Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Respect for our Elders

Today i wanted to share a brief passage from a old Christian text. Below is a short history of the Canons of Dort, and following the history is one of the most beautiful passages of theology I have ever read. Enjoy. mark


The oldest of the doctrinal standards of the Christian Reformed Church is

the Confession of Faith, popularly known as the Belgic Confession, following

the seventeenth-century Latin designation "Confessio Belgica." "Belgica"

referred to the whole of the Netherlands, both north and south, which today is

divided into the Netherlands and Belgium. The confession's chief author was

Guido de Bres, a preacher of the Reformed churches of the Netherlands, who

died a martyr to the faith in the year 1567. During the sixteenth century the

churches in this country were exposed to the most terrible persecution by the

Roman Catholic government. To protest against this cruel oppression, and to

prove to the persecutors that the adherents of the Reformed faith were not

rebels, as was laid to their charge, but law-abiding citizens who professed

the true Christian doctrine according to the Holy Scriptures, de Bres prepared

this confession in the year 1561.

Article 1: Belief

We all believe in our hearts

and confess with our mouths

that there is a single

and simple

spiritual being,

whom we call God

eternal,

incomprehensible,

invisible,

unchangeable,

infinite,

almighty;

completely wise,

just,

and good,

and the overflowing source

of all good.

Article 2: The Means by Which We Know God

We know him by two means:

First, by the creation, preservation, and government

of the universe,

since that universe is before our eyes

like a beautiful book

in which all creatures,

great and small,

are as letters

to make us ponder

the invisible things of God:

his eternal power

and his divinity,

as the apostle Paul says in Romans 1:20.


All these things are enough to convict men and to leave them without excuse.


Second, he makes himself known to us more openly

by his holy and divine Word,

as much as we need in this life,

for his glory

and for the salvation of his own.


1 comment:

Unknown said...

umm.. dude... it's been like 2 weeks since you've posted... I need more markian thought.