Reformed Churchmen

We are Confessional Calvinists and a Prayer Book Church-people. In 2012, we remembered the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer; also, we remembered the 450th anniversary of John Jewel's sober, scholarly, and Reformed "An Apology of the Church of England." In 2013, we remembered the publication of the "Heidelberg Catechism" and the influence of Reformed theologians in England, including Heinrich Bullinger's Decades. For 2014: Tyndale's NT translation. For 2015, John Roger, Rowland Taylor and Bishop John Hooper's martyrdom, burned at the stakes. Books of the month. December 2014: Alan Jacob's "Book of Common Prayer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Common-Prayer-Biography-Religious/dp/0691154813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417814005&sr=8-1&keywords=jacobs+book+of+common+prayer. January 2015: A.F. Pollard's "Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation: 1489-1556" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-English-Reformation-1489-1556/dp/1592448658/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420055574&sr=8-1&keywords=A.F.+Pollard+Cranmer. February 2015: Jaspar Ridley's "Thomas Cranmer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-Jasper-Ridley/dp/0198212879/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422892154&sr=8-1&keywords=jasper+ridley+cranmer&pebp=1422892151110&peasin=198212879

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Ernst Hengstenberg's "History of the Kingdom of God Under the Old Testament:" Strange Fire," Costals, Baptists, R2K & Liberals

Hengstenberg, Ernst Wilhelm. History of the Kingdom of God Under the Old Testament, Vol. 1. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1871. Volume 1 is 469 pages. http://www.amazon.com/History-Kingdom-Under-Testament-Transl/dp/B009MXNY8G/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1381869400&sr=8-2&keywords=hengstenberg+history+of+the+kingdom+of+god

This brief section contains the seeds that, if developed, addresses several modern disorders. It's just amazing: Costalists & the "Strange Fire" Montanists, Baptists and covenant signs, liberals (think mainline), even R2K (no theocratic statehood until Moses) and more. Mr. Hengstenberg was dealing with German rationalism and Schleiermachian pietism.

Introduction: the Extent, Nature, Division, Import and Method of Treating the Old Testament

Of interest, “two kingdoms” emerge: one is the kingdom of nature and the other the kingdom of grace. The first deals with God as the Creator, Preserver and Ruler, e.g. divine providence. The second kingdom is the kingdom of grace. The Old Testament is the establishment and confirmation of the kingdom of grace amongst humans. It deals with guilt, disordering of the image of God, the divine sentence, the Deluge, confusion of foreign languages (to impede unity, communication, and hubris), and serves up an “economy of preparation” or an “economy of promise.”

Offhand, we would add that this orientation serves to dissever the Baptists from the discussion, to wit, the unity of the gracious covenant of salvation.

Varied aims and the importance:

• OT studies are an independent discipline yet related to other disciplines

• Initiates, confirms, strengthens faith (a theme Mr. Hengstenberg repeats)

• Evinces internal coherence and preparation for Chirst

• Unity of doctrine

• Shows divine judgment and allowance of persecution; we would add that immediately one sees rebuttals here to the modern Montanists.

• Shows the “being and attributes of God”

• Provides the supplies: “makes the theologians a theologian.” We would add that this phrase is extremely potent! Vitally so!

• Provides for “awe and “reverence”

• Is a “rich source for humility”

• Rich source for strength and stedfastness, e.g. Martin Luther, Psalm 46, and his “Ein Feste Burg ist unser Gott”

• Helps those who “waver and totter”

Isolated comments on some liberals (German rationalism, Schleiermachian pietism, Deism):

• Lucke, De Wette, and Meyer: in reading their works, one sees a “guide not competent for his task.”

