Part 4 - Scots Confession, History & Theology
This is Part 4 in a series of adult education (Sunday School) classes that I taught at St. Charles Presbyterian Church (USA) in the early months of 2020. It provides a fairly thorough discussion of the Scots Confession's history and theology targeted (hopefully, effectively so) at the generally educated churchgoer.
Part 4 continues exploring the background of the Scots Confession. It deals with life and times of John Knox, the principal author of the Scots Confession, from the history of Scotland leading up to his birth to Knox's departure from England in 1554 to avoid the reign of "Bloody Mary" Tudor. It also explores chapters 16 - 20 in the confession itself, addressing topics like the marks of the church, universal salvation, the supersessionism in Reformed ecclesiology, the afterlife, and the authority of Scripture.
This is Part 4 in a 5-part series. You can find the series index here.
Here are some quotes from the episode:
"Today, finally, I'm going to spend some time talking abut Knox himself."
"That's how much they [France and Germany / The Holy Roman Empire] don't like each other - they'll team up with folks from another religion."
"The lords are always needing loans for this, that, or the other thing."
"You need a certain amount of free time and money to become literate."
"At this time, thec church controlled roughly fifty percent of the land in Scotland."
"[Knox] was one of these guys who people could only take so much of before it was time for him to go on to another city because of his personality."
"[Knox] had an Old Testament imagination."
"[Knox] seems to have thrived, at least to some extent, on confrontation....And he had a reputation for being unnecesarily inflexible."
"Worship and faith are kind of the two nodes that define who is Christian and who is part of the church."
"You've got to build in this wiggle room just because people might be faking."
"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition, as the joke goes, but maybe you also don't expect to find the kirk everywhere you find it."
"So if the true kirk is invisible, and you never know where you're going to find it, and if profession always at least needs to have something of a question mark next to it, then who's to say that life and eternal felicity, life and eternal salvation in Christ, might not be found anywhere?"
"Antijudaism very easily slips over into antisemetism and for that reason is very, very dangerous. We need a renewed theological imagination: not just what we're getting from the Scots Confession."
"Now we're getting some slut-shaming here as well. [The authors of the Scots Confession] are not sex-positive."
"It's not saying that everything you need to know about everything is contained in the Bible. It's saying that everything you need in order to be saved is in the Bible."
"Protestants are the ones who came up with pews. If you're going to stand and talk at people for an hour, right, you're probably going to have to let them sit down."
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Part 4 continues exploring the background of the Scots Confession. It deals with life and times of John Knox, the principal author of the Scots Confession, from the history of Scotland leading up to his birth to Knox's departure from England in 1554 to avoid the reign of "Bloody Mary" Tudor. It also explores chapters 16 - 20 in the confession itself, addressing topics like the marks of the church, universal salvation, the supersessionism in Reformed ecclesiology, the afterlife, and the authority of Scripture.
This is Part 4 in a 5-part series. You can find the series index here.
Here are some quotes from the episode:
"Today, finally, I'm going to spend some time talking abut Knox himself."
"That's how much they [France and Germany / The Holy Roman Empire] don't like each other - they'll team up with folks from another religion."
"The lords are always needing loans for this, that, or the other thing."
"You need a certain amount of free time and money to become literate."
"At this time, thec church controlled roughly fifty percent of the land in Scotland."
"[Knox] was one of these guys who people could only take so much of before it was time for him to go on to another city because of his personality."
"[Knox] had an Old Testament imagination."
"[Knox] seems to have thrived, at least to some extent, on confrontation....And he had a reputation for being unnecesarily inflexible."
"Worship and faith are kind of the two nodes that define who is Christian and who is part of the church."
"You've got to build in this wiggle room just because people might be faking."
"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition, as the joke goes, but maybe you also don't expect to find the kirk everywhere you find it."
"So if the true kirk is invisible, and you never know where you're going to find it, and if profession always at least needs to have something of a question mark next to it, then who's to say that life and eternal felicity, life and eternal salvation in Christ, might not be found anywhere?"
"Antijudaism very easily slips over into antisemetism and for that reason is very, very dangerous. We need a renewed theological imagination: not just what we're getting from the Scots Confession."
"Now we're getting some slut-shaming here as well. [The authors of the Scots Confession] are not sex-positive."
"It's not saying that everything you need to know about everything is contained in the Bible. It's saying that everything you need in order to be saved is in the Bible."
"Protestants are the ones who came up with pews. If you're going to stand and talk at people for an hour, right, you're probably going to have to let them sit down."
==================================
Follow @WTravisMcMaken
Subscribe to Die Evangelischen Theologen
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