Tag: Book of Common Prayer

  • Theology always Begins with GOD

    Theology always Begins with GOD

    Truly, theology always begins and ends with God.

    Roger@TalkofJesus.com

    Theology

    EVERYONE studies God, whether they admit it or not.

    Even the avowed atheist must create an antitheos atheology AGAINST God – θεός (theos).

    So what do YOU think about YOUR relationship to GOD?

    • Has mortal man evolved a doctrine from dust and ashes theorizing a theology tolerant of common evil tailored for a Common Era?

    IS GOD not immutable and Truth unchanging?

    YES, of course; even IF humankind has evolved by definition and theory.

    Yet some commonly deny both God and Truth.

    Do you really believe that? doctrine - a line in the sand [picture of Jesus kneeling down to draw a line with his finger

    CLICK HERE for a PREVIOUS page on TalkofJESUS.com

    “WHAT IS DOCTRINE?”

    Doctrine of God – θεός

    Who does God instruct to teach others about God?

    • IF YOU teach others anything about God, then you might also like to reexamine the QUESTIONS of other ‘theologians‘ about our relationship with God.
    • Our theology will most likely remain ‘on course’ and true by consideration of God by others.

    A true doctrine of God will lead the humble created to the One truth revealed to living souls, mere mortal men blazing brief narrow paths from dust to the eternal.

    Roger@TalkofJesus.com

    Basic Questions About God

    52 Topics for One-Sentence Questions "OMG" I don't know that answer.

    One of the most time-tested ways to approach theology is for the teacher to ASK a question of students (disciples, followers..) and have the class (family, church, etc.) memorize STANDARD doctrinally sound ANSWERS.

    TODAY in this Common Era characterized by brevity of thinking and attention span, let’s look ONLY at QUESTIONS of GOD.

    I'll do my best to link to original sources for further study from previous doctrinal posts on TalkofJESUS.com - RH

    Doctrines A.D. – definitions

    • A Creed – Your stated faith, basically brief enough to reaffirm in a worship service (whether weekly or occasionally)
    • Confession of Faith – A longer extension of a creed more suited for the study of the Doctrines behind our foundational Christian beliefs stated in a creed.
    • So what is a Catechism?

    *Baltimore Catechism

    Who is God?

    Why did God make you?

    What is God?

    Had God a beginning?

    Where is God?

    Does God see us?

    Does God know all things?

    Can God do all things?

    Is God just, holy, and merciful?

    Is there but one God?

    Why can there be but one God?

    How many Persons are there in God?

    * source: Baltimore Catechism – link to site with ANSWERS
    *READ disclaimer below.
    * Source: Wikipedia - A Catechism of Christian Doctrine.. or simply the Baltimore Catechism, was the national Catholic catechism for children in the United States, based on Robert Bellarmine's 1614 Small Catechism.. it was the standard Catholic school text in the country from [A.D.] 1885 to the late 1960s..
    • DISCLAIMER About Sacred-Texts

    Doctrines C.E.

    Many Creeds, Confessions and catechisms clarifying the faith of Christians for centuries have succumbed to pluralities of culture, exchanging worship of God in Truth for multi-philosophic theory.

    Acceptable Doctrines of the Common Era include a PAN-THEON poised in aTheist theory, pagan myth and stone-cold idols of every egregious god and any false prophet.

    Roger@TalkofJesus.com
    Doctrine - a line in the sand Creeds, Catechisms, Confessions & Christ – What do you believe?

    from What does your church teach? – Catechism


    Heidelberg Catechism of 1563

    Question 1. ‘What is thy only comfort in life and death?


    Now BEFORE you answer (even if you happen to have some form of it memorized), THINK about it. AND

    Where does GOD fit into YOUR answer?


    The teaching of this early Protestant Catechism contains a LONG and thought-provoking ANSWER.

    Here it is (in part). (Complete answer linked in post above.)

    That I with body and soul, both in life and death am not my own.. that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head..

    He also assures me of eternal life and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.

    abridged answer to Question #1 of the Heidelberg Catechism

    Westminster Shorter Catechism – A.D. 1647

    Quest. 1. What is the chief end of man?

    Quest. 2. What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?

    Quest. 4. What is God?

