Without further ado...
7) Define the difference between a Calvinist and an Arminian. Do we believe that regeneration precedes faith or that faith precedes regeneration? Is salvation merely possible or has it been accomplished? The island of righteousness idea. Dr. Begg posits that a lot of "Arminian" Christians are just poorly taught or that's the default position. There ensued some discussion of the experiential aspects of salvation.
8) The distinction between preaching and teaching. The latter is the conveying and clarifying of truth; the former requires teaching with added aspects of persuasion, motivation, passion/intensity, exhortation, and application.
9) The origins of the idea of prevenient grace. In the true sense, it's found in Genesis 3. If by this is meant the RCC sense, it comes out of the notion that something is granted in baptism, coming before justification. An infusion of righteousness. But in order to be effective this righteousness requires assent and cooperation. The Arminian view is similar--grace comes not from baptism but from the preaching of the gospel and requires assent and cooperation.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
The Second Q&A Session, Part One
The second hour of question-answering was conducted by Drs. Begg, Ferguson, Lawson, and Sproul fils; Sproul pere was supposed to be the moderator, but it will come as no surprise that he made one or two contributions.
1) What was Calvin's position on the classical arguments for God's existence, or did he think belief in God is basic [meaning foundational or axiomatic]? The implanted knowledge of God, related to his view of men as created in the image of God. It is impossible for man to escape divine revelation, so the knowledge of God is a given. Calvin taught an immediate revelation. Self awareness, per Augustine, brings an awareness of one's contingency and dependence. There is a distinction between proof and persuasion.
2) What does being "reformed" mean? The five solas, especially sola Scriptura, at the heart of which is the saving gospel.
3) How does Calvin's concept of piety differ from John Wesley's sanctification? Sanctification and glorification are tightly linked. Wesley was profoundly influenced by pietism, so have to beware of the excesses of that movement. Calvin placed emphasis on mortification and vivification. Wesley was more inward-focused.
4) Monergism vs. synergism. Sanctification is properly understood as synergistic but this is solely because we are new creations. Our salvation is predicated wholely on Christ and his righteousness. Our works count nothing for our justification but we will be rewarded because of our works. God crowning his own gifts (Augustine).
5) How to deal with a passive congregation with respect to expositional preaching. Recall that the Lord's preaching was not readily received. Reliance on the Spirit. Be faithful and accurate in your presentation of the word and then get out of the way.
6) Did Jesus have the ability to sin? There was no external binding on him to prevent sin, but he could no more sin than the Father can lie. Jesus has no desire to sin. His will is solely to do the will of his Father.
1) What was Calvin's position on the classical arguments for God's existence, or did he think belief in God is basic [meaning foundational or axiomatic]? The implanted knowledge of God, related to his view of men as created in the image of God. It is impossible for man to escape divine revelation, so the knowledge of God is a given. Calvin taught an immediate revelation. Self awareness, per Augustine, brings an awareness of one's contingency and dependence. There is a distinction between proof and persuasion.
2) What does being "reformed" mean? The five solas, especially sola Scriptura, at the heart of which is the saving gospel.
3) How does Calvin's concept of piety differ from John Wesley's sanctification? Sanctification and glorification are tightly linked. Wesley was profoundly influenced by pietism, so have to beware of the excesses of that movement. Calvin placed emphasis on mortification and vivification. Wesley was more inward-focused.
4) Monergism vs. synergism. Sanctification is properly understood as synergistic but this is solely because we are new creations. Our salvation is predicated wholely on Christ and his righteousness. Our works count nothing for our justification but we will be rewarded because of our works. God crowning his own gifts (Augustine).
5) How to deal with a passive congregation with respect to expositional preaching. Recall that the Lord's preaching was not readily received. Reliance on the Spirit. Be faithful and accurate in your presentation of the word and then get out of the way.
6) Did Jesus have the ability to sin? There was no external binding on him to prevent sin, but he could no more sin than the Father can lie. Jesus has no desire to sin. His will is solely to do the will of his Father.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
The Breath of the Almighty: The Holy Spirit
Dr. Alistair Begg, he of Parkside Church in Cleveland and the radio ministry Truth for Life, spoke on the subject of the Holy Spirit. His text was John 16:5-14. This is an inexhaustible subject. It is therefore important to stay grounded within Scripture and stay bound by its limits, for the Holy Spirit has been a subject of great speculation. Note the context of the passage. Jesus explains why it is that he must leave just at the time the disciples need him most.
