No Time for Seminary?
Beginning Theology Curriculum for laypersons wanting to learn theology but don't have time for Seminary. This Theology at home bundle is a great place to start
1) Westminster Confession of Faith
2) A Body of Divinity by Thomas Watson
3) The Ten Commandments by Thomas Watson
4) The Lord's Prayer (paperback) by Thomas Watson
5) Outlines of Theology by A. A. Hodge
6) An Old Testament Theology by Bruce K. Waltke
Read the books listed above in the following order: 1) Westminster Confession of Faith: a) the Shorter Catechism; b) the Larger Catechism; c) the Confession; 2) A Body of Divinity by Thomas Watson; 3) The Ten Commandments by Thomas Watson; 4) The Lord's Prayer by Thomas Watson; 5) Outlines of Theology by A. A. Hodge; & 6) An Old Testament Theology by Bruce K. Waltke.
For supplemental historical studies we also recommend 2000 YEARS OF CHRIST'S POWER 3 Volume set by N.R. Needham
The Puritan Library
The Puritan Library
Take some time to check out this vast online downloadable puritan resource library (links hosted at Monergism.com). Includes books by authors such as Thomas Watson | Thomas Brooks | Thomas Boston | John Bunyan | Stephen Charnock | Richard Sibbes | Thomas Goodwin | Thomas Shepherd | John Robinson | Thomas Case | John Owen | William Bridge | John Flavel | John Howe | Richard Baxter | Hugh Binning | Thomas Gouge | Joseph Alleine | Richard Alleine | William Bates | David Clarkson | Richard Steele | Jerremiah Burroughs | William Gurnall | Thomas Adams | Philip Doddridge | Benjamin Brook | William Guthrie | William Perkins
Series on the Ancient Church by Rev Charles Biggs
Monergism.com has just posted a great series on the ancient church by Rev. Biggs
Ancient Church History by Rev. Charles Biggs
The Story of Martin Luther: the Restoration of Biblical Christianity and Apostolic Catholicism
THE STORY OF MARTIN LUTHER- Pastor Charles R. Biggs
Happy 490th anniversary of the Reformation of the Christian Church!
On October 31st 2007, the Church will celebrate the 490th anniversary of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century.
This reformation began in God’s providence through a peasant miner’s son who became a monk and then a great teacher of Biblical truth. It is important to remember how the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century was arguably the greatest revival of Christianity since the Apostolic Age. The Reformation was a return to Biblical Christianity and Apostolic Catholicism because the Church had degenerated into unbiblical Roman Catholicism.
This paper is submitted to remind you of God’s grace and goodness, and to encourage us all to continue to stand on Scripture Alone as our guide for faith and life, knowing that we are justified before God by grace alone, and to know that we all can boldly access God’s mercy and fatherly goodness through One Mediator, the Man Christ Jesus!
Calvin Cracked Open
I'm teaching a five-week Adult Sunday School class on John Calvin and his Institutes of the Christian Religion at our church. The first class is this Sunday, and it will be primarily a biographical sketch. You can download the PDF of the handout for this class here, which is a time line of Calvin's life, including a few contemporary, Reformation-associated dates.
Pelagianism in the Formation and Reformation of the Church- C. R. Biggs
IN Christ,
Pastor Biggs
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Pelagianism in the Formation and Reformation of the Church
By the middle of the second century, the Christian Church had developed the Apostle's Creed which contained the foundational doctrines, or essential beliefs of the Church.
In the 4th century, the doctrines of the Trinity and the two natures of Christ had been established at the Councils of Nicea in 325 AD, Ephesus in 431 AD, and Chalcedon in 451 AD. The doctrine of soteriology however, or the doctrine of salvation and grace had not been clearly and systematically established until the Augustine and the Pelagian controversy in the 5th century in the West.
Continue reading "Pelagianism in the Formation and Reformation of the Church- C. R. Biggs" »
Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism exposed? You decide...
Found on the web: the folks over at irr.org have put out a video giving the single greatest documented proof that Joseph Smith Jr. was a charlatan, not a prophet of God.
This award-winning documentary film investigates the story behind a volume of Mormon scripture called the Book of Abraham. The story is that Mormon founder Joseph Smith translated it from an ancient Egyptian papyrus scroll he purchased from an antiquities dealer in 1835. The Lost Book of Abraham visits prominent Egyptologists and other scholars – both Mormon and non-Mormon – to learn the truth behind this fascinating episode in Mormon history. The full video is now on YouTube, here . Given the current discussions of Mormonism, this is very useful. Here's the info on how to obtain it in DVD format.
Synod of Dordrecht Poster
Newly printed poster now available!!!. At an impressive 24"X36", it is printed on 100 pound cover stock paper and treated with an aqueous protective coating. It is a truly beautiful poster. In addition to the engraving of the Synod of Dordrecht, which took place in the Netherlands from 1618-1619, the sides of the poster are lined with the names of all the commissioners, including what district they represented. The title and registry are in Dutch, giving it a further historical richness
The Synod of Dordrecht is important because of its strategic importance in the Reformed tradition. It was at this synod in 1618-1619 where the Dutch Reformed Church issued its response to Jacob Arminius and his followers, the Remonstrants. A common summary of this response has since been given the nick-name "The Five Points of Calvinism." The Canons of Dordt continue to be one of the three forms of unity used by Dutch Reformed Churches today..
