Monthly Archives: January 2011

Warfield Marches On (without his postmil-stuff, tragically)

This is not meant to exclude any other nutshell answers (if they’re accurate), but I have one that I think goes a long way to explaining what is happening regarding the Federal Vision.

B. B. Warfield once described Aurelius Augustine, Bishop of Hippo as a man whose Ecclesiology and Soteriology were in conflict. And he further described the Reformation as the triumph of Augustine’s soteriology over his ecclesiology. Finally, he defined the essence of Reformed orthodoxy as the confession that salvation was exclusively an immediate operation (no ecclesiology necessary) of the Spirit on the soul of an individual.

In the PCA, there are two kinds of people (highly inaccurate and yet a helpful model nonetheless):

  1. Those who find in Warfield’s claims their very identity as Protestants.
  2. Those who find Warfield’s claims to be both unfounded in logic (there is no necessary conflict) and in history (Neither John Calvin nor his heirs through the Westminster Assembly to Turrettin are Reformed Protestants by Warfield’s theological definition).

But here’s the problem: no one in the two groups actually thinks Augustine was right in everything he said either soteriologically (some in Group 1 think they agree with his soteriology because they insist, incorrectly, that Augustine was orthodox in his doctrine of justification) or ecclesiologically.

Thus, the impulse of group 1 is to continually accuse group 2 of beliefs they do not hold. Group 1 has two intellectual traps to fall into. They accept the “logic” that one must choose between Augustine’s soteriology and ecclesiology, so those who choose to remain in the broad form of his ecclesiology, they insist, must reject his soteriology. And thus they tend to assume a statement of appreciation for his ecclesiology means they can dig up any error of the past (“Romanist”) and freely apply it to members of group 2.

Thus, they are continually frustrated as particular facts are brought forth to show that the real world doesn’t match the world as they think it must be.

Guy Waters has written a book on the New Perspective in which he makes a foundational claim that either supports or skewers his entire reading and that backs up my analysis. Ultimately, he writes, in religion there are only two destinies: Geneva or Rome.

Warfield marches on.

Note: originally posted on February 9, 2007

Does Proverbs accuse us of pampering?

Say “Proverbs” and “parenting,” and people immediately think of all the passages about spanking.

But I’m thinking there is something else.

I want to know how old is the child to whom the writer is speaking.

This would be good to know, because at whatever age it is, it is advisable, according to Proverbs, to warn him that if he doesn’t listen to you he is going to die.

Death, death, death. It is everywhere in Proverbs. Cougars will kill you. Laziness will kill you. Your mouth will kill you.

You will die. Or you will live enslaved and it will be too late for anything but a few years of regret.

Listen and live or die, my son.

No coddling in Proverbs.

So when should we talk this way?

Return from exile and the prophetic pattern for Israel

A nation is taken captive by armies from a Mespotamian empire. They are deported from their homeland. But then, because of the righteous people in their midst, God sends a deliverer and they are brought back and given a second chance. Tragically, they fall into worse sin leading into worst judgment. Only the faithful escape by fleeing from the city just in time.

You know the nation I am referring to….?

Right.

Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding region.

They were deported by King Chederlaomer and others. Abraham wanted to rescue Lot, so he joined together with allies and rescued the entire nation.

But Sodom and Gomorrah continued to get worse until God could delay judgment no longer (the idea that Canaan was chosen “at random” to be destroyed is simply unbiblical). Only Lot escaped with his daughters from doomed Sodom.

Moses prophesied that Israel, too, would be taken captive by a foreign army and then rescued and given another chance:

“And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, 2 and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. 4 If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. 5 And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. 6 And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. 7 And the Lord your God will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you. 8 And you shall again obey the voice of the Lord and keep all his commandments that I command you today. 9 The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, 10 when you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul (Deuteronomy 30).

So it happened. Israel and Judah were exiled for idolatry (first breaking the Second and then the First Commandment). After the exile, that never happened. Jesus never had to tell Jews to stop worshiping at image shrines or stop sacrificing to the moon. But they had, nevertheless, hardened their hearts again. Now there was no hope but judgment.

22 And he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. 23 And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them. 24 For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. 25 But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. 26 Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, 29 but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— 30 so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. 32 Remember Lot’s wife. 33 Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. 34 I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. 35 There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.” 37 And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” (Luke 17)

Nobody is Free

Schools tell you, “you are innately special so do something special and change the world.” The commercials tell you, “you are special, buy our product, change the world.” And the evangelical churches? There are two kinds of pastors in the main. Those who speak at conferences with Green Rooms and those who want to do so. How could they have any other message besides one in which the listener walks away with the purpose of doing something special to change the world? All for the glory of God.

