Take Now the Nicene Creed as Task

by J. V. Fesko

This year, the Nicene Creed turns seventeen hundred years old. Christ’s outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost has great significance for the church’s doctrinal teaching throughout the ages, including in the Nicene Creed. Paul writes: “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:11–12 KJV). Through the outpouring of the Spirit, Christ gave the gift of pastors and teachers, those uniquely gifted at preaching and teaching the Word of God. Christ gave these gifts for perfecting, equipping, and building the body of Christ. The gifts of Christ extend from Pentecost to the present day and beyond, to the consummation. Every single faithful pastor and teacher in the history of the church constitutes Christ’s gifts to the church. Christ’s gifts bring two relevant and vital truths to our hearts and minds. First, as we note the ... Read more

Anne Vaughan Lock: Forgotten English Reformer

by Susan M. Felch

November 1557, Geneva, Switzerland . John Calvin is delivering a midweek sermon and has arrived at Isaiah 38, King Hezekiah’s prayer to God when he fell ill. Preaching in French, Calvin speaks of God’s loving discipline and his presence with, and comfort to, his people during times of suffering. In the congregation is twenty-three-year-old Anne Lock (ca. 1534–after 1590), an English exile, herself no stranger to suffering. She had arrived six months earlier at the urging of her friend John Knox. He had fled to the Continent when the Roman Catholic Mary Tudor became queen of England, and the English Reformation, begun on shaky terms by King Henry VIII but propelled forward by the now-deceased Edward VI, was forced underground. Lock, too, faced persecution if she remained in England. Her parents, Stephen and Margery Vaughan, now dead, had been active members of London’s evangelical circle, her father a vocal supporter of the martyred William Tyndale. Her husband, Henry Lock, belonged to a prominent ... Read more