“Whenever I see congruent merit on the street, I never fail to help opprobrium on his pointy little head.”
The Source of Nature is Supernature
“When Jesus turned the water into wine at Cana, the resultant wine was true wine. It was a supernatural act that brought it into being suddenly, but the wine itself was as natural as the wine that had already been drunk. And because it was better wine, we cannot say it was unnatural in any way.”
Chestertonian Calvinism, p. 97
Living Faith from the Get Go
“I thought faith was the instrument of justification in the ordo salutis, and therefore preceded it. In other words, faith is what it is before justification gets to it, because justification doesn’t happen without the instrumentality of faith, which has to be what it is in order for justification to happen at all.”
What She Would Not Say
“God made Adam out of dirt, and He made Eve out of Adam’s rib. And when God presented the woman to the man, and he asked where she came from, her reply was not ‘from my pre-Adamite hominoid ancestors.’”
Chestertonian Calvinism, p. 96
The Blammo School of Thought
“The other view, the one that I am stoutly comfortable with, might be called the blammo view of creation. About ten thousand years ago, as the crow flies, there was nothing, and absolutely nothing underneath, above, or around that nothing. And then about four thousand years after that, also as the crow flies, God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and blammo, there it was.”
Chestertonian Calvinism, p. 96
Not by Works, Friend
“Saving faith obeys the gospel, and only the gospel. Saving obedience believes in Jesus Christ, and saving obedience does nothing but believe in Jesus Christ.”
Not Natural
“Some men want to defend ministerial credentials through shibbolethian propositions, making the truth walk around on stilts.”
Two Trees
“Adam disobeyed for us at a tree; the Lord Jesus obeyed for us on a tree.”
Chestertonian Calvinism, p. 90
A Real Juke Move
“In short, Calvinists know that there is nothing to boast of in man, but some fall into the trap of boasting in that knowledge. They take pride in knowing that there is nothing to take pride in.”
Chestertonian Calvinism, p. 84
No Dead Faith
“For the Reformers, faith was a gift from God, and when God gives faith, He does not give anything other than a living, obedient faith. Being the kind of God He is, this living faith is the only kind of faith He can give.”