I mean, who would want to be a person no one has ever heard of? What kind of person just goes about their business in this rock-star culture? What pastor wants to remain nameless in year-in and year-out obscurity? When fame and reputation and notoriety are ripe for the picking? Why would you be Greta Garbo, when there’s YouTube?

But I say, “Be nobody special.” Do your job. Take care of your family. Clean your house. Mow your yard. Read your Bible. Attend worship. Pray. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Love your spouse. Love your kids. Be generous. Laugh with your friends. Drink your wine heartily. Eat your meat lustily. Be honest. Be kind to your waitress. And expect no special treatment. And do it all quietly.

Read the rest at: Be Nobody Special

Genesis and Proverbs again

Mark Horne » Blog Archive » The Genesis of Proverbs.

Let me try this again in a different way. I’ve got many thoughts bouncing around and haven’t figured out how to organize them yet.

If you are a believer in a religion that is best expressed as four spiritual laws or a flow-chart or a chart about the dispensations of history, or a scheme of double predestination, or many other things (some of which may or may not be true–the issue is not veracity but primacy), then it will be a mystery to you why God wrote the book of Proverbs and put it in our Bibles.

But…

If you are a practitioner of a religion centered on a story that begins with how God made men and women to relate to Him and one another as they take dominion over the world, and move downstream from their garden home, and find gold, and start trading and have to raise children and eventually build cities that are supposed to further reflect the glory of God, then you will completely understand why the book of Proverbs had to be included as Scripture.

Make sense?

Is the Bible our book?

Bear with me. Long quotation coming:

The word of the LORD came to me: “What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’? As I live, declares the Lord GOD, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.

“If a man is righteous and does what is just and right— if he does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor’s wife or approach a woman in her time of menstrual impurity, does not oppress anyone, but restores to the debtor his pledge, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, does not lend at interest or take any profit, withholds his hand from injustice, executes true justice between man and man, walks in my statutes, and keeps my rules by acting faithfully—he is righteous; he shall surely live, declares the Lord GOD.

“If he fathers a son who is violent, a shedder of blood, who does any of these things (though he himself did none of these things), who even eats upon the mountains, defiles his neighbor’s wife, oppresses the poor and needy, commits robbery, does not restore the pledge, lifts up his eyes to the idols, commits abomination, lends at interest, and takes profit; shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon himself.

“Now suppose this man fathers a son who sees all the sins that his father has done; he sees, and does not do likewise: he does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor’s wife, does not oppress anyone, exacts no pledge, commits no robbery, but gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, withholds his hand from iniquity, takes no interest or profit, obeys my rules, and walks in my statutes; he shall not die for his father’s iniquity; he shall surely live. As for his father, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother, and did what is not good among his people, behold, he shall die for his iniquity.

“Yet you say, ‘Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done what is just and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live. The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

“But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die.

“Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die. Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life. Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, are my ways not just? Is it not your ways that are not just?

Is this works righteousness? Is this all a covenant of works that we must realize we can’t fulfill so that we put our faith in Jesus?

No.

The Bible is our book when we realize it is all calling us to respond in faith to Jesus. Ezekiel 18 is such a call appropriate to Israel before Christ had come.

Abraham was given such a call.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

And Paul’s letter to Romans says likewise:

That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Paul describes how people have turned in faith to Jesus, writing,

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

The whole book of Proverbs is about trusting in the Lord:

Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise,
and apply your heart to my knowledge,
for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you,
if all of them are ready on your lips.
That your trust may be in the LORD,
I have made them known to you today, even to you.

Have I not written for you thirty sayings
of counsel and knowledge,
to make you know what is right and true,
that you may give a true answer to those who sent you?

The Bible is one book.  The people Ezekiel is preaching to are sinners. There is no hope for them in a covenant demanding perfect obedience as a condition of salvation. Ezekiel is preaching the Gospel in the age of the Gospel.  As I wrote recently:

Zacharias Ursinus was the principal author of the Heidelberg Catechism and wrote (or allowed to be put together from student notes on his lectures) a commentary on the same. It is available online here.

He wrote that, among other ways, law and gospel differed

In the promises which they make to man. The law promises life upon condition of perfect obedience; the gospel, on the condition of faith in Christ and the commencement of new obedience (p. 3).

