Theology That Bites Back
“Protestants can be decidedly Protestant without being bigots. And so I will conclude by citing my very favorite papist, G.K. Chesterton. He once said that you ought never to tear down a fence unless you knew why it had been put up in the first place.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 870
“To argue that I have every spiritual blessing in Christ right now, but that perseverance is not among these blessings because perseverance cannot be contained within the present moment is to speak the language of a system, a particular theology, and not the language of the Bible.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 863
“Eternal life is a gift, and it is too big a gift to fit into the present. I can possess eternal life now, which means that my hands have to be able to hold the future—because eternal life encompasses the future as much as it does the present. And I can have it now. ‘And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son’ (1 John 5:11).”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 861
“A historic Protestant view of church, of Word and sacrament, is truly liberating. We can see the church of Jesus Christ sailing down through the entire course of church history, and we can recognize it as His beloved ship. We don’t have to count all the barnacles first. Neither do we have to deny the existence of the barnacles.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 860
“Evangelicals who do not commune little children can debate whether that is a credible statement of faith, and this is a debate that should happen, but it is an intra-evangelical debate. It is an intra debate because of the shared assumption that regeneration is an absolute necessity. It is not an absolute necessity for membership in the visible church, as all non-baptists would acknowledge, and it is not an absolute necessity for communing in the visible church, as all child communionists would acknowledge, but it is an absolute necessity for anyone who would see the kingdom of Heaven. The covenantal and evangelical approach to child communion is distinguished from the ex opere operato approach in this way. It is a matter of direction. In the ex opere understanding, the grace is going in. In the covenantal and evangelical understanding, the grace is working its way out. A converted person works out what God works in, but an unconverted person is never in a position to do so. If the bucket has no bottom, it does not matter how long you run the hose.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 857
“‘There were disciples in name, profession, and appearance, and there were those whom Christ called ‘disciples indeed’ (John 8:30-31).’ So far, so good. Among the many professing followers of Christ we have two categories. If you try to limit it to one category only, you will either become a sacramentalist or a member of the airy-fairy invisible church, the one nobody ever has to tithe to.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 852
“Now a person with temporary faith may in some sense sense be ‘saved,’ but scare quotes were intended for just such a circumstance as this. Temporary salvation is something to be terrified of. I should rather have my fingernails pulled out than to be any part of God’s salvation ‘for a time.’”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 844
“When the Federal Vision controversy erupted over a decade ago, there was a great deal of confusion involved in it. More than a few Girardian elbows were thrown, some folks jumped into the fray who couldn’t be troubled to read a book, or pick up a phone, and there was at least one troubled anti-FV prosecutor who was in the process of poping himself. From where I sit the responsibility for the lion’s share of those confusions rested with the accusers. But if that controversy ever heats up again, I am concerned that preliminary sketches and speculations like these recent posts could shift responsibility for the confusion to our side of the aisle.”
Referring to:
patheos.com/blogs/leithart/2014/11/how-to-say-i-am-righteous
patheos.com/blogs/leithart/2014/11/infusion-imputation-and-luther
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 842
“‘Those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.’ Scripture frequently tells Christians that they aren’t really. We sometimes speak as though lack of assurance were the only possible problem. But assurance is a problem when someone has it who shouldn’t, and lack of assurance is only a problem when someone doesn’t have assurance who should. We should always care more about the presence of the truth than the presence of assurance.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, pp. 840-841
“There are more than a few Protestant preachers who wouldn’t recognize the Westminster Confession if it landed in their front yard in a helicopter.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 839
