“We don’t want to find ourselves in the curious position of requiring people to bear fruit before they are attached to the tree” (To a Thousand Generations, p. 96).
Let God Be True
“Christendom has more than once been full of baptized infidels. Does this make God a liar? Certainly not. Paul then comes to a remarkable statement. Every last professing believer in the world could be lying, and doing so through the teeth, and God would still be true, the root would still be firm, the tree …
So We Should All Pray Psalm 25:14
“Why do baptists not understand the covenant? The answer not what many paedobaptists want to hear — the baptists do not understand it because paedobaptists do not understand it” (To a Thousand Generations, p. 95).
No Stainless Steel Olive Branches
“Why does Paul argue that nothing can remove the elect from Christ, and then turn around and deliver a sober warning about the dangers of being removed from the olive tree? The answer is inescapable. There is a difference between being elect, and being a covenant member. The elect cannot be removed from God’s sovereign …
How Might Gentile Limbs Sin?
“As far as the Jews were concerned, the Bible teaches that because they were born into an Israelite family, circumcised in the covenant on the eighth day, they were attached to the tree. This attachment was an objective historical fact. But the sin and hypocrisy of many of them was also an objective fact, and …
Can’t Leave a Place You Never Were
“There really are people who really are removed from the Vine. They are described in Scripture as branches which bear no fruit. The Bible teaches that these are people who are connected to Christ (they have to be connected to Him in order to be removed from Him), who nevertheless have no saving interest in …
But Jesus Never Consulted Our Book of Appropriate Illustrations
“For many Christians, [John 15:1-6] is a ‘problem passage.’ We want Christ to use a different figure. We want Him to be the Marble Box, with us as the individual marbles. When we are saved, we are put into the Marble Box, and we had better watch it, or we might find ourselves taken out …
A Tie That Binds
“A man may lie at the altar about his intention to be faithful to his bride. But his hypocrisy does not keep him from entering into the married state. An oath, when taken, binds. When it is a lying oath, then the sin is truly grievous precisely because the oath binds” (To a Thousand Generations, …
Somebody Does It
“‘Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed’ (John 8:31). There is a distinction made here between a disciple, and a disciple indeed. Christ is speaking generally to Jews who had believed in Him, and goes on to show that it is possible …
What Room Is the Debate In?
“The modern debate over infant baptism frequently shows how far removed we are from the debates of the first century. Our debates center around a question like this: ‘Do you mean to say that you think the Gentiles in the first century baptized their infants? Where do you get that?’ In the first century the …