From Catechesis at Saint Paul’s on Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022. Page numbers are from Kindle edition, not the print book. Quotes from Chapter 5 of The Thirty-nine Articles: Their Place and Use Today by Prof J I Packer and R T Beckwith. Link: https://amzn.to/3VdalJ6

I. Assimilation

“Am I then casting the Articles in a rescuer’s role? Yes, I am.” (pg. 82, Kindle)

“…Dated form does not devalue classic substance, and classic substance it is this that we need to assimilate today.”

“By starting with these fundamentals, however, the Articles show that if they are not stated right, then everything else is bound to be stated wrong, just because it depends on them.” (pg. 84)

“Article 8 lays it down that the reason why the three classic creeds should be accepted is not the church’s say-so, but the fact that Scripture proves them true.” (pg. 84)

“So here is the heart of the gospel as Anglicans do and should understand it: hell-deserving sinners are forgiven, accepted, and finally saved, by grace through faith in Jesus Christ the crucified and risen sin-bearer…” (pg. 85)

“The gospel heightens individuality but negates individualism, by stressing that the believers’ new identity is corporate.” (pg. 85)

II. Application

Kerygmatic (from the Greek for proclamation) – “evangelical in content and evangelistic in purpose.”

“…clarifying the gospel was their main aim and their supreme achievement.” (pg. 88)

“No church can be healthy that majors in minors and forgets what really is fundamental.” (pg. 88)

“It lays down the rails for thinking to run on, and condemns by anticipation any future views that go off these rails.” (pg 89.)

“One’s sacramental theology expresses one’s doctrine of God and man, creation and redemption, sin and grace, the work of Christ and of the Holy Spirit… it is in truth the roof of one’s theological house…” (pg. 91)