• “Many have gone astray”

• A “mass of prejudices, distorted views, and false arguments”

• “Half-dealing”

• “Ever increasingly deism and rationalism”

• They know “nothing of the living God”

• Deny the authority of Christ and the apostles; Mr. Hengstenberg gives the standard list of texts

• Deny the antiquity of the historical books and have “tried by all means to throw suspicion on the antiquity of the separate books,” yet Moses was able to write

• Deny the Psalms and Prophets who follow closely the historical books and who reflect the kingdom of God

• The “impossibility of miracles is purely dogmatic”

• We are “living in an age of monstrous exaggerations”


A notable quote worth preserving by a historian Woltmann (35), a quote that suitably defangs the Munsterites, the Radical Reformers (Anabaptists), the frenzied Montanists, and the “Strange Fire” Costals in their disorder and distempered minds and affections:

"The history of the Old Testament has a truly iron connection, by virtue of the unchangeable nature of revelation, which constantly continues alike, and the historical personality of God;--by the absence of that love of the marvelous which leads to the fabrication of miracles, exemplified by the fact that wonders are related only where some object worthy of God can be pointed out, where manifestly a grand crisis takes place, where the question relates to the existence or non-existence of the kingdom of God—as in Egypt, in the time of Elijah, and during the captivity;--and by the circumstance that in many periods where no such phenomena are record, the narrative adheres to the ordinary course of nature; as, for example, in the period of the death of Joseph to the appearance of Moses; throughout nearly the whole time of the Judges; in the time of David and Solomon; and in the period succeeding the Babylonish captivity, the history of which is recorded in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah;--and finally, by the fact that, even in the relation of wonderful events, as, for instance, the Egyptian plagues, the passage through the Red Sea, the feeding of manna and quails, etc., there is no concealment of those natural causes whose efficacy was merely intensified by God, or directed in a peculiar manner, so that the supernatural, as it is most clearly set forth in the plagues of Egypt, rests almost thoughout upon naturalistic ground, while a mythical representation either ignores this connection, or willfully destroys it.”

Mr. Hengstenberg notes that the holy God is an “enemy to every lie and scorns fictitious praise,” the “highest and only aim of all the historical books of the Old Testament” (35). 


This absolutely levels the frenzied Montanists like Hinn and the Costalist-questers for signs and miracles. This statement by Mr. Woltmann and Hengstenberg largely lines up with the sober Westminster Confession of Faith, Ch. 5.3: “God, in His ordinary providence, makes use of means, yet is free to work without, above, and against them, at His pleasure.”

Contrary to other national histories, deifying their leaders, the Old Testament does not do this, but show foibles, faults, sins, and wickednesses with God and His divine grace overcoming and prevailing. Other histories show “a self-interested attempt to glorify itself, to place its origin in the most remote antiquity…” or, in short, to brag, puff and appear as deities. (Think about many Anglican blowhards here, puffing away about their supremacy as well.) The Old Testament does the opposite, defining depravity and exalting God’s conquering grace:

• Abraham’s weakness in Egypt

• Isaac’s weakness

• Jacob’s deceits

• Atrocities of Jacob’s sons at Shechem

• Reuben’s incest

• Joseph’s brothers’ malice, envy, kidnapping and slave-traffickry

• Moses’ murder of Egyptians

• Moses’ denial of the Abrahamic covenantal sign of circumcision to his son

• Aaron’s failure in the Golden Calf fiasco

• Rebellion and complaining of Aaron, Miriam and associates

• Corruption of Aaron’s priestly sons, Nadab and Abihu

• Korah, Datham and Abiram’s rebellion

• Constant complaining and failures in the wilderness more largely

• Moses denied entry to the promised land

• Book of Judges: Samson and others

• Eli’s failures and the corruption of his sons

• Saul’s failures

• David’s failures

• Solomon’s failures

• Kings and Chronicles chronicle regal, priestly and prophet corruptions

• The Prophets uniformly address the same

Wilhelm De Wette’s triumphalist and devolutionary liberalism is worth noting (50).

“Happy were our ancestors who, in ignorance of the art of criticism, themselves truly and honestly believed all they were taught. History lost at least this respect, that she faithfully related myths which she was obliged always to continue to relate as truth, even while from love to the doubter, adding the warning that they were myths; but religion gained. I have not been the first to commence criticism; but since the dangerous game has begun, it must be carried through, for only that which is perfect of its kind is good. The genius of humanity watches over the race, and will not suffer it to be robbed of the noblest which exists for men.”

Mr. Hengstenberg notes that this view “has been born to the grave. Now it has risen again with the church” (50). To wit, while the liberals attempted to bury the OT account of God’s providence, abilities, and the divine record, new voices are arising to defang and bury Mr. De Wette.

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