Click Here for Enlarged View
John Knox the Preacher
This is an extract from a new book by Iain Murray, A Scottish Christian Heritage (416 pp., clothbound, ISBN 085151930X, available from Banner of Truth at www.banneroftruth.org)
If it were to be asked what is the recurring theme in Knox's words and writings the answer is perhaps a surprising one. Sometimes he could be severe, and sometimes extreme. Given the days and the harshness of the persecution he witnessed, it would be understandable if these elements had preponderated in his ministry. But his keynote was of another kind altogether. From the first years that we have anything from his pen, we find him engaged in a ministry of encouragement. It forms the substance of his many letters to his mother-in-law. He handles the doctrines of election and justification as causes for bright joy in believers, 'Your imperfection shall have no power to damn you,' he writes to Mrs Bowes, 'for Christ's perfection is reputed to be yours by faith, which you have in his blood.' 'God has received already at the hands of his only Son all that is due for our sins, and so cannot his justice require or crave any more of us, other satisfaction or recompence for our sins.' He writes to the believers facing suffering and possible death in the reign of Mary Tudor and likens their situation to that of the disciples in the tempest on the lake of Galilee and says, 'Be not moved from the sure foundation of your faith. For albeit Christ Jesus be absent from you (as he was from his disciples in that great storm) by his bodily presence, yet he is present by his mighty power and grace - and yet he is full of pity and compassion.' Or again he writes: 'Stand with Christ Jesus in this day of his battle, which shall be short and the victory everlasting! For the Lord himself shall come in our defence with his mighty power; He shall give us the victory when the battle is most strong; and He shall turn our tears into everlasting joy.'
One thing stands out above all else in the life of John Knox. At many different points in his life we have the comment of individuals who saw him, and the testimony most frequently repeated has to do with one point, namely, the power of his preaching.
John Piper on How We Might Respond to Muslim Anger over the Pope's Comments
John Piper suggesting How Christians Might Respond to Muslim Outrage at the Pope's Regensburg Message About Violence and Reason.
Here is an outline of his ten points:
1. Admit that the Christian church has often been too entangled with civil governments, with the result that violence has been endorsed by the church as a way of accomplishing religious, and not just civil, goals.
2. Make clear that the use of God-sanctioned violence between Israel and the nations in the Old Testament is no longer God’s will for his people.
3. Admit that there are many Muslims today who do not approve of violence in the spread of Islam.
4. Point out how Islam, in its most sacred writings and authoritative teachings, belittles Jesus Christ, not just occasionally in the news, but constantly by its dominant claims.
5. Point out that, in response to this constant defamation of Jesus Christ, there are no public threats or demands for apologies.
Continue reading "John Piper on How We Might Respond to Muslim Anger over the Pope's Comments" »
The Puritan Understanding of Christianity
by J.I. Packer
"...a connected view of God, of the Bible, of the world, of ourselves, of salvation, of the church, of history, and of the future. Few, it seems, even in Biblie-believing churches [today], grasp this whole picture, and in liberal churches, where attention to scholars' fads and fancies replaces the teaching of the Bible, there is virtually no grasp of it at all. Once, churches taught it to all their children, using catechisms, but not anymore. I state it [the Puritan View] here, therefore, in summary form:
God, who within the unity of his being is intrinsically a society, the Father, the Son, and the Holy SPirit together, and who is infinite, unchanging, and almighty in his wisdom, goodness, and justice, created the universe, and ourselves within it, so that he might love and bless us, and we might love and praise him. But things have gone wrong.
Original sin is the radical distortion of every human being's mortal nature, making love and honor to God from our hearts impossible and self-centredness at deepest level inevitable. We sin because we are sinners, and human history, from one standpoint, is original sin writ large.
Jesus Christ the Saviour, the Jew who died, rose, reigns, and will return for retribution to everyone, past, present and future, is God the Son incarnate, whose death atoned for our sins, whom we trust for forgiveness and acceptance and serve as our living Lord, and who unites us to himself for the renewal of his image in us, dethroning original sin and giving us resources against its down-drag in the process. This is present salvation.
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David Wells on "Churchless Christianity"
"...This attitude which diminishes the significance of being in church and which will not tolerate any inconvenience has had a strange incarnation overseas, if I can use that word. American missiologists like Ralph Winter have been strenuously advocating “churchless Christianity” as a new and exciting strategy. Their thought is that believers in other religious contexts need not separate themselves from those contexts but can remain in them as private believers, thereby preserving themselves from any kind of harm. This, of course, is easier to do in a Hindu context in which one is allowed to choose one’s own god from among the many that are worshipped. Christians, quietly and privately, are simply choosing to worship Jesus and ignoring the other gods and goddesses in the temple. They are never baptized, never make a public declaration of their faith, and never become part of a church. This arrangement is, of course, much harder to carry off in Islam. Nevertheless, Winter and others now estimate that there are millions of these “churchless” believers concealed in other religions. And is this not where American evangelicalism is headed? In fact, there are already millions of believers concealed in their own living rooms whose only “church” experience is what is had from one of the television preachers. Is it really a coincidence, then, that it is American evangelicals who are energetically arguing for the wisdom of a comparable strategy in the mission field in respect to their religious contexts? I think not!
