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

Monday, October 21, 2013

Readjusting Anglicostals, Pentecostals, Charismatics & Other Enthusiasts: 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.

Readjusting Anglicostals, Pentecostals, Charismatics & Other Enthusiasts: Mr. (Rev. Dr. Prof.) F.N. Lee. Costals aggressively pushed themselves forward; the pushback and conquest is undertaken.

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 corrections from F. Nigel Lee:

13. Gisbertius Voetius: miracles were 'rare' and 'evident'

The 1588-1676 Rev. Dr. Gisbert Voet was the celebrated Reformed Professor of Theology at Utrecht. In his famous five-volume Select Disputations, he made some very useful observations about miracles.

First, Voet(ius) said that they may appear to be against a certain particular nature.34 They were "contra naturam aliquam particularem."

Second, he strongly insisted that although above and even beyond nature -- miracles were not contrary to universal nature as such. They were "non contra naturam universalem sed supra et praeter eam."

Third, he defined them very conveniently as: "immediate works of God; above the whole of nature; evident to the senses; rare; and for the confirmation of truth." A miracle, he said,35 is an "opus immediatum Dei, supra omnem naturam, in sensus incurrens, rarum, ad confirmationem veritatis."

14. Charles Hodge: caution needed about miracles

Many sceptics -- like Hobbes, Spinoza, Hume, Strauss and Schleiermacher -- denied that true miracles had ever occurred. To refute them, the famous Princeton Presbyterian Professor of Systematic Theology Rev. Dr. Charles Hodge (1797-1878) then offered a well-constructed defense of the actual historic occurrence of miracles in the past.

"There are events" such as miracles, he insisted, 36 which have indeed "taken place in the external world." Note here Hodge's use of the phrase: "have taken place." Past tense.

Indeed, the examples of miracles he soon went on to give -- clarify his conviction that all miracles to date finished occurring precisely within Biblical times.

Hodge then went on to explain of miracles: "They are produced or caused by the simple volition of God -- without the intervention of any subordinate cause.... A miracle therefore may be defined to be an event in the external world brought about by the immediate efficiency or simple volition of God. An examination of any of the great miracles recorded in Scripture, will establish the correctness of this definition.

"The raising of Lazarus from the dead may be taken as an example.... The same may be said of the restoration to life of the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue on Christ's pronouncing the words Talitha cumi; and of His healing the lepers by a word.

So [too] when Christ walked upon the sea; when He multiplied the loaves and fishes; when He calmed the winds and the waves by a command. Any co-operation of physical causes is not only ignored, but by the clearest intimation denied."

Further: "God is the Author of nature. He has ordained its laws. He is everywhere present in His works. He governs all things by co-operating and using the laws which He has ordained -- nisi ubi aliter agere bonum est [unless it is somewhere else good to act differently]," e.g., by way of events such as miracles. "He has left Himself free" to do miracles -- or not.

"In the sudden rising of a fog which conceals an army and thus saves it from destruction; in a storm which disperses a hostile fleet and thus saves a nation; in any such providential intervention -- it is said [by the unorthodox that] we have all the elements included in many of the miracles recorded in the Bible.... It is true that the strict definition of a miracle does not include events of the kind just mentioned.

"Such events therefore are called by Trench37 'providential' as distinguished from 'absolute miracles'.... To prove an event in the external world to be miraculous we have...to prove that it is not the effect of any natural cause, and that it is to be referred to the immediate agency of God."

Finally, Hodge concluded: "The works of the Egyptian magicians and the predicted wonders of antichrist, are to be regarded [not as miracles but] as tricks and juggleries.... If we adhere to the definition [of miracles] given above, which requires that the event be produced by the immediate power of God -- they, of course, are not miracles. They are 'lying-wonders' -- not only because intended to sustain the kingdom of lies, but because they falsely profess to be what they are not....

"The character of the agent and the design for which a supernatural event is brought about, determine whether it is truly a miracle -- or whether it is one of the lying-wonders of the devil. From the Scriptures, this criterion of miracles was adopted by the Church. Luther says, 'Against authenticated doctrines no signs or wonders however great or numerous are to be admitted.'"

