Lane and I continue on. First, Lane says, “The instrumentality of obtaining the glorified state was works in the first covenant, and faith in the second covenant. This is non-negotiable.” Suppose I were to say something like this — would Lane find it acceptable or not? I am honestly asking. “The instrumentality of obtaining the …
Living Faith
When God creates, He does so with authority. He commands light to shine out of darkness, and it obeys. He commands the earth, and the mountains to stand forth, and they do so. It is the same with our new life in Christ (2 Cor. 4:6). Now in the Federal Vision controversy, when we speak …
Different Kinds of Differences
Lane thinks that I am taking him to task because he simply affirms that saving faith must contain the element of notitia, which I also affirm. Lane requires this of adults, but argues that even infants have nascent understanding, a view I am also sympathetic with. The reason I said that Lane was (unwittingly) messing …
Saving Smarts
Here comes my latest reply to the ongoing discussion at Green Baggins. Lane is interacting with the section entitled “Reformed Catholicity” in the FV Joint Statement. As an illustration of just how much we are talking past each other, Lane says that this “statement in and of itself does not necessarily exclude all works from …
Pretend the Church Is a Bar
Lane has answered my catch-up posts in one post here. I will just touch on a few things in response, and then await his next installment. On the first matter, I don’t think we differ anymore. The disagreement now has to do with whether I have changed my views on this (which Lane thinks), clarified …
As Cool as the Other Side of the Pillow
Just one last post here, and I am caught up with Green Baggins. Look at me go. There are four basic issues to respond to in this post. The first is that Lane says, completely misunderstanding everything, that the “FV definition of the covenant” says that the “covenant of grace is undifferentiated between the elect …
What Do You Mean, Hermeneutic?
Here is my next installment in getting caught up with Green Baggins. I will not be trying to pick up the thread of discussion that was going on prior to this, but simply reply to some of Lane’s concerns expressed in this post. Lane says, “I really challenge the assertion that repentance and faith are …
The Invisible Church in Their Heads
I am just emerging from a busy season, and now have some time to get back to a promise I made to Lane over at Green Baggins. That promise was to finish our conversation, and so here I am. There were three posts of Lane’s, as I understand it, that were waiting for a reply …
A Couple Doctrinal Pathologies
One of the things we must come to understand is that the various theological and practical pathologies that afflict the Church today are very rarely new. There is nothing, Solomon taught us, new under the sun. A common error in conservative Protestant circles is the error of propositionalism. This is the error that holds that …
Louisiana Bearskinning
Here is an occasion for thanksgiving, along with a need for continued prayer. Yesterday, the Northwest Presbytery of the PCA approved a report finding Peter Leithart within the boundaries of the Westminster Confession. There was minority report that found differently, but the vote at presbytery was strongly in Peter’s favor. The need for continued prayer …