Here we have an unholy alliance between raw pragmatism, a Christianity without doctrinal shape, one that in fact separates between having Christ as savior and Christ as Lord (an option that the N.T. never holds out to us!), and a lost understanding of the necessary role which the local church should have.
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The Conversion and Preaching of (St) Patrick in Ireland
An extract from the “History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century” by J. H. Merle d’Aubigné (1794-1872)
On the picturesque banks of the Clyde, not far from Glasgow, in the Christian village of Bonavern, now Kilpatrick, a little boy, of tender heart, lively temperament, and indefatigable activity, passed the earlier days of his life. He was born about the year 372 A. D., of a British family, and was named Succat.1 His father, Calpurnius, deacon of the church of Bonavern, a simple-hearted pious man, and his mother, Conchessa, sister to the celebrated Martin, archbishop of Tours,2 and a woman superior to the majority of her sex, had endeavoured to instil into his heart the doctrines of Christianity; but Succat did not understand them. He was fond of pleasure, and delighted to be the leader of his youthful companions. In the midst of his frivolities, he committed a serious fault.
Some few years later, his parents having quitted Scotland and settled in Armorica (Bretagne), a terrible calamity befell them. One day as Succat was playing near the seashore with two of his sisters, some Irish pirates, commanded by O’ Neal, carried them all three off to their boats, and sold them in Ireland to the petty chieftain of some pagan clan. Succat was sent into the fields to keep swine.3 It was while alone in these solitary pastures, without priest and without temple, that the young slave called to mind the divine lessons which his pious mother had so often read to him. The fault which he had committed pressed heavily night and day upon his soul: he groaned in heart, and wept. He turned repenting towards that meek Saviour of whom Conchessa had so often spoken; he fell at His knees in that heathen land, and imagined he felt the arms of a father uplifting the prodigal son. Succat was then born from on high, but by an agent so spiritual, so internal, that he knew not “whence it cometh or whither it goeth.” The gospel was written with the finger of God on the tablets of his heart. “I was sixteen years old,” said he, “and knew not the true God; but in that strange land the Lord opened my unbelieving eyes, and, although late, I called my sins to mind, and was converted with my whole heart to the Lord my God, who regarded my low estate, had pity on my youth and ignorance, and consoled me as a father consoles his children.”4
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Lectures on "The History and Theology of Calvinism" (MP3s) by Dr. Curt Daniel
Dr. Curt Daniel of Faith Bible Church is a knowledgeable student and teacher of Reformed theology and history. His approach is to "leave no stone unturned" in pursuing the truth of Scripture. His breadth of knowledge enables him to easily glean from the theological giants that have gone before. Dr. Daniel attended Central Bible College (B.A.), Fuller Theological Seminary (M.Div.), and the University of Edinburgh (Ph.D.). Dr. Daniel teaches, preaches and publishes theological works consistent with Scripture and Reformed Theology.
Daniel's series on the History and Theology of Calvinism can be heard here where he covers the following topics: What is Calvinism? ; Augustine and Pre-Calvinism ; The Reformation ; John Calvin ; The Spread of Calvinism ; The Synod of Dort ; The Puritans ; The Westminster Assembly ; Covenant Theology ; High Calvinism ; Amyraldism ; Calvinistic Antinomianism; Hyper-Calvinism ; Eighteenth Century Calvinism ; Jonathan Edwards and New England Calvinism ; The Princeton Theology ; 19th Century Calvinism - North-South & In the Confederacy ; Calvinistic Baptists ; Dutch Calvinism; Calvinistic Philosophy ; The Theonomy Movement ; Neo-Orthodoxy ; 20th Century British Calvinism
20th Century American Calvinism
Thanks to Radio Apologia and Faith Bible Church
The Grace of Faith
"The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts; and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word: by which also, and by the administration of the sacraments, and prayer, it is increased and strengthened."
- Westminster Confession of Faith CHAP XIV
Under the terms of the covenant of grace, God "freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ; requiring of them faith in him, that they may be saved, and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life his Holy Spirit, to make them willing, and able to believe."
- Westminster Confession of Faith CHAP. VII. - Of God's Covenant with Man III
Augustine on the New Life in Christ
In his book The Triumph of Grace: Augustine's Writings on Salvation, Dr. N.R. Needham has done a great service to the Church in bringing together Augustine's quotes on topics related to salvation. Dr. Needham has given us his generous permission to post chapter five entitled "The New Life in Christ" in which he gives a short introductory essay on the new birth followed by a great number of helpful quotes from Augustine regarding this issue. Please take time to read the short essay and this excellent compilation of quotations. It shows a clear contrast between man-centered false views and the biblical view of grace.
CHAPTER 5.
THE NEW LIFE IN CHRIST
‘Can we possibly, without utter absurdity, maintain that there first existed in anyone the good virtue of a good will, to entitle him to the removal of his heart of stone? How can we say this, when all the time this heart of stone itself signifies precisely a will of the hardest kind, a will that is absolutely inflexible against God? For if a good will comes first, there is obviously no longer a heart of stone.’Augustine, On Grace and Free Will, 29
‘For we are now speaking of the desire for goodness. If they want to say that this begins from ourselves and is then perfected by God, let them see how they can answer the apostle when he says, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God” (2 Cor. 3:5)’
Augustine, Against Two Letters of the Pelagians, 2:18
Think you've got stress?
