/52/24/7. 

This is offered in MP and EP. “Let us ever beseech Thee to grant us daily repentance and Thy Holy Spirit, that those things, that we do at this present, may be righteous in Thy sight…and evermore grant us…”  Disciplined Churchmen know these prayers, by day and by retirement at Eventide.

Any suggested delimitation of Lent to some mere season of 40-50 days is quite uneducated, quite sophmoric, quite shallow, quite unfortunate, and quite inexperienced. Can we say it, quite stupid.  Any suggestion otherwise is quite puerile. 

However, what can one expect from liberals, so-called “evangelicals” (Baptacostals) with not the slightest sense of liturgy or even, regrettably, Confessional Presybyterians? Worship at WTS was, well, nuff there. Frame on the organ…eegads, well, nuff there too. This much, this scribe knows that solid Reformed Churchmen wisely nod to the old BCP. Have some stories there.

Lent, that’s in the Anglican DNA throughout the year. That is, for genuine BCP-Churchmen . Nor is Advent a mere seasonal affair, which intrudes rightly into Lent and Holy Easter week. Advent is not a matter of a mere season either, but Advent and the Incarnation is 365/52/42/7. 

Our daily prayers involve all these doctrinal loci. 

Imputations otherwise are false. It's annoying to hear cads yak and jabber, but who know nothing of these things.

I’ve been singing wonderful Advent and Christmas hymns during Lent and Easter. These are 365-day affairs. 

As to the Rev. Dr. Leithart, don’t know him or his writings, much. He’s a PCA Rector. He’s had FV issues. I’ll leave it there. But, for this scribe, Peter is not in the old Anglican way. His writings on Lent are modern and modest.  Let him be.


While pausing to reflect on specific emphases during one season, the entire theological orbit is not dismissed, minimized or mitigated, at all, in that specific season. Who, pray tell, would make that imputation?   Yet, the stupid imputation is made against BCP Churchmen.


Hence, a stern and stentorian USMC rebuke to non-Anglicans daring to offer ignorant rebukes about the liturgical calendar.

We confess the Apostles’ Creed daily. 365/52/24/7. In fact, at Morning AND Evening Prayer.

If one hasn’t lived in these annual cycles for hours, days, weeks, years and decades, they need to walk quite quietly. The Nicene weekly. If one has not lived in these lections, collects, Bible readings, and thoughts for days morning and nights, weeks, years and decades–as honourable Anglicans have–quietness and zipped-lips is righty suggested. And, for us exiles, though blooming with hope in the desert-exile, as do roses in deserts, while confessing the Reformed Confessions, we persist with faith, given us by His Triune Majesty. Many are standing the 352/52/24/7 watch.

Regards to all,
Donald Philip Veitch


PS…Sure beats (Pyromaniacs) Phil Johnson’s inappropriate and indecent FB and Twitter posts about GPSs today, on Good Friday, the day when the Theathropic Man, our Sovereign Redeemer, bore the weight of our manifold sins on the Cross. Stunning contrast. Disturbing, but what else from Anabaptists? Nuff there, but Phil is a predestinarian Anabaptist and one consummately undisciplined, untrained, and unguided by the daily worship, doctrines, pieties, lections, collects, and rhythms of an honourable, Bible, quiet, thoughtful, deliberative and decent order of worship.
This scribe writes from the exile, but with hope and trust in the redemptive promises of the Divine Majesty. Roses, hope, inspiration, and perseverence, indeed, can blossom in the Babylonian exile.

As Anglicans, we generally prefer something quieter, more genteel, more sophisticated and more thoughtful, but there comes a time for a stentorian and strenuous rebuke.  Gentleness, mercy, kindness, and graciousness is in the Anglican DNA...it just is.  Given our 365/52/24/7 confessions, we know our manifold wickednesses.  But this nonsense about the calendar deserves strenuous rebukes.  This old US Marine and Sailor rebukes, with force, strenuousness and earnestness, these and all American illiterates and half-whacks--99.9% of the nation or voices for them--offering their ignorant protests about Lent and the calendar. 

Oswald of Worcester

Ohio Anglican reports the following at:  http://ohioanglican.blogspot.com/2012/02/oswald-of-worcester.html.  We are well reminded that the Church didn't begin with 20th century enthusiasts or Americans for that matter.  (Don't tell Mahaney, SGM, Mohler, Duncan, DeYoung, T4G, Ligonier or others though.)

Oswald of Worcester

(died 29 February 992) was Archbishop of York from 972 to his death in 992. He was of Danish ancestry, but brought up by his uncle, Oda who sent him to France to the abbey of Fleury to become a monk. After a number of years at Fleury, Oswald returned to England at the request of his uncle, who died before Oswald returned. With his uncle's death, Oswald needed a patron and turned to another kinsman, Oskytel, who had recently become Archbishop of York. His activity for Oskytel attracted the notice of Saint Dunstan who had Oswald consecrated as Bishop of Worcester in 961. In 972 Oswald was promoted to the see of York, although he continued to hold Worcester also.

