Lutheran Essentials meets in the undercroft of the church on Wednesday evenings at 7pm. You can reach the undercroft by going around to the back parking lot of the church and descending the staircase to the kitchen. Knock on the door if it is closed and some one will let you in. Our current study is on the Canon of Scripture. The book we are using is F. F. Bruce’s “The Canon of Scripture”. If you do not have a copy we are providing them for free. We are also continuing to provide the Book of Concord for free.
The Psalm for this session is Psalm 11. The Small Catechism lesson is the Fourth Commandment.
This week we will continue our study on the New Testament canon with the eleventh chapter The New Testament: The Catholic Response. We will read the section on The So-Called Anti-Marcionite Prologues (pg. 154-157) which are prefaces written by some in the catholic, orthodox church to combat Marcion. We will finish this chapter by singing the hymn “We All Believe in One True God” (LSB 954).
We will then move forward and read the twelfth chapter The New Testament: The Muratorian Fragment. We will read the first and second sections the Manuscript and Its Contents (pg. 158-161) and Comments on the List (pg. 161-169) wherein we will discuss this early 2nd century list of the New Testament canon. We will the sing the hymn “Speak, O Lord, Your Servant Listens” (LSB 589).
If we have time we will move on to read the thirteenth chapter The New Testament: Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Novatian. We will first read the section on Irenaeus (pg. 170-177) and learn about Irenaeus of Lyon and his epic work Against Heresies. We will skip the sections on Hippolytus (pg. 177-178) and Novatian (pg. 179) as they are redundant with the section on Irenaeus. We will conclude by singing the hymn “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” (LSB 621)
As always new people are always welcome to this study at any point during the class. Please talk to the Pastor, Elders or Paul Edmon if you have any questions.
