Dr Clark answers the question: Is the distinction between law and gospel something to use only sometimes? Continue reading →
Chapter 21 of MacArthur’s The Gospel According to Jesus is typical of this work. There is much that is true and helpful, there is not a little irony, and there are one or two significant mistakes. Again, as I have said many . . . Continue reading →
Preaching begins with Bible reading and interpretation. Before a minister can preach a given text, he must decide what it says. To interpret a passage, the preacher necessarily brings to bear his broader reading of Scripture, a system of doctrine, and the history of interpretation. Continue reading →
Throughout this series, despite my documented concerns about this volume, I have worked to be scrupulously fair. When MacArthur gets things right, I have given him credit for that; and he gets some things right in chapter 20, “The Way of Salvation.” . . . Continue reading →
Reformation Heritage Books is giving away a free copy of John Colquhoun’s A Treatise on Law and Gospel. Colquhoun (1748–1827) was a pastor in Leith, Scotland for 46 years. He was a defender of the theology of the Marrow Men (Thomas Boston, . . . Continue reading →
MacArthur is right to observe that too many evangelicals have no place for good works in their account of the faith. The question is not whether there is a “relationship between faith and works,” but rather what that relationship is.216 According to . . . Continue reading →
When Paul says, “The law is not of faith,” he sets down the main difference between the law and the gospel. The law promises life to him that performs perfect obedience, and that for his works. The gospel promises life to him . . . Continue reading →
The formal question of the Protestant Reformation was that of authority: What is the principal source of authority for the Christian faith and the Christian life? The Roman communion claimed that the church produced the Scriptures and thus the authority of the . . . Continue reading →
Back in 2018, I was suffering through a time of intense mental depression and anxiety set off by my physical experience of chronic pain and fatigue. The longer I was trapped in that condition, the more overtly spiritual it became, so that . . . Continue reading →
“Most of the current controversy regarding the gospel hinges on the definitions of a few key words, including repentance, faith, discipleship, and Lord.”186 So writes John MacArthur in his chapter on repentance.187 He notes that our Lord’s preaching of the Kingdom of . . . Continue reading →
Throughout this series, however it might seem to devoted fans of John MacArthur, I have endeavored to be honest and fair—both of which require me to acknowledge, as I have before, that chapters 14 and 15 are quite edifying. The beginning of . . . Continue reading →
Dispensationalism is as much a theory of the church as it is of dispensations. Or rather, dispensationalism divides humanity into three distinct groups: Israel, the church, and the nations. The first two are in covenant with God. Israel has the starring role . . . Continue reading →
In MacArthur’s account of the parables of the kingdom of God, the nature of saving faith, and in his use of sources, we face three interesting sets of questions and some recurring problems in chapter 13 of The Gospel According to Jesus. . . . Continue reading →
Therefore this is an important and powerful argument that Paul is presenting here against the righteousness of works: “Neither the Law nor works redeem from the curse, but only Christ.” Therefore I implore you for God’s sake to distinguish Christ from the . . . Continue reading →
In chapter 15 of GAJ, MacArthur’s critique of Dispensational antinomianism (and particularly of the “carnal Christian” doctrine, which we addressed last time) turns to the parable of the sower (Matt 13:24–30). He complains about the undisciplined character of so much of contemporary . . . Continue reading →
No chapter in this volume, so far, relies on MacArthur’s debt to Dispensationalism more than chapter 11, where he addresses the parable of the soils in Matthew 13. The Problem Of Dispensationalism He begins by recalling our Lord’s words, which he addressed . . . Continue reading →
When Paul says: “He who does them, etc.,” he is comparing the righteousness of the Law and that of faith, as he also does in Romans 10:5 ff. It is as though he were saying: “It would indeed be fine if someone . . . Continue reading →
Many years ago, at an ecclesiastical meeting, there was a worship service. The minister preaching was retired but something of a hero in the denomination. He and others had stood for the truth when many others had taken an easier and more . . . Continue reading →
Because the MacArthurite sect of Dispensationalism (we might say post-modified Dispensationalism but not quite Progressive Dispensationalism) intersects only occasionally and tangentially with the Reformation, the defenders of Lordship Salvation assume that any critique of the system is necessarily a defense of Zane . . . Continue reading →
One of the unfortunate aspects of the intra-Dispensational argument—that is, the Lordship Salvation controversy—is that both sides appealed to the Reformation, but neither side represented the Reformation theology, piety, and practice. Dispensationalism is a nineteenth-century phenomenon. Its roots are in the holiness . . . Continue reading →