“Suppose the Great Eschaton is ten thousand years off. It remains a stubborn but persistent fact that my launch into that Eschaton is no more than fifty years off . . . The eschatological scythe harvests every individual long before it harvests the world” (Against the Church, p. 163).
Taking All the Texts Together
“Covenant faithlessness in no way removes or erases covenant obligations or connections. There are multiple texts that show that the baptized faithless are connected to Christ in an important and very real sense. This is why it can truly be said that I believe in the objectivity of the covenant. But there is another sense …
Not Whether Efficacious, But What Kind of Efficacy
“Baptism is never empty; baptism is never a meaningless act. I deny that baptism operates ex opere operato for blessing, but I do affirm that it operates ex opere operato in formally ratifying the baptizand’s relationship to the covenant” (Against the Church, p. 161).
Or a Terrible Mixup
“If a kid was baptized, educated in the covenant, catechized until his eyes bulged out, and all the rest of that drill, and apostatized in a terrible flame-out as soon as he left home, what does that do to the promises? Nothing! Let God be true, and every man a liar. But notice what saying …
The Mystery is a Fact
“If a person goes to Heaven when he dies, this means, necessarily, that God intervened at some point in his life — the time stamp of which is usually unknown to us, but which is always known to the God who did the intervening” (Against the Church, p.158).
The Spirit Gets There First
“I have to hear the gospel preached before I can believe it, but I don’t have to hear the gospel preached before the Spirit disposes my heart to listen to that preacher” (Against the Church, p. 157).
Facing the Facts
“Once we come to grips with the fact that covenant members can hate Jesus, and that many of them do, a robust evangelicalism becomes a scriptural necessity” (Against the Church, p. 153).
And Pretending You Don’t Have a System Just Means It Is Biblically Ungoverned
“The need to speak biblically to the people of God is central . . . This means that there is a sense in which we must insist that the people of God can be divided into two groups — tares and wheat (Matt. 13:25ff), sheep and goats (Matt. 25:32, those who have the Spirit and …
Mercy, Not Sacrifice
“So if there is a biblically defensible liturgy coupled with biblically indefensible lives, this is a routine maneuver by sinful men to try to put God into their debt by doing just what He told them to, as though it were a paint-by-numbers kit. And since that is how the sinful heart of man loves …
Like Liturgy and Love
“The Bible routinely opposes things that are not necessarily opposed to each other. Pastoral opposition is not the same thing as logical opposition” (Against the Church, p. 147).