Dr. Richard Gaffin on Romans 8:29 and God’s purpose for holiness in predestination:
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
After the Lordship-Salvation controversy between John MacArthur and Zane Hodges in the 1980’s, the White Horse Inn crew released Christ the Lord: The Reformation and Lordship Salvation (Baker, 1992). At the end of their collection of essays, ten propositions are put forward. Here they are for you to chew on. Thoughts?
Ever heard of The Cambridge Declaration?
Introduction
In April 1996, the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals held its first major meeting of evangelical scholars. The Cambridge Declaration, first presented at this meeting, is a call to the evangelical church to turn away from the worldly methods it has come to embrace, and to recover the Biblical doctrines of the Reformation. The Cambridge Declaration explains the importance of regaining adherence to the five “solas” of the Reformation.
April 20, 1996
Evangelical churches today are increasingly dominated by the spirit of this age rather than by the Spirit of Christ. As evangelicals, we call ourselves to repent of this sin and to recover the historic Christian faith.
In the course of history words change. In our day this has happened to the word “evangelical.” In the past it served as a bond of unity between Christians from a wide diversity of church traditions. Historic evangelicalism was confessional.
Scripture alone is the inerrant rule of the church’s life, but the evangelical church today has separated Scripture from its authoritative function. In practice, the church is guided, far too often, by the culture. Continue reading →
The sons of Mumford have done it again, and now we need only wait near 40 days for Babel, their sophomore release.
Click here for more hints of Youtube videos off the new Babel record
Mumford and Sons
See you at your favorite record store on Sept 24!
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
What else does this longing and helplessness proclaim, but that there was once in each person a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? We try to fill this in vain with everything around us, seeking in things that are not there the help we cannot find in those that are there. Yet none can change things, because this infinite abyss can only be filled with something that is infinite and unchanging—in other words, God himself. God alone is our true good.
—Pensées #425
C. S. Lewis:
If we are made for heaven, the desire for our proper place will be already in us, but not yet attached to the true object, and will even appear as the rival of that object. . . . If a transtemporal, transfinite good is our real destiny, then any other good on which our desire fixes must be in some degree fallacious, must bear at best only a symbolical relation to what will truly satisfy. Continue reading
Plagiarism is an important issue for pastors to think over as well, it might be worthwhile for ministers to consider this issue. Especially since I would expect the temptation for a young pastor – struggling to get his sermon done and in awe of “celebrity pastors” – might look very different for an established veteran preacher – wanting to cull the best of borrowed sayings and sources over a long career.
I don’t think it is contentious to say that the doctrine of God’s impassibility is falling on hard times these days. According to WCF II.1 states that God is “a most pure spirit, without body, parts or passions; immutable, immense, eternal…” Some level a charge of “Hellenistic” (read: Greek/pagan/gnostic) tones on these ideas, but I think they are eminently biblical.
I love how Roman Catholic (gulp) scholar Thomas Weinandy talks about the doctrine of immutability, and I think these words apply also to impassibility as well:
One should not be misled into thinking that God’s immutability is like the immutability of a rock only more so. What God and rocks appear to have in common is only the fact that they do not change. The reason for their unchangeableness is for polar-opposite reasons. The Rock of Gibraltar does not change or changes very little because it is hardly in act at all, and the change that it does undergo is mainly from outside causes—wind and rain. God is unchangeable not because he is inert or static like a rock, but for just the opposite reason. He is so dynamic, so active that no change can make him more active. He is act pure and simple . . .
What the critics consistently fail to grasp is that God’s immutability is not opposed to his vitality. Nor need one hold together in some dialectical fashion his immutability and his vibrancy, as if in spite of being immutable he is nonetheless dynamic. Rather, it is precisely God’s immutability as actus purus that guarantees and authenticates his pure vitality and absolute dynamism. Thus, when the critics assert that because Aquinas and the tradition believe God to be immutable they espouse a static and inert conception of God, they but demonstrate their own lack of understanding.
(Thomas Weinandy, Does God Suffer? 78–79, 124)
Some day, I would love to do a deeper study on this view of immutability/impassibility, and the sacred words of Luke 9:51:
When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face (πρόσωπον ἐστήρισεν) to go to Jerusalem.
I know these texts bring the Incarnation into play, but there is still relevance here, I argue. Jesus was unable to be moved from going to His passion, His mission to die for His elect on the cross in Jerusalem. He wasn’t unmovable because he was like the Rock of Gibraltar, but rather because – like a laser – He pursued His Father’s will to the end. I also think of John 13:1 and other texts in this context as well.
With all His sufferings, full in view,
And woes to us! unknown –
Toward the task, His spirit flew,
‘Twas love that urged Him on.
(William Cowper “Savior! What A Noble Name!”)
The divine flame of love (SoS 8) is too strong to be moved or muted. Hallelujah!
It is sort of like “theological darwinisim,” survival of the fittest. Confessional protestantism is going to be all that remains, uh, because everything else is going to melt away with the disappearance of cultural Christianity. The reality is that only those churches that hold themsevles accountable to a confession of faith, and so not out of obligation but out of joy, will be the only ones left standing.
(HT: Resolved)
Christ does not approach the grave as an idle spectator, but as a champion who prepares for a contest; and therefore we need not wonder that he again groans; for the violent tyranny of death, which he had to conquer, is placed before his eyes.
(HT: CPC)
Brian J. Lund 