Tie and Toga for October 31, 2006
Today is Reformation Day and to commemorate this occasion, Tie and Toga is beginning a series on the Belgic Confession. On today's program we discuss the purpose of confessions, the nature of their authority, some of the history of the Belgic Confession and a bunch of other stuff. Enjoy!
To download the program (recommended), right-click here and select "Save Target As"
Click here to listen on-line (this option may not work depending on what software you have installed on your computer -- Firefox and the Quicktime plug-in are recommended).
posted by Who are You? @ 2:25 PM
4 Comments:
I liked the intro clip - in fact I posted about that song a while back. (It was a little hard to find the podcast on my MP3 player though, considering it bore the name of the intro song instead of a label related to pastoral apparel).
Anyways, a few questions somewhat related to the podcast:
1. Considering that Luther's name continually is popping up at this time of year, I'm a little curious as to your position on the participation of confessional Lutherans or reformed baptists (eg. John Piper) in the Lord's Supper in a CanRC church. There was some discussion of this at Rotundus.com a while back, relating to R.C. Sproul (who's a little closer to CanRC way of doing thign). Do you agree with the position described here?
2. Excepting the Bible (as it's a given that we should be reading it regularly), what proportion of literature should we be reading that's contemporary, and what proportion from centuries past? (Also what proportion of what we read from the past should be of the confessional variety?)
3. To what degree must a church utilize confessions before it might be described as confessional? Two examples here: I've heard John Piper refer to the Westminster Confession from time to time, but as far as I'm aware they aren't considered a mandatory part of Sunday worship there. In addition, not all PCA churches follow a model of catechetical preaching, but systematic subscription is required of officebearers. In both these contexts there is awareness of the confessions and interaction with it, but not the same rigid adherence to them.
Yes, I have to work on getting that song title off the file.
1. My (WB) position is that if a given individual would not become a member of this church (if they lived in the area, etc), he/she doesn't really belong at the Lord's Supper celebrated in this church.
2. I'd hesitate to prescribe a proportion. I can describe what I do. Probably about 75% of what I read is stuff written in the last ten years. Most of it is written by those who subscribe to Reformed confessions.
3. There are degrees of "confessional." The bare minimum, in my estimation, would be a church which requires its officers to subscribe to the system of doctrine contained in its confessions.
That comment about devout Catholics only going to church at Christmas and Easter was a bit of a cheap shot.
That was simply an observation from being a missionary to a community of many "devout Roman Catholics" for 4.5 years.
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