An article by H. C. Ross
Think you've got stress? Be thankful you're not an Elizabethan Puritan.
Imagine you’re a zealous Protestant minister, beginning your career around the time of the accession of Elizabeth I. Here are some of the controversies, crises and calamities you can look forward to experiencing before you hit ‘retirement age’ at the close of the century:
1558
If you’re one of the handful of Protestants who has been in exile during Mary Tudor’s brief reign, you’ll need to journey back home – not knowing exactly what you’ll find there.
1559
You’ll be thankful to see your new Queen secure the Protestant faith with her Acts of Uniformity and Supremacy, but you won’t be satisfied with her Council’s vision of an official liturgy. You’ll settle into conformity with a half-reformed national church and begin campaigning for a more thoroughly ‘biblical’ one.
Martin Luther: Certainty in the Truth by Iain H. Murray
It was a day of grace for Europe when Martin Luther was born at Eisleben, in Germany, in 1483. Entering first the University of Erfurt in 1501, then an Augustinian monastery, Luther was ordained in the Church of Rome in 1507. But the death of a friend in a thunderstorm, a visit to Rome-revealing its corruption-and an increasing sense of his sinfulness, arrested Luther's promising career. Made aware of the emptiness of all human wisdom, its inability to give peace to the soul, he was drawn to study the Word of God.
So great was his anguish of soul that sometimes he would lay "three days and three nights upon his bed without meat, drink, or any sleep, like a dead man." In this condition, he learnt to read each verse in the Bible like a drowning man would clutch at any piece of wood to save his life, and thus sometime between the years 1513-1517 he found that man can be justified by faith in Christ alone, and that in salvation God takes no account of man's works, merit, or will. "This doctrine," Luther writes, "is not learned or gotten by any study, diligence, or wisdom of man, but it is revealed by God Himself." Henceforth he stood upon the Word of God alone, it was his storehouse from whence he drew those truths which, in his writings, flashed like thunderbolts through Europe.
In 1519 Erasmus writes to Luther that "his books had raised such an uproar at Louvain, as it was not possible for him to describe." God had begun a conflict for His Truth, and it was bitterly opposed. "I had" Luther says, "hanging on my neck the pope, the universities, all the deep learned, and the devil; these hunted me into the Bible, wherein I sedulously read . . ." An "illiterate monk" thus became, in the hands of God, too much-as Margaret the Emperor's sister confessed-for all the academics in Paris to answer. By 1520 there was an irreconcilable break with the Church of Rome; the pope was determined that Luther and his gospel should perish together.
Continue reading "Martin Luther: Certainty in the Truth by Iain H. Murray" »
If the foundations are destroyed... by Pastor John Samson
England was once a center for Reformation. That is no longer the case. Thank God, there are glorious exceptions. I pray that there would be many more of these exceptions in our day. But by and large, the church in England, at least the one visible to the people, is unrecognizable from days gone by. Before World War II, about 40–50% of the population in England attended church. Today, estimates suggest the percentage attending church is down to 7.5%. It was said in the past that Britain ‘ruled the waves’. Now it is more likely to be said that Britain ‘waives the rules.' The majority of people have rejected the God of the Bible and there is a famine of the word of God in the land.
I was born and raised in Chester in the North West of England (25 miles south east of Liverpool). I love England, and its people. I therefore inwardly weep over the current state of the Church there. When Bishops can publicly and without apology deny the basic tenets of the Christian faith, from the Deity of Christ, to His virgin birth, His sinless life, His substitutionary atoning death on the cross and physical resurrection - and they can still hold on to their office as Bishops in the Church of England - something is sadly amiss.
So where did the down slide start? Where did the conscious march towards unbelief begin?
Continue reading "If the foundations are destroyed... by Pastor John Samson" »
Facts and Fictions in The Da Vinci Code
by William Wilder
Download the audio lecture Facts and Fictions in the Da Vinci Code by Bill Wilder, delivered April 21, 2006, at the Center for Christian Study. In this lecture Bill Wilder discusses such "Da Vinci codes" as Leonardo's Vitruvian Man, Mona Lisa, and Last Supper. Evidence for the Priory of Sion is also considered, with special attention to the role of Les Dossiers Secrets and the historical Knights Templar. Finally, the relationship of Mary Magdalene and Jesus is evaluated on the basis of such documents as the Gospel of Philip, the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, and the Synoptic Gospels, with a concluding assessment of the very different understandings of the significance of Jesus in Dan Brown and the canonical Gospels.
A PDF of the PowerPoint slides is also available. Download .pdf File of PowerPoint Presentation - 2.23 mb
Calvinism, Evangelism & Revivals in History
"The greatest evangelists and missionaries of Protestant era have been Calvinistic or Reformed. That is, they have embraced and preached the doctrines of grace. Whether it is Bunyan or Spurgeon, Carey or Nettleton or Whitefield or Duff or Stott that you are talking about – the Baptist tradition, the Congregational tradition, the Anglican tradition, the Presbyterian tradition and so on – find the hall of fame evangelists and missionaries and you’ll find folks who live, breathe, teach and preach the doctrines of grace."
