Theology That Bites Back
Introduction: The last month has seen a number of remarkable and momentous events. We may begin with Joe Biden's disastrous debate performance, the pressure on him to step down, and the palace intrigue ...
“The reason for stating it this way is that a theological dilemma is created if we postulate that every baptized Christian is given all of Christ, in the same ways and in the same respect, and that some of them ‘commit suicide.’ If this is the case, and if some covenant members can in fact commit that spiritual suicide, then this has to mean that Christ is not our perseverance, and that it has to come to us (if it comes to us) in some other fashion. If it comes from within ourselves, then this pushes us in an Arminian direction. If it comes from God, then God is doing something salvific for the elect apart from Christ, which would create a separate cluster of problems. The only way I can see that extricates us from this dilemma is to opt for the classic Reformation understanding of the new birth—that there must be a qualitative distinction in those who are saved, a distinction separating them from unsaved covenant members. They are not all Israel that are of Israel (Rom. 9:6).”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, pp. 825-826
Letter to the Editor: What concerns us is our pastor's insistence on remaining unpolitical. He has mentioned in sermons that he wants to be focused on the gospel and not politics. I suspect ...
“This, in my view, confused the difference between the early creeds of the Church—which distinguished Christian from non-Christian—and the confessions of the Reformation era—which distinguished Reformed from Lutheran, and so on. There is no such thing as an ‘in-house’ heretic. Heretics ought to be rejected by every Christian communion, and not just by one or two of them.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, pp. 824-825
Introduction: Over the last few weeks, a few different things have happened that have set off various comment threads, in which Internet Randos have arisen to take me to task for continuing to be a ...
[In response to Scott Clark’s claim he doesn’t need to meet with me because he “can read English”]
“The blunt answer, which cannot really be softened, is ‘no, he cannot read English.’ Let me take one example that Clark likes to use. He says that FV teaches that baptism puts everyone in a state of grace, which is then maintained by the believer through his own covenantal faithfulness. Is that not a fair summary of what Clark says I teach? Well, here is some English for Clark to read. I think that such doctrine is bad juju. I believe that it would be what theologians of another era might call a lie from the pit of Hell. I hope that one day I might be privileged to soak this doctrine in lighter fluid and set a match to it. If I ever found this doctrine on a sheet of paper in my office somewhere, I would run it through the shredder. Prior to my weekly dump run, I search my house for any traces of this doctrine so that I might throw it in the back of my pickup truck in order to take it out to the landfill along with all the bottles, empty ice cream cartons, grapefruit rinds, and coffee grounds. So the next time you read Scott Clark saying that I teach some form of this, you should probably say to yourself, ‘Hmmm. No speakee.’”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 821
“It is a mistake to think that ruptures with the heretics are something you can practice for by conducting ruptures with the saints.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 818
“Since the confessions don’t tell us how many yards of law to use, or how many pounds of grace must be included, this means that we cannot judge on the basis of touchy-feely emphases.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 815
Introduction: Michael Spangler has written an introduction to Christian race realism, and I would like to take this opportunity to respond to one of his central claims, which I regard to be both ...