1) The necessity of Jesus' departure. The Lord emphasizes that he is going back to the Father and this is to the disciples' advantage. If he doesn't go, the Helper/Counselor won't come to them. Think about the cost of all this--everything that will take place between this event and his ascension. In the entire drama of redemption the Spirit is the applicator of all the Father has decreed and the Son accomplished. Who is the one sent as a Helper? Verse 13 says "the Spirit of truth." He is a unique person, not a power or influence, and definitely not an "it." He is one with the Father and the Son, coequal and coeternal. He is sent by both Father and Son. He is never in isolation from the person and work of Christ or the will of the Father. The Spirit is the agent of creation (see Genesis 1) and the author of the new birth (John 3). He is the author of the Scriptures (2 Timothy 3).
2) Another of the same kind of helper who comes alongside. He will be with and in the disciples and will remain forever.
3) When the Spirit comes, he will convict the world. He confronts the sin, he proves the world guilty. The Spirit will convict individuals. All this is to the advantage of the disciples and to all of us who have come along behind them. In verse 12 and following the Spirit comes and will guide them into all truth. He inspired the apostles to write down their witness and guided them in doing so. The activity of the Spirit is also to glorify Jesus. He takes what is Christ's and declares it to Christ's people and through Christ's people. He ever reminds us of our sonship (Romans 8) and works to transform us into the image of Christ, such that when Christ appears we will be like him.
1) The necessity of Jesus' departure. The Lord emphasizes that he is going back to the Father and this is to the disciples' advantage. If he doesn't go, the Helper/Counselor won't come to them. Think about the cost of all this--everything that will take place between this event and his ascension. In the entire drama of redemption the Spirit is the applicator of all the Father has decreed and the Son accomplished. Who is the one sent as a Helper? Verse 13 says "the Spirit of truth." He is a unique person, not a power or influence, and definitely not an "it." He is one with the Father and the Son, coequal and coeternal. He is sent by both Father and Son. He is never in isolation from the person and work of Christ or the will of the Father. The Spirit is the agent of creation (see Genesis 1) and the author of the new birth (John 3). He is the author of the Scriptures (2 Timothy 3).
2) Another of the same kind of helper who comes alongside. He will be with and in the disciples and will remain forever.
3) When the Spirit comes, he will convict the world. He confronts the sin, he proves the world guilty. The Spirit will convict individuals. All this is to the advantage of the disciples and to all of us who have come along behind them. In verse 12 and following the Spirit comes and will guide them into all truth. He inspired the apostles to write down their witness and guided them in doing so. The activity of the Spirit is also to glorify Jesus. He takes what is Christ's and declares it to Christ's people and through Christ's people. He ever reminds us of our sonship (Romans 8) and works to transform us into the image of Christ, such that when Christ appears we will be like him.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
The Holy One of God: The Holiness of Jesus
Dr. Lawson returned to the pulpit, taking Mark 1:21-28 as his text. There is no more dangerous place to be than where truth confronts false or dead religin. Satan is aroused, demons awakened, hell mobilized. There is peace in the house of death and they'd like to keep it that way. But as soon as light shines into the kingdom of darkness trouble begins. The truth is a great threat to Satan. This is where Jesus finds himself in this passage. The synagogue at Capernaum had rules but no relationship with God. The religious crowds were those who most opposed Christ. False, dead relgion was one of his greatest enemies (still is). Jesus here advances directly into one of Satan's strongholds. It was a takeover. Capernaum would become the headquarters of his Galilean ministry. He began to teach in this synagogue with all his considerable talents and authority. His hearers were amazed--the light shines into their darkness and it overwhelms. At this point a man appeared in the synagogue who had an unclean spirit--a demon. "What is there to you and us?" is the literal rendering of what he says. In other words, what do we have in common? Nothing, of course. The demon recognizes how alien Jesus is to him. Actually, there were a plurality of demons. The unclean spirit discloses the identity of Jesus as "the Holy One of God." It recognized Jesus' absolute holiness, a high confession for such unholy lips (James 2:19). Holy in all his ways and being. The phrase is a title for God himself, seen in Isaiah (see also John 6:69). A title of supremacy. God has come down to be among men. Jesus rebuked the demon, perhaps for interrupting his teaching the crowd, and cast it out. His observers were doubly amazed by all this: A new teaching, an authority they'd never heard, and the obedience of demons.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Hallowed Be Thy Name: The Holiness of the Father
Dr. Sinclair Ferguson spoke next, using several verses from John 17 as his text. Verse 11 of this chapter contains the only reference in all of Scripture to "holy Father." This prayer offers a unique window into the heart and mind of Christ, on the eve of his passion and death. It is a most sacred moment. We should approach it with awe and reverence. Recall the opening phrases of the Lord's Prayer--we are invited to use the same language. Jesus here widens the disciples' understanding of the Trinity.
