This is a copy of a letter I sent to the stated clerk of my Presbytery this morning. To the Stated Clerk: I don’t know if I’m technically required to send this letter, but following the GA’s vote on the Federal Vision study committee yesterday, I thought it would be helpful for the Presbytery if I laid out my views on the specific subjects covered in the study committee report. I am happy to discuss this further with the Presbytery,... Read more
It’s long been a frustration that there are few fora for theological discussion and debate in the PCA. Presbyteries sometimes devote time to such discussion, but that’s too rare. And GA is simply not a place where theological debate can be expected to happen. Yesterday’s debate on the Federal Vision was a case in point. Nearly two hours were devoted to the committee report, but virtually no theological claims were made or disputed. The GA quickly determined that justification by... Read more
During the PCA debate on the Federal Vision, PCA minister David Coffin dismissed NT Wright’s supposed claims to have discovered the gospel that had been hidden for centuries. Coffin found the claim dubious. I am dubious that Wright actually makes the claims that Coffin attributes to him. He claims to have discovered fresh insight into Paul’s letters, but he doesn’t claim, as Coffin implied, that he’s the first ever to understand Paul’s gospel. Leave that to the side. The irony... Read more
How can God respond to prayers, and yet not have a “real” (ie, a reciprocal, dependent) relation with the creation? Perhaps there’s a Trinitarian answer to this: In the creation, God responds to His own work. He makes light, and then He pronounces His work very good. This is not a matter of God patting Himself on the back. Rather, it is arguably the Father approving the work of His Word and Spirit, the two “hands” by which the Father... Read more
Jordan Mark Siverd, Esq., has provided a very careful constitutional evaluation of the FV Study Committee here: http://necdumvidemus.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/fv-memo-final.pdf Read more
INTRODUCTION Matthew 2:13-23 is divided into three episodes, each of which concludes with a statement about events “fulfilling” prophecy (2:15, 18, 23). His movements were mapped centuries before. As the incarnate Word (John 1:1, 14), He is living out the script of the written Word. THE TEXT “Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, ‘Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until... Read more
I suggested at the end of the last post that judaizing and gnosticizing heresies may not be so different. This opinion is supported by JB Lightfoot’s analysis of the letters of Ignatius, which condemn both docetic heretics and judaizing ones, and do so in a way that suggests Ignatius saw them as two sides of the same heresy. Lightfoot specifically analyzes the passages in the letters to the Magnesians and Philadelphians where Ignatius attacks the Jews. (more…) Read more
1 John has sometimes been interpreted as a polemic against a Cerinthian heresy. This rests partly on patristic stories about John’s near-encounter with Cerinthus at a bathhouse, and it implies that the opponents in 1 John are proto-gnostics who teach a semidocetic christology. But patristic critics didn’t only accuse Cerinthus of gnostic teaching. Some described him as a judaizing heretic. (more…) Read more
A few weeks ago, I criticized an article by Cal Beisner and Fowler White for introducing the notion of “merit” into the inter-Trinitarian relations. On reflection and having read some of Joel Garver’s recent discussion of the PCA Federal Vision study report (at sacradoctrina.com), I want to nuance my criticism a bit. If saying that the Son “merits” the Father’s good pleasure in the Spirit means that the Son is worthy of the Father’s love, attention, regard, pleasure, then that... Read more
A few weeks ago, I criticized an article by Cal Beisner and Fowler White for introducing the notion of “merit” into the inter-Trinitarian relations. On reflection and having read some of Joel Garver’s recent discussion of the PCA Federal Vision study report (at sacradoctrina.com), I want to nuance my criticism a bit. If saying that the Son “merits” the Father’s good pleasure in the Spirit means that the Son is worthy of the Father’s love, attention, regard, pleasure, then that... Read more
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