Now that my schedule has recovered some of its equilibrium, perhaps I can catch up on answering some of Greenbaggins’ questions. On the law/gospel distinction, Lane says of me that “if there is any distinction, it is in the person, and not in the text, whereas I hold that there is a distinction in the …
Some Reasonable Questions
A group of ten PCA pastors have written an open letter about the PCA Study Committee on the “Federal Vision, New Perspective and Auburn Avenue Theology.” In the second paragraph of this letter, these men say, “We are not FV men.” Nevertheless, they have a number of very reasonable questions about the report, and good …
Children of Abraham
In a battle, foot solders focus rightly on the conflict right in front of them. Generals don’t have the luxury of that simplicity, and so they also have to think constantly about the larger strategic issues. Great generals do not just think of tactics on the field, but also of the larger strategic issues, up …
Is Norman Shepherd from MARS?
Let us assume for a moment, for the sake of discussion, that the criticisms contained in the MARS testimony are right on target. This will help us set up something that will reveal (with a great deal of clarity) why the testimony is a plain violation of the ninth commandment. Let us also take the …
Chasing Monkeys
The fact that I am talking with our brothers from Mid-America does not mean that we should not continue to pursue the issues before us. And because this thing continues to erupt in public, we have to deal with it in public. As God gives opportunity we can have some “behind-closed-doors” discussions with the zookeeper. …
More on MARS
Just so that you all know, I had a phone conversation this morning with Alan Strange, Nelson Kloosterman and Mark Vander Hart, all faculty members at MARS. While we did not come to any agreement, we began and closed with prayer, had a cordial and frank exchange of views, and we intend to do it …
Testimony on the MARS Testimony
The official testimony of the Mid-America Reformed Seminary has a digest of errors. I stated in an earlier post that I could join with them in rejecting about 43 of their list of 45. But the reasons for this vary. In some cases, it was because I agreed with them in rejecting the errors of …
Theologians Are From MARS
I just now finished looking over a statement from Mid-America Reformed Seminary — “Doctrinal Testimony Regarding Recent Errors.” What a dog’s breakfast. The testimony is suitably coy and nebulous about exactly who the particular error-mongers might be, but they do refer darkly to “the present controversies,” “contemporary discussion,” “current climate,” “theological errors,” and whatnot. The …
Mangle Tangle
I recently accepted an apology from Sean Lucas over a review he had written of “Reformed” Is Not Enough a few years ago. He did not apologize for what he had written, but rather for the way in which he had written — he apologized for the tone. I am not taking any of my …
A Stacked Committee?
Sean Lucas has apologized to me for the tone of something he wrote about me a few years ago. He did this publicly on his blog (here), and given the widespread attention this whole thing has received, I thought it would be good to extend forgiveness in a public way as well, which I am …