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

Sunday, November 30, 2014

(12-Min. U-Tube) Lindisfarne Gospels


30 November 2014 A.D. Blaise Pascal: Quotations on Islam from Notable Non-Muslims


30 November 2014 A.D.  Blaise Pascal: Quotations on Islam from Notable Non-Muslims

Besides Blaise Pascal, there are 88 additional quotes from other leaders regarding Jihadi-Reprobates, see:  http://reformationanglicanism.blogspot.com/2014/08/25-august-2014-ad-quotations-on-islam_25.html


Blaise Pascal



Blaise Pascal (1623 – 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic philosopher. 

“Mahomet established a religion by putting his enemies to death; Jesus Christ by commanding his followers to lay down their lives.”

AND NOW, for illustrative quotes on Islam from the son and grandson of Kenyan born Muslims, a world class and credentialed historian, and a man notable for his robust and unimpeachable honesty and integrity, Imam Barack Hussein Obama, see: 


20 Quotes By Barack Obama About Islam and Mohammed

#1 “The future must not belong to those who slander the Prophet of Islam”

#2 “The sweetest sound I know is the Muslim call to prayer”

#3 “We will convey our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over the centuries to shape the world — including in my own country.”

#4 “As a student of history, I also know civilization’s debt to Islam.”

#5 “Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance.

#6 “Islam has always been part of America”

#7 “we will encourage more Americans to study in Muslim communities

#8 “These rituals remind us of the principles that we hold in common, and Islam’s role in advancing justice, progress, tolerance, and the dignity of all human beings.”

#9 “America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.”

#10 “I made clear that America is not – and never will be – at war with Islam.”

#11 “Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism – it is an important part of promoting peace.”

#12 “So I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed”

#13 “In ancient times and in our times, Muslim communities have been at the forefront of innovation and education.”

#14 “Throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.”

#15 “Ramadan is a celebration of a faith known for great diversity and racial equality

#16 “The Holy Koran tells us, ‘O mankind! We have created you male and a female; and we have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another.’”

#17 “I look forward to hosting an Iftar dinner celebrating Ramadan here at the White House later this week, and wish you a blessed month.”

#18 “We’ve seen those results in generations of Muslim immigrants – farmers and factory workers, helping to lay the railroads and build our cities, the Muslim innovators who helped build some of our highest skyscrapers and who helped unlock the secrets of our universe.”

#19 “That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn’t. And I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.”

#20 “I also know that Islam has always been a part of America’s story.”


AND NOW, for more scholarly quotes from Imam Obama, see the URL.


OR, beside Imam Obama’s insights above, a few Quranic verses that have insired many Islamo-fascists.

Qur'an 3:32—Say: Obey Allah and the Apostle; but if they turn back, then surely Allah does not love the unbelievers.

Qur'an 48:29—Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and those who are with him are severe against disbelievers, and merciful among themselves. You see them bowing and falling down prostrate (in prayer), seeking Bounty from Allah and (His) Good Pleasure. The mark of them (i.e. of their Faith) is on their faces (foreheads) from the traces of (their) prostration (during prayers). This is their description in the Taurat (Torah). But their description in the Injeel (Gospel) is like a (sown) seed which sends forth its shoot, then makes it strong, it then becomes thick, and it stands straight on its stem, delighting the sowers that He may enrage the disbelievers with them. Allah has promised those among them who believe (i.e. all those who follow Islamic Monotheism, the religion of Prophet Muhammad SAW till the Day of Resurrection) and do righteous good deeds, forgiveness and a mighty reward (i.e. Paradise).

Qur'an 4:24—Also (forbidden are) women already married, except those (captives and slaves) whom your right hands possess. Thus hath Allah ordained (Prohibitions) against you: Except for these, all others are lawful, provided ye seek (them in marriage) with gifts from your property—desiring chastity, not lust, seeing that ye derive benefit from them, give them their dowers (at least) as prescribed; but if, after a dower is prescribed, agree mutually (to vary it), there is no blame on you, and Allah is All-knowing, All-wise.

Qur'an 5:33—The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His apostle and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement.

Qur'an 9:5—Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

Qur'an 9:29—Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day [notice it says "fight those who do not believe," not "fight people who are attacking you"], nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the Religion of Truth, from among the People of the Book [the people of the book are Jews and Christians], until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

Qur'an 9:73—O Prophet! strive hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites and be unyielding to them; and their abode is hell, and evil is the destination.

Qur'an 9:111—Surely Allah has bought of the believers their persons and their property for this, that they shall have the garden; they fight in Allah's way, so they slay and are slain; a promise which is binding on Him in the Taurat and the Injeel and the Quran; and who is more faithful to his covenant than Allah? Rejoice therefore in the pledge which you have made; and that is the mighty achievement.

Qur'an 47:35—Be not weary and fainthearted, crying for peace, when ye should be uppermost: for Allah is with you, and will never put you in loss for your (good) deeds. 

Qur'an 2:106—Whatever communications We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, We bring one better than it or like it. Do you not know that Allah has power over all things?

From the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, the Collect for Good Friday:

O MERCIFUL God, who hast made all men, and hatest nothing that thou hast made, nor wouldest the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live; Have mercy upon all Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Hereticks, and take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of thy Word; and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to thy flock, that they may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites, and be made one fold under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen. 

