Friday Features : Reformed Theology – 3

Lecture #3 : Scripture Alone

Christians ought to submit to the authority given them by Christ. But what happens when those in authority teach things contrary to the Word of God? Is there a higher court we can appeal to? The answer is yes. The appeal was made in the sixteenth century and the motion still carries. Reformers call this Sola Scriptura. That’s the Latin slogan for Scripture alone. Dr. Sproul teaches us about this in this message entitled “Scripture Alone.”

  

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Examining Dispensationalism

In Evangelicalism today, Dispensationalism is everywhere and in every denomination. It rejects the classic Covenantal understanding of Scripture. Covenant theology and Dispensationalism have many differences. Theoblogy holds to Covenant theology and hence finds it important to present reasons why we reject Dispensationalism.

Dispensationalism is a nineteenth-century evangelical development based on a biblical hermeneutic that sees a series of chronologically successive "dispensations" or periods in history in which God relates to human beings in different ways under different Biblical covenants. As a system, Dispensationalism is rooted in the writings of John Nelson Darby (1800–1882) and the Brethren Movement.[1] The theology of Dispensationalism consists of a distinctive eschatological "end times" perspective, as all dispensationalists hold to premillennialism and most hold to a pretribulation rapture. Dispensationalists believe that the nation of Israel (not necessarily the same as the state of Israel) is distinct from the Christian Church,[2] and that God has yet to fulfill His promises to national Israel. These promises include the land promises, which in the future result in a millennial kingdom where Christ, upon His return, will rule the world from Jerusalem[3] for a thousand years.

Classical dispensationalists refer to the present day Church as a "parenthesis" or a temporary interlude in the progress of Israel's prophesied history.[4] Progressive Dispensationalism "softens" the Church/Israel distinction by seeing some Old Testament promises as expanded by the New Testament to include the Church. However, progressives never view this expansion as replacing promises to its original audience, Israel. [5] In Covenant theology however it is to be noted that the church is not a replacement for the nation of Israel but an expansion of it where Gentiles are "grafted into" the existing covenant community.[6] In other areas of theology, dispensationalists hold to a wide range of beliefs within the evangelical and fundamentalist spectrum.[7]

Though many Evangelicals hold to a dispensational understanding of eschatology, most are unaware of what it teaches as a whole. Here is pastor Steve Garrick with a very good presentation on what Dispensationalism is, followed by an examination of the whole system, with reasons to reject it. 

Dispensationalism  Listen | Download

Footnotes  

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[1]  Blaising, Craig A.; Darrell L. Bock (1993), Progressive Dispensationalism, BridgePoint.,  Pg 10.

[2] Elwell, Walter A. (1984). Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. Baker Book House,  Pg 322.

[3] Ryrie, Charles Caldwell (1986), Basic Theology, Victor Books, Pg 508-509.

[4] Harry A. Ironside. "The Great Parenthesis". "It is the author’s fervent conviction that the failure to understand what is revealed in Scripture concerning the Great Parenthesis between Messiah’s rejection, with the consequent setting aside of Israel nationally, and the regathering of God’s earthly people and recognition by the Lord in the last days, is the fundamental cause for many conflicting and unscriptural prophetic teachings. Once this parenthetical period is understood and the present work of God during this age is apprehended, the whole prophetic program unfolds with amazing clearness."

[5] Mike Stallard. "Progressive Dispensationalism". "some OT promises can be expanded by the NT. However, this expansion is never viewed as replacing or undoing the implications of that OT promise to its original audience, Israel. For example, the Church’s participation in the New Covenant taught in the NT can add the Church to the list of recipients of the New Covenant promises made in the OT. However, such participation does not rule out the future fulfillment of the OT New Covenant promises to Israel at the beginning of the Millennium. Thus, the promise can have a coinciding or overlapping fulfillment through NT expansions of the promise."

[6] Vern Poythress (1986). "Understanding Dispensationalists". section 12. "Now some Jews have been cut off from their place in the olive tree, so that Gentiles might be grafted in. But Jews in their cutting off remain cultivated olive branches, and they can be grafted in again. This is quite consistent with the fact that there is only one holy (cultivated) olive tree, hence one people of God, and one root."

[7]  Blaising, Craig A.; Darrell L. Bock (1993). Progressive Dispensationalism. BridgePoint.,  Pg 13.

