About Inwoo Lee

Inwoo Lee (BA, UCSD) earned his MA (Historical Theology) in 2020 from Westminster Seminary California and is author of "Righteous Before God: William Perkins’ Doctrine of Justification in Elizabethan England” (MA Thesis, Westminster Seminary California, 2020). He lives in the Great Seoul area, in South Korea with his wife Holly. Meet all the Heidelberg contributors»

Fesko: Arminius Was A Synergist

The alpha point of Arminius’s synergistic conception of salvation is marked by his use of the facientibus—the sinner who is always ready to embrace the grace of God because of universal prevenient grace—and the omega point is marked by his understanding of . . . Continue reading →

Hodge On Two-Stage Justification

Hodge draws attention to the two-stage justification of the Roman Catholic Church and rejects it. The first justification, according to Roman Catholic theology, is gratuitous and is given for Christ’s sake and consists of the infusion of habitual grace. This divine process . . . Continue reading →

Wilhelmus à Brakel On Justification

He who errs in this doctrine errs to his eternal destruction. The devil is therefore continually engaged in denying, perverting, and obscuring the truth expressed in this chapter and, if he does not accomplish this, to prevent exercise concerning this truth. When . . . Continue reading →

Owen: Law and Gospel

The law is connatural to him; his domestic, his old acquaintance came into the world with him, and hath grown up with him from his infancy. It was implanted in his heart by nature, is his own reason; he can never shake . . . Continue reading →

William Perkins On Justification (2)

In connection with Trent and Bellarmine’s stance on purgatory and the sacrifice of the Mass was Rome’s doctrine of a second justification. Bellarmine’s Scriptural basis for a second justification was Romans 3—which he saw as the first justification, and James 2—which he saw as the second justification. For Perkins, James 2 was for the justified because of Christ, “outward testimonies of the truth of our faith and profession, proving that the grace of our hearts is not in hypocrisy, but in truth and sincerity.” In other words, James 2 spoke not of justification in the same sense as Paul in Romans, but in a completely different sense, scope, and design, James 2:21 is in the demonstrative for Abraham’s “works did testify that his faith was true and sincere. Continue reading →

William Perkins On Justification

Perkins objected to Rome’s sacrifice of the Mass. For Perkins, this doctrine was attached to erroneous views of Christology, Christ’s propitiatory suffering unto death, and in turn the doctrine of justification. One of Perkins’s clearest Christological statements is found in his treatise, A Warning Against the Idolatry of the Last Times (1601), where he wrote, “For He in one person is perfect God and perfect man, our only Redeemer all-sufficient in Himself, and therefore perfect king, priest, prophet; without either partner or fellow in the work of man’s salvation.” Continue reading →