Theology That Bites Back
“‘There were disciples in name, profession, and appearance, and there were those whom Christ called ‘disciples indeed’ (John 8:30-31).’ So far, so good. Among the many professing followers of Christ we have two categories. If you try to limit it to one category only, you will either become a sacramentalist or a member of the airy-fairy invisible church, the one nobody ever has to tithe to.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 852
“Now a person with temporary faith may in some sense sense be ‘saved,’ but scare quotes were intended for just such a circumstance as this. Temporary salvation is something to be terrified of. I should rather have my fingernails pulled out than to be any part of God’s salvation ‘for a time.’”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 844
“When the Federal Vision controversy erupted over a decade ago, there was a great deal of confusion involved in it. More than a few Girardian elbows were thrown, some folks jumped into the fray who couldn’t be troubled to read a book, or pick up a phone, and there was at least one troubled anti-FV prosecutor who was in the process of poping himself. From where I sit the responsibility for the lion’s share of those confusions rested with the accusers. But if that controversy ever heats up again, I am concerned that preliminary sketches and speculations like these recent posts could shift responsibility for the confusion to our side of the aisle.”
Referring to:
patheos.com/blogs/leithart/2014/11/how-to-say-i-am-righteous
patheos.com/blogs/leithart/2014/11/infusion-imputation-and-luther
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 842
“‘Those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.’ Scripture frequently tells Christians that they aren’t really. We sometimes speak as though lack of assurance were the only possible problem. But assurance is a problem when someone has it who shouldn’t, and lack of assurance is only a problem when someone doesn’t have assurance who should. We should always care more about the presence of the truth than the presence of assurance.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, pp. 840-841
“There are more than a few Protestant preachers who wouldn’t recognize the Westminster Confession if it landed in their front yard in a helicopter.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 839
“Now if it is possible for covenant members in good standing to continue to have the devil for their father, and Scripture is plain that it is, then what this means is that there has to be some substratum reality going on that is distinct from (not independent of) the sacraments. There is no way to tie this reality to the sacraments without tying yourself up in knots.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 835
“When God changes the ‘nature’ of a human being, what he is doing is providing a father transplant. When God changes me in regeneration, what He is doing is turning me into a human being. Prior to that moment, I was not a static, spatially bound human being, sitting there like a triangle with three sides. Rather, I was a disintegrating human being. I was created in the image of God, but parts were falling off. This is because of the temporal aspect of who I was. I was by nature an object of wrath, which means that I was in the process of circling the drain of damnation. I was headed somewhere bad, and I was headed there because the devil was my father. So was Cain. So was Belial. That whole bad business was temporal and relational. In effectual call regeneration, that fundamental identity (who my father is) is transformed. This transformation is entirely relational. So I am talking about who’s-your-daddy nature, not triangles-have-three-sides nature.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 834
“I am fine with the Reformed world having edges and am fine with people living there. But it should follow from this that I am also fine with the Reformed world having a center. And on this issue of regeneration that center is summarized very nicely by our confessions—and if the historic Reformed view of regeneration is Kansas, then I live in Topeka. I don’t live on an island off the state of Maine, but if I did, I would still be an American. But as an American, there on my island, I wouldn’t be saying things like, ‘That’s the way it is, here in the heartland . . .”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 833
“God comes to us in three books—nature, law, and gospel. Read plainly, we read ‘God above us, God against us, and God with us’ . . . this thought is actually a reworking of something I read from Matthew Henry, and shows how, once again, I am sitting on the edge of the fountain in the central square of Reformedville, just swinging my legs.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, pp. 829-830
“Outside he is a whited sepulcher . . . full of bones and every unclean thing. He is baptized, and his membership papers are all in order. He is the chairman of the pastoral search committee, ...
