Theology That Bites Back
“As I have maintained, clearly I do not want to substitute biblical language in for confessional language. I want confessional language, believing it to be necessary and edifying in its place. What I object to is the restriction that has been placed on using biblical language ever. So the question is not whether we use biblical language or confessional language. The issue is when we are to use each, because we must use each.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 758
“Signs signify. Seals do more than that. When we say that baptism is a sign and seal of the covenant, we are saying more than that baptist is a ‘sign and another kind of sign’ . . . The grace signified (sign) by their baptism is really exhibited and conferred (sealed) at God’s appointed time, in the power of the Spirit. This is not a place where I have to take an exception to Westminster. I would be happy to do so and have taken an exception to the Westminster Confession at other places. But I don’t have to do so here. Their position is mine.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 755
“Granted that true faith is necessary, how does this faith arrive? If it is genuine faith, how does it get here? One view says that it is shipped, and it arrives in a box. You open the box, take the bubble wrap off, and hold it up so the elders can see if it is the same kind they got. The other view of faith is that it grows. Timothy had the same faith that his mother and grandmother had (2 Tim. 1:5). Now, if true faith can grow from a seed, those guarding the Table must know what it looks like at every point along the continuum—first the blade, then the ear, then the full head. My toddler grandchildren coming to the Table have true faith—but it is blade faith. We’re not anywhere near done”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 754.
“I won’t go through the whole thing point by point because you don’t need to split the same cord of wood twice, and I have done this three or four times already. About all I have around here is kindling.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 751
“We look at the decrees through the lens of the covenant, and not the other way around. And when we are faithful in our use of these covenantal means, we do make our calling and election sure. We can see the decrees, but only if we don’t try to see them directly.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 750.
“I say this as one who affirms all forms of imputation as understood by the classic Reformed theologians—active, passive, and around the block three times imputation.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 748
“Not all Israel are Israel. Not all Christians are Christians.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 747
“This does not mean that I cannot have assurance, or that I cannot know that I am decretally elect. Of course I can know that. It wouldn’t be assurance if I didn’t. But my decretal election is what I know; it is not how I know.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 746.
“While a ‘not guilty’ verdict is imputation, so also is ‘I now pronounce you husband and wife’”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 745.
“Some people want to say that this administration of grace is tightly woven in with a covenant of works, like a Scandinavian shield-maiden’s blonde braids, sheer law woven together with free grace, and there you go. What’s so hard to understand about that? And, then, to crown all these discussions, the people who want to intertwine these two covenants, one of grace and the other of works, want to accuse me of coming up with some kind of mutant golawspel. Heh. And, as Paul might say, were he here, again I say heh.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 742.
