The Heliand: The Saxon Gospel
 
The Heliand is a gospel harmony paraphrased as an epic poem in Old Saxon, written circa 830 A.D. Likely commissioned by the Carolingian emperor Louis I of a poet at the Fulda monastery, it was an attempt to teach the Saxons, who were recently forcibly converted to Christianity. The epic presents Christ as “Jesus of Nazarethburg” – a good king with 12 loyal retainers.
 
The Pharisees are presented as plotting warriors and earls, and the scenery is changed; the shepherds walk through the woods to find Jesus, who taught in meadows saying, “Nor does a man gather figs from a hawthorn tree.”
 
But aside from changing the setting, the epic keeps the basic message intact and doesn’t shy away from Jesus’s teaching about turning the other cheek, a message at odds with the Germanic warrior culture.
 
It was apparently successful, as the Germanic people adopted the faith they were baptized into. Luther was evidently familiar with the Heliand as he appealed to it as an argument for translating the Scriptures into the common tongue.

Matyrdom of Bishops Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, October 16th, 1555 A.D.

469 years ago today, the final words of Latimer as recorded in Foxe's Book of Martyrs were:

Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as shall never be put out.

The Public Promise of Absolution

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Let everyone, with St. Paul, truly acknowledge this in his heart and believe in Christ. Thus, in His name, I proclaim unto you the forgiveness of all your sins, and declare you to be loosed of them on earth, that you be loosed of them also in heaven, in eternity. Amen.
– Bucer’s Strasbourg Liturgy
 
This saying is true and we should believe it: that Christ Jesus came into the world to rescue sinners. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, that we might be dead to sin and alive to all that is good. To all those who repent, therefore, I proclaim to you the forgiveness of all your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.
– John Knox’s Geneva Liturgy
 
Let each of you truly acknowledge that he is a sinner, humbling himself before God, and believe that the heavenly Father wills to be gracious unto him in Jesus Christ. To all those that repent in this way, and look to Jesus Christ for their salvation, I declare that the absolution of sins is effected, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
– Calvin’s Strasbourg Liturgy

Christendom has had a series of revolutions and in each one of them Christianity has died. Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.

G.K Chesterton, The Everlasting Man

Objection: Baptism doesn't save; faith saves.

Evangelicals often raise this objection, though they rarely object to statements that we are saved through the word of God (1 Pet. 1:23). But the sacraments are just visible words, and the Heidelberg Catechism similarly says (Q. 67) that both Word and Sacrament convey the same grace to us. Hence, to the extent we can say the Word saves, we can say the Sacraments save us.

The reason there is no conflict is that bare, isolated faith doesn't save on its own; faith in Christ and His promises as presented to us in Word and Sacrament is what saves.

Objection: Regeration is an immediate act of God, not through instruments.

But St. Peter tells us (1 Pet. 1:23) we were "born again... through the living and abiding Word of God." But if God acts via the instrument of His Word, and the Word and Sacrament convey the same grace, then what is the difficulty with saying we are regenerated via the instrument of baptism?

If your children do not know the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, and the 10 Commandments by heart from a young age, you've utterly failed as a parent.

The first point clearly taught on this subject in the Symbols of the Reformed Church is that the sacraments are real means of grace, that is, means appointed and employed by Christ for conveying the benefits of his redemption to his people. They are not, as Romanists teach, the exclusive channels; but they are channels.

-- Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology 3.20.4

Collect for the 22nd Sunday after Pentecost

Almighty and everlasting God, who in Christ hast revealed thy glory among the nations: Preserve the works of thy mercy, that thy Church throughout the world may persevere with steadfast faith in the confession of thy Name; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

J.D. Vance: "That's right, Jesus *is* King!"

Basedbasedbasedbasedbased

Christianity is just as much a set of rites, practices, and behaviors as it is a set of beliefs, doctrines, and principles.

But by defining Christianity entirely in terms of the latter, it has morphed into a semi-gnostic religion.

Attempting to cordon off Christ into the etheral realm as a set of abstractions is the first step to liberalism.

Not satire. The costs of leftism have been temporarily masked by the post WW2 economic boom and the tech revolution. The regime is very quickly running out of those benefits and running into the costs of operating against natural law.

As usual, the ordinary man is feeling the effect first (i.e., will I ever be able to afford a house, college, kids, etc.). Pray God mercifully ends this madness swiftly and painlessly because it never ends so on its own.

If not God's law, then what law?

If we reject the civil law of God, we will have to invent some cheap counterfeit or watered down substitute.

The civil law is simply the outworking, application, and enforcement of the moral law. To reject the civil law is to reject the moral law, which is to reject God's holy nature.

Whether the person baptized is to be wholly immersed, and that whether once or thrice, or whether he is only to be sprinkled with water, is not of the least consequence: churches should be at liberty to adopt either according to the diversity of climates, although it is evident that the term baptize means to immerse, and that this was the form used by the primitive Church.

-- John Calvin, Institutes 4.16.19

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