“It is not the voice of moderation to limit oneself to believe only ten percent of the false accusations. To hear 100 lies and limit oneself to entertaining only ten of them is not being judicious.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 523
One of the Things Saving Faith Does
“He should know about decretal election—he just read about it a few chapters before in Romans. He believes in it, and so do I. But whatever we do with the doctrine of decretal election, we must not manipulate it such that we become what Paul is warning against here—high-minded. Saving faith trembles ‘at the threatenings’ (WCF 14.2).”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 520
Addressing the Tares
“When tares are being addressed as tares, and in that condition their relationship to Christ is described as having a certain reality to it that they are in the process of losing, that cannot be explained as a judgment of charity.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 519
Way More Plastic
“True Kuyperian practice is not to go out into the world and do pretty much what everybody else is doing, only with a Jesus label attached. This is not the lordship of Christ—rather it is Christians getting into the manufacture of knock-offs. If something gets popular in the world, the Christians are right there with a competing model made with cheap labor in a Third World factory and using a lot more plastic.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 515
Apostate or Corrupt?
“Churches that have had their lampstand removed are apostate. Churches that are being seriously warned about that possibility are corrupt. Branches that have been cut out of the olive tree are apostate. Branches that are still on the tree but have started to think that they support the root are corrupt. The short answer is that apostasy does not occur with no warning at all—the run up to that apostasy is the period of corruption. God dealt with the Israelites even though they worshipped him in the high places. They were corrupt, but not yet rejected. The prophets were ticked about it, as they should have been, but God nevertheless still owned them as His people. That was corruption, not apostasy. The severance of Israel from the olive tree after 70 AD was apostasy, the culmination of corruption.
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 510.
Even More Orthodox
“Some won’t accept the explanations we offer because they flat don’t believe us. In other words, when it sounds orthodox, it must be a trick. Heretics often manage to sound orthodox. Yeah, but orthodox people often sound orthodox too.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 501
It All Comes Alive
“When you believe God, the whole world comes alive, and this is especially true with instruments that God has appointed, like the Word . . . and like baptism. But without evangelical faith, man, your situation is worse than it was before. You gotta have Jesus, and no Christian should have a problem with that.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 500
Just Be Patient
“New life in Christ is weightier than Calvinism. We can tell this because our gracious God has given that new life to all His true children, and He has not given Calvinism to all His true children. That will have to wait until heaven.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 499
Where the Pope Lives
“Fact is, in 1988 I moved to Geneva. Like it here. Bought a house. Plan to stay. But for certain American provincial ecclesiastics, when you glance at a spinning globe, Geneva is near Italy, kinda.
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 498
Grace Liberates
“C.S. Lewis comments on the nature of the early Puritans and Reformers in the 16th century—their chief characteristics being their exuberance, their liberation from motive-scratching, their joy, their relief, their delight in new life, their acceptance of something that was too good to be true. The gospel, when it breaks out in power, always has that effect. For those watching this particular controversy, trying to make out what it is all about, here is the basic question to ask. Which group is talking about the ordo as something that bursts all our chains—”my chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose went forth and followed thee”—and which group has the ordo on an anvil, trying to forge it into a chain, one capable of shackling the wind, so that we can always tell where it is coming from and where it is going.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 487