“Doesn’t this reveal that according to this definition the visible church is just as invisible as the invisible church is? When we use a descriptive adjective like visible, it naturally raises the questions, ‘Visible to whom? From what vantage? When is it visible? Who can see it?’ If the answer is that only God can see the visible church, and this is what we have set up by definition, wouldn’t it be good to find a phrase that points to the same group of people, but does not mislead in this way? . . . Let’s call them the historical church.”
Rage Against the Machinery
[A gratuitous assertion] “that when any FVish positions, anywhere in the world, ‘are given their due comeuppance,’ my response is that of flying ‘into a rage.” Whereas that is pretty much the only thing I haven’t tried. I have argued, debated, conceded points, reasoned, made distinctions, offered to debate publicly, made jokes, and hired three necromancers to cast a spell on the Mississippi Valley Presbytery. Actually, that last one is just an example of the next to last one.”
What Abraham Saw
“And this is why Abraham when he saw the day of Christ, rejoiced to see it and was glad. He did not look forward to the first coming of Christ as the final fulfillment of the promise, but rather as the groundbreaking for the fulfillment of the promise. The cornerstone was laid, and this indicated that the construction on the city had commenced.”
Refusing to Take That Test Is Passing It
“If our justification were to be lost if we scored less than 100 percent on the justification test (administered by St. Peter at the Pearlies), every last one of us, yours truly included, would be headed for the bad place. We don’t take the justification test for our justification. Jesus took that test. And no, this should not make us want to sin that grace may abound.”
What Justified Eyes Are Seeing
“When we say that something or other is ‘necessary to justification’ . . . we have to be absolutely clear what we are meaning. Do we mean ‘that which is revealed in the Bible concerning justification,’ or do we mean ‘that which a sinner has to understand to be justified’? If we affirm the latter, then we are denying the Pauline doctrine of justification apart from works of the law.”
No Raw Merit
“Despite all the intramural differences in how we put things, it is distinct from a strict merit system which sees Adam as the first failed Pelagian.”
High in the Rockies
“I am a high Calvinist. For almost twenty years, I have been standing here well past the tree line, up amongst the boulders. I am prepared to be rebuked for lots of things but living in a semi-Pelagian swamp is not one of them. Try something else. Try something plausible.”
Dikai-Decimals
“For some that naïveté is a function of having decided thirty years ago to translate all discussions of theology into the metric system, just to keep life simple. If ten won’t divide into it, then it can’t be part of the dikai-word group. For others the reason for the naïveté is more obvious—graduate school is still a fresh memory. They are just out of the egg with bits of shell on their heads.”
Like Annie Oakley
“Shooting reformational solas into the air is not the same thing as defending the faith.”
Works as Grace After Reverse Engineering
“The non-elect reject God’s grace. That is the distinguishing mark of the non-elect; they cannot live by grace through faith. But they are surrounded with the apparatus of grace—Word, sacraments, promises, fellowship, and so on. Grace is everywhere—except in their hearts. So what they do (and they always do it) is construct a covenant of works out of the materials around them. This is the high rebellion of reverse engineering. This is why people can come to the Lord’s Table as though they were doing a good work, or they sign a card at the revival, or the memorize the Shorter Catechism. They can take pride in a confession of unworthiness. Who among us has not known a Calvinist who was proud of his knowledge that creatures cannot take pride in anything?”