Theology That Bites Back
“But riddle me this. Is Deuteronomy 30:11-12 law or gospel? And when Jesus said, ‘Follow me,’ was that law or gospel? And to make the latter question harder, if not impossible, I will not tell you if the quotation comes from Luke 9:23 or Mark 10:21.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 720
“Pretend for a minute that the Church is a bar, and see how this works. Call it the security guard mentality and the bouncer mentality. Say we have both baptists and non-baptists who both want to run a peaceful establishment. The baptists check everyone’s ID at the door. The non-baptists kick you out if you make trouble.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 720
“Over the last number of years I have made clear that the covenant of grace is not undifferentiated between the elect and the non-elect and have done so more times than Carter’s got pills. I don’t know what to do anymore, so I will just stand here forlorn, arms hanging by my sides.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 717
“Is it legitimate in any way to say that non-elect members of the visible church are not part of the Church? Sure. Scripture is full of this kind of thing—a true Jew is one who is one inwardly, synagogues of Satan, you are of your father the devil, and countless more. Our whole point is that baptized covenant members are Christians, members of the Church, connected to Christ, etc. in some important sense, not that they are participants in these things in every sense. So, is there a legitimate way to say that non-elect members of the covenant are not part of the Church? Absolutely.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 714
“We are justified by faith alone, apart from works of the law, and this includes the law that ‘thou shalt score 100% on the justification portion of your Westminster exam.’”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 710
“I can see broader uses of the word election in Scripture without denying in the slightest the doctrine of decretal, jet fuel election, a doctrine which flies our Reformed fighter jets really, really fast, and which I like as much as anybody.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 707
“What we are saying is that if ‘election’ means one thing one hundred percent of the time in Westminster (because it is being applied in a precise, theological way), and it means that very same thing seventy percent of the time in Scripture, a Bible teacher needs to be able to say what is going on exegetically that other thirty percent of the time. That is all, and it ought not to be controversial.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p.707
“The historic Reformed faith is a spacious mansion. We really need to stop living in the broom closet that some want to call true Calvinism. And it is possible to come out of the broom closet and not be in the process of leaving the house.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 706
“Do you recall that when I raised the point of the primacy of regeneration, leading logically to repentance and faith, not chronologically in stopwatch fashion, that I was responding to you guys making a big deal out of the traditional ordo? And that I said, fine, if you insist, this means that some form of infusion is logically prior to imputation?”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 700
“In the ordo, the first item of business is regeneration, which is a transformation in us. It is a form of infused righteousness, a type of sanctification. If my heart is not changed, then I cannot believe the right way, and if I cannot believe the right way, then I cannot be justified. The order we affirm is ‘change of heart in me,’ ‘repentance and faith,’ ‘righteousness imputed to me,’ and then ‘ongoing changes in me.’ If [he] objects to this, then he can rewrite the Reformed ordo. But when he does that, he ought not to call that rewrite ‘walking in the old paths.’”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 697
