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

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Schooling Anglicostals, TBN, Charismatics, Montanists and their Kin: Mr. (Rev. Dr. Prof.) F.N. Lee

Lee, Francis Nigel. Miracles and Pseudo-Miracles—What and When and Why?
http://www.dr-fnlee.org/docs8/mapm/mapm.pdf. Accessed 30 Sept 2013.

Schooling Anglicostals, TBN, Charismatics, Montanists and their Kin : Mr. (Rev. Dr. Prof.) F.N. Lee. Costals aggressively pushed themselves forward; the pushback is long overdue and is undertaken.

Proverbs 12.1: “Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.”

A theological study about the nature of miracles and their cessation at inscripturation but the continuation of pseudo-miracles according to revealed religion from the fall of the first Adam till the second coming of the Second Adam.)

And now, for instructions and corrections from F. Nigel Lee:

20. Thornwell: miracles were supranatural; provable; revelational; ethical

Rev. Professor Dr. J.H. Thornwell wrote a whole treatise on miracles. There, he insisted43 that "miracle presupposes God -- and so does the world. But the miracle, as a phenomenon, may be apprehended even by the atheist.... The Scriptural term which gives us the nearest insight into the real nature of the miracle, is...the word 'wonder'...."It is true that every wonder is not a miracle; but every miracle [certainly] is a wonder. The cause of 'wonder' -- is the unexpectedness of an event.... The 'miracle'...contradicts that course of nature which we expected to find uniform. It is an event either above, or opposed to, secondary causes. Leave out the notion of these secondary causes -- and there can be no miracle...."The essence of the miracle, consists in the contranatural or the super-natural.... Is the 'miracle' to command, absolutely and without further question, the obedience of those in whose sight it is done?" No!

"The Scriptures themselves warn us against the lying-wonders of the man of sin.... The miracle...is not only a specimen of the supernatural in general, but a specimen of the precise kind of the supernatural which it is adduced to confirm. It is a specimen of inspiration...."The true doctrine is that, as the miracle proves by an evidence inherent in itself – no 'miracles' should be admitted as the credentials of a messenger or doctrine but those which carry their authority upon their face. Doubtful 'miracles' are in the same category with doubtful arguments; and if a religion relies upon this class alone to substantiate its claims, it relies upon a broken reed.

"There are unquestionably phenomena which, surveyed from a higher point of knowledge, we should perceive at once to be perfectly 'natural'.... The effect is, where the line cannot be drawn -- that the[se] 'wonders' are not to be accepted. We do not [then] know them to be miracles -- and consequently have no right to give them the weight of miracles....But, as Cudworth has suggested, there are some miracles which carry their credentials upon their face -- so clearly above nature and all secondary causes, that no one can hesitate an instant as to their real character...."When we turn to the miracles of the Bible, we feel intuitively that they are of a character in themselves and on a scale of magnitude which render the supposition of secondary causes ridiculously absurd.... The scenes at the Red Sea; the cleaving of the waters; the passing over of the Israelites on dry land between the fluid walls; the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night; the daily supply of manna from the skies -- effects like these carry the evidence of their original on their face. There is no room for doubt...."And so [too] in the New Testament.... They reveal, at a glance, the very finger of God.... "Their principal office is to guaranty an external, objective revelation by which we can try [or test] the spirits, whether they be of God. They are the criterion by which a real is distinguished from a pretended revelation -- the mark by which we know that God has spoken, and discriminate His Word from the words of men.

"An external, objective, palpable test is the only one which can meet the exigencies of the case.... The necessity of such a test has been universally acknowledged.

"The Catholic feels it, and appeals to a visible, infallible society [the Romish Church] which is to judge between the genuine and spurious. The Protestant feels it, and appeals to his Bible.... 'To the Law and to the testimony! If they speak not according to this word – it is because there is no light in them' [Isaiah 8:20]...."The miracle...brings God distinctly before us -- and has a direct tendency to promote  the great moral ends for which the sun shines, the rains descend, the grass grows, and all nature moves in her...majestic course. Miracles and nature join in the grand chorus to the supremacy and glory of God....

"The true point of view, consequently, in which the miracle is to be considered -- is in its ethical relations. It is not to be tried [or tested] by physical but by moral probabilities.... We degrade ourselves, and we degrade our Creator, when we make the physical supreme; when we make the dead uniformity of matter more important than the life and health and vigour of the soul."

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