As bishop and archbishop, Oswald was a supporter of Dunstan's reforms of the church, including monastic reforms. He was one of the leading promoters of the reforms, along with Dunstan and Aethelwold. Oswald founded a number of monasteries, including Ramsey Abbey. Oswald also switched the cathedral chapter of Worcester from secular clergy to monks. While archbishop, he brought the scholar Abbo of Fleury to York to teach for several years. Oswald died in 992, while washing the feet of the poor. A hagiographical life was written shortly after his death, and he was quickly hailed as a saint.

Propers for Oswald of Worcester - Monk, Archbishop and Reformer

The Collect.

O ALMIGHTY God, who hast called us to faith in thee, and hast compassed us about with so great a cloud of witnesses: Grant that we, encouraged by the good examples of thy Saints, and especially of thy servant Oswald of Worcester, may persevere in running the race that is set before us, until at length, through thy mercy, we with them attain to thine eternal joy; through him who is the author and finisher of our
faith, thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Southern Baptists Concerned about "Encroachment of Calvinism"

The Southern Baptists are concerned about the "presumbable encroachment of Calvinism."  This means TULIP or the "five points of Calvinism" associated with the Dutch Synod of Dordt, 1618-1619.  Reformation Anglicanism, of course, would subscribe to "5-point Calvinism." Such views are so basic to young and maturing Churchmen.  We well remember--with head-scratching--when Dr. Al Mohler burst onto the Baptyerian scene with his new found "Calvinism."  One would have thought the Second Coming occurred as Al, along with John Piper, enthused at a Ligonier Conference, sponsored by R.C. Sproul, Sr.  Bapyterians, like R.C. Sproul, Ligonier Ministries, Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Ligon Duncan, and even James Boice, gave a voice and wide platform to these Baptyerians.  There's much more to "Calvinism" than five points:  covenant and infant baptism, the covenant of grace, consensus Reformed confessions, music, catechisms and memory work for children, doctrinal preaching (e.g. Heidelberg Catechetical instruction at evening services), educated clerics, synodical government, Psalm-singing and theologically-driven hymnals, etc. We would add an Anglican-Reformed liturgy of which the Bapyterians know nothing.  None of the Baptyerians have exposure, skill, or the piety of the  old Prayer Book.  Even the Reformed Seminary professors have little of that. But we briefly digress.  At this point, "predestinarian Baptists," or, as a more historical term, "particular Baptists" like Al Mohler, are giving pause to the revivalist and Arminianized SBC versions, their dominant faction.  Reformation Anglicanism will maintain that level of discernment that transcends these Anabaptists and Baptyerians...what one advisor to Queen Elizabeth the First said, a "faith for men of discerning spirits."  While one might rebut that point as elitist (etc.), we have sustained and substantive rebuttals.  We support Elizabeth's advisor while the Revivalists will object.  The article follows with the URL.

'Encroachment of Calvinism' concerns editor

Posted on Feb 10, 2012 | by Erin Roach

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) -- Southern Baptists must decide whether they are satisfied with a "presumable encroachment of Calvinism" in their leadership and their seminary graduates, Baptist paper editor Gerald Harris wrote Feb. 9, drawing responses from several SBC entities.

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J. Gerald Harris

In a column titled "The Calvinists are here," Harris, editor of The Christian Index, newsjournal of the Georgia Baptist Convention, set forth statements about Calvinism and quoted Southern Baptists on both sides of the issue.

"... It appears that some of our institutions and agencies are giving, at the least, tacit approval to Reformed theology or are, at the most, actively on a path to honor, if not implement Reformed theology and methodology in their institutions," Harris wrote at ChristianIndex.org.

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., was cited in the column as "a particular source" of recent graduates espousing Reformed doctrines.

"There is a growing perception that Southern Seminary has become a seedbed for a brand of Calvinism that is quite different from the Reformed theology of its founder, James Petigru Boyce, and also a training ground for Reformed church planters," Harris wrote.

In response, R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Seminary, told Baptist Press, "I have no idea what Dr. Harris has in mind with this comment, and only he can explain it. The theological standard at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is the Baptist Faith & Message and the Abstract of Principles, upon which the institution was founded, and on which the first signature is that of James Petigru Boyce."

