The Exclamation of Faithful Prayer

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts From Parson Farms:

Closing Out the Westminster Larger Catechism

Howdy!

First of all, I want to thank you for bearing with me through this two-year journey through the Larger Catechism. I hope that these lessons have been a blessing for they certainly have been for me. Here on Thursdays moving forward I’ve bandied about several ideas and I’ve come down to a decision that will have us continue to look at the documents adopted by our Scottish forefathers that we call the Westminster Standards, which include not only these catechisms, but the Sum of Saving Knowledge, Directory of Church Government, Directory of Public Worship, and other literature. The more familiar we become with our heritage the more I think we’ll understand why we are Presbyterians, and convinced ones at that.

However, before we get ahead of ourselves let us look at the last WLC question:

Q. 196. What doth the conclusion of the Lord’s prayer teach us?

A. The conclusion of the Lord’s prayer, (which is, For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. ) teaches us to enforce our petitions with arguments, which are to be taken, not from any worthiness in ourselves, or in any other creature, but from God; and with our prayers to join praises, ascribing to God alone eternal sovereignty, omnipotency, and glorious excellency; in regard whereof, as he is able and willing to help us, so we by faith are emboldened to plead with him that he would, and quietly to rely upon him, that he will fulfil our requests. And to testify this our desire and assurance, we say, Amen

I want to deal with an issue that while seemingly odd, is important to rightly grasping why we say the ending of the prayer and why our Catechism includes it. Some of your copies of God’s word (ESV, NASB, NIV, etc...) are based on a Greek manuscript tradition (the Eclectic or Critical Text) which does not have the this ending to the Lord’s Prayer. In my ESV Study Bible the wording is completely absent, relegated to a footnote. At Bethany we have the NKJV in the pews and that is the version of the Bible that I preach and teach from on Lord’s Day mornings and evenings as well as use in Sabbath School and Wednesday Nights. The NKJV and the KJV are translations which come from the Received Text or the Textus Receptus. This devotional is not the place to get into the reasonings and histories as to whether one is right or not (and by my use of the NKJV I kind of give my position away). Yet it is worthy of our time to note the difference so that when we notice it, we know there is something going on and we can trust that the WLC is acting in good faith in including that part of the prayer.

Continue here.