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Rich Lusk of the Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church in Monroe, LA, put me onto the works of M.F. Sadler, a late 19th-century Anglican theologian, and I\u2019ve been very impressed with what I\u2019ve found there. For example: In the first chapter of his Church Doctrine, Bible Truth <\/i> , Sadler points out that the \u201cgospel\u201d as described in the NT is a set of facts centering on the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. He then asks how this gospel is best set before the people of God \u201cunder the form in which it always appears in Scripture.\u201d The \u201cmethod,\u201d he suggests is through \u201cembodying [the gospel] in her yearly round of Fast and Festival,\u201d which involves the yearly round of the lectionary. He pointedly argues that \u201cno form of public prayer or liturgy, or any directory of public worship, or any mode of conducting public worship without form or liturgy, can be accounted Scriptural unless it similarly recognizes these days and seasons, for no other way is now possible for setting forth in the public services of the Church the historical aspect of the Gospel which, as we have seen, is the only one maintained in Scripture.\u201d Through a church year and a lectionary, \u201cwe soberly and reverently connect the very passage of time with the great facts of Redemption. The year in its silent course preaches the very Gospel of Scripture.\u201d <\/p>\n
Reformation \u201csects\u201d that do not keep a calendar \u201cequally flung to the winds the great outward facts of Redemption as the evidences of God\u2019s good will to the sinner, and substituted for them the evidence of inward personal experience.\u201d While such Protestants have certainly not denied the facts of the gospel, \u201cthey substituted other considerations for the evangelical application of these facts.\u201d Thus, instead of inspiring Christian joy by proclaiming the fact of the incarnation, they attempt to bring about joy by \u201csuch doctrines as effectual calling, sensible conversion, imputed righteousness, and final perseverance.\u201d Gee, I wonder what \u201csects\u201d he\u2019s talking about? <\/p>\n
He makes a couple of other telling observations: First, \u201cno setting forth of certain abstract doctrines, no matter how true or needful, can if we submit to the guided by Scripture, be substituted for the facts which are set forth in Scripture as the gospel.\u201d We should not treat the narratives of the gospels as if they were some dispensable husk, within which was the nourishing doctrinal grain of Atonement theology. As he points out, the balance in Scripture is on the STORY of Jesus\u2019 sufferings, not on a theology of atonement, and that must be the balance of the church\u2019s life and preaching. Second, contemplation on the doctrines apart from the facts produces \u201ca Christian character very different from that which God desires to see in His children.\u201d Exclusive concentration on doctrine produces evangelical character, but it \u201cis certainly not humble, not for-bearing, not forgiving, not peaceable, not childlike, not unobtrusive.\u201d Finally, \u201cIf in the preceding pages I have given a fair representation of what is in the Bible and the Prayer-book, then the Prayer-book is incomparably more Scriptural than such documents as the \u2018Westminster Confession,\u2019 or Calvin\u2019s \u2018Institutes;\u2019 and this quite apart from the truth or falsehood of any particular doctrinal statements contained in these books, for in these books Christianity is cast into a different form altogether from what we find it in the Bible.\u201d <\/p>\n
So again I ask, Gee, what Protestant sects is he referring to? <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rich Lusk of the Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church in Monroe, LA, put me onto the works of M.F. Sadler, a late 19th-century Anglican theologian, and I\u2019ve been very impressed with what I\u2019ve found there. For example: In the first chapter of his Church Doctrine, Bible Truth , Sadler points out that the \u201cgospel\u201d as described […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theology-liturgical"],"yoast_head":"\n