For more, see:

http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37156

Sproul Sr. Speaks at Denise Sproul's Memorial at St. Andrews, Sanford, FL

An old friend, teacher, mentor and role model, RC Sproul, Sr., speaks at his daughter-in-law's Memorial Service. (My reflections on an old friend are at:  http://reformationanglicanism.blogspot.com/2010/09/reflections-on-rc-sproul-by-d-philip.html.)  While we pray for RC Sr., Vesta, and RC Jr., our especial prayers stand for the eight children, ages 6ish-or-so to 18. They've lost a Mum-in-Christ. May HM extend particular comforts and supports to the children.  RC Sr. speaks below and the audio-component is at the bottom.  Good thoughts and reminders by the Mentor-in-Chief.  We would add our prayer from our beloved 1662 BCP: 

ALMIGHTY God, with whom do live the spirits of them that depart hence in the Lord, and with whom the souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity: We give thee hearty thanks, for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our sister, Denise, out of the miseries of this sinful world; beseeching thee, that it may please thee, of thy gracious goodness, shortly to accomplish the number of thine elect, and to hasten thy kingdom; that we, with all those that are departed in the true faith of thy holy Name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in thy eternal and everlasting glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

http://www.ligonier.org/blog/denise-sproul-memorial-message/

Denise Sproul Memorial Message

from R.C. Sproul

Dec 21, 2011

This morning a memorial service was held for Denise Sproul at Saint Andrew’s Chapel in Sanford, Florida. Her father-in-law, Dr. R.C. Sproul, gave a meditation from Philippians 1:19-26:

---

“For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith, that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again.” — Philippians 1:19-26

You’ve just heard the inspired, infallible Word of Almighty God, which our Lord Jesus Christ said is Truth. Truth that cannot fail. Truth that cannot be broken. Please receive it as such this morning.

Let us pray. Our Father and our God, You have declared to us that it is better to go to the house of mourning than to spend our time with fools. And even now we are in that house of mourning. But we mourn not as those who have no hope. But rather we weep with those who weep, and we rejoice with those who rejoice knowing that you have decreed from eternity that all things work together for good for those who love You and who are called according to Your purpose. For that we are profoundly and eternally grateful. Amen.

Paul was writing to the Philippians from prison. This was not his final imprisonment that he endured before his execution under the beast, Nero of Rome. But he wrote to this church in Philippi, and he declared to them his joy in the midst of sorrow saying to them, “I rejoice in my condition; therefore, you should rejoice as well.” And he remarks here in verse 19, “I know that this will turn out for my deliverance.” By what means? “Through your prayer and through the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” And he said “According to my expectation, nay, my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so even now Christ will be magnified in my body whether by life or by death.”

The first year I was a Christian I read the New Testament through, and I had a marker to highlight those passages that stood out to me in my virgin reading of the Scriptures. And I remember in that first exposure to holy Writ that when I came to the next line I took out my highlighter and highlighted the passage where the Apostle Paul said, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” For me to live is Christ. It’s not simply about Christ. It’s not simply under the authority of Christ. It’s not simply before the face of Christ; not in the service of Christ. Paul says, “For me to live is Christ.”

If anyone ever probed the depths and the riches of the mystical union that exists between Christ and His people, it was this Apostle. And from the day of his conversion on the road to Damascus, he simply no longer was living for his own glory. It’s not merely that his life was changed by Christ, but beloved, from that moment on Paul’s life was defined by Christ. That kind of life in our culture today is politically incorrect. The media would refer to it as right-wing extremism and dangerous. Well the Apostle Paul was dangerous. It was through the power of God he turned the Roman Empire upside-down. There was a reason why Nero in his madness had him executed. Because for Paul, to live was Christ.

In the years that I spent teaching in seminary, we would prepare students for ministry with academic disciplines in theology, biblical studies, church history, apologetics, philosophy, that sort of thing. But in addition to those disciplines, we would provide courses in what we called “practical theology” to help the students understand how to administer the sacraments and how to visit people in the hospital. But a question I was frequently asked by seminarians was this: “What do you say when you visit people who are bereaved at a funeral service or during visiting hours at a funeral home—what do you say?” And I would answer that question two ways. First thing I would say to them is that there is no script that has been given to us from heaven on what you’re supposed to say to people who are in the midst of grieving. There’s no rehearsed speech that you can take with you into the funeral home. And the second thing I said was that it really doesn’t matter what you say. In fact, you don’t have to say anything. Just be there. Put your arm around those who are in pain.

Yesterday afternoon and last evening when we were at the Baldwin-Fairchild funeral home, as our son and his children, Denise’s parents, siblings, and friends were all there, people came from all over this country and said all kinds of different things. But you know the thing that people said more than any other thing that I heard? Here’s what they would say: “I’m very sorry for your loss.” And that was meaningful to me—to our family. Because for that question our loss was enormous; losing his wife was an immeasurable loss for our son; losing their mother, an unspeakable loss for her children, for her parents, for her sister, siblings, and all of her friends. And it was true.

