America Adrift: The Episcopalian Showdown
Study Guide

• Martin Luther King, Jr:
  “The church must be reminded that it is not the __________ or the _________ of the state, but rather the _________ of the state.” (1963)

• The Episcopalian showdown and now meltdown over the ordination of a practicing homosexual as bishop

• Psalm 119:126—“It is time for you to act, O LORD; your ____ is being broken.” (NIV)
  
  • Observations about Psalm 119 at 30,000 feet:
    
    • Nearly every one of the 176 verses contains the word _____ or one of its synonyms—“statutes, precepts, word, decrees, commandments,” etc.
      
    • Psalm 119 is an ________ psalm—every eight verses begins with another letter from the Hebrew alphabet.
      
    • _____ times we are called to “obey” or “keep” the Law (v 2).
      
    • _____ times David declares he “loves” God’s Law (v 97).
      
    • _____ times David declares he “meditates” on the Law (v 15).
      
    • _____ times he says he “delights” in God’s Law (v 24).
      
    • _____ times he says he “hopes” in God’s Law (v 43).
      
    • What value do God’s friends place on his Law? “I love your commandments . . . more than pure ____ .” v. 128
      
  • Throughout history God has always had a people who have championed his _____ and honored his ___________ .
    
  • The Waldenses:

    “The theology taught in former ages in the peak-environed valley . . . was drawn from the Bible. The atoning death and justifying righteousness of Christ was its cardinal truth. . . . The ‘Nobla Leycon’ sets forth with tolerable clearness the doctrine of the Trinity, the fall of man, the incarnation of the Son, the perpetual authority of the decalogue as given by God, the need of divine grace in order to good works, the necessity of holiness, the institution of the ministry, the resurrection of the body, and the eternal bliss of heaven.” ( J. A. Wylie, History of the Waldenses, 16, 17—emphasis supplied)

  • “Oh how I love your Law! I meditate on it all day long.” (Ps 119:97)
    
  • Revelation 14:12
    
• And the Episcopal Church’s decision?
  
  • A scholarly response—Richard B. Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament:

    "Though only a few biblical texts speak of homoerotic activity, all that do mention it express unqualified disapproval. Thus, on this issue, there is no synthetic problem for New Testament ethics. In this respect, the issue of homosexuality differs significantly from matters such as slavery or the subordination of women, concerning which the Bible contains internal tensions and counterposed witnesses. The biblical witness against homosexual practice is univocal." (389)

• J. I. Packer, Anglican theologian, on why he walked out of the June 2002 synod decision to bless same-sex unions:

  “Why did I walk out with the others? Because this decision, taken in its context, falsifies the gospel of Christ, abandons the authority of Scripture, jeopardizes the salvation of fellow human beings, and betrays the church in its God-appointed role as the bastion and bulwark of divine truth.” (Christianity Today 1-21-03)

• Are you ready for the impending “moral Armageddon?”
  
• Psalm 119:11—“Your Word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”
  
• “Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,
       In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side;
  Some great cause, God’s new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight,
       And the choice goes by forever ‘twixt that darkness and that light.”
                                                                                  —James Russell Lowell

Answers: master, servant, conscience, law, “law”, acrostic, 24, 9, 8, 6, 5, gold, Law, authority