In the discussion of my previous Auburn Avenue post, one commenter asked what Reformed group has ever allowed for notions of temporary regeneration or justification. An outstanding answer to that question can be found here. Note carefully the three reasons that the English divines gave to the good gentlemen at Dort for their appeal, and what the result of their appeal was.
Like those English divines, (please note!) I differ with the idea of temporary regeneration or justification. But a difference can be expressed without consigning those who differ to the nether regions of heterodoxy. Seeing the English Puritans demonstrate a greater catholicity on such a point than American bapterians can muster is quite striking.
Having said this, we live in odd times — being Reformed is now apparently a matter of having an authorized “presbyterial succession,” and so there’s no telling what standards we might be failing to meet next. Truly reformed moderators might be needing to wear mitred hats, for example. And in order to preserve the Westminster Confession we have to ignore what it instructs us to do in all “controversies of religion.”