Letter to the Editor: Dan Phillips recently posted this quote, which I wholeheartedly agree with: "Have you really got your arms around the fact that you will never, ever have a valid ...
Letters Blossom in May
Stout Insistence
“This, despite Westminster’s insistence that saving faith is ‘no dead faith,” which sounds like living faith to me.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 725
Timon Time Again
Introduction: I read and greatly appreciated Timon's engagement with the point I made on Tucker regarding my belief that we are past the point of political solutions. I agree with a lot of what ...
Born Again Babies
“When God gives an infant a new heart, the child does not start clamoring for his Berkof. But that heart will always be fundamentally submissive and tractable to the truth as it comes to him. The child doesn’t have to go an ‘do’ notitia in order to be saving faith, but it will always exhibit the fruit of notitia when that is the appropriate response.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, pp. 723-724
Good Intentions Count for Something
Justification by Multiple Choice Test Taking
“But the reason [a man’s mistake regarding justification] does not cause me to question his salvation is because the doctrine of sola fide is true. If it were not true, then we would all have to be good little boys and girls, study our catechisms hard, because justification depends on studying hard and getting it right. But for the life of me I cannot fathom how this kind of ‘working hard’ and ‘free grace’ go together. We are justified by the imputed righteousness of Christ despite our failings. Those failings include, but are not limited to, doctrinal failings . . . Not only is this position unfathomable to me, but we need to keep in mind the fact that that person here who insists that justification is a matter of free grace in Christ plus nothing else, nada, zilch (me) is the one under suspicion of smuggling works into the whole business, and the one who openly declares what work must be performed by adults (that of understanding to an unspecified level of saving smarts( is the guardian of sola fide.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 722
Riddle Me This
“But riddle me this. Is Deuteronomy 30:11-12 law or gospel? And when Jesus said, ‘Follow me,’ was that law or gospel? And to make the latter question harder, if not impossible, I will not tell you if the quotation comes from Luke 9:23 or Mark 10:21.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 720
The Goat Rodeo School of Law
Introduction: Your Honor, the defendant has not shown himself worthy of respect . . . I don't know the exact location of The Goat Rodeo School of Law, but I have inferred its existence from the ...
Two Approaches to Church Purity
“Pretend for a minute that the Church is a bar, and see how this works. Call it the security guard mentality and the bouncer mentality. Say we have both baptists and non-baptists who both want to run a peaceful establishment. The baptists check everyone’s ID at the door. The non-baptists kick you out if you make trouble.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 720
May Letters May Come
Letter to the Editor: Book of the Month/May 2024 I received a copy of "Knowledge of the Holy" from your father back in the 1970's. He would bring a box of them to meetings. I think ...