(Dr. Ligon Duncan, T4G blog, Feb 28, 2006)
"And then further, that I may clear up these points and leave the less rubbish for my brethren to wheel away, we have sometimes heard it said, but those who say it ought to go to school to read the first book of history, that we who hold Calvinistic views are the enemies of revivals.
Why, sirs, in the history of the Church, with but few exceptions, you could not find a revival at all that was not produced by the orthodox faith. What was that great work which was done by Augustine, when the Church suddenly woke up from the pestiferous and deadly sleep into which Pelagian doctrine had cast it? What was the Reformation itself but the waking up of men’s minds to those old truths?
Continue reading "Calvinism, Evangelism & Revivals in History" »
Speaking of answered prayer...
Speaking of answered prayer, we should all pause in awe of our most wise and holy God for the great works He has done in China. Cumulative prayers of millions of intercessors in the last 150 years has broken through the rock hard wall of a country which, just 60 years ago, was almost totally closed to the gospel. It gives us great hope about what God is about to do with those in Muslim countries as well. In fact it is clear that God's sovereign work of grace in the hearts of millions of Chinese was one the most decisive spiritual events of the 20th century. Since the Chinese Communist Party has taken over, there are no known revival events in church history to be larger in scale. About 1 million Christians in China in 1949 has now blossomed to at least 50 million, with some estimates up to 90 million. Although Mao basically suppressed Christianity wherever it reared its head, He became the unwitting instrument in the hands of our sovereign God and somehow, in spite of kicking against the goads, "oversaw" the greatest religious revival known to man. So we could even say, what Mao meant for evil, God meant for good.
The purpose of writing this piece here is simply to remind us all to continue praying for this great nation of China. God has just begun there and I expect we will be seeing a lot more action from the Chinese church. Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission planted the seeds of new churches there. Prayers followed. The church mushroomed and now do not be surprised if God raises up Chinese believers who will finish the task of the great commission by sending them out to proclaim the Gospel to set free those still caught in the bondage of Islam. I rejoiced when I heard that many among the new generation of Chinese Christians are now seriously considering this. Let us pray for them that the Lord would use them as a mighty instrument for missions as the church in the west wanes. But also pray that believers will not be led astray by the temptations of materialism. Let us pray God also raise up leaders in the church there, for there are way too few, and heresies are common. Also I would encourage you to pray specifically for the Chinese Communist Party and its leadership:
Evangelical: A Brief Definition
Visitor: I am after a brief biblical definition of the "Evangelical Christian" that would not be confusing to the average born again person.
Response: That is a great question and of late has been somewhat controversial. How do we define "Evangelical Christian" -- I will assume you are after the meaning of this in a traditional, rather than contemporary sense. Also the terms meaning in a positive rather than negative light. If so, then it has historically meant someone who believes and heralds the Gospel of Jesus Christ as He is revealed in the Scripture and that there is no hope for them in the world save in being united to HIm in his life, death and resurrection. In the past this was the unifying factor for persons from a vast array of church traditions, but now the word has, unfortunately, come to mean many things.
The contemporary use of the word "Evangelical" often refers to an amorphous mass of people with different convictions, confessions and beliefs about the Gospel. Sometimes this even includes persons who do not believe in the authority of the Bible and, like liberal theology of old, believe in a theology based on consensus, modern psychology or worldly politics.
A Brief Definition:
To the reformers it was related to gospel recovery, that is, one who adhered to the Reformation's tenets, which means that historically, Evangelicals confessed a belief in the truth of the five solas:
Sola gratia, Sola fide, Solus Christus, Sola Scriptura, Soli Deo Gloria. In short, they confessed that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in the Person and work of Christ alone as revealed in the Scripture alone, to the glory of God alone. For further exploration of this subject I highly recommend that everyone study the short online document called The Cambridge Declaration. It is really quite helpful. But let's now move into some particulars:
Another Common Objection to Augustinian Soteriology
[It seems to be a current fad among Arminian laymen and scholars to attempt to refute Calvinism by claiming that since most of the early church did not believe in irresistible Grace, limited atonement, and unconditional election (before the time of Augustine at least) then it cannot be true. An Arminian yesterday wrote me an email appealing to this very line of reasoning. He said that since we cannot prove that the historic church before Augustine held this view, our appeal can only be to the early church of the Apostles which, they say, we exegete through an Augustinian or Calvinistic grid.
Three things we might say in response to this argument:
1) The early Church was rightly more concerned and focused on matters of the Trinity and Christology. There were more basic anti-Trinitarian, Christological heresies to contend with. Among believers at the time there was a simple faith in Jesus and further matters of soteriology had not been worked out. Soteriological heresies would later force the church to deal with the issues of grace and faith head on. At the time, the Holy Spirit, no doubt, moved in individuals to understand salvation by grace alone through faith alone as well as ideas of divine election on some rudimentary levels, but this was not yet hammered out church doctrine.
