“[T]hat we must be reconciled to God, and justified by the remission of our sins, and imputation of righteousness, before any sincere obedience to the law; that we may be enabled for the practice of it. They account, that this doctrine tends . . . Continue reading →
Covenant Moralism
Boston And Rutherford: Baxter Turned The Covenant Of Grace Into A Covenant Of Works
Let us take a watchword from holy and learned Rutherford: ‘We would beware (says he) of Mr. Baxter’s order of setting repentance and works of new obedience before justification; which is indeed a new covenant of works.’ Continue reading →
N. T. Wright Is Still Wrong
I merely want to focus our attention on what I think is the most detrimental theological claim advanced in this book. Wright polemicizes by arguing that we should change the famous line “justification by faith” to “justification by loyalty.” He reasons, “If . . . Continue reading →
Richard Baxter On Initial And Final Justification Through Faith And Works
The magisterial Protestant churches (i.e., the Lutheran and Reformed) and their theologians did not speak of, teach, or confess a “two-stage” doctrine of justification or even a “two-stage” doctrine of salvation (justification, sanctification, and glorification). Yet, today, one sees leading evangelical and . . . Continue reading →
With Megiddo Radio On The Current Justification Controversy
It was good to talk with Paul Flynn of Megiddo Radio today about the ongoing controversy over justification and salvation. It was a wide-ranging discussion. Paul and his family are members of Loughbrickland Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland. Click on the link . . . Continue reading →
Principles Of Spiritual Self-Defense
My first interaction with the theology of Norman Shepherd probably came in seminary. He was dismissed from his position as a professor in a Reformed and Presbyterian seminary, where he taught the course on the doctrine of salvation (soteriology) in 1981. I . . . Continue reading →
Background On The Current Salvation Controversy
In 1980, Daniel P. Fuller published Gospel and Law: Contrast or Continuum seeking to lay siege to both the Dispensational tradition in which he had been raised and covenant theology as he understood it. This work provoked strong responses from some within . . . Continue reading →
Why We Remember The Reformation (Part 2)
In By Grace, Stay In By Faithfulness?
We are approaching on Reformation Day again this seems like a good time to cover the basics again. The medieval church came to teach that we enter a state of grace through baptism. According to the medieval church, we remain in a . . . Continue reading →
Does Covenant Theology Change Our Doctrine Of Predestination?
HB reader Keith asks, Succinctly, what is covenant theology on the following: Predestination Security of the believer? Hi Keith, The short answer is that the covenant theology that we confess does not fundamentally change our doctrine of predestination, which says that all . . . Continue reading →
Vos Spotted Aspects Of Federal Vision Theology In Pareus And Davenant
Here and there in some Reformed theologians a conception intrudes that appears to function at the boundary of the orthodox system, so that one may doubt that it may still be called Reformed. There have been those who posit a kind of . . . Continue reading →
If God Helps Those Who Help Themselves, Christ Died For Nothing
Now take both Laws, the Ceremonial Law and the Moral Law or the Decalog. Imagine that by the merit of congruity you have made so much progress that the Spirit has been granted to you and that you have love. Of course, . . . Continue reading →
Boston On Not Turning The Covenant Of Grace Into A Covenant Of Works
ARGUMENT. V. Though the patrons of the doctrine of the necessity of repentance in order to the obtaining of the pardon of sin, do not aim at any encroachment on the doctrine of free pardon; yet, with all deference to those learned . . . Continue reading →
Children At The Lord’s Table: A Review
Cornelis P. Venema, Children at the Lord’s Table?: Assessing the Case for Paedocommunion (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2009). Note: This review was published originally on the Heidelblog as a series in 2009 and is slightly revised. § In his latest book . . . Continue reading →
Burying The Lead On Baxter
There is a phrase in journalism called “burying the lead” (or, since about 1979, the cloying variant lede). The lead (lede) is the paragraph in which the most important, salient facts are contained. In the old days (c. 1975), the writer was . . . Continue reading →
Through Good Works? (2)
In order to understand properly what Calvin wrote we need to put these passages in context. Chapter 21 is about the relations between justification and sanctification, which he called the “progress” of justification. In other words, for Calvin, the definitive act of God in declaring sinners righteous, on the basis of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, which is received through faith alone, results in the gradual sanctification of the Christian. Continue reading →
Through Good Works? (1)
Introduction In Reformed theology the noun salvation is typically used in two ways. Sometimes it is used as a synonym for justification. When used this way it does not include sanctification since, according to the Reformed confession, justification is a declarative act . . . Continue reading →
Lloyd-Jones Against Shepherd: Complete Statement
He even talks of eschatological justification and regards it as something that is not complete until the judgment…He does not recognize that justification is entirely God’s forensic act of declaring we are just because he has imputed to us Christ righteousness. The result is no one could ever bring against Shepherd the charge brought against Paul in Rom. 6:1—Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Continue reading →
Lloyd-Jones: Shepherd’s Teaching Is “Another Gospel”
His teaching is a subtle form of legalism and eventually is “another gospel”. —D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Continue reading →
Not “As If” But Actually
Shepard affirms that from a covenantal perspective a person may pass from an elected and justified status to a non-elect and non-justified status. This transition does not mean simply that a person is first treated as though he were elected and justified . . . Continue reading →