14. We believe that God created man out of the dust of the earth, and made and formed him after his own image and likeness, good, righteous, and holy, capable in all things to will agreeably to the will of God. But . . . Continue reading →
Author: R. Scott Clark
R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He is professor emeritus of church history and historical theology at Westminster Seminary California, where he taught for 29 years. He also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007 and the Heidelcast since 2009.
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 →
Wollebius: Christ Merited Our Salvation By His Active Obedience As The Second Adam
I. Just as the passion of Christ it Is necessary for the expiation of sin, so his active obedience and righteousness are necessary for the gaining of eternal life. The reasons are: (1) The law binds us both to punishment and to . . . Continue reading →
Berkhof: Christ Met The Condition Of The Covenant Of Works
3. BASICALLY, THE COVENANT OF GRACE IS SIMPLY THE EXECUTION OF THE ORIGINAL AGREEMENT BY CHRIST AS OUR SURETY. He undertook freely to carry out the will of God. He placed Himself under the law, that He might redeem them that were . . . Continue reading →
A. A. Hodge: Adam Would Have Merited
As to the relation of good works to rewards, it may be observed—(1.) The word merit, in the strict sense of the term, means that common quality of all actions or services to which a reward is due in strict justice on . . . Continue reading →
Hodge On Adam, Christ, Conditions, And Merit
The condition of the covenant of grace, so far as adults are concerned, is faith in Christ. That is, in order to partake of the benefits of this covenant we must receive the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God in . . . Continue reading →
J. H. Heidegger: Christ Condignly Merited As The Second Adam
9.3 The Covenant Of Works The covenant of works is the pact of God initiated with the uncorrupted Adam, as head of the whole human race, in which He stipulated from man perfect obedience to the law, promised eternal, heavenly life for . . . Continue reading →
Witsius: Christ Condignly Merited A Reward By Fulfilling The Covenant Of Works
XXXIII. And the thing speaks for itself, For, as there is a covenant between the Father and the Son; “when thou shalt make his soul (if the soul of the Son shall devote himself) an offering for sin,” Is. 53:10, upon performing . . . Continue reading →
Witsius: Don’t Confuse The Covenant Of Works With The Covenant Of Grace
XXV. Such a perfect observance of the laws of the covenant, up to the period which God had fixed for probation, had given man a right to the reward. Not from any intrinsic proportion of the work to the reward, as the . . . Continue reading →
Johannes Braun: Adam Would Have Merited His Reward
If Adam had remained upright and done everything which God required of him, he would indeed have merited his reward, but not condignly, as if either his own person or his works were equal in value to the reward. For no creature, . . . Continue reading →
Turretin On Merit In The Covenant Of Works
V. The covenant of nature is that which God the Creator made with innocent man as his creature, concerning the giving of eternal happiness and life under the conditions of perfect and personal obedience. It is called “natural,” not from natural obligation . . . 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 →
Shepherdite Theology: Covenantal Arminianism
It is not proper, therefore, to set up a dichotomy whereby according to God’s secret will, election or justification cannot be lost, but according to our covenant perspective they may be lost. The statements cited show a tendency to use typically Calvinistic . . . Continue reading →
An Indispensable Guide To Understanding Shepherd’s Theology
“Shepherd is undoubtedly driven by a biblicistic concern to limit modern theological vocabulary strictly to the biblical incidences of those words.”—Guy Prentiss Waters. Continue reading →
W. Stanford Reid: Shepherd Teaches Justification Through Faith And Works
While he speaks in a number of places of faith alone (unhyphenated) as the instrument by which we appropriate justification, he also insists that works must go with it, so closely related that justifying faith and works are almost identical…. This apparently . . . Continue reading →
Next Stop: Osiander
it would be in my opinion and feeling that Norman Shepard, if he should logically continue to expand the position as set forth in all of his documents, would ultimately come to a position like that of Osiander and perhaps even close . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 62: Works No Part Of Our Justification
Because the popular rhetoric in evangelical and even in confessional Protestant circles has frequently been that the medieval (or the Roman communion) taught justification by works and the Reformers taught justification by grace well-meaning but misguided Christians sometimes conclude that so long . . . Continue reading →
Iain Murray: Shepherd Has Reconstructed The Protestant Doctrine Of Justification
1. Regretfully I share the view that matters of substance, not merely of terminology are involved…. 2. I am unhappy with the way in which Mr Shepherd represents the historical theology behind the reformed doctrine of justification as stated in the Westminster . . . Continue reading →
Morton Smith: Shepherd Teaches Justification Through Faith And Works
As one who has been trained in, and has taught the classic systematic theology with the biblical theological basis of Professor John Murray’s approach, I find Mr. Shepherd’s original paper, and also his later statements, quite confusing and disturbing. For example, he . . . Continue reading →