SACRAMENTALISM DEFINED: ANGLICANISM AND DIVINE ORDINANCES
By Roger Salter
Special to Virtueonline
www.virtueonline.org
January 9, 2014
The administration of the two dominical sacraments - baptism and the Lord's Supper - is a vital and highly valued observance in classic Anglicanism. No Anglican serious about their faith thinks meanly or dismissively of the Savior's precious gifts to his church. They were authorized by him for the benefit of believers and, duly pondered by them. They symbolize the meaning and beauty of the salvation he has wrought for his chosen. The Deliverer donated these rites to his people and he ministers directly through them and from them. He works in them. They are Christ's personal means of touching the lives of his elect with his grace. He is the invisible and internal operative of their efficacious power. The sacraments are prized by the people of God. The protest against sacramentalism is neither a rejection of the sacraments nor an attempt to downgrade them, but an endeavor to understand them and apply them as God the Giver intends and has intimated in Holy Scripture. Right apprehension and right usage is the goal, and the Anglican standards of the Reformation are an accurate guide.
Read the full story at www.VirtueOnline.org
By Roger Salter
Special to Virtueonline
www.virtueonline.org
January 9, 2014
The administration of the two dominical sacraments - baptism and the Lord's Supper - is a vital and highly valued observance in classic Anglicanism. No Anglican serious about their faith thinks meanly or dismissively of the Savior's precious gifts to his church. They were authorized by him for the benefit of believers and, duly pondered by them. They symbolize the meaning and beauty of the salvation he has wrought for his chosen. The Deliverer donated these rites to his people and he ministers directly through them and from them. He works in them. They are Christ's personal means of touching the lives of his elect with his grace. He is the invisible and internal operative of their efficacious power. The sacraments are prized by the people of God. The protest against sacramentalism is neither a rejection of the sacraments nor an attempt to downgrade them, but an endeavor to understand them and apply them as God the Giver intends and has intimated in Holy Scripture. Right apprehension and right usage is the goal, and the Anglican standards of the Reformation are an accurate guide.Read the full story at www.VirtueOnline.org