What does it mean for the Lord of glory to say "holy Father?" As the Logos, God the Son ever addresses the Father as holy. "Holy" within the blessed existence of the Trinity can mean purity and intensity but not separation. An intensity of love and fellowship. In his prayer, Jesus voices longing not just to be reinstated to this intensity of love but to have his disciples behold it and share in it. Analogy with human relationships of intimacy. Being is fundamental to doing. John 5:19-20--the Son does nothing of his own accord but only what he sees the Father doing. John 10--Jesus speaks of giving his life for the sheep and says the Father loves him because of his coming death and resurrection. We have been brought into this family. If when we pray we say "our holy Father," then the church is the holy family. Since he is the holy Father he gives his children the Holy Spirit as a surety and seal of identification. He has set his heart on making all of his children like his holy Son and will stop at nothing to accomplish this. Recall how much it cost Jesus to express what he did in John 17.
What does it mean for the Lord of glory to say "holy Father?" As the Logos, God the Son ever addresses the Father as holy. "Holy" within the blessed existence of the Trinity can mean purity and intensity but not separation. An intensity of love and fellowship. In his prayer, Jesus voices longing not just to be reinstated to this intensity of love but to have his disciples behold it and share in it. Analogy with human relationships of intimacy. Being is fundamental to doing. John 5:19-20--the Son does nothing of his own accord but only what he sees the Father doing. John 10--Jesus speaks of giving his life for the sheep and says the Father loves him because of his coming death and resurrection. We have been brought into this family. If when we pray we say "our holy Father," then the church is the holy family. Since he is the holy Father he gives his children the Holy Spirit as a surety and seal of identification. He has set his heart on making all of his children like his holy Son and will stop at nothing to accomplish this. Recall how much it cost Jesus to express what he did in John 17.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
I AM the LORD, There Is No Other
Dr. Sproul officially opened the main part of the national conference by addressing the conference theme, the holiness of God. He stated that he detects a strand running through the great theologians and preachers, who all seem intoxicated with the majesty and holiness of God. His text was Isaiah 45:1-8, which he acknowledged is a "strange" text because it is addressed to Cyrus, who was not yet alive at the time of the prophecy. Israel was in bondage in Babylon. Cyrus was the future king of the Medo-Persian empire that would later defeat Babylon and liberate Israel. In this passage God calls Cyrus his "anointed," which of course is also rendered messiah. God says he will go before Cyrus and empower his armies to lay waste the present powers. Why? That Cyrus may know it is God, the Lord of Israel. All this is done not for Cyrus' sake but for the sake of Israel. Per Calvin, when God closes his holy mouth we should desist from speculation, but Sproul does so anyway with respect to Cyrus' thought when he heard this passage. At first, perhaps he thinks God is proposing a summit meeting, one potentate to another, but God goes on to declare his absoluteness and uniqueness. "Holy" has two common references: God's otherness, the sense in which he is different from his creation; and his purity, which is the sense in which we can obey the command to be holy (the first is incommunicable, as we can't be other than creatures). In the first sense it refers to his transcendent divine nature which we cannot imitate. How to grasp this? Three tools--the way of negation, the way of eminentia, and the way of affirmation. Aseity--God's self-existence. He is the only one who has the power of being in himself. All else is contingent.
[Here Dr. Sproul made his oft-repeated remarks on nothing.]
Aquinas' arguments for God's existence. One is that God possesses necessary being, which is what makes him holy. God is the kind of being who cannot possibly not be. God's being is also logically necessary. We have to take leave of our senses to assume God does not exist, or else from where did everything come?
