Total Depravity and Divine Knowledge (Part 1b) (04/18/05 - 0 Comments)
The bulk of this article was published on this site in November of 2004, but I am going to repost much of it in response to discussion about my article from earlier today entitled, Total Depravity and Divine Knowledge. There has been discussion about whether the act of regeneration - the act whereby those who are spiritually dead are made alive - precedes or follows a person's expression of faith. While there are many proof-texts that can be offered, I find John 11 to be one of the most poignant.
The story of Lazarus, found in John 11, is one of the most moving stories we find in the Bible and surely portrays one of the most significant acts of our Lord. There is so much depth in this short story – so much we can meditate upon.
Total Depravity and Divine Knowledge (Part 1) (04/18/05 - 0 Comments)
Following the article I posted on Saturday, which you can read here, Michael Spencer posted a link to it on Boars Head Tavern and included the following comment, which I would like to address today: Those who believe in total depravity have more confidence in the possibility of humans having divine knowledge- detailed, down to the footnotes knowledge- than many who don't call themselves Calvinists.
For some time I have been intending to write an article on the clarity of Scripture (also known as the "perspicuity of Scripture") and I believe this affords an opportunity to include that topic.
The Second Thing Every Christian Needs To Know (01/11/05 - 0 Comments)
This article represents the fourth in a series I've entitled Five Things Every Christian Needs To Know. The first article served as an introduction to the topic and the next two discussed The First Thing Every Christian Needs To Know. This was identified as "The Bible alone is the infallible rule of faith for the church" and we discussed many of the ramifications of that belief as well as some of the ways it has come under attack in the church.
If you would like to get caught up, here are the previous articles:
- Five Things Every Christian Needs To Know
- The First Thing Every Christian Needs To Know
- The First Thing Every Christian Needs To Know (Part 2)
The final four things every Christian needs to know flow naturally from the first. If we truly acknowledge that Scripture is the infallible rule of faith for the church, it stands to reason that this same Scripture will tell us what we must do and know to be followers of Jesus.
The First Thing Every Christian Needs To Know (Part 2) (12/23/04 - 0 Comments)
This is the third article in the series "Five Things Every Christian Needs To Know." Yesterday we examined the doctrine of Sola Scriptura or Scripture Alone. We saw that the first thing every Christian needs to know is that the Bible alone is the infallible rule of faith for the church. We further defined the doctrine, saw why it was known as the formal principle of the Reformation and examined what Scripture says about Scripture. Today we will examine the practical implications of this doctrine.
It seems that most Christians go through their lives feeling some measure of guilt that they do not love the Bible more. So often we take time to do devotions out of guilt and not because we truly desire to study the Word, learn about God and have Him challenge us. More often, perhaps, we do not read the Bible at all. In the past men and women have died to defend our right to read the Scriptures and even today people are dying for their devotion to the Word. Many more would give all they have for the ability to feed on the Words of God, yet so often we who have unlimited access to the Bible see it as a burden and not a delight. Ben Merkle wrote critically of today's Christians when he said:
The First Thing Every Christian Needs To Know (12/22/04 - 0 Comments)
In the first article of this series I indicated that there are five things every Christian needs to know. These five things are distinctives which divide Christianity from every other religion. Further, they divide true Christianity, Protestantism, from Catholicism and cults and all other attempts to combine the wisdom of men with the wisdom of God. Today we will turn to the first of these five important points.
Here is the first thing every believer needs to know: The Bible alone is the infallible rule of faith for the church. This is known in theological circles as the doctrine of Sola Scriptura or Scripture Alone. This may seem to be quite an obvious doctrine to some, yet I would encourage you to keep reading to examine if you really do believe this, to see how an improper view of this doctrine can taint your walk with Christ, and to learn how a strong view of the Scripture's authority is necessary for a strong and living faith.
Five Things Every Christian Needs To Know (12/21/04 - 0 Comments)
Over a short series of articles, I am going to introduce five things I believe every Christian needs to know. This is not to say that one cannot be saved if from ignorance he does not know these, but that these five things are of foundational importance to the faith. One may be a Christian without knowing them, but one's walk with Christ will be greatly enhanced by understanding, applying and treasuring them. To deny them, however, is to undermine the very bedrock of the faith.
If you have been a Christian for any length of time, and especially if you have been part of a Reformed tradition, you may well know of these five things. While their origin is the Bible, they were not formulated as doctrines until the time of the Protestant Reformation. This is often the way God has revealed truths about Himself. For example, the doctrine of the Trinity was not formulated until several hundred years after the death of Christ, though it was clearly revealted in the Bible all along. For the Reformers these five things defined what it meant to be a Protestant. The Roman Catholic Church could not and still cannot abide by these five things and has declared them to be anathema - false doctrines. Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons along with other cultic groups cannot hold to them. These five things define Protestantism, even crossing the boundaries between Calvinism and Arminianism, and hence define a biblical view of the Christian faith.
Decisional Regeneration (11/24/04 - 4 Comments)
Last weekend Billy Graham preached at what may be his final crusade, preaching before up to 82,000 people at a time. A headline at Pastors.com proclaimed the crusade a great success, indicating that some 12,000 people made decisions for Christ. In a previous article I expressed concerns with Graham’s ecumenism and the fact that Roman Catholic counselors would be present at the event and any people who made decisions and indicated they were from a...
