Church of England's 39 Articles

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The 39 'Articles of Religion'
of the Church of England
also known in other countries as Anglican, Episcopalian, or Church of the Province of ... .

Under teenage King Edward VI, these Articles enforced the Protestant position (of Archbishop Canmer, in consultation with other Protestant clergy) and show a preoccupation with debarring Catholic practices, but which, unfortunately, also prevented any further reformation of these same Articles.

These 39

'Articles of Religion' were accompanied by legal threats from the British monarch as 'Supreme Governor of the Church', in the time of Elizabeth I and Charles I, supported by their respective parliaments.

Any divergence or even any discussion of the same was prohibited.

A third

offence against these Articles resulted in confiscation of all 'goods and chattels' followed by life imprisonment. A situation no less intolerant than that faced by Martin Luther under the Papacy, to the shame of the very nature of Christianity and which casts doubt upon the 'Christian' identity of this denomination.

Comments under each heading assume that the reader is familiar with the Article concerned.

'Of Faith in the Holy Trinity'

'Of the Word or Son of God, which was made very Man'

Origen's concept of the 'eternal generation' of the Son of God ("begotten from everlasting of the Father") is simply copied over from Catholic doctrine. This old error makes the Son, in effect, a subsistence of the Father, which denies Christ's intrinsic equality with God as taught in Phil.2.

'Of the going down of Christ into Hell'

'Of the Resurrection of Christ'

'Of the Holy Ghost'

The Medieval Catholic doctrine of the 'double procession' of the Holy Spirit (from the Father and the Son) is simply copied over. Although rejected by the Byzantine Church, which accepted a single procession (from the Father only), neither party understood Christ's statement on which it was supposedly based (John 15:26) and simply sought some concept to describe an eternal inter-trinitarian relationship, to accompany the philosophical concept of the Son's supposed 'eternal generation' from the Father. The sad effect of this however, has been to make the Father senior or more divine than the other persons of the holy Trinity, and thus made the Church more open to spiritual subversion concerning the full deity of Jesus and the divine personhood of the Holy Spirit.

"But when the Comforter comes, Whom I will send to you from the Father,
the Spirit of truth, Who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about Me."

Christ's words, in their context, are nothing other than an assurance to His disciples that the promised coming to them of the Holy is with the same authority as He, Jesus, had come from the Father. It is a statement of divine mandate – the Spirit's authority – to continue the ministry of Jesus through His disciples at the same level at which it was inaugurated.

See:
The Filioque Clause

'Of the Sufficiency of the holy Scriptures for Salvation'

This Article accords special status to the Deutero-canonical books of the Catholic canon for use as examples in life and manners but not in doctrine. This is a unhealthy compromise.

'Of the Old Testament'

'Of the Three Creeds'

'Of Original or Birth-sin'

This Article's statement

"... therefore in every person born into this world, it deserveth God's wrath and damnation"

– born damned is certainly not the teaching of holy Scripture!
The Apostle Paul plainly teaches (using himself as its example) that, as a child, his inborn instinct to selfishness could not condemn him until he had himself received/known the commandment 'Thou shalt not covet' (Rom.7:9-10), that is – Don't be selfish; which often simply means, don't follow your instincts.

10.

'Of Free-Will'

11.

'Of the Justification of Man'

12.

'Of Good Works'

13.

'Of Works before Justification'

14.

'Of Works of Supererogation'

15.

'Of Christ alone without Sin'

This Article's assertion that Christ did not share the contamination of our flesh undermines the Bible's teaching that He was qualified as our substitute by being tempted in all points as we are tempted. That Christ was born without the contamination of Adam's sin (Birth-sin) would mean that He was insulated by the unique purity of His flesh and therefore not subject to our human condition and not a true sinless substitute for us. This fundamental error robs Christ of the holy victory of His humanity over all temptation.

16.

'Of Sin after Baptism'

17.

'Of Predestination and Election'

18.

'Of obtaining eternal Salvation only by the Name of Christ'

19.

'Of the Church'

20.

'Of the Authority of the Church'

21.

'Of the Authority of General Councils'

22.

'Of Purgatory'

23.

'Of Ministering in the Congregation'

Public preaching and/or the ministering of the sacraments (baptism and/or the Lord's Supper) may only be used by persons called and appointed by the denomination. This is in contradiction to the practice of preaching and of baptism in the early Church as demonstrated in our New Testament.

24.

'Of speaking in the Congregation in such a Tongue as the people understandeth'

Designed to prevent the use of Latin as a sacred language, it fails to allow the use of an interpreter when the speaker is using a foreign language.

25.

'Of the Sacraments'

26.

'Of the Unworthiness of the Ministers, which hinders not the effect of the Sacrament'

27.

'Of Baptism'

28.

'Of the Lord's Supper'

29.

'Of the Wicked which eat not the Body of Christ in the use of the Lord's Supper'

30.

'Of both kinds'

31.

'Of the one Oblation of Christ finished upon the Cross'

32.

'Of the Marriage of Priests'

33.

'Of Excommunicate Persons, how they are to be avoided'

34.

'Of the Traditions of the Church'

35.

'Of Homilies'

36.

'Of Consecration of Bishops and Ministers'

37.

'Of the Civil Magistrates'

38.

'Of Christian men's Goods, which are not common'

39.

'Of a Christian man's Oath'

"True Christian consistency does not consist in stereotyping our opinions and views, and in refusing to make any improvement lest we should be guilty of change, but it consists in holding our minds open to receive the rays of truth from every quarter and in changing our views and language and practice as often and as fast, as we can obtain further information." (Finney, 1878:xii).

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