Fear and Trembling

I am starting a series of posts on the subject of Calvinism. My intent is to use the book Whosoever Will: A Biblical-Theological Critique of Five-Point Calvinism by David L. Allen and Steve Lemke as a foil. I will present future posts in the form of a dialogue between a Calvinist informed by various books and a non-Calvinist informed by the contents of the book in question. This post is a brief summary of my position on the topic. I am not out to prove anything here so much as to present a summary of my beliefs. The arguments for and against my position will come as I move into the series. I believe that human beings are born in a state of bondage to sin. We simply do not want to do good things from pure motives. We do not do good things because we do not want to. We do not choose to place our faith in Christ because that would involve an admission that we are inadequate on our own to earn salvation and a submission to Christ’s authority as the Lord of our lives. We would have...

B. B. Warfield, Part 1 It was 1870.  Princeton College students gathered around the two combatants. One, a young man named Warfield, had drawn a cartoon depicting the other in what could be called “an exceedingly uncomplimentary picture.” The cartoon was circulated among the other students during a particularly boring lecture. The student saw the sketch of himself, and he was livid. After class, the fight was on. The amateurish fight earned Warfield a nickname: “The Pugilist.” After a religious experience he was reluctant to speak of, Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield (1851-1921) was ordained in 1879. He taught at Western Theological Seminary from 1878 until he went to Princeton Theological Seminary in 1887, where he served as Professor of Didactic and Polemic Theology. In addition to teaching, his task was to familiarize himself with current writings and challenge those who departed from the confession and faith of the seminary. His fighting spirit had found a calling to wholehea...

I have never found an explanation of repentance and faith as clear as this one. What must we do, then, to be saved? To find God we must repent of the things we have done wrong, but if that is all you do, you may remain just an elder brother. To truly become a Christian we must also repent of the reasons we ever did anything right. Pharisees only repent of their sins, but Christians repent for the very roots of their righteousness, too. We must learn how to repent of the sin under all our other sins and under all our righteousness – the sin of seeking to be our own Savior and Lord. We must admit that we’ve put our ultimate hope in both our wrongdoing and right doing we have been seeking to get around God or get control of God in order to get hold of those things. It is only when you see the desire to be your own Savior and Lord—lying beneath both your sins and your moral goodness—that you are on the verge of becoming a Christian indeed. When you realize that the antidote to being b...

Was the champion of salvation by faith alone interested in good works? Yes. Would he require evidence of a holy life for assurance of salvation like the other reformers. Yes. Here is my evidence: “Those who obey the Sinful Nature and continue to gratify its desires should know that they don’t belong to Christ. Even though people may label themselves with the name “Christian,” they are only deceiving themselves.” Martin Luther, Faith Alone , August 18. “[Those who have a false freedom] are scoundrels and don’t want to leave their lives of sin and idolatry or give anything to anyone. They want to live lives of sexual immorality and self-gratification as they did before coming to Christ. Yet they still want to be considered Christians. There are false disciples who only want freedom for their physical desires. “ – Martin Luther, Faith Alone , October 11 “Your faith, of course, should be the kind of faith that produces good works.” – Martin Luther, Faith Alone , October 28 Faith ...

This post is inspired by anonymous comments made elsewhere on this blog. I am going to use the anonymous questions and statements in quotes as a foil for a presentation of questions and answers on the cross. I will use some comments directly, but others I will change slightly. “You make much of the notion that Christ had to die for our sins because we did not follow God’s law. Conveniently, the one that makes the law decides if you broke it and determines the punishment.” The law of God is not arbitrary, that God could choose to make the law be whatever He wanted it to be. Since God’s law is not arbitrary, this is not a valid objection. God could no more make the moral law in a different way than he could make the laws of mathematics a different way. All of these abstract laws are an expression of His nature and character. God’s character is the basis for good attitudes. God’s actions are the basis for good behavior. God’s character and morality cannot change because His bei...

In Christ Alone. It’s like Heidelberg #1 to music.

“If our theology does not quicken the conscience and soften the heart, it actually hardens both; if it does not encourage the commitment of faith, it reinforces the detachment of unbelief; if it fails to promote humility, it inevitably feeds pride.” - J. I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness, page 15 I have often questioned why I study theology. Is it a noble quest for knowledge of the God who died for me, or is it the ignoble feeding of my overblown ego? Or is it a little of both? I have thought of several good reasons I have to study theology. I want to know God better. I want to follow God’s will for my life more closely and be a moral person. I want to be better able to communicate the truth to others that I come in contact with. I want to be able to answer legitimate questions from myself or others. There are some bad reasons as well. I want to show others how smart I am. I want to be able to one-up those who disagree with me. I am truly a mixed bag of motives in everything I do....

I get to lead the music at our small church tomorrow for Easter Sunday. One of the Hymns: Low in the grave He lay, Jesus my Savior, Waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord! Refrain Up from the grave He arose, With a mighty triumph o’er His foes, He arose a Victor from the dark domain, And He lives forever, with His saints to reign. He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose! Vainly they watch His bed, Jesus my Savior; Vainly they seal the dead, Jesus my Lord! Refrain Death cannot keep its Prey, Jesus my Savior; He tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord! Refrain - Robert Lowry

Wow . I’ll say it again backwards: wow . (See links for videos. See this link for conference information.) I can’t help thinking that a certain monstrously arid existential region has now experienced an extreme climate differentiation.

Thanks to Truth Matters for this Easter Meditation .

“The cross is not simply a lovely example of sacrificial love. Throwing your life away needlessly is not admirable — it is wrong. Jesus’ death was only a good example if it was more than an example, if it was something absolutely necessary to rescue us. And it was. Why did Jesus have to die in order to forgive us? There was a debt to be paid — God himself paid it. There was a penalty to be born — God himself bore it. Forgiveness is always a form of costly suffering.” - The Reason For God Timothy Keller p.193 As Good Friday approaches tomorrow I would like to post on what Christ’s suffering on the cross means to us. Christ’s death is more than just a moral example. It is more than just an event on a hill outside Jerusalem. What would a bare moral example look like? I always think of a sacrilegious movie that I once viewed while in college: Monty Python’s The Life of Bryan. There’s a ridiculous scene at the end where Christ is hanging from the cross between two thieves. He and the c...