Continue reading "Another Common Objection to Augustinian Soteriology" »
The Historicity of the Resurrection
"All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth." (Matthew 28:18)
As mentioned previously, as Easter approaches I hope to take a closer look at the historical and theological significance of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Often as we consider the Gospel, many of us rightly focus in on the importance of Christ's substitutionary atonement. But as I re-read through the Gospels and Epistles of Paul I am struck by the fact that at the center of the gospel is the message of the resurrection. Both the atonement and the resurrection are inseparable and, by God's grace, I hope to shed some more light, beyond a mere apologetic, as to why the resurrection itself is significant to our salvation. Considering how infrequently we hear sermons on this, perhaps many of us have missed the fact that the message of the resurrection is the power of the Gospel to us. We may have also overlooked its historical significance ... but the early church heralded the resurrection as the central historical redemptive act in the Gospel. Next time I hope to begin talking about the theologial significance of the resurrection to our faith, but today, the historical factor is where we will start.
Prior to the time the Lord opened my heart to the gospel, some of you may know that I was deeply involved in a new age hodgepodge of religions that included the tenents of various aspects of most world religions. Some religions are based on nature, some on mythology, some on mysticism. As I reflect back on what I believed, I recognize that my most cherished presuppositions were utterly devoid of any historical grounding. In fact, at the time, I did not even think to ask how we knew what we believed was true. Instead I simply experienced it through meditation, mystical visions and what I thought to be higher consciousness. Mine was an Oceanic religion, meaning I was was the drop of water merging into the ocean, so to speak.
Bottom Up Vs. Top Down Theology
"In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself" (2 Cor 5:19).
Does not that one text of Scripture pretty much sum up the central truth of our faith? This is the heartbeat of the Christian religion for it speaks of the Divine act that takes place at the decisive climax in the unfolding drama of redemptive history. Good theology is about what God has done for us in Christ. We can only do theology at all because God, out of sheer grace, has chosen to unveil Himself (to make Himself known) through His acts and speech on the stage of the world. He does this through a series of acts and verbal communications, which He freely initiates, specifically in the events of the history of Israel and ultimately in the Person of Jesus Christ. The acts of God are all redemptive and they all ultimately point to Christ. After the series of redemptive events recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures, Jesus Himself enters the drama as one of us in the culminating and decisive act of the Play so to speak. This covenantal focus of the Bible helps us to rightly understand that true religion consists in what God has done for us in Christ.
The Gospel is about God acting on and speaking to us onto the stage of world history. A truly orthodox evangelical theology affirms the priority of the Word and Acts of God in Christ (ultimate) over our response of faith, obedience and spiritual experiences (penultimate). The Divine Word revealed in Christ is supreme over all man-made religions which would speculatively formulate a 'bottom-up' theology of fallen human actions over Divine actions. What is most distressing is, although the most urgent task and function of the church is to make known the gospel to men and women in the world, there is still utter confusion in the world as to what the Gospel is. I am not someone who likes controversy and I have a burden for souls. But unfortunately the confusion about the gospel is not confined to people outside the church, but rather, has itself been produced by those within its walls. This means that the Word of the Gospel must be proclaimed as clearly to those in and outside the church. The re-evangelization of the church is, therefore, itself one of our greatest tasks, if not the greatest. Many Christians evangelize with a four-point presentation gospel, thinking the job is done when someone prays a prayer, but fail in the arena of continued discipleship to those who believe. It is little wonder why this has been so ineffective for creating long-term zealous Christians who are used of God to themselves reproduce.
Martin Luther Page Update
"If any man doth ascribe of salvation, even the very least, to the free will of man, he knoweth nothing of grace, and he hath not learnt Jesus Christ aright." -Martin Luther
For all you Luther fans out there Monergism.com has just done a major update to its Martin Luther page. It is still under construction but at least there is a large improvement.
Martin Luther was born in 1483 into a strict German Catholic family. His parents intended him for a law career, but he became a monk and a theology professor instead. A sensitive soul, he struggled mightily with a guilty conscience and an intense fear of God and hell until he realized the doctrine of "justification by faith" while studying the book of Romans. This doctrine, his Augustinian understanding of the bondage of the will along with his conviction that the Bible should be the basis of religious life and available to all, became the theological foundation of Protestantism.
Why Were the Israelites Ordered to Kill the Inhabitants of Canaan?
Question: Do you know why the Israelites were ordered to kill all the people in the promised land, right off the top of your head, the short answer? I was wondering [about this] after we had the study on Samson. How do you reconcile that with "Thou Shalt Not Kill."?
Response: That is a good question. Considering that God takes lives every day, since all human beings die, the command obviously does not apply to God Himself. Death, we must remember, is God's just judgment against sin and the penalty exacted for Adam's disobedience in the garden. We all must undergo death sooner or later, so whether the inhabitants of Canaan died "naturally" then or a few years later is one and the same and really makes little difference. Specifically God was judging the Canaanites at that time, the Scripture says, for their gross idolatry, divination, witchcraft, sorcery, and mediums, i.e. those who call up the dead. In fact God says these "detestable practices" are the very reason they were driven out, as the following text in Deuteronomy affirms:
"When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. 10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in [a] the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you . 13 You must be blameless before the LORD your God." (Deut 18:9-13)
But it is critical that we always remind ourselves that God did not select Israel (or us for that matter) because they were better or more numerous then these other peoples (Deut 7:7). He simply set them apart to redeem them because of the covenant he made with their forefathers out of his sheer grace as the Bible confirms:
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John Cassian, Church Father (Unfortunately)
This is a [longer] paper I wrote for seminary that got filed away somewhere a long time ago over at monergism.com... hope it's helpful!
