Theology That Bites Back
This is the beginning of all spiritual wisdom. Among the sons of Sarah, we find sons of both Sarah and Hagar. Among the Jews, we find Jews and Gentiles. Among the regenerate, we find the regenerate and the unregenerate. Among the elect, we find the elect and the reprobate. Until the resurrection, why do these …
But these pockets of “unregeneration” have caused more than a few theological headaches. How can a part of the whole not have what the living whole has? Moreover, how can a part of the whole not really have what that part, as part of the whole, has?
It should not surprise us to find pockets of “unregeneration” in this world made new. The yeast works through the loaf gradually. But the yeast is alive, and brings life to the whole. Thus we find creatures who hate the new creation around them. Thus we find baptized covenant members who inexplicably hate the church …
Maybe this doesn’t count as yelling at my windshield, because I would like to respond to something from the Westminster conference that was reported in Christian Renewal. That means my windshield wasn’t anywhere near when I read this. Dr. Hywel Jones was reported as saying this: “Justification is the realization that one is pardoned of …
I have begun listening to the audio recordings of the recent conference at Westminster West on The Foolishness of the Gospel, and will make a few comments here from time to time as circumstances warrant. Initially, just a few remarks. While it is quite true that Scripture speaks of the foolishness of the gospel, it …
Jesus Christ, the firstborn, is therefore head of the Church of the firstborn (Heb. 12:23). All of this is indicated in Paul’s interpretation of the second psalm— And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that …
Christ was born again from the dead. Because of this, the whole created order was born again from the dead. Because of this, Israel was born again from the dead, and is now the Church. Because of this, a man can be born again and enter the Church. If he was already in the Church, …
Always trying to be helpful, I would like to suggest something else that might help good Reformed folks out of the impasse we have gotten ourselves into. In the current debate over faith alone, obedient faith, faith and obedience, and so on, we have a tendency to reify things like faith and obedience, and then …
As we talk about what it means to be “born again,” we have to preserve the scriptural pattern and order. First, as the cornerstone of all doctrines of regeneration, Jesus was born again from the dead (Col. 1:18). Because of Christ’s birth from among the dead, the whole created order was made new in Him. …
There is an important sense in which regeneration has to be understood as applied to individuals. But this is not the primary thrust of the scriptural emphasis. If we emphasize individual regeneration alone, we will lose the glory of the biblical message of Regeneration. But if we keep the scriptural emphasis, we lose nothing with …