Notably, Ursinus is not talking about the Mosaic Covenant when he speaks of “law” here. Rather, the Mosaic Covenant and the Gospel Covenant are the same in substance because they make the same promises on the same conditions.

There is but one covenant, because the principal conditions, which are called the substance of the covenant, are the same before and since the incarnation of Christ; for in each testament God promises to those that repent and believe, the remission of sin; whilst men bind themselves, on the other hand, to exercise faith in God, and to repent of their sins (p. 99).

The “law” then refers to the perfect obedience that Adam was supposed to persevere in as a condition for inheriting glory. The Mosaic Covenant, was for Ursinus, just as it was for the Westminster Divines, an administration of the one covenant of grace.

One covenant of grace. One gospel call. It is all our book.

We alone have the Spirit; no one else offers us anything

We need a Calvinism that grows out of its own inherent genius, a Calvinism that shows a coherence in its life, ministry and message. We need Calvinism, therefore, that at every point and in every way seeks to ask how do we build organically on the insights into Scripture that our forbears have given us. As Calvinists, we want to avoid a kind of eclecticism that goes through the religious world gathering tidbits here and there and in an artificial way tries to connect them to the Reformed heritage we have inherited.

via Joshua Judges Ruth: Always Reformed & Courageous Calvinism, II.

Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you!

I can only hope I’m misunderstanding the quotation. I’ve been frustrated with a seeming lack of knowledge in the Reformed Tradition on the part of teachers. I think more study of the Reformation puts one in a better position to really benefit from other traditions, rather than simply be affected by them.

But we do not want to despise the work of the Spirit in other Christian ecclesiastical traditions (who is looking at “religious world gatherings?). It should be desirable to benefit from the interaction. Don’t know if that counts as the undesirable “eclecticism” or not.

ADDENDUM

More had been added to the quotation:

Now, in calling for a consistent Calvinism, we are not saying that there is nothing to learn from others.  We need to resist our all too present Reformed tendencies to be smug and self-satisfied.  We need to listen to brothers and sisters of other traditions.  We need to weigh what they would say to us.  We need clearly to recognize the reality of genuine Christianity in other traditions that can speak to us and can help us.  But if we are committed, as Westminster Seminary is, to the fact that historic confessional Calvinism is the fullest and most faithful form of Biblical teaching, then we must evaluate what we are hearing from other traditions by that root of faith from which we seek to grow and to be sure that we are being consistent Calvinists.  We need courage then, to be consistent Calvinists.”

God’s love is his character

Scripture provides many examples of the wrath of God, but I wonder if we’re trapped in a narrative that has emphasized anger and wrath and judgment to the point that we fail to see how loving, tender, and merciful God truly is.

John tells us that God is love. It’s a defining quality of his nature. Peter says that God “is patient … not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” And the same Jesus who prophecies judgment over Jerusalem weeps for its destruction. Unlike the picture that Edwards paints, the Lord is compassionate and does not desire our judgment.

Paul says that “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Isn’t this the most basic fact of the Gospel, that God sent his Son because he loved the world just that much, that while we wanted nothing to do with him, he nonetheless worked the plan for our reconciliation?

The Good Shepherd doesn’t grumble about the sheep that wandered off. Out of worry and love, he goes to find it. The father doesn’t excoriate the prodigal upon his returns. He doesn’t hold his folly over his head. Nor does he demand an accounting of his squandered inheritance. He runs out to meet him and wraps his arms around him.

Read the whole thing: Into the hands of a loving God | Joel J. Miller.

Three comments on Joel’s post:

  1. I think that Edwards point was that, despite their sins and unbelief, God still held them up and refused, yet, to throw them in. I think, if memory serves, that God’s patience was in view. We’d need to get a survey going to see about how Edwards understood God’s essential character. I hope he agreed with Joel.
  2. I couldn’t help but think of Jeremiah 10.24-25:

    Correct me, O Lord, but in justice;
    not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.

    Pour out your wrath on the nations that know you not,
    and on the peoples that call not on your name,
    for they have devoured Jacob;
    they have devoured him and consumed him,
    and have laid waste his habitation.

  3. And how does God’s love deal with those who pursue unbelief and disobedience? My thinking is that final condemnation still shows God’s love in a way. Proverbs 27.4:

    Wrath is cruel, anger is overwhelming,
    but who can stand before jealousy?

    And Canticles 8.6

    Set me as a seal upon your heart,
    as a seal upon your arm,
    for love is strong as death,
    jealousy is fierce as the grave.
    Its flashes are flashes of fire,
    the very flame of the LORD.