Morning Prayer and the Litany (1662 Book of Common Prayer)

SAIAH-AND-REVELATION ALERT. For any Marcionites or snowflakes, these two books come with “mental health warnings.” These books may cause turmoil for those in their jammies in the theological playpens. These books have been known to invoke crying, depressive episodes, sniffling, as well has high-handed dismissals. LECTIONS. John Calvin on the Psalms. Keil & Delitzsch: Joshua. Matthew Henry: Isaiah. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown: Gospels. Matthew Henry: Revelation. Dr. Robert Reymond: Systematic Theology. Prof. Berkhof, Systematic Theology: Soteriology. Dr. Philip Schaff, Apostolic Christianity, Medieval Christianity and Swiss Reformation. Dr. Philip Schaff: Creeds. Westminster Shorter Catechism, 61-70. For Psalm 9, Prof. Calvin adds little to what he addressed in the earlier verses. He does make a few un-noteworthy exegetical points from the Hebrew text. For Joshua 8, Prof. Keil discusses Joshua’s take-down of Ai and Bethel. For Isaiah 1, Prof. Henry talks of the ailments of the church with foul sores and fever-blisters from heel to crown. No soundness. Putrefaction. No soundness. Affecting the peasantry to the leadership of the nation. The open wounds are not bound up and they stink. Open, festering, smelly, fever-blister wounds. While using medical metaphors, Isaiah is speaking of the diseases of the soul and mind. One’s hands and feet may be working, but this disease is internal. For the Introduction to the Gospels, Prof. Jamiesson is again long-talking the point of the genuineness of the Gospels. A tad tedious. For Revelation 3, Prof. Henry expounds on Jesus’ brutal slap-down of the low-watt Laodiceans, “lukewarm” and “tepid.” Like TEC and ACNAers, the Laodiceans speaks of charity, meekness, comprehensiveness, moderation, generosity, gentility, largeness of soul, tolerance, adiaphora on doctrinal points and other thinly-disguised masks of indifferentism and lukewarmness. Jesus is having none of it. Jesus is sick of the slick-shtick. He’s nauseated by the Laodiceans. The stomach churns. He wants to “vomit” them out. Well, Jesus would surely not be welcomed in many religious gatherings with that kind of blunt talk. For Bibliology, Prof. Reymond answers some objections to the infallibility and inerrancy of Scriptures. For Soteriology, Prof. Berkhof, while speaking of grace and God’s saving operations, ends the chapter by noting that Schleiermacher and Ritschl did not, could not, and would not use such terms, e.g. sin, salvation, grace, etc. We've demoted both to German Corporals. For Apostolic Christianity, Mr. Schaff reviews martyriologies of the Imperial, Islamist and Christian periods, noting that Christians have killed more Christians that other groups, e.g. England, France, Holland, Germany and the Thirty-Years War, Belgium, Netherlands, Bohemia, Southern Piedmont of France and other places. Mr. Schaff uses words like “Christian” loosely when he refers to demonic regimes such as the Man of Sin in Rome—they weren’t Christians. Of course, Schaff the Romantic enthuses about progress in the West, as the forces of darkness descend and imprisonments may come to those standing for Biblical Christianity. We allow Mr. Schaff for history, but, as previously noted, his theological misjudgments occur now-and-then. For Medieval Christianity, Mr. Schaff tells the story of St. Alban and also the three Celtic Bishops attending the Synod of Arles in 314: Eborius of York, Restitutus of London, and Adelfius of Lincoln. Allegedly, there were attendees at Nicaea in 325. In 208, Tertullian notes “that places in Britain not yet visited by Romans were subject to Christ” (Adv. Judaeos 7). For the Swiss Reformation, Mr. Schaff outlines Eck’s behaviors at the 1526 Swiss Diet. Eck’s idea was that louder and more abusiveness meant better and truer. Sounds like some FB-antics of some. Oecolampadius was quieter, “pale” and humbler. One Romanist auditor wishes that the Romanists had Oecolampadius on their side. Again, no notaries or note-taking was allowed. The Diet ruled in Eck’s favor, but subsequent judicatories saw through the ruses and actually began to proceed with the Reformation. For the Creeds, Mr. Schaff details the 390 AD and the 7th century forms and amplifications on the Apostles’ Creed. For the WCF, 11-20, notably the comprehensiveness, misery and sinfulness of original sin.