What is 1689 Federalism and how should we respond to it?

What is Covenant Theology? Covenant theology is a particular theological discipline that seeks to understand the unified message of the Bible through the study of the biblical covenants and how they fit together. What is 1689 Federalism? 1689 Federalism is a version of covenant theology held by the majority of Reformed Baptists who produced the London Baptist…

A true knowledge of the covenants is indispensable to a correct presentation of the gospel

Amen and amen! Understanding the distinction between the covenants of works and grace is vital to our understanding of the gospel. Preach it AW Pink. Thanks to Reformed on the web’s blog for highlighting this.

Reformedontheweb's Blog

Sufficient should have already been said to impress us with the weightiness of our present theme, and the great importance of arriving at a right understanding of the divine covenants. A true knowledge of the covenants is indispensable to a correct presentation of the gospel, for he who is ignorant of the fundamental difference which obtains between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace is utterly incompetent for evangelism. But by whom among us are the different covenants clearly understood? Refer unto them to the average preacher, and you at once perceive you are speaking to him in an unknown tongue. Few today discern what the covenants are in themselves, their relations to each other, and their consequent bearings upon the design of God in the Redeemer. Since the covenants pertain unto the very “rudiments of the doctrine of Christ,” ignorance of them must cause obscurity to rest…

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The Christian, the Sabbath and the Law of Moses.

In the first of these reflections on the Sabbath, we considered it in the context of God's creation. If you missed it, you can find it here. In this instalment, we are going to jump ahead to the 4th commandment and think about the Sabbath day in the context of the Law of Moses. It…

A Brief Response to John Piper’s Article on Salvation by Faith Alone.

On September 25th 2017 I began to hyperventilate. This was because of a statement made by one of the most influential Christian pastor/theologians in my life, John Piper. I have read almost everything he has written and listened to hours upon hours of sermons, conference messages and seminars that he has produced. I always knew there were…

The Christian, the Sabbath and Creation.

In order to talk about the application of the Sabbath to the Christian, we first have to see it in its biblical-theological context. When speaking of the Sabbath, most Christians think of the 4th commandment. If this is all that there is to the conversation, it is like watching a snippet from the middle of a…

Matters of First Importance (Part 3)

Having thought about the difficulty of discerning the difference between primary and secondary doctrines, we now turn to consider another related problem... that the distinction between primary and secondary doctrines often gets interpreted as "important" and "non-important" doctrines. At this point, we begin to spiral fairly quickly into the theological abyss. Just because something isn't…

The Mod | It’s The End of the World As We Know It — The Mod | Textual Criticism: What It Is And Why You Need It

I'm sharing this article from Carl Trueman because I think it is terrifyingly insightful. Agree or disagree, this commentary is well worth your time. In Book Three of his work, The Gay Science, Nietzsche begins with a legend of how, years after the Buddha’s death, his shadow, large and terrifying, appeared on the wall of…

Matters of First Importance (Part 2)

Last week we began to think about the Evangelical tendency to categorise doctrines into matters of primary and secondary importance. "Primary" refers to those doctrines that are essential to all Christians everywhere and "secondary" referring those doctrines that are non-essential. In this article, we begin to consider some of the problems arising out of this…

How ‘No Creed But the Bible’ Subverts the Bible

How ‘No Creed But the Bible’ Subverts the Bible https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/no-creed-bible-subverts/ — Read on http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/no-creed-bible-subverts/ I heartily agree with this. It is a concept that is so often misunderstood...and it fits in with the current theme of my blog so I thought it worthy of a repost.

Matters of First Importance (Part 1)

Evangelicalism walks a very fine line between maintaining unity and contending for the faith. It is a joyous and treacherous position to be in. Stray too far to the one side and you fall off the cliff of heresy. Stray too far in the other direction and we find ourselves mixed up in the Colossian…