In response to my Thanks for Nothing post (5/18/04), one correspondent argued that this was essentially the same position that Trent affirmed. It was a bit hard to follow, but I will do my best to replicate it here. If the creature’s works are the ground of his justification (which I was denying, actually), but …
Two Towns Over
A much overworked session of Presbyterian elders had just finished the hard and thankless task of disciplining their minister, a man who taught that being a Christian was an objective reality, marked by baptism, and that being a faithful Christian was a covenant requirement, to be marked by evangelical faith, hope and love. This was …
Faith Unplugged
I guess I should be pleased that I caught up with Peter Leithart. The April edition of The Trinity Review is a chapter from a book called Not Reformed At All, which presents itself as a response to my “Reformed” is Not Enough. I am tempted to write another book entitled And Both Are …
Thanks for Nothing
In my post on monocovenantalism (5/14/04), I said that some prominent folks on the other side of the AAH had agreed with me that had Adam stood, it would have been by the grace of God appropriated by faith. One of those gentlemen has since contacted me, saying that this misrepresents his views. He believes …
I Got a Question
So here it is. Q. What should the Reformed establishment do with a teaching or doctrine that emphasizes our need to believe all the promises of God, especially those promises that concern our children? Keep in mind that this is a doctrine that underscores the necessity of faith from first to last. The purveyors of …
Auburn Avenue Hubbub (AAH) Cool Quote #4
“Before baptism, the minister is to use some words of instruction, touching the institution, nature, use, and ends of this sacrament, shewing . . . that they [children] are Christians, and federally holy before baptism, and therefore are they baptized.” Westminster Directory for the Publick Worship of God, emphasis mine
Monocovenantalism, a Great Word, or What?
One of the charges leveled against me for my Auburn Avenuing is that of monocovenantalism. But what is that, exactly? If the critics mean that I hold that there has only been one covenant throughout the history of mankind, then the charge is false. God made one covenant with mankind in Adam, and He made …
The Greatest is Faith
Once a young minister was summing up what he believed was the safest sermon he had ever preached. This had become necessary because certain members of the session had begun looking at him funny, and making comments that had words in them like hypercovenantal and not Klinean, and phrases like “went to seminary with.” So …
Auburn Avenue Hubbub (AAH) Cool Quote #3
“But to protect the importance of faith we do not have to deny His presence, which is what many people, in opposition to formalism, want to do. They say, ‘No, we don’t want to find Christ in the water, we want to find him just by faith.’ But Luther and Calvin’s point is that the …
Was Jesus Faithless?
What I would like to do in brief compass is explain how a particular understanding of a pre-fall covenant of works requires us to say that Jesus was faithless. In short, I want to explain the problem some have with our rejection of their covenant of works, and then explain the problem with that problem. …