Wickedness Under a Form of Godliness Cunningly Managed (11/22/04 - 0 Comments)
Banner of Truth features many excellent articles, but one that grabbed my attention recently is entitled simply Apostasy. The author makes a distinction between two terms that I had never stopped to differentiate – apostasy and heresy. Apostasy he defines as a rejection of truth that one once believed. So I would be apostate if I rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, a doctrine I now hold dearly. Heresy is the addition of foreign doctrines,...
Total Depravity: Extent vs Degree (11/18/04 - 1 Comments)
This morning I decided that today I was going to write about man's sinful condition, or as we says as Calvinists, man's total depravity. Doing my rounds of other blogs this morning I noticed that Jollyblogger had written about this topic yesterday, so I thought I would take a slightly different approach and write about two types of depravity - depravity in extent and depravity in degree. When we say that mankind fell in Adam,...
Realistic Expectations of a Dead Man (11/12/04 - 0 Comments)
The story of Lazarus, found in John 11, is one of the most moving stories we find in the Bible and surely portrays one of the most significant acts of our Lord. There is so much depth in this short story – so much we can meditate upon. It seems each time I read it something new jumps out at me. Having read the story several times this week, I want to share some of...
The Newly Redeemed? (11/11/04 - 0 Comments)
This morning I was reading a book by a very well-known Christian pastor and author (and no, his initials were not R.W.) which discusses Christian leadership. In one section he speaks about a friend of his who has dedicated his retirement years to helping his local church, volunteering on a continual basis and delighting in his ability to do work for God’s Kingdom. The author relates how he once watched the man looking over a...
Book Review - Evangelism & The Sovereignty of God (11/10/04 - 11 Comments)
When it comes to evangelism, it seems that Calvinists have quite a poor reputation in the church today. Most of the largest and seemingly most successful mission organizations were founded by Arminians and continue to be based around Arminian theology. Arminian churches seem to grow much faster than churches based on Calvinist principles. It seems that part of the reason for this is that Calvinists have such a high view of God’s sovereignty that it...
God's Sovereignty & Human Responsibility in Evangelism (11/06/04 - 0 Comments)
For the second time in the past year I am turning to J.I. Packer's small but powerful book Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God. Having read several books on the doctrines of grace, I wanted to make firm in my mind how human responsibility and divine sovereignty interact in the process of evangelism and conversion. I know of no better resource for this than Packer's book. I would like to provide a lengthy quote that...
Book Review - The Doctrines of Grace (11/04/04 - 0 Comments)
There is any number of books available today that serve as introductions to Calvinism or the doctrines of grace. While some of these leave much to be desired, many of them are excellent and do justice to the topic. One might ask, then, why someone would want to write (or read) yet another one, and that would be a fair question. What attracted me to this title is that it was the final book written...
Renaming The Doctrines of Grace (11/02/04 - 1 Comments)
English-speaking Reformed believers have long been taught the acronym TULIP as a memorization aid to the doctrines of grace. In classic Calvinist terminology, the letters stand for: T - Total DepravityU - Unconditional ElectionL - Limited AtonementI - Irresistable GraceP - Perseverance of the Saints Recently many authors and theologians have realized the shortcomings with trying to make theology fit into nice acronyms. In the case of TULIP, several of the terms have not received...
Book Review - Scripture Alone (10/31/04 - 1 Comments)
James White is a Reformed apologist who specializes in defending the faith against the doctrines of Roman Catholics and Mormons – two groups which deny the doctrine of sola scriptura or Scripture Alone. He is uniquely qualified to write such a book as he is intimately familiar with the arguments against the Bible’s sufficiency. The book comes at a time when much of Protestantism has lost sight of this doctrine and has been slowly denying...
Revelation, Inspiration & Illumination (10/06/04 - 1 Comments)
Revelation, inspiration and illumination are three critical concepts for Christians to understand. While most believers are at least vaguely familiar with the concepts surrounding revelation and inspiration, it seems far fewer understand illumination. We will seek to remedy that today. It is important that we keep these concepts apart in our minds. We must not confuse them, for they are in no way synonymous. We will look at revelation and inspiration briefly and then turn...
Book Review - Chosen By God (10/05/04 - 0 Comments)
Since its publication in 1986, Chosen By God has become a classic introduction to Calvinism, for it is clearly one of the best introductions to Calvinism available. R.C. Sproul, ever the theologian but one with a gift for making the complex simple, begins with an introduction to God’s sovereignty and then moves to free will before tackling the 5-points of Calvinism (as summarized in the acronym TULIP). He changes several of the terms, so the...
Book Review - Putting Amazing Back Into Grace (09/25/04 - 1 Comments)
Putting Amazing Back Into Grace is the first book I have read by Michael Horton. It will certainly not be my last. On the cover of the book J.I. Packer declares the book “a breaktaking workout” and his praise is justified. This book points us back to the Reformation and ultimately to the Bible itself as the source of an amazing grace that much of modern Christianity seems to have lost. He presents timeless truths...
Pondering Calvinism (09/09/04 - 1 Comments)
There have been several times over the past few weeks when I have been challenged on my Calvinist theology. People have not been confrontational, but I believe by-and-large have been honestly seeking answers and have asked my opinion on various matters. They generally come from an Arminian background and truly want to discover the truth on matters of God's sovereignty, presdestination and so on. These conversations have given me ample opportunity for reflecting on what...