John Cassian's Response to Augustinianism
John Cassian was a zealous monk whose theology (unfortunately, one might say) has been massively influential on the church’s understanding of the whole of the gospel since the fifth century. His particular theology (commonly known as semi-Pelagianism), which was developed largely in response to Augustine’s doctrines of predestination, grace, and free will, has been adopted by many Christians—academics, clergy and lay people alike—throughout the centuries. Two major influences were at work in Cassian’s life and teachings. First, Greek neo-platonic philosophical theology shaped his understanding of anthropology in a way that prevented him from being able to engage Augustine on the level that he should have. And second, his intense devotion to the ascetic chastity of the monastery created a platform upon which his theology could develop, yet in a way that was almost entirely sub-biblical. The result of Cassian’s theological contributions to the church has been the obscuring of the God of the Bible in the vision of His people.
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Excerpts from "Disputation against Scholastic Theology" by Martin Luther
The following are important affirmations From Luther's 97 Theses, Disputation against Scholastic Theology
5. It is false to say that the human will, left to itself, is free to choose between opposites; for it is not free, but in bondage.
6. It is false to say that the will is able by nature to obey a righteous command. I state this in opposition to scotus and Gabriel [neo-pelagians].
7. In fact, without God's grace with will produces a perverse and evil act.
29. The best and infallible preparation for grace, and the only thing that disposes a person towards grace, is the eternal election and predestination of God.
34. In short, human nature possesses neither a pure reason nor a good will.
39. From beginning to end, we are not masters of our own actions, but their slaves. I state this in opposition to the philosophers.
40. We do not become righteous by doing good deeds. Rather, having been made righteous, we then do good deeds. I state this in opposition to the philosophers.
43. It is false to say that no one can become a theologian without Aristotle. I state this in opposition to common opinion.
71. The law of God and the human will are two enemies, which can never be reconciled apart from the grace of God.
74. The law makes sin abound, because it exasperates and repels the will.
75. But the grace of God makes righteousness abound though Jesus Christ, who causes us to love the law.
78. The will, when it turns toward the law apart from the grace of God, does so purely out of its own interest alone.
88. From this is it clear that everyone's will is by nature wicked and bad.
89. Grace is necessary as a mediator to reconcile the law with the will.
The Subject of All Theology
Jesus Christ is the focus and subject of all theology. He is not only the author and perfector of our faith and salvation (Heb 12:2), but is the the author and perfector of all things excellent, for in Him all things are consummated (Col 1:16-20). All theology is, therefore, Christology, for what we can, and do, know about God is summed up in the person of Jesus Christ. All light concerning God is refracted only through the Christ who has worked and revealed HImself through redemptive history. This means that all attempts to try to understand God redemptively in any sense that is different than Christ is futile, for apart from Jesus Christ, He is unknowable. While reason and creation may give us an idea of God and His greatness, only in the revelation of Christ can we come to know Him. While in Romans 1:18, 21 it says that the unregenerate "know" God as well, but the text makes clear that they only know Him as an enemy. Only through Christ do we know Him as a friend.
Calvin once said, "...it is obvious, that in seeking God, the most direct path and the fittest method is, not to attempt with presumptuous curiosity to pry into his essence, which is rather to be adored than minutely discussed, but to contemplate him in his works, by which he draws near, becomes familiar, and in a manner communicates himself to us."(Institutes Book 1, Chapter 5, section 9) In other words, we should only attempt to know God as He has revealed Himself to us. Other attempts are vain speculation.
So why study theology? Because theology is an interpretation of God as He revealed Himself, a revelation which was fulfilled in the gospel-event of Christ which took place in space-time history. The gospel is a narrative of the story of Jesus as God’s historical act to which all revelation pointed. It narrates the history of Jesus as the history of redemption that culminates in Christ's physical death and resurrection. The gospel defines the God who has revealed Himself in Christ Jesus, the eternal Son of God. Incarnate to redeem His covenant people, He was executed on a cross, and was raised to life: this is the Christian definition of God which was fulfilled in His decisive act. "All the wisdom of believers", said Calvin, "is comprehended in the cross of Christ."
So it is an extremely urgent task in our era of religious chaos, that we use the word “God” only as describing the event that culminated in the history of Jesus Christ, God made flesh for His glory and our redemption. When we speak of the benefits of truths such as the doctrines of grace, they should never be spoken of as divorced from the Benefactor. And when we speak of God's various perfections, we do not simply speak in abstractions, but of a historic person who walked among us. God's love, glory, wrath, holiness are all seen to perfectly unite in the person of Jesus.
-JWH
Martin Luther on the Bondage of the Will
Many of the following quotes I found to be really delightful. They come from, what Luther saw as his most important work,"The Bondage of the Will".
For context, Luther, is responding to some of Erasmus' assertions in support of our natural moral ability to obey the gospel. Erasmus presupposed that all of God's commands to obey proved that we had the "free-will" to do so. Luther, with great wit and irony exposes why free will is an erroneous, unscriptural doctrine which, ultimately, undermines the gospel itself.