[Here he told his story about the famous cosmologist and "gradual" spontaneous generation.]
Returning to the Isaiah passage: What does this God do? He creates all that is and provides blessing and curse/judgment.
[Here Dr. Sproul made his oft-repeated remarks on nothing.]
Aquinas' arguments for God's existence. One is that God possesses necessary being, which is what makes him holy. God is the kind of being who cannot possibly not be. God's being is also logically necessary. We have to take leave of our senses to assume God does not exist, or else from where did everything come?
[Here he told his story about the famous cosmologist and "gradual" spontaneous generation.]
Returning to the Isaiah passage: What does this God do? He creates all that is and provides blessing and curse/judgment.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
The First Q&A Session, Part Two
Continuing with the questions...
5) What was Calvin's relation with Martin Luther and Lutherans? In a word, distant. Luther and Calvin probably never met. Calvin acknowledged an enormous debt to Luther but thought there were troubling elements in Luther's theology. Out of respect he took great care to correct without scolding. He had a different relationship with Philip Melancthon but was unhappy that (in his opinion) Melancthon pussyfooted and watered down Luther's stronger predestinarian views. He considered Luther a kind-of spiritual father and had hoped early on that Melancthon would prove a like-minded colleague. There was a bit of a falling-out when Calvin realized that Melancthon would not work for a thorough reformation. He had hoped for greater unity in the various reform movements but was disappointed.
6) What aspects of Calvin's thought should we disregard? The answer on this one was a little fuzzy. The panel began with a side comment that there were two Baptists on the dias, evidently referring to the disagreement over sacramentology. Someone also observed that Calvinism is broader than the famous five points.
7) What was central to Calvin's theology? The ideas represented by the five points (although anacronistic when applied to Calvin) reflect an underlying unity. The influence of the book of Romans. Solid trinitarianism. God himself is the gospel. A very high Christology.
8) Are we guilty of over-revering Calvin? We have to be careful not to be too vigorous in defending the five points, which are often the focus of attacks, thinking the whole of Calvin's teaching is at stake. We all have spiritual geneologies as well as physical geneologies. It is more important that someone have a high view of God, of Christ, and of the Bible than that he self-identifies as a Calvinist. We've come up with labels as shorthand, based on the previous experiences of the church.
9) What are some significant gleanings from Calvin's life and thought? The model of a gospel minister in a local congregation. A model preacher. A teacher who understood the necessity of the people of God learning. The fundamental problem man has is idolatry. Calvin's exposition of the atonement.
5) What was Calvin's relation with Martin Luther and Lutherans? In a word, distant. Luther and Calvin probably never met. Calvin acknowledged an enormous debt to Luther but thought there were troubling elements in Luther's theology. Out of respect he took great care to correct without scolding. He had a different relationship with Philip Melancthon but was unhappy that (in his opinion) Melancthon pussyfooted and watered down Luther's stronger predestinarian views. He considered Luther a kind-of spiritual father and had hoped early on that Melancthon would prove a like-minded colleague. There was a bit of a falling-out when Calvin realized that Melancthon would not work for a thorough reformation. He had hoped for greater unity in the various reform movements but was disappointed.
6) What aspects of Calvin's thought should we disregard? The answer on this one was a little fuzzy. The panel began with a side comment that there were two Baptists on the dias, evidently referring to the disagreement over sacramentology. Someone also observed that Calvinism is broader than the famous five points.
7) What was central to Calvin's theology? The ideas represented by the five points (although anacronistic when applied to Calvin) reflect an underlying unity. The influence of the book of Romans. Solid trinitarianism. God himself is the gospel. A very high Christology.
8) Are we guilty of over-revering Calvin? We have to be careful not to be too vigorous in defending the five points, which are often the focus of attacks, thinking the whole of Calvin's teaching is at stake. We all have spiritual geneologies as well as physical geneologies. It is more important that someone have a high view of God, of Christ, and of the Bible than that he self-identifies as a Calvinist. We've come up with labels as shorthand, based on the previous experiences of the church.
9) What are some significant gleanings from Calvin's life and thought? The model of a gospel minister in a local congregation. A model preacher. A teacher who understood the necessity of the people of God learning. The fundamental problem man has is idolatry. Calvin's exposition of the atonement.
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