The Death of Death is a solid book, made up of detailed exposition and close argument, and requires hard study, as Owen fully realised; a cursory glance will not yield much. (“READER…. If thou art, as many in this pretending age, a . . . Continue reading →
Atonement
John Owen’s Judgment On Amyraut’s Brief Treatise On Predestination
If Mr. Baxter go on with his intentions about a tract concerning universal redemption, perhaps we may have these things cleared; and yet, we must tell him beforehand, that if he draw forth nothing on that subject but what is done by . . . Continue reading →
Turretin: Amyraut’s Doctrine Of The Atonement Was Not Reformed
VI. Those of our ministers who defend universal grace yield to this opinion, if not entirely yet in a great measure. For as they hold a universal philanthropy (philanthrōpian) and love of God towards the human race, so they think Christ was . . . Continue reading →
Turretin: Christ Is Our Substitute In Whom Mercy And Justice Meet
XXVII. The grace of God and the merit of Christ are not opposed, but subordinated because they are viewed here in different respects (kat’ allo kai allo): grace in respect of us, both in the giving of the surety and in the . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 38: Why Did Christ Suffer Under Pontius Pilate? (2)
Last time we looked at what is known from Scripture and from extra-biblical documents about the Roman governor who sentenced our Lord to death. The question remains, however, why our Lord permitted this? Indeed, “permitted” may not be strong enough a word. . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 38: Why Did Christ Suffer Under Pontius Pilate? (1)
When we read the Gospel accounts we can be tempted to disconnect them from the historical context in which the life of Christ occurred. One of the several functions of this line in the Apostles’ Creed, “suffered under Pontius Pilate” is to . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 37: What Do We Mean By “Suffered”?
An internet search for “suffering” turns up an astonishing array of results. Because of the internet we are now aware of global suffering in a way, with an immediacy that no other generation has ever experienced. Despite our increased awareness, history tells . . . Continue reading →
For God So Loved The World: Atonement And Common Grace
To many, the topics of common grace and atonement would seem to be mutually exclusive, as if we should either hold to common grace or to definite atonement, but not to both. There are, however, good biblical and theological reasons for holding . . . Continue reading →
Warfield On “Love” And “World” In John 3:16
…Strange as it may sound, it is true, that many—perhaps the majority—of those who feed their souls on this great declaration, seem to have trained themselves to think, when it falls upon their ears, in the first instance at least, not so . . . Continue reading →
Is Everyone Saved?
There is a Modernist creed. It is a short creed but it is highly influential and it is the default view of many Americans who think of themselves as Christians. That creed says 1) Humans are basically good and getting better; 2) . . . Continue reading →
Ignatius On The Atonement
Neither the ends of the earth nor the kingdoms of this age are of any use to me. It is better for me to die for Jesus Christ than to rule over the ends of the earth. Him I seek, who died . . . Continue reading →
Heidegger And Turretin On Amyraut (Hypothetical Universalism)
Canon VI: Wherefore, we can not agree with the opinion of those who teach: l) that God, moved by philanthropy, or a kind of special love for the fallen of the human race, did, in a kind of conditioned willing, first moving . . . Continue reading →
J. H. Heidegger And Francis Turretin On Arminianism And The Decree
Canon IV: Before the creation of the world, God decreed in Christ Jesus our Lord according to his eternal purpose (Eph 3:11), in which, from the mere good pleasure of his own will, without any prevision of the merit of works or . . . Continue reading →
Cyril Of Alexandria On Substitutionary Atonement
He had undergone, for our sakes, though innocent, the sentence of death. For, in His own Person, He bore the sentence righteously pronounced against sinners by the Law. For He became ‘a curse for us’, according to the Scripture: ‘For cursed is . . . Continue reading →
Athanasius On Substitutionary Atonement
He [‘Christ’] suffered these things, not for His own sake but for ours. ‘Thou has made Thy wrath to rest upon me’ [Psalm 88:7, 16] . . . He suffered for us, and bore in Himself the wrath that was the penalty . . . Continue reading →
Reality, Holiness, and the OMG Culture
Penelope Soto is doing 30 days in a county jail because she needed to learn a hard lesson. The odd thing is that many are shocked by that reality. The reaction her case says something about where we are as a culture. . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 5: What Does “World” Mean in John 3:16?
Without a doubt, one of the Reformed doctrines which evangelical and fundamentalist Christians find most scandalous is the doctrine of definite, personal or limited atonement. This rejection happens, in part, because the Reformed teaching is not always well understood. Sometimes the misunderstandings . . . Continue reading →
Atonement and Common Grace
How do we reconcile the notion of a limited, personal, substitutionary atonement with a universal non-saving favor? If God is favorably inclined toward all, how can one say that Christ did not die for them? And if Christ did not die for . . . Continue reading →
We Don't Have to Choose Between Christus Victor and Penal Substitution
Martin explains at AH.
15 Books Regarding the Cross
In the recent discussions of the atonement the impression is sometimes created that the penal-substitution doctrine is a mere construct, a figment of the imagination that rests on no biblical foundation. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Nick’s list of resources . . . Continue reading →