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Temporary Forgiveness? – Responding to Dr. Robert Rayburn
Dr. Robert Rayburn (PCA pastor of Faith Presbyterian Church in Tacoma, WA) wrote: Justification – whatever else it is – is the forgiveness of sins. It is perfectly obvious that there is such a thing as temporary forgiveness because the Bible says there is (cf. Num. 14:20 with 1 Cor. 10:5; Ezekiel 16:1-14; Matthew 18:32-34;…
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Leithart and the SJC of the PCA
The Standing Judicial Commission of the PCA has ruled that the Presbytery of the Northwest (PNW) erred with respect to Peter Leithart: The error made by PNW was twofold. First, PNW erred in judging Leithart’s views “to be not out of accord with the fundamentals of our system of doctrine.” Second, PNW also erred in…
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Norma Normans vs. Norma Normata
Scripture is, as they say, the Noma Normans non Normata (the “un-normed norm normer” or more loosely, “The norm of norms that is not normed”). When Scripture is described in this way, the concept is essentially equivalent to Sola Scriptura, as it declares that Scripture the standard according to which all other standards are measured,…
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Cur Deus Homo? Further Response to Horne
Gene Bridges provided the following comments (link) which I have reproduced in part below: As you noted, stating that the Covenant of Grace is in some way “conditional” or “conditioned” on faith does not lead to it being (a) meritorious or (b) pactum merit. Indeed that’s a non sequitur. Turretin (the real one) went over…
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Response to Objections Regarding Merit and the Covenant of Works
In Paul’s epistles to the Romans and Galatians, Paul drives home a message of the futility of works to provide merit, and the need for grace. This message is an important aspect of the gospel, for those who seek salvation through works will perish: Romans 9:31-3331But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath…
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Defending Turretin from the Federal Vision
GreenBaggins has provided a defense of Turretin to misuse by Federal Visionist Mark Horne (link to Greenbaggins). This fits nicely with two previous posts I provided on this blog, one relating to McMahon’s defense of Turretin from FV abuse and another talking about Turretin’s view of the covenant in the garden (which connects to the…
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Turretin Defended Against the Federal Visionists
I recently located Dr. Matthew McMahon’s article entitled, Evangelical Postmodern Diversification, in which he defends against the Federal Visionists’ historical revision. I particularly appreciated his defense of my favorite theologian, Francis Turretin, against the ludicrous charge of Pelagianism. (link) To God be the Glory!
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Covenanters Reject NPP and FV
The American Covenanters (RPCNA) have joined the growing list of conservative presbyterian and reformed churches that have rejected the New Perspective on Paul (NPP) and Federal Vision (FV) theological departures from orthodoxy. R. Scott Clark at Heidelblog reports (link). -TurretinFan To God be the Glory!
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Brazen Committees – Response to Doug Wilson
Doug Wilson, on his own blog, writes: “Establishing committees that are as stacked as a painting on a WWII bomber’s nose is not the way to inspire my confidence. No, I haven’t gotten over the sheer brazenness of that study committee.” (source) I think Doug is missing the point. 1) The study committee wasn’t called…
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Federal Vision Joint Statement – Critique
The first “item” of the Federal Vision Joint Statement is: Our Triune God We affirm that the triune God is the archetype of all covenantal relations. All faithful theology and life is conducted in union with and imitation of the way God eternally is, and so we seek to understand all that the Bible teaches—on…