QUOTE:The Sacrament does more vehemently print lively the faith, and make it sink down in the heart, than do bare words only- as a man is more sure of what he hears, sees, smells, and tastes than what he hears alone.(A Brief Declaration of the Sacraments, William Tyndale c. 1494 – 1536)
COMMENTARY:
Catholic Evangelicals were forced by the challenges of medieval church’s excess to restore the sacraments to a more original intent. Tyndale argues that the sacraments are designed and intended to fertilize faith in our Messiah. The sacrament succeeds at improving our faith because it exercises all of the senses, never rejecting but hearing, but always exceeding the sense of hearing alone. Therefore, the sacrament of the altar operates much like the second person of the God-head: That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life- the life was made manifest, and we have seen it. (1 John 1:1-2). In the sacrament; the incarnation, passion, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, final judgment, and future glory are made manifest in order that we may take it in with all our senses, thus bettering our faith.
I can't resist commenting, not so much on the Sacrament, but in the commenter quoted. William Tyndale.
ReplyDeleteNote the lifespan. 41 or 42 years.
Tyndale was the first, openly, to translate the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into English. The penalty?
Betrayed by a bishop of Henry VIII's new Church of England, he was strangled and burned at the stake.
I think of Tyndale when I read Jesus' words spoken over Jerusalem. "...thou killest the prophets and stoneth them that are sent to thee...".
The earthly Jerusalem, which Revelation states "spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where our Lord was crucified", is as much among us today, as it was in Jesus' time.
It is as much among us today, as it was in Galatia, where Paul reminded the Galatians that "Jerusalem which now is, is in bondage, with her children".
It is as much among us today as it was in England in Tyndale's time.
But Paul also taught that citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, are "children of the free".
I would do well to remember the next time I hold in my hand an English language Bible, that it was men like Tyndale who purchased that freedom with his life.
THANKSGIVING FOR ALL THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED
ReplyDeletePRIEST: We also bless your holy name for all your servants who have departed this life in the faith of Christ. Grant them continual growth in your love and service, and to us grace to follow their good examples, so that with them we may inherit your eternal kingdom.
Lord, in your mercy,
PEOPLE. Hear our Prayer.