These quotes hit the crux of the issue: whether grace alone saves or whether salvation is a mixture of nature with little sprinkling of grace. This is still extremely relevant for today's Christian, for many of us carry the that unbiblical assumption that Erasmus held, which concludes any command from God to believe or obey the gospel, must somewhow imply the moral ability to to do so. Large numbers of evangelicals today make this same jump in logic and build a whole theology on it ...assuming God's commands somehow automatically implies moral ability (this belief includes, ironically, many Lutherans), but as Dr. Luther said to Erasmus, "when you are finished with all your commands and exhortations ... I’ll write Ro.3:20 over the top of it all" ("...through the law comes knowledge of sin."). In other words, the commands exist to show what we cannot do rather than what we can do and our inability to repay our debt to God does not take away our accountablity to do so.
This includes God's command of all men everywhere to repent and believe the gospel, an impossible act of will apart from a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit uniting us to Christ. Only the quicking grace of Jesus Christ applied by the Spirit can illumine The Text in such a way (to open blind eyes and deaf ears) wherein we and able to see Christ's beauty and excellency. Those who are unregenerate cannot see Christ's excellency and thus have no capacity to love what is spiritual and so are not partly but wholly dependent on God to translate them from darkness to light. The following are some quotes from Dr. Luther to this end:
"For if man has lost his freedom, and is forced to serve sin, and cannot will good, what conclusion can more justly be drawn concerning him, than that he sins and wills evil necessarily?" Martin Luther BW pg. 149
"...'if thou art willing' is a verb in the subjunctive mood, which asserts nothing...a conditional statement asserts nothing indicatively." "if thou art willing", "if thou hear", "if thou do" declare, not man's ability, but his duty. pg 157
"the commandments are not given inappropriately or pointlessly; but in order that through them the proud, blind man may learn the plague of his impotence, should he try to do as he is commanded." pg. 160
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"Where Is He Who Has Been Born King of the Jews?": Christmas Day Worship of Christ!
Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East and have come to worship him. —Matthew 2:2
The Magi trekked a long distance on Christmas to worship the newborn king. Imagine celebrating Christmas Day this year without worshipping and thanking God for HIS indescribable gift in Jesus Christ to us? Well, you may think this is strange to celebrate Christmas Day without the formal worship of Christ, but some are considering it! In fact, there are many congregations who are planning on closing their doors on Christmas Day. I guess if Jesus had been born in our consumeristic American culture of the present, the magi would not have found an open church to worship the newborn king (I guess again, they would have had to take him to a cave or manger!). These planned church closings on Christmas were even deemed newsworthy and made a report in the Associated Press:
IVP PLANS 27-VOLUME REFORMATION SERIES
Just found out from Ligon Duncan and Justin Taylor over at Reformation 21 that Intervarsity Press has something many of us will be interested in. If you are already familiar with IVP's Ancient Christian Commentary Series (ACCS) there is something simlilar in the works with regard to the writings of the Reformation...
According to the post, InterVarsity Press is developing a 27-volume “Reformation Commentary on Scripture” series, to begin releasing in 2009. Beeson Divinity School Dean and author Timothy George will serve as general editor. The series will include never-before-translated works by key figures from the Protestant Reformation. I assume this means the excellent works of persons such as Peter Martyr Vermigli and others will be included.
Reformed Righteousness by Rev. Charles R. Biggs
ReformationTheology.com Special Edition- Reformation Day Celebration
Introduction
"Get over it!" "The Reformation is an historical event that took place years ago; it is irrelevant to me and to modern people." "Just give me Jesus and I will be happy. What good could come from visiting the teaching of the Reformation in today's church?"
These are some of the initial comments one is likely to get from other well-meaning Christians unfamiliar, uninformed, or disinterested in the Reformation of the 16th century. Yet, what God did in His goodness during the Reformation was nothing less than the reestablishment of the gospel, the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ, that had been eclipsed by the supposed good works of men.
The Reformation was a time when God allowed light to shine in the darkness of the failed attempts of feeble and sinful men trying to earn righteousness from good works, and only ending in despair before a holy God. In the Reformation, God allowed his grace to come again into glorious sight, so that one could truly know how to be made right or at peace with the living God.
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REFORMATION SUNDAY by Pastor John Samson
The last Sunday in October is traditionally known as “Reformation Sunday,” in Protestant Churches, drawing from the date of October 31, 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his “95 Theses” to the door of the Wittenberg Church in Germany, sparking the Protestant Reformation.
Martin Luther in Germany heralded the Biblical doctrine of justification through faith alone; salvation is by God’s grace alone, received through faith in Christ alone. Good works play no part in a person’s salvation (Rom. 3:21 - 4:5; 5:1; Gal. 2:16; Eph. 2:8, 9; Phil. 3:9) but are merely the by-product, or fruit, of a relationship with God, established by God’s grace alone.
Following on from Luther, God raised up a Frenchman by the name of John Calvin to lead the growing Protestant movement. Both Martin Luther and John Calvin opposed the errors of the Roman Catholic Church concerning salvation, directing people to the truth of the Bible. Though definitely in agreement with the doctrine of justification by faith alone; John Calvin (based in Geneva, Switzerland) through both his preaching and his writings, systematically applied the message of the Bible to every aspect of life. Calvin's Institutes became the handbook of all the Reformers. Like Luther before him, Calvin believed in the Sovereignty of God, (in the doctrine of election and predestination, all that Calvin said was first said by Luther) and wanted society (as well as the church) to view the world through the lens of the Bible. He wanted the laws of the land to be conformed to and founded on biblical principles.
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