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. …
Stuff I Heard in the Hallways
The next chapter in CJ&PM (should’ve done that before) is by Julius Kim and is entitled “The Rise of Moralism in Seventeenth-Century Anglican Preaching.” What might this have to do with the current federal vision controversy? Well, nothing, but that doesn’t keep it from being a fine and instructive article. A very good article, in …
Do This and Live, or Live and Do This
The next chapter by Scott Clark begins oddly, but the latter part is just a standard discussion of the law/gospel issues. First the oddity. We have heard a great deal about how the gospel itself is under attack in this controversy. This is because certain settled Reformed shibboleths have been pronounced funny, and anyone who …
Recapitulation Drives Out Grace
The next two essays in Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry are by Hywel Jones, and are tightly related, and so I will treat them together. As with Robert Godfrey’s contribution, there is not a lot to disagree with here. The bulk of what is written here is good, sturdy Reformed stuff. At the same time, …