Perseverance

John Piper, Future Grace: The Purifying Power of the Promises of God, rev. ed. (New York: Multnomah, 2012)—A Thorough Review

by Harrison Perkins on September 13, 2021 | 29 Comments

Pastor John Piper is well-known for his role in sparking the “young, restless, and Reformed” movement, mainly through his emphases on God’s sovereignty and serious expository preaching. There are no doubt numerous present members of Reformed churches who ended up there because of initial investigations of Reformed theology that began with hearing or reading John Piper. Personally, Piper was my first exposure to a thorough and biblical explanation of predestination in some of the appendices of the 2003 edition of Desiring God, which I was told to read shortly after becoming serious about my faith. Continue reading →

Why Did God Put A Crook In The Lot?

by R. Scott Clark on February 3, 2021

But in Thomas Boston’s usage the crook is the crooked, that is the uncomfortable, discontenting aspects of a person’s life, the things that the Puritans called losses and crosses, and that we speak of as the stones in our shoe, the thorns . . . Continue reading →

Canons Of Dort 33: The Grace Of Perseverance Is A Spiritual Doctrine

by R. Scott Clark on June 28, 2019 | 2 Comments

The Reformation gospel of salvation by grace alone (sola gratia), through faith alone (sola fide), as defined and confessed by the Reformed churches and as rejected by the Remonstrants (Arminians) was intended to produce and had the effect of giving comfort to . . . Continue reading →

Canons Of Dort (30): God’s Gracious Assurance Of Perseverance

by R. Scott Clark on May 11, 2019 | 1 Comment

The single most frequent way to corrupt the doctrine of perseverance has been to turn it into a covenant of works. This happens regularly outside the Reformed churches. E.g., the Romanists teach that, in baptism, sins are graciously washed away, initial justification . . . Continue reading →

Canons Of Dort (29): The Reality Of Sin And Grace In The Christian Life

by R. Scott Clark on May 7, 2019 | 1 Comment

One of the great and persisting differences between the Reformed and Remonstrant (Arminian) confessions is the difference between the Reformed realism about the Christian life as distinct from the latent Remonstrant perfectionism, i.e., the Pelagianizing doctrine of entire, sinless perfection short of . . . Continue reading →

Does Covenant Theology Change Our Doctrine Of Predestination?

by R. Scott Clark on August 4, 2017 | 2 Comments
Baptism, Election & the Covenant of Grace

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 →

Turretin: Faith Is Not True Because It Perseveres

by R. Scott Clark on February 17, 2017

XII. Faith is not true because it perseveres, but it perseveres because it is true. Thus perseverance is not the cause of the verity of faith, but the consequent and the effect—for because it has solidity and a deep root in the . . . Continue reading →