“If I can only believe what is propositionally revealed in the Bible, and if my name is not propositionally revealed in the Bible as one who believes the promises of salvation rightly, then how can I believe the promise? How can I believe any promise there? Do I have direct warrant? No, not at all. I can, however, believe indirectly, but I must supply one of the missing ingredients (which I cannot do apart from grace) . . . The thing that closes the circle is always faith. This particular faith cannot be based on propositional warrant from Scripture, because Scripture says nothing about my prayers, nothing about my children, nothing about whether I am elect. I close the circle by faith. God gives the general enscripturated promise. He then works in me specifically through the person of the Holy Spirit to bring me to the conviction that these general promises are mine, and so that I may enter into rest. Not only do I have reason to believe the promises, I am commanded to believe them”
What Kind of Holster?
“And when we heard their qualifications, we would believe them as brothers in Christ, and put our doctrinal revolvers back in the presbyterial holster. But when we say things like this (and we do, honestly), our qualifications after the fact do not matter. To extend the metaphor, the doctrinal bullets continue to whistle through our heretical hair. Oh, well.”
Seems Reasonable
“The same with Calvin. I don’t agree with Calvin on everything. But what I reserve to myself is the right to agree with Calvin and not have that agreement be used as the reason for denying that I am a Calvinist.”
Evangelical Obedience as the Lifeblood of Faith
“But believing God is no work, and not believing God is not faith.”
All Gone Now
“Sometimes the new wine can’t get into the old wineskin, not because of the old wine, but because the skin is stuffed full of learned scribes, writing treatises on what it was like back in the glory days, back before we drank all the old wine.”
No Dead Faith
“The fact that someone who believes that saving faith is nothing more or less than mental assent to propositions has somehow come to be regarded as a defender of the Reformed faith is a remarkable phenomenon, and worthy of study.”
Stipulated Vocabularies
“I recognize that James and Paul have differing stipulated vocabularies. ‘Works’ is a word that does not refer to the same thing for the two men. Paul is at war with dead works, and James is at war with dead faith. We are the heirs of both men, and ought to be at war with both dead works and dead faith. The enemy is death, not faith or works. Works for James is fruit for Paul. But within the clear usage that James gives us, it is indisputable that works is the animating principle of faith.”
Because Some Were Shooting in the Wrong Direction
“More than once in this whole fare, it would have been a good idea for everyone to look down and double-check the color of their own uniform.”
Or Maybe Even Six and a Half
“And again, just for the record, I am so Calvinistic it makes my back teeth ache. And if the Synod of Dort had come up with six replies to the Remonstrants, then I would be a six-point Calvinist.”
New Covenant Apostasy
“The book of Hebrews was written to a new covenant people, and it was written in order to head off a looming apostasy. That is what the entire book is about. In this verse [Heb. 10:29], we learn that the sanctions of the new covenant are more severe than the sanctions under Moses—“sorer punishment.” The new covenant does not contain “no sanctions.” It contains “more severe sanctions” . . . . Members of the visible church can and do fall away from Christ.”