Pastor Ganger skipped over Article 17 and preached this sermon on Article 18. After I finish the series, I will look back to prior years and see if he has any of the ones he skipped.
September 18, 2022
God’s Promised Fulfilled
Preacher: Rev Joghinda S. Gangar
Series: Belgic Confession 2022
Passage: Philippians 2:5-11
I am putting both Articles here to be read.
Article XVII – The Recovery of Fallen Man
We believe that our most gracious God, in His admirable wisdom and goodness, seeing that man had thus thrown himself into physical and spiritual death and made himself wholly miserable, was pleased to seek and comfort him, when he trembling fled from His presence, promising him that He would give His Son (who would be born of a woman) to bruise the head of the serpent and to make him blessed.
Article XVIII – The Incarnation of Jesus Christ
We confess, therefore, that God has fulfilled the promise which He made to the fathers by the mouth of His holy prophets, when He sent into the world, at the time appointed by Him, His own only-begotten and eternal Son, who took upon Him the form of a servant and became like unto man, really assuming the true human nature with all its infirmities, sin excepted; being conceived in the womb of the blessed virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit without the means of man; and did not only assume human nature as to the body, but also a true human soul, that He might be a real man. For since the soul was lost as well as the body, it was necessary that He should take both upon Him, to save both.
Therefore we confess (in opposition to the heresy of the Anabaptists, who deny that Christ assumed human flesh of His mother) that Christ partook of the flesh and blood of the children; that He is a fruit of the loins of David after the flesh; born of the seed of David according to the flesh; a fruit of the womb of Mary; born of a woman; a branch of David; a shoot of the root of Jesse; sprung from the tribe of Judah; descended from the Jews according to the flesh; of the seed of Abraham, since (A.V.) he took on him the seed of Abraham, and was made like unto his brethren in all things, sin excepted; so that in truth He is our IMMANUEL, that is to say, God with us.
Note there is quite a distinction of Anabaptists and Baptists.
I did find a confirming comment on a webpost.
“Historically speaking, Anabaptists were a diverse group. Some were peace-loving people who had a high view of the Bible. Others were basically the equivalent of today’s Pentecostals: they claimed to have visions and dreams which either replaced or supplemented biblical revelation. Other Anabaptists were extreme political revolutionaries — the Anabaptists who were besieged and eventually massacred in Munster in the 1530s were the classic example. Some Anabaptists, like Melchior Hoffmann and Menno Simons were heretics when it came to the doctrine of the incarnation of Christ. They held to a “heavenly-flesh Christology” which denied that Christ had his human nature from Mary. The only thing all these groups had in common was a rejection of infant baptism. The heirs of the Anabaptists today are also diverse: Mennonites/Amish, Hutterites, etc.
If you refer to article 18 of the Belgic Confession, this is mainly responding to the above-mentioned heresy of Menno Simons and Melchior Hoffmann. I use the word “heresy” advisedly, in the sense of a grave error that endangers one’s salvation. Back then, this was Mennonite theology. Today, there is only one small group of Mennonites that follows Simons in his heresy of Christ’s incarnation. As for modern or historic Mennonites being on the same level as Lutherans, you might want to investigate the Mennonite doctrine of justification. That’s pretty important for Lutherans (and us Reformed folk, too).”
Here is the scripture passage.
Philippians 2:5-11 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Rainbow Trout 