“In no way am I backing away from high-octane Calvinism. There will be things written later in this book which may look as though this is happening, but the reader should be assured that it is not. The point of this section has been to establish foundational Calvinistic bona fides. Doctrinal prejudice may still refuse to see how the harmonization works, but the harmonization is still there”
Not Even Close
“External badges of Christian obligations do not get someone ‘halfway there.’ They are not ‘better than nothing.’”
The Most Basic of Distinctions
“To apply Paul’s distinction here, they are not all the Christian church who are of the Christian church.”
Great in Theory
“Semper reformanda is not something we should all chant together right up until someone actually tries it.”
All the Prepositions
“We are saved by faith, over faith, under faith, through faith, and to faith. And it is just this kind of ambiguity that has led some scholars, over and over and over again, to wonder about my commitment to sola fide.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 955
Is Covenant Breaking Possible in the New Covenant?
“But if the covenant of grace is synonymous with election, then covenant breaking is impossible. But if that is the case, whose bodies are scattered across the wilderness?”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 948
Chicken and Egg
“I am not in the covenant of grace because my name is on a list. Rather, my name is on a list because I have been united with Christ.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 947
An Actual Dilemma
“Those who say that faith is not possible for an infant are left with two choices—either all infants who die in infancy are damned, or sola fide is not true and elect infants are saved another way.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 943
Dangerous Grace
“Paul calls the cup of the Lord’s Supper the cup of blessing. He does so even though a number of the Corinthians were sick or dead because of how they came to it. Uzza was struck down because he got a little too close to the mercy seat. God saved the people from Egypt, but then proceeded to fertilize the wilderness with a good many of them.”.
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 937
Originalist Westminster
“It is a paradigm shift, or a system shift. But not from the pristine WCF to something else, but rather as an attempt to read the WCF as though the democratization of American Christianity had never happened.”.
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 936