    The Westminster Shorter Catechism

    Book of Common Prayer A.D. 1662

    * The 1662 Book of Common Prayer (still the official Prayer Book of the Church of England).. including many updates (A.D. 1928) 
    and 2019 of the Common Era.

    • W H A T is your Name?
    • Who gave you this Name?
    • Answer: My Godfathers and Godmothers in my Baptism; wherein I was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.
    • What did your Godfathers and Godmothers then for you?

    ANSWER

    • They did promise and vow three things in my Name.
      • First, that I should renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps [ostentatious] and vanity of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh:
      • Secondly, that I should believe all the articles of the Christian faith:
      • And thirdly, that I should keep God’s holy Will and Commandments, and walk in the same all the days of my life.
    • Dost thou not think that thou art bound to believe, and to do, as they have promised for thee?
    • Yes verily; and by God’s help So I will. And I heartily thank our heavenly Father, that he hath called me to this state of salvation, through Jesus Christ our Saviour. And I pray unto God to give me his grace, that I may continue in the same unto my life’s end.

    New City Catechism – 2012 C.E.

    • “Almost every denomination and tradition in church history has used some form of catechesis for the religious education of Christian children and adults:
    • In 2012, The Gospel Coalition and Redeemer Presbyterian Church released the New City Catechism.
    Source: TGC – 9 Things You Should Know About Catechisms

    What is God?

    How Many Persons Are There in God?

    How and Why Did God Create Us?

    What Else Did God Create?

    How Can We Glorify God?

    PART 1 God, Creation, The Fall, Law

    Do you REALLY believe? Is DOCTRINE of the Bible a line in the sand for you? OR has DOCTRINE of the COMMON ERA become a blurred line in the sand of 21st century CE?
    2024 of the COMMON ERA DOCTRINE

    DOCTRINE of the LORD GOD? or aTheology in the Common Error of humankind?

    Although a remnant of Christ-followers and minority of churches continue in True Biblical Doctrine, the enemy of this world has divided and conquered (for now) an indecisive church, non-committal ‘christians‘ and sometime worshippers indifferent to Truth.

    WHERE DO YOU STAND?

    What do you believe AND what must you do?


    Do you really believe that? Can you affirm that ONLY Scripture Sola Scriptura is the inspired word of the Lord God? {a recall of a church strayed from Scripture - What doctrine do you preach?)
    ONLY Scripture – Sola Scriptura
    NEXT: DOCTRINE - WHO SAYS?

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  • II Thessalonians  Intro – It is meet and right so to do..

    II Thessalonians Intro – It is meet and right so to do..

    Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

    It is meet and right so to do.

    Book of Common Prayer – Celebration of Holy Communion Order One in Traditional language

    We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth; so that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.

    Second Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians 1:3-10
    Authorized (King James) Version

    A ‘Meet‘ Epistle to the Thessalonian Church

    I am about to go 'formal' on you with the Authorized King James Version of II Thessalonians; therefore let us look back to the formality of Paul's long opening sentence [above] written after his formal greeting of this Epistle evoking a sense of duty of a responsive brother receiving a second Epistle of encouragement from our beloved Apostle to the Gentiles (of which you and your wife and children are part) as members of a new and growing church at Thessaloniki (as we now Anglicize it centuries after King James).
    

    Paul’s letters or epistles would have been written to a church and VERBALLY delivered by a man leading worship at any first century church.

    The common language of the Roman Empire is GREEK as it was in Thessalonica even prior to Rome’s rule.

    In Macedonia (of Philip of Macedon and Alexander the Great) Greek had been made the language of Alexander’s vast Empire even as far east as the Jews had been banished to Babylon, later ruled by Persia and then Alexander.

    Intro to Thessalonica via the Protestant Reformation

    JUMPING centuries and millennia toward today..

    At the time of the Renaissance, in this same sense under the rule of a later Empire of Great Britain the BIBLE goes into all the world (largely in English) authorized by King James of England .

    Unlike an impotent inclusion of anti-Christ philosophies of this Common Era, it was a time when Kings and Queens went out to war AND Sovereigns were not only an authoritative Defender of the Faith, but also men who did determine political religious alliances with the Pope and Bishop of Rome as well as other rulers beyond the realm.

    Because the governed now became literate in Scripture the Bible exposed the darkness of Rome’s frequent heretical Bishops and frequently-fallible Popes.

