14 Feb 2020 
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson
Today’s post includes theses 7 and 8 of Hemmingsen’s Assertions concerning the Jewis Sabbath and the Festivals of Christians, in which he defines Sabbath days that were of particular importance due to their association with the great festivals of the Old Testament calendar. Assertions concerning...
Read more → 14 Feb 2020 Posted by E.J. Hutchinson
Really late with this this week; but here is the Collect for the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany from the Order of Worship for the Reformed Church in the United States. The Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany THE COLLECT O LORD, we beseech Thee to keep thy Church and household continually in thy true...
Read more → 13 Feb 2020 Posted by E.J. Hutchinson
In today’s post, which includes assertiones 4-6, Hemmingsen defines the proper meaning “Sabbath” and then shows how, from that primary meaning, it is transferred as a title to days, weeks, and years. Assertions concerning the Jewish Sabbath and the Festivals of Christians (Continued) “Sabbath”...
Read more → 12 Feb 2020 Posted by E.J. Hutchinson
Now that I have concluded the series on Zanchi on festivals, I’m going to turn my attention back to an old favorite of mine, the Danish Lutheran “crypto-Calvinist” Niels Hemmingsen. Hemmingsen was a disciple of Philip Melanchthon, and so this series will give us a good window into how Protestant...
Read more → 11 Feb 2020 Posted by E.J. Hutchinson
Today we come to the last post in this series and, boy howdy, it’s a fascinating one. Zanchi moves on from the dominical festivals, of which he approves, to the feast days of apostles and martyrs. These belong, in his view, to a lower rank. One way we know this is that they were not celebrated...
Read more → 10 Feb 2020 Posted by E.J. Hutchinson
We continue with Zanchi on Christian festivals such as the Nativity, the Passion, the Ascension, and Pentecost. Today’s passage has a number of interesting features. Here are a few: Zanchi notes the pedagogical use of church festivals. There are, um, Very Important Events that are narrated in the gospels,...
Read more → 07 Feb 2020 Posted by E.J. Hutchinson
In today’s post, we move on to Zanchi’s discussion of festivals instituted by men with the consent of the church, of which he gives several that he approves of. The list echoes to a large extent what is found in the Litany: By the mystery of Thy holy Incarnation; by Thy holy Nativity and Circumcision;...
Read more → 06 Feb 2020 Posted by E.J. Hutchinson
Zanchi now proceeds to discuss festivals as applied to the Christian church in particular, by analogy with what he has already set out in relation to the Old Testament. The Christian church, too, has festivals of both kinds: those instituted by direct divine warrant and those instituted by men with...
Read more → 06 Feb 2020 Posted by E.J. Hutchinson
I’m late with this again this week, but here is the Collect for the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany from the Order for Worship of the Reformed Church in the United States. It is quite a bit different from the prayer for the same week found in The Book of Common Prayer. The Collect in the Order for Worship...
Read more → 05 Feb 2020 Posted by Ian Mosley
One of the most common procedural grounds on which Protestant churches can be critiqued is their lack of Apostolic Succession. It is very common for anti-Protestant apologists to argue that Protestants lack authentic ministerial orders because they cannot lay claim to this succession, and hence their...
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