30 November 2014 A.D. Dr. Gillis Harp—Challenges ACNA’s 3-Streamers; Muddy Waters; Syncretism; Dreary Rehash (Or, Remix, Rematch, Re-Add & Shake-It-All-Up-While-Smiling)


30 November 2014 A.D.  Dr. Gillis Harp—Challenges ACNA’s 3-Streamers; Muddy Waters; Syncretism;  Dreary Rehash (Or, Remix, Rematch, Re-Add & Shake-It-All-Up-While-Smiling)

Harp, Gillis.  Three Streams: Catholic, Evangelical and Charismatic: A Reply to the Ven. Dr. Christopher A. Brown.” Virtueonline.org,  27 Nov 2014.  http://virtueonline.org/three-streams-catholic-evangelical-and-charismatic-reply-ven-dr-christopher-brown.  Accessed 29 Nov 2014.

Three Streams: Catholic, Evangelical and Charismatic: A Reply to the Ven. Dr. Christopher A. Brown

http://virtueonline.org/sites/default/files/styles/news-large/public/THREELEGGED.png?itok=o3K7qWMO

Three Streams: Catholic, Evangelical and Charismatic: A Reply to the Ven. Dr. Christopher A. Brown

By Gillis J. Harp,
http://anglicanwaymagazine.com/
November 27, 2014


Dr. Christopher A. Brown begins his recent essay on Anglican identity with a very welcome point about the often invoked (and frequently misunderstood) 'three-legged stool' of Scripture, Reason and Tradition. Brown rightly notes that this metaphor unfortunately has tended to encourage Anglicans to place all of these sources of authority on the same level, carrying the same weight. He correctly observes, however, that Anglicanism has instead "always affirmed the 'Primacy of Scripture.'" So far, so good.

At this point, however, Brown allows that the stool metaphor can be useful since it "can be correlated with" the Low, High, and Broad Church "emphases" within Anglicanism, and that these emphases that "form a dynamic tension in which they complement one another." Yet might such an approach similarly imply that Scripture only represents one of three equal elements in a "dynamic" relationship? It may help to recall here that references to the three parties within the Church of England (low, high, and broad) first arose to describe the character of the established church in the early eighteenth century. The language was not used to promote or celebrate Anglican "comprehensiveness;" rather, it served to describe the divisions that had emerged historically within the state church.

Brown then makes matters murkier by commending a much more recent and problematic threefold model of the Church. The Three Streams template of Catholic, Evangelical, and Charismatic is, he claims, preferable as the "perhaps more vital three-fold notion of comprehensiveness." Significantly, he concedes, "there is nothing intrinsically 'Anglican' about these three streams;" nonetheless, he maintains that "Anglicans are uniquely positioned to assimilate these three streams and hold them in a creative tension."

Hence a descriptive metaphor has apparently morphed into a prescriptive template. It is almost as though the inclusive diversity and doctrinal minimalism so celebrated by the leadership of the Episcopal Church since the latter half of the twentieth century has now been recast by well-meaning orthodox Anglicans as a uniquely Anglican gift to the church catholic. In short, has a vice been translated into a virtue? But is theological incoherence ever a virtue?

Problems persist when Brown turns to consider each of these streams in turn. Curiously, Brown's description of the Church's "Catholic" character doesn't contain any teaching that is non-Protestant or which the Magisterial Reformers would have repudiated (recall that even Calvin did not insist on the English church ditching its episcopal hierarchy). His treatment of the Evangelical stream seems to reflect a concern to reject the excesses of American evangelicals in our day (something I certainly endorse). Yet, typical of many such treatments, no clear doctrinal definition of Evangelicalism is offered. Instead, "every Christian," we are assured, "with an urgent commitment to the Gospel [notably undefined] is an Evangelical." Whether this would be the Gospel as understood by the Oxford Martyrs or by Cardinal Newman is not specified. In fact, one can supposedly be an "Evangelical" regardless of "an individual's denominational loyalties or preferences of worship style." A kind of doctrinal indifference thus spills over into his definition of Evangelicalism, and so also into his understanding of Anglican corporate worship where personal preference for assorted "worship styles" rules. As for ceremonial and vestments, to each his own! (One wonders why Cranmer took such pains to reform the liturgy, instead of just accepting a plurality of well-meaning "worship styles.") The latter phrase strikes me as more a product of our consumerist culture than suited to careful theological analysis. Are we simply consumers seeking a culture that appeals to us, or a theology that is Biblical and taught in our tradition's Formularies? Similarly, the treatment of the Charismatic stream here seems to consist mainly of stressing the gifts of the Spirit guaranteed to all Christians. The classic Pentecostal two-stage understanding of conversion, with a special baptism of the Holy Spirit, goes unmentioned, despite its rejection by the other two streams.

Writing for a poplar lay audience isn't easy and I appreciate Dr. Brown's efforts in this regard. The Three Streams are promoted in part for how each can serve to keep the "excesses" of the two other in balance. Yet it strikes to me that the fact that something as non-doctrinal and often shallow (pun intended) as the Three Streams metaphor can become so accepted in some Anglican circles today is evidence of the lamentable influence of a non-theological mindset in general and a consumerist (almost Post-Modern?) conception of worship in particular. It is hard not to conclude that the doctrinal vagueness of so much contemporary Anglicanism hasn't only shaped the thinking of revisionist liberals.

It is, of course, altogether possible that I have managed to misread or misinterpret Dr. Brown's essay and I look forward to his response. If his reply can generate greater clarity with regard to discussions of Anglican identity that will certainly be most welcome.

You can read Dr. Brown's article here: http://www.virtueonline.org/three-streams-catholic-evangelical-and-charismatic

Gillis Harp is a professor of History at Grove City College. This article first appeared in The Anglican Way