Back to the Reformation

Examining current issues through the lens of the Reformation

[Paramount Church @ParamountChurch]

One of Calvin's most comforting insights is that the believer's good works can never become the foundation of self-confidence before God.

Why? Because our good works are themselves God's gifts.

Quoting Augustine, Calvin writes:

"I do not say to the Lord, 'Despise not the works of my hands.' 'I have sought the Lord with my hands and am not deceived.' But I do not commend the works of my hands, for I fear lest, when Thou lookest upon them, thou mayest find more sins than merits. This only I say, this I ask, this I desire: despise not the works of thy hands; see in me thy work, not mine. For if thou seest mine, thou wilt condemn it. If thou seest thine own, thou wilt crown it. For whatever good works are mine are from thee."

Our confidence is not in our works, but in Christ. Even the good works that follow faith are God's gifts, not grounds for boasting. The Christian's confidence is not in what he has done for God, but in what God has done for him in Christ.

~John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 3.14.20.

[Back to the Reformation @BTTReform]

@PatAbendroth @ColtonYarbro Who cares if Piper repudiates him. Piper can’t even get the Gospel right, which is of a higher issue order. Piper is a false teacher.

[Back to the Reformation @BTTReform]

The so-called Gospel Centered Movement in the early 2000’s was more like the Glawspel Centered Movement.

[Back to the Reformation @BTTReform]

@Phil_Johnson_ Yes, but not of your stripe.

[Back to the Reformation @BTTReform]

@Anderson_Greg_ @jesserandolph_ To be fair, probably the majority of the TMS faculty hold to the ABOC. This is the fruit that Dispensationalism produces. Non- Confessionalism leads to this serious departure. Look at where he’s doing his thesis. It’s a sectarian institution with no serious scholarship.

[Back to the Reformation @BTTReform]

@UcheMaryOkoli Mary calls Jesus her savior in this passage.

My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” (Luke 1:46–47)

[Paramount Church @ParamountChurch]

PSA: Anti–Lordship Salvation is not Easy-believism or the Hodges Free Grace error.

[Back to the Reformation @BTTReform]

@PatAbendroth

[Back to the Reformation @BTTReform]

Congratulations, @RScottClark!!!!!

[Westminster Seminary California @wscal]

After 29 years of teaching faithfully as Professor of Church History and Historical Theology, Dr. R. Scott Clark taught his final class. Class concluded with psalm-singing, and family came to surprise him. We are grateful to God for the decades of service Dr. Clark has given to our campus.

[Back to the Reformation @BTTReform]

@ParamountChurch @DrJackHughes @DrJackHughes
Let’s take your view at face value. What if someone comes to you and tells you that they are struggling in their heart, because they are not satisfied with the amount and quality of the fruit that they see in their life. As a pastor, what would be your response?

[Back to the Reformation @BTTReform]

@DrJackHughes @ParamountChurch What Jack calls the “plain reading” is actually his interpretive framework, not a neutral reading. Nobody reads a text without context or theological assumptions.

[Back to the Reformation @BTTReform]

@ParamountChurch @DrJackHughes Jack’s doctrinal convictions are more akin to Rome. Take the test and if you have enough fruit then you’re a Christian. Nothing about our union with Christ, etc. His view turns works into an instrument. How in the world is this assurance?

[Back to the Reformation @BTTReform]

@ParamountChurch @DrJackHughes would be wise to look at this. Neonomianism is not the answer.

[Back to the Reformation @BTTReform]

🎯🎯🎯

[Paramount Church @ParamountChurch]

Matthew Payne’s summary article provides an important corrective to the modern “tests of life” reading of 1 John:

“1 John is for Assurance, not Testing”
https://t.co/GedYCqfsTs

For Payne’s fuller academic treatment, see: Matthew Payne, “Post-Crisis Assurance and the ‘Tests of Life’ Reading of 1 John,” Reformed Theological Review 80, no. 2 (2021): 133–154.

The central issue in 1 John is not endless introspective self-testing, but the apostolic proclamation of the resurrected incarnate Christ (1 John 1:1–3) in the aftermath of a first-century secession crisis by a group of first-century Jews who departed from the fellowship because they denied that Jesus is the Christ (2:18–23). John writes to assure believers who remain in the apostolic confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (5:13), not to drive tender consciences into perpetual uncertainty.

[Back to the Reformation @BTTReform]

Functional Roman Catholicism is a major problem within the Protestant church.

[Back to the Reformation @BTTReform]

@DrJackHughes So are you saying that this is a checklist, and if you can check this list off you’re a Christian?

[Back to the Reformation @BTTReform]

@DrJackHughes Curious question, would you stake your faith on the age of the earth?

[Back to the Reformation @BTTReform]

🎯🎯🏆

[Paramount Church @ParamountChurch]

For decades, many within dispensational circles, including voices associated with The Master's Seminary, have argued that their literal-grammatical hermeneutic uniquely safeguards biblical authority, while redemptive-historical and Christ-centered interpretation risks speculation and undermines Scripture.

But the historic Reformed tradition has never separated grammatical-historical exegesis from the unfolding history of redemption centered in Christ. The issue is not whether we read the text carefully. The issue is whether we read the Bible the way the Apostles themselves interpreted it (see @RScottClark, "Is There An Apostolic Hermeneutic And Can We Imitate It?" https://t.co/kvUJ9FlTcX).

The New Testament repeatedly interprets the Old Testament Christologically, covenantally, typologically, and redemptive-historically. Christ Himself taught that all the Scriptures testify about Him (Luke 24:27, 44; John 5:39). The Apostles proclaimed fulfillment, promise, shadow/substance, type/antitype, old/new covenant, Adam/Christ, temple fulfillment, priesthood fulfillment, sacrificial fulfillment, and kingdom fulfillment. That is not speculative liberalism. That is Apostolic interpretation.

Dennis Johnson’s excellent book, Him We Proclaim: Preaching Christ from All the Scriptures, directly addresses this very issue. The book explicitly calls preachers back to “apostolic preaching”—preaching that is Christ-centered, redemptive-historical, and grounded in grace. Johnson argues that faithful preaching must set every text within the context of God’s unfolding redemptive plan centered in Christ. That is not a denial of biblical authority. It is an affirmation of the Bible’s own unfolding canonical unity centered in Christ.

Historically, dispensationalism has often operated with a particularly rigid form of literalism that fractured the unity of Scripture, separated Israel and the Church beyond biblical warrant, and obscured the organic unfolding of God’s covenantal purposes in Christ.

And, historically, dispensationalism has hardly been immune from speculation itself. Entire prophetic systems, charts, timelines, geopolitical identifications, parenthetical church-age theories, and highly inferential eschatological constructs have often been preached with enormous confidence. That concern about speculation must be applied consistently, including to highly inferential prophetic and eschatological systems.

Piper’s actual caution was reasonable: do not preach possibilities with the same authority as explicit textual assertions. But statements like this are sometimes used to caricature Biblical Theology itself, as though redemptive-historical preaching weakens biblical authority. In reality, the opposite is true.

A Christ-centered, redemptive-historical hermeneutic does not diminish Scripture’s authority. It recognizes the Bible’s own inspired unity, unfolding progression, and fulfillment in the risen and ascended Christ.

For those interested in a robust defense of Christ-centered, redemptive-historical preaching, Dennis Johnson’s Him We Proclaim: Preaching Christ from All the Scriptures is well worth reading: https://t.co/YTl199Z0DX