The next chapter in By Faith Alone is by T. David Gordon, and it too is a critique of N.T. Wright. The bulk of the chapter is just fine. Gordon, like Venema, is not hyperventilating over this, and he brings Wright’s approach to biblical theology under scrutiny, and does so in a moderate and fair …
Write That Spot Down
Chapter one of By Faith Alone is a critique by Cornelis Venema of N.T. Wright’s views on justification. This chapter was very good, and was admirable on a number of levels. Readers of this blog know that I have learned a lot from Wright, and I appreciate much of what he has to offer. In …
Oh, Never Mind
Guy Waters’ Introduction has three main sections. In the first, he summarizes the doctrine of sola fide. That section was quite good in many respects, actually. I can say this because I affirm, believe, and teach the doctrine of sola fide. The only place I would quibble with Waters here is that I would want …
The Hell You Say
The original Auburn Avenue conference, the font of all the trouble, occurred in 2002. The ruckus proper began the following summer, and since then, we have had another Auburn Avenue conference, a Fort Lauderdale colloquium, a book that resulted from that, a book published by Athanasius Press (The Federal Vision), a book by me (“Reformed” …
Us Dwarfs
Full disclosure right at the outset. The Foreword to Faith Alone was written by David Wells, and if that man’s books were orange juice concentrate, I could still eat them right out of the can with a spoon. When he is on his message (which is the exposition of the soul destroying nature of relativistic …
Whiffing Another Slap Shot
Someone needs to tell Scott Clark that when you are in the penalty box for a three hour penalty, you don’t get to keep skating around on the ice. He says: There have been numerous attempts to resurrect the old “grace and cooperation” with grace scheme. The Arminians tried it in the late 16th and …
Vantage Theology
For creatures, there is no such thing as a “view from everywhere,” and this is especially true in theology. One of the problems that happens with people who do decretal theology all the time is that this can be forgotten, and we begin to assume that we do have the ultimate vantage point for our …
Future Plans
The next critical book on Federal Vision, due out soon, is By Faith Alone, edited by Gary Johnson and Guy Waters. I have it on order, but there has apparently been some delay according to the good folks at Amazon. The current plan is to review it thoroughly in this space. By “review it” I …
The Bubble Bath of Orthodoxy
Scott Clark is at it again on his blog, and since he disabled the comments feature there, it is not possible for me to comment in that venue. So I will comment in this one. My comments are bold. “How I am redeemed from all my sins and misery.” The Heidelberg Catechism was written not …
One Last Thing
Not a lot of complaints about the last essay in this volume, a chapter on justification and pastoral counseling by Dennis Johnson. Like some of the the others, this chapter was just great also, with a sub-standard federal-visiony footnote jury-rigged into the argument. Like I said, not a lot of complaints about the text proper. …