Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
Ballymena
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 28 May, 2006
“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people;
that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light
(I Peter 2:9)
Morning Service – 11:00 AM
Christ’s Melchizedekian Priesthood (2)
Hebrews 7:4-10
I. He Received Tithes From Abraham
II. He Blessed Abraham
Psalms: 118:1-9; 45:13-17; 33:12-20; 75:1-8
Evening Service – 6:00 PM
Bringing Our Little Children to Jesus
Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 26; Mark 10:13-16
I. What it Means
II. What is its Ground
III. What it Illustrates
Psalms: 71:1-8; 46:1-6; 103:13-19; 105:5-10
For CDs of the sermons and DVDs of the worship services, contact Stephen Murray
If you desire a pastoral visit, please contact Rev. Stewart or the elders
CPRC Website: www.cprc.co.uk • Live Webcast: https://cprc.co.uk/live-streaming/
CPRC YouTube: www.youtube.com/cprcni
CPRC Facebook: www.facebook.com/CovenantPRC
Quotes to Consider:
John Owen: And these things, whatsoever sense we now have of them, were those on which the salvation or damnation of these Hebrews did absolutely depend. For unless they were prevailed on to forego that priesthood which was now abolished, and to betake themselves alone unto that more excellent one which was then introduced, they must unavoidably perish; as, accordingly, on this very account it fell out with the generality of that people, their posterity persisting in the same unbelief unto this day. And that which God made the crisis of the life or death of that church and people, ought to be diligently weighed and considered by us … And God in like manner doth oftentimes single out especial truths for the trial of the faith and obedience of the church in especial seasons. And when he doth so, there is ever after an especial veneration due unto them” (Hebrews, vol. 5, p. 363).
F. S. Sampson: “Abraham was truly the covenant-head of his posterity in the line of Isaac and Jacob, in whose descendants the promises made to him were fulfilled. It was in virtue of this covenant with Abraham, that the Jews inherited their distinguished privileges as a nation … which brought them into the relation of a ‘peculiar people’ to Jehovah; and hence, in his patriarchal character and acts, he stood forth as the representative or federal head of the nation, so far as all the promises, privileges, and institutions of the Judaical were concerned. He was both their natural progenitor and their covenant-head, by the appointment of God … Therefore, when Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek as a priest of the most High God, and received a blessing from him, it was a historical fact intentionally introduced by God’s providence, with a view to its becoming a feature of the type (so to speak) which Melchizedek, in his history and functions, was foreordained to present, of the supreme and eternal High Priest.”
Announcements (subject to God’s will):
The May issue of the Covenant Reformed News is on the back table today.
Bob Wendrich was hospitalised briefly this past week due to dehydration as the result of a virus. Please keep Bob in your prayers.
Thank you to all who helped with and visited the stall at the Ballymena Agricultural Show yesterday.
Membership Class meets this Tuesday at 6:30 PM at the Murrays.
This week Friday, Rev. Stewart will give a lecture, “Miracles & the End of the World,” at 7:30 PM in Mountjoy Orange Hall near Omagh.
The Reformed Witness Hour next Lord’s Day, 4 June (8:30-9:00 AM, on Gospel 846MW) is entitled “So I Prayed and Said …” (Nehemiah 2:1-10).
A second offering next Sunday AM will be taken for our building fund.
Upcoming Lectures: “The 2 Witnesses of Revelation 11,” S. Wales, Fri., 23 June.
Last Week’s Offerings: General Fund – £798.50. Donations: £40 (C. R. News).
Ballymena Times – Wednesday, 24 May 2006
DA VINCI CODE IS NONSENSE – STEWART
Sir – According to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code (DVC), Jesus Christ proclaimed the “sacred feminine” or “goddess worship.” Yet witness the vehement opposition of the Old and New Testaments to all idols, including Ashtoreth, the queen of heaven, Diana of the Ephesians and the goddesses of Greece and Rome . Other gods or goddesses are an abomination to Jehovah (Deut. 12:31; 20:18) and He curses those who promote or worship them (Deut. 11:28; 28:15ff.). The first commandment declares, “Thou shalt have no other gods [or goddesses] before me” (Ex. 20:3). One wonders how Christ could have survived for over three years of public ministry—on hills, by the Sea of Galilee, in synagogues and in the temple (John 18:20)—preaching a message of goddess worship in Galilee and Judea to the first century Jews. Certainly it would have been very easy at His trial before the Jewish religious leaders to prove Him guilty of a capital offence. Old Testament law required the death penalty for those who preached other gods or goddesses (Deut. 13:6-11). Strangely, the DVC states that Jesus is “the prophesied Messiah” (p. 313), yet the anointed One promised in the Old Testament was God’s special Prophet, like Moses, who opposed all forms of idolatry (Deut. 18:9-22; Acts 3:22-23).
In the DVC, Jesus married Mary Magdalene (a descendant of King Saul!) and fathered a daughter, Sarah, from whom sprang the Merovingians, a medieval French royal dynasty, and ultimately Sophie Neveu, the book’s heroine. Christ intended Mary Magdalene to be the head of His church after His crucifixion. The sacred feminine, Mary Magdalene—her bones and secret documents—is the Holy Grail!
In support of this world of virtual reality, the DVC contains numerous, gross historical blunders concerning the Dead Sea Scrolls (p. 317), Nag Hammadi (p. 317), the New Testament canon, the early church, Constantine, the Council of Nicea, the Lord’s Day (pp. 314-315), the origin of the word “heretic” (p. 317), etc.
Instead of the four biblical gospel accounts, the DVC would substitute the Gnostic gospels which are fragmentary, much later, largely disinterested in events in Christ’s life and often bizarre (e.g., “every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven;” Gospel of Thomas 114). The Gnostics were dualists, believing the spirit to be good and matter to be evil. The world was created by the demiurge, a derivative and evil god. For most Gnostics, Jesus only seemed to be human (docetism). The heavenly Christ did not suffer on the cross; His earthly substitute was crucified. Salvation lies in secret knowledge (gnosis) providing the elite with passwords enabling them to ascend past the planets.
No wonder, Sir Ian McKellen, who acts Sir Leigh Teabing, the “expert historian,” in the DVC movie, admitted Dan Brown’s book was “codswallop.” Tom Hanks (Harvard professor, Robert Langdon, in the film) agrees: “… the story we tell is loaded with all sorts of hooey and … nonsense.” Similarly, Tim Robey, after watching two and a half hours of The Da Vinci Code movie, stated in his article “What’s the Latin for Balderdash?” in The Daily Telegraph, “the plot’s sheer volume of mulish nonsense does generate the odd giggle.”
Don’t be deceived into thinking that the DVC is “fiction based on fact.” Scripture warns against departing from the truth and being “turned unto fables” (II Tim. 4:4). Anti-Christian conspiracy theories, and the religious controversies they spawn, sell books and fill cinemas but The Da Vinci Code ought not prejudice one against the truth of the incarnate, crucified, risen and reigning Christ of the Bible.
Rev. Angus Stewart
Covenant Protestant Reformed Fellowship
Ballymena
www.cprf.co.uk