15. A.A. Hodge: comprehensive definition of miracles

Undoubtedly one of the finest analyses of miracles ever given, is that offered by Princeton Presbyterian Theology Professor Rev. Dr. A.A. Hodge (1823-1886). It is found in his excellent (posthumously-published) 1890 book Evangelical Theology, from which we now give an extended citation.

Declared Hodge: 38 "Miracle always presupposes grace, which it subserves and confirms.... Miracles...are supernatural events, implying a special and exceptional mode of God's providential action.... The terms 'miracle' and 'the supernatural' are not co-extensive.

Every miracle is super-natural, but every super-natural event is by no means a miracle...."'Nature' is from nascor -- to be brought to the birth; to be produced; to become. The external world is the common type of pure nature. It is always becoming.... The whole external universe is the natura naturans -- nature bringing forth.

And, viewed as a manifold effect, the same universe is every moment the natura naturata -- nature just brought forth.

"The 'SUPER-natural' is therefore that which is above nature, which springs from and therefore manifests a higher cause.... No action of angels or of devils could be classed as supernatural -- in the same sense that a miracle in the Bible sense of that word, is.

All created spirits, as well as all created worlds, have their genesis. All have their God-given natures; all are under law....

"We consequently draw the line between the natural and the supernatural, in this discussion: between God and the universe; between the Creator and the creature."

All miracles are not only supernatural, but in fact come immediately from God Himself.

Astounding natural events, and even inexplicable supernatural events which do not come immediately from God, are not miracles.

"The 'SUPER-natural' therefore is a peculiar kind or mode of God's action on and through His creatures.... This supernatural action of God...is exercised in the modes of (1) SPECIAL intervention in behalf of persons in the interest of a moral system; (2) GRACIOUS operation in the souls of Christ's people; (3) REVELATION of NEW truth, and INSPIRATION controlling the communication of truth in the cause of PROPHETS etc.; (4) 'miracles,' in the special and TECHNICAL sense of that word."

Technically, then, the initial acts of God -- both His exnihilatory creation of the universe, and His subsequent unique acts during the six days of its formation week (Genesis 1:1-31) -- are not miraculous, but pre-miraculous. So it is only after the universe had formatively been finished (Genesis 2:1f) -- only after the God-given natural order had been put into place normally and normatedly to regulate the subsequent behaviour of the universe (Hebrews 4:3f) -- that all super-natural miracles became possible from time to time.

Explained A.A. Hodge: "Creation or the BRINGING of the thing into existence, must differ from every mode of divine action on it or through it AFTER it is existent.

Creation is God's bringing His creatures into existence. Ordinary providence is God's sustaining and governing all His creatures and all their actions AFTER they are created. This ordinary providence ALWAYS works through NATURAL causes -- and according to the uniformities of natural law.

"The SUPER-natural working of God embraces all of His various modes of acting upon or through His creatures, which produce effects BEYOND their NATURAL powers to produce, and DIFFERENT from the uniform method of NATURAL LAW. This INCLUDES special interventions, gracious operations, revelations; and, specifically, miracles.

'MIRACLES,' as a technical word connoting a special matter in controversy, therefore refers ONLY to a class of SUPER-natural events alleged to HAVE occur-RED in connection with the ORIGIN of the Jewish and of the Christian Religions, which are record-ED in the Old and New Testament Scriptures -- as a mode of divine attestation to the divine ORIGIN of these...."We EXCLUDE, therefore, from this discussion: 1, All spiritualistic phenomena -- ghost-flitting, spirit-rapping, demoniac possession, or other manifestation of merely superhuman power. 2, Extraordinary providences, as the draught of fishes and the flight of quails mentioned in Scripture. 3, All possible special intervention and modification of the ordinary course of pro-vidence in the spiritual education of souls. 4, All the gracious acts of God in the spiritual sphere, regenerating and sanctifying the souls of His people. 5, His supernatural operations in the minds of His prophets, revealing truth, disclosing future events, and inspiring them as public teachers.

"The 'miracle' therefore, in the sense in which we now discuss it, should be defined thus: (1) An event, (2) occurring in the material world, (3) obvious to the sense[s], (4) of such a nature that it can be rationally referred only to the immediate act of God as its direct cause, (5) accompanying a teacher of religion sent from God, (6) and designed to authenticate his divine commission [etc.].... It is God acting from WITHOUT and down UPON and IN nature....

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