Gene Veith comments on Worldmagblog here. A friend drew my attention to this post of a few days ago. I have included below a comment which I posted at his site, but I also need to say something here. Given the climate in the Reformed world today, and given how many people go to Worldmagblog, it is not possible to set the record straight completely. But something is better than nothing, and maybe the people who are feeding Gene bogus information will eventually regain some sense of shame. I wish that everyone who is so hot for Westminster would carefully review what the Larger Catechism says about the ninth commandment.
Here is my comment from his blog:
Well, it appears that the damage is already done, but I might as well say something for the record. I hold to the idea of penal substitution as being at the heart of the gospel, I subscribe to the Westminster Confession and its views on the atonement, I drafted the NSA statement of faith which includes a statement which I will include below, and I helped to name the building where our church offices are housed — Anselm House.
“Because all sons of Adam are spiritually dead, they are consequently incapable of saving themselves. But out of His sovereign mercy, God the Father elected a countless number to eternal salvation, leaving the remainder to their sinful desires. When the time was right, the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross and was raised to life as an efficacious redemption for the elect. Thus He secured the salvation of His church, for which He laid down His life. And at the point of each individual’s conversion, the Holy Spirit brings resurrecting grace, effectually calling him by His power, with the result of repentance and faith.”
It is a grief to me that Christians can be so careless about the reputations of others. It is not appropriate to walk up to the top of a hill and empty a feather pillow into a brisk wind. With the feathers all over everywhere, it is not adequate to anticipate problems with, “Someone correct me if I am wrong.” Okay, now I am doing that a few days later, when I first heard of it. Who are we going to ask to pick up the feathers?