But each one of these people have experienced a profound loss. Husband, children, parents, brother, sister—loss. The only person in the whole mix that didn’t experience loss was Denise. Because she is a Christian, to die is gain. Loss for us, but gain for her.

Then Paul goes on to say, “But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you.” So Paul writes to the Philippians about his ambivalence—an ambivalence with a vengeance; an ambivalence so powerful that he said, “I’m torn—ripped apart between two options. On the one hand, what I’d like to do is leave.” The word there in the text is the word that the sailors of antiquity used to weigh anchor, to leave this port and go to a destination that we have planned.

In that prison cell Paul was writing to his friends saying, “If all things were equal, I’d just assume get out of here and leave and depart because I know that if I’m absent from the body, I am present with the Lord. If I leave this veil of sorrows, if I leave this place of shipwreck and beatings, hostility and fighting with wild beasts, I go to be in the presence of Jesus to bask in the radiance of the refulgent glory of His face in heaven. To see it once is all I need for eternity. I’m torn between that and staying here and ministering to you. It’s more needful for you if I stay.”

A little bit over a week ago I got a phone call from my son. Denise was beside him. R.C. Jr. said to me, “Dad, we have a tough decision to make. The doctors here at the hospital have recommended that we put Denise in hospice. She may have a few days left of consciousness and peace that she can spend with her husband, family and kids. And yet on the other hand, they have one last experimental, intense chemotherapy they can try. The medical odds of success were astronomical against it. What should we do?” I said, “Son, if it were me on that bed, I would choose hospice. I wouldn’t want any more medication or any more suffering there. However, if I were a mother and there was one chance in a thousand that I could survive for the sake of my children, I’d take that chance.”

Like Paul, she was torn between two alternatives. One—to depart and be with Christ. Two—to endure more affliction for the sake of her children. And that’s the decision she made. I said to R.C., “Whatever she decides, we’ll have to stand behind that decision, especially you.” And he did. She made the decision, but the physicians were not able to get her platelets high enough to even have this final medical solution that she was willing to undertake.

And so she came home. She got to see her children one more time—her parents, her sister, her siblings—and then she died. And the second alternative came to pass in the providence of God, which the apostle Paul assigned a value to. You heard what he said to the Philippians: “I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, parenthetically, which is far better.”

It’s not possible to translate any language into another language with exact verbal precision word-for-word. It would become so awkward that you wouldn’t be able to make any sense out of it, so this is one of the problems that translators have. And we also have a problem where the grammatical structure of one language is not the same as the grammatical structure of another language. It is improper English to say something is more better than something else. We’re not allowed to speak like that. Some people do, but we’re not supposed to speak like that. But the Greeks did not have a problem with that particular grammatical expression. In fact what is written in the text, Paul says, “For me to depart is much more better.” Not just better, not just more better, but reaching for the superlative, he said it is much more better.

Vesta and I were married fifty-one years ago plus. After the wedding we flew to New York City and spent our wedding night in a basically run-down hotel on the property of what was then Idyllwild International Airport. (It’s now Kennedy Airport.) We were excited because we were flying out in the morning for a week in Bermuda, which was a wedding present given to us by a close friend of her parents—all expenses paid at the Princess Hotel in Hamilton, Bermuda. What an exotic and ideal place for a honeymoon. What would you think of us if I would have said to her that Sunday morning, “Honey, let’s stay here in this place and forget about going to Bermuda.”

Jonathan Edwards says, “That’s the way we are. We are like travelers that set out for a glorious destination and they stop at a run-down inn on the way, and you have to pull them away out of that inn to get them to go to their final destination.” We are like Shakespeare’s Hamlet declared: We would “rather bear those ills we have, than fly to others that we know not of. Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all.” So we cling desperately, tenaciously to this life, which is good. But for the Christian what’s ahead is far, far better—better than we can possibly imagine in this world. For to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Comfort one another with these words that come ultimately from God Himself. Let’s pray.

Father, we thank you for what you have prepared for your saints in glory. And we thank you that Denise is gone before us to that place. Turn our tears into joy. Protect her children, her husband, and all of her loved ones and friends. For we ask it in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Download the Message (right-click to download)

Denise Sproul Departs the Church Militant to Church Triumphant

HT to Triablogue re: the news.


http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2011/12/denise-sproul.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2Ftriablogue+%28Triablogue%29


Ligonier reports: 
http://www.ligonier.org/blog/denise-sproul-home-lord/


Denise Sproul, wife of RC Sproul, Jr., has departed this life for the next world.  Denise was and is the daughter-in-law of RC, Sr.  She entered the Church Triumphant under HM's governance.

We lament this.  We pray HM's consolations for Junior and his children.  The children lost a Mum.  Junior lost his wife. RC Sr. and Vesta lost their daughter-in-law.