    The King James Bible was commissioned in the year of our Lord 1609 and first published in A.D. 1611.

    At the time of the Protestant Reformation the Anglican Book of Common Prayer standardized the traditional liturgy of the Roman Catholic Mass from centuries of Christian tradition in the King’s ENGLISH, replacing the ancient Latin (archaic even in Italy and its Papal States) used in its liturgy.

    The common language of the King later remained as part of worship in English long after the meaning of its words were common (much as had Latin become unused beyond the Mass) and centuries after Britannia no longer ruled the waves.

    Never-the-less, let us not overlook the validity of this worship, whether in Thessalonica of the A.D. first century or an American colony of Britain of the A.D. 17th century or for our present day church.

    Meet our ‘word of the day’ – ‘meet

    For many years Christians from the Anglican tradition proclaimed corporately each week as a church celebrating the Communion of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ sacrificed for us in the following words [in part], theology imprinted upon our worshiping hearts:

    • Officiant: [Priest leading Holy Communion] The Lord be with you.
    • Response of the Congregation: And with thy spirit.
    • Officiant: Lift up your hearts.
    • Congregation: We lift them up unto the Lord.
    • Officiant: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
    • Response: It is meet and right so to do.
    Before proceeding with the opening response of the priest celebrating Holy Communion I would like to PAUSE briefly here to consider the response of the worshipers.

    It is meet and right so to do.

    From the Hebrew Bible עֵזֶר

    Lexicon :: Strong's H5828 - ʿēzer
    
     help (19x), help meet (2x).
    • help, succour
    • one who helps

    And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

    Genesis 2:18 King James Version

    Not only does Moses introduce the Hebrew equivalent of meet (as we once translated in KJV in English), the Gospel writers and Paul introduce its importance to solid theology as well.

    Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:

    Gospel of Matthew 3:8 KJV – John the Baptist warning religious leaders
    ἄξιος –axios 

    The KJV translates Strong’s G514 in the following manner: worthy (35x), meet (4x), due reward (1x), unworthy (with G3756) (1x).

    • weighing, having weight, having the weight of another thing of like value, worth as much
    • befitting, congruous, corresponding to a thing
    • of one who has merited anything worthy
      • both in a good and a bad sense
    IS YOUR FAITH IN THE LORD CHRIST JESUS BOTH MEET AND RIGHT?

    Our Christian Duty

    Returning to & Continuing from the Book of Common Prayer:
    • Officiant: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
    • Response: It is meet and right so to do.
    • Officiant:

    It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty,
    that we should at all times and in all places
    give thanks unto thee,
    O Lord, holy Father,
    almighty, everlasting God,
    through Jesus Christ thine only Son our Lord.

    Book of Common Prayer

    Ano Domini 51 – Paul writes a Second Epistle to the Thessalonians

    a context in Paul's missions to write another Epistle
    A couple of reminders to my fellow Christians of this Common Era
    • A.D., used for calendars and timelines of history since about the fifth century derives from the Latin abbreviation for Anno Domini means “IN THE YEAR OF THE LORD” or “In the year of our Lord,” depending on context.
    • Epistle – generally a serious letter on an important subject [Greek epistole] “message, letter, command, commission,” whether verbal or in writing

    Paul first wrote to the Thessalonian church after being forced out of town by crowds provoked by the Jews.

    READ all about it from Acts of the Apostles 17 AKJV & The Message

    The Apostle to the gentiles sends his Epistle after having clarified the commands of the Council of Jerusalem concerning worship of Jews and gentiles together as believers in Christ Jesus, the Messiah crucified and risen some twenty years ago.

    Paul penned I Thessalonians to commend his faithful brethren for their stalwart dedication to Christ and to one another and to encourage them to further progress in love and holiness.

    Intro to Thessalonians – AKJV [A.D. 1964]

    Once Paul’s messengers deliver his
    Epistle to Thessalonica they return with their report.

    Paul then writes a second Epistle after the returning brothers report certain problems that are not solved. The Apostle writes to encourage believers being persecuted, to clarify the Day of the Lord, commanding them to work and to obey his Epistle.


    .. as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth; so that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure..

    II Thessalonians 1:3b-4 AKJV

    II Thessalonians

    – To Be Continued… God-willing


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