WSC grad and PhD student Andrew Compton points out something I have thought for many years, that Geerhardus Vos fundamentally undermined the entire higher critical (liberal) project. Since that time it is often the case when I read some (higher) critical commentary . . . Continue reading →
geerhardus vos
Everybody Does It
Speaking in tongues, that is. G. Vos noted almost a century ago that ecstatic religious speech is not a uniquely Christian phenomenon. Here an AOG writer recognizes the same thing. (HT: Daily Scroll) What does it mean? It means that glossolalia is . . . Continue reading →
Vos on the Benefits of the New Covenant
Thanks to WSC student Brenden Link for posting this bit from Grace and Glory.
Vos on the Relationship of the Mystical to the Forensic
Very interesting stuff at the OLTS
Geerhardus Vos On The Creation Days
30. To what is appeal made to support the nonliteral interpretation? a) To the fact that sun and moon (or rather the rotation of the earth around its axis in relation to the sun) were not yet present. As we know, the . . . Continue reading →
What The Prophets Knew
In taking the comfort of the prophetic promises to our hearts we do not, perhaps, always realize what after the tempests and tumults, in the brief seasons of clear shining which God interposed, such relief must have meant to the prophets themselves. . . . Continue reading →
Vos: Whoever Has Historical Sense Can See The Covenant Of Works In The Earlier Reformed Writers
This overview is sufficient to show how the older writings can manifest the covenant doctrine in Reformed theology. But, one might perhaps say, that only applies to the covenant of grace. These historical data cannot prove that the covenant of works belonged . . . Continue reading →
Vos Contra Kenosis
b)…On the contrary, however, modern kenosis doctrine, itself pantheistic in origin, has explained the incarnation itself as a extinction or emptying of deity. —Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, ed. Richard B. Gaffin, trans. Annemie Godbehere et al., vol. 3 (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, . . . Continue reading →
Vos: The Substance Of The One Covenant Of Grace Was In The Old Covenant
What Augustine so strikingly formulated concerning the relation of the two historic economies of the history of redemption: “Novum Testamentum in Vetere latet, Vetus in Novo patet” [The New Testament hides in the old, the Old reveals itself in the New] permits . . . Continue reading →
Vos: God Allowed The Republication Of The Covenant Of Works
a) Everyone will have to agree that for Adam, perfect keeping of the law for a fixed period of time was the means to acquire eternal beatitude that cannot be lost. When the covenant of works was broken, God could have rescinded . . . Continue reading →
Vos: The Covenant Of Grace Was Present In, With, And Through The Old Testament Types And Shadows
With An Extended Comment Replying To Some Recent Criticisms Of Reformed Theology
We shall now be prepared to understand how the recognition, that the two worlds exist and have existed side by side from the beginning, enables the author of Hebrews to solve the chief problem of the history of redemption and revelation. For . . . Continue reading →
Vos Contra Two-Stage Justification
18. Is justification an act that takes place once and for all, or an act that can be repeated? a) The Roman Catholic church makes a distinction between a first and a second justification. The first consists in the infusion of habitual . . . Continue reading →
What Did Geerhardus Vos Think He Was Doing?
Although Geerhardus Vos is best known as a biblical theologian, this is not an essay about biblical theology. Nor does it deal with his well-known 1894 Princeton inaugural address. It is instead a reflection on important aspects of the larger theological method that . . . Continue reading →
New In Print: Geerhardus Vos, Natural Theology
For Christians who came of age during the heyday of Barthianism, the very words “natural theology” can send shudders down the spine. Barth himself went to war against natural law, natural revelation, and natural theology of all kinds. Modern Evangelicals have resonated . . . Continue reading →
Vos: All Our Works Are Excluded From Justification
Not only the works that we do in our own strength, or that we do before regeneration, or that we do without the merits of Christ, but all works, of whatever sort, are excluded from justification. This is so repetitively certain in . . . Continue reading →
The New Covenant In My Blood (Luke 22:20) (part 1)
What follows is a sermon preached by Cornelius Van Til (1895–1987), who was Professor of Apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary from 1929–72. This transcription from an audio recording was made in the 1990 and is published here with the permission of Westminster . . . Continue reading →
Review: Vos’ Natural Theology
No one can deny that we are living in strange times for Reformed theology. For example, we are hard-pressed to find enough professing Christians theologically astute enough to be actual Arminians. What is a Reformed person to do when there are not . . . Continue reading →
Review: Geerhardus Vos: Reformed Biblical Theologian, Confessional Presbyterian
Geerhardus Vos: Reformed biblical theologian, academic, churchman, son, husband, father, professor, colleague, poet, Christian. Danny Olinger’s biography Geerhardus Vos: Reformed Biblical Theologian, Confessional Presbyterian is a recommended read for pastors, students, and lay people. For pastors, particularly of the Reformed persuasion, this . . . Continue reading →
Vos On Divine Simplicity
What is God’s simplicity? That attribute of God whereby He is free of all composition and distinction. God is free: a) Of logical composition; in Him there is no distinction between genus and species. b) Of natural composition; in Him there is . . . Continue reading →
Vos: Man Belongs To Two Spheres
Man belongs to two spheres. And Scripture not only teaches that these two spheres are distinct, it also teaches what estimate of relative importance ought to be placed upon them. Heaven is the primordial, earth the secondary creation. In heaven are the . . . Continue reading →