I made a comment in passing about how the language of obedience to the gospel comes naturally to Paul’s pen. Lane picked up on this, and interacted with one of those places, 2 Thessalonians 1:5-8. [Which is] a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom …
A Ragbag Response to Green Baggins
Lane gave me a helpful nudge the other day. What with end of school year frenzy, and a trip back east, I lost track of where we were. I will try to get us caught up here — but that will mean that my responses will be kind of a ragbag and briefer than they …
Two Peas in an Archetypical Pod
Green Baggins is now addressing the section on the Trinity in our Joint FV statement. I agree with the caveats that Lane issues, acknowledging that the triune nature of God is something that He is, and not something that He builds out of three independent Persons. I think that Ralph Smith guards himself against that …
Internet Airedales for Truth
One of the classes we offer the covenant kids here at Christ Church is a course in memorizing the Heidelberg Catechism. I know, say what you will, but we FVers can be pretty audacious at times. We even pretend to ourselves that we believe this stuff. Anyhoo, one of my parishioners emailed me because he …
Good Calvinism Solves Problems
Lane has taken up my question about his Calvinism. In his response, he sets out a scheme that I agree with entirely — which is only to be expected, since we are both Calvinists. He acknowledges that God is the first cause of all that comes to pass, which would have included the obedience of …
Is Green Baggins a Calvinist?
Lane thinks that our discussion of God’s covenant with mankind before the Fall has gotten interesting, and I agree. But it will take me a few installments to answer the various issues he raises here. The one I want to begin with is Lane’s (no doubt inadvertant) denial of Calvinism. I had said, “If Adam …
Obedience and Works
Lane has come back from presbytery, apparently unscathed, and wants to resume our discussion. So here we go. He says: “I was saying that you were rejecting any overlap between obedience and works, such that you could say that the CoW was based on grace, and that obedience was required, but works were not. I …
Obedience and Life
Lane begins to interact with the Joint Federal Vision Profession here. The place he begins is with the issue of bi-covenantalism. “However, I will seek to prove one example where I believe that the FV statement is thoroughly non-confessional. As we all know, the PCA study committee report roundly reinforced a bi-covenantal structure to the …
Ninth Commandment Issues
Okay, please bear with me for a moment — I have a string of quotations, and with some answers and responses from me interspersed. First, from his blog, Lane asks me this question: “I know, I know, this post comes from the self-proclaimed Fully Documented Anonymous Attack Blog, or FDAAB for short. You all will …
Scotch, Hotch, and Potch
Lane has taken a moment to answer my question here, and so I guess it is now my turn to respond. This is the way the controversy is framed by our opponents, and there are some basic structural problems with it. They say that if you want to affirm the gospel in the way our …