Jesus On Justification By Faith Alone

It is contended by some that the Reformers and much of Evangelical Protestantism is based on an unbalanced understanding of Pauline teachings and that the balance would be found only if considerable attention is given to the message of Jesus also. This pitting of Paul’s teachings with Jesus and creating a false dichotomy between them is no longer the sole property of liberals or Catholics, but alarmingly even some well known Evangelicals have made such statements too. 

The Evangelical response to all such attacks is that, if rightly understood, all the teachings of Jesus and Paul are one and the same. The right understanding of the gospels is only possible if one is well versed in the doctrine of Christianity, which is laid mostly, though not exclusively in the Epistles.  The question that is often raised against Evangelicals is regarding their understanding of justification by faith alone. Did Jesus teach that? Did Jesus teach propitiation, imputation and faith alone?

One answer to such queries is this rich sermon by Dr. Albert Mohler Jr., the president of Southern Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky.  Dr. Mohler takes the parable of Jesus in Luke 18:9-14 and teaches how Jesus did teach justification is by faith alone.  The key to understanding how this sermon defends the Reformers’ understanding of justification comes from understanding the meaning of a Greek term, used in the passage.  Outside Reformed circles, this parable is never taught properly. This parable is often misunderstood, or lightly understood.  Often it is just used to teach some moralistic sense of humility  the need for broken-hearted prayer. It is more than an exhortation to prayer and humility; it also deals with our justification.  The passage when exegeted faithfully brings out the gospel in bright colors. It is also noteworthy that it is in this context of justification by faith alone, that true humility is to be understood and practiced.  Dr. Mohler does a fine job, both as an exegete and as a preacher.  Preached on the Reformation Day last year at Capitol Hill Baptist church, this sermon is highly recommended for all Christians.

Reformation Sunday  Listen  |  Download

What is Covenant Theology?

Here is an excerpt of the excellent answer given by Ligon Duncan III PhD, Senior Minister of First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi, to the question of what covenant theology is,

Covenant theology is the Gospel set in the context of God’s eternal plan of communion with his people, and its historical outworking in the covenants of works and grace (as well as in the various progressive stages of the covenant of grace).  Covenant theology explains the meaning of the death of Christ in light of the fullness of the biblical teaching on the divine covenants, undergirds our understanding of the nature and use of the sacraments, and provides the fullest possible explanation of the grounds of our assurance.

To put it another way, Covenant theology is the Bible’s way of explaining and deepening our understanding of: (1) the atonement [the meaning of the death of Christ]; (2) assurance [the basis of our confidence of communion with God and enjoyment of his promises]; (3) the sacraments [signs and seals of God’s covenant promises — what they are and how they work]; and (4) the continuity of redemptive history [the unified plan of God’s salvation]. Covenant theology is also an hermeneutic, an approach to understanding the Scripture — an approach that attempts to biblically explain the unity of biblical revelation.

 When Jesus wanted to explain the significance of His death to His disciples, He went to the doctrine of the covenants (see Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, 1 Corinthians 11). When God wanted to assure Abraham of the certainty of His word of promise, He went to the covenant (Genesis 12, 15, and 17).  When God wanted to set apart His people, ingrain His work in their minds, tangibly reveal Himself in love and mercy, and confirm their future inheritance, He gave the covenant signs (Genesis 17, Exodus 12, 17, and 31, Matthew 28, Acts 2, Luke 22).  When Luke wanted to show early Christians that Jesus’ life and ministry were the fulfillment of God’s ancient purposes for His chosen people, he went to the covenants and quoted Zacharias’ prophecy which shows that believers in the very earliest days of  ‘the Jesus movement’ understood Jesus and His messianic work as a fulfillment (not a ‘Plan B’) of God’s covenant with Abraham (Luke 1:72-73). When the Psalmist and the author of Hebrews want to show how God’s redemptive plan is ordered and on what basis it unfolds in history, they went to the covenants (see Psalm 78, 89, Hebrews 6-10).

“The doctrine of the covenant lies at the root of all true theology.  It has been said that he who well understands the distinction between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, is a master of divinity.  I am persuaded that most of the mistakes which men make concerning the doctrines of Scripture, are based upon fundamental errors with regard to the covenant of law and of grace.  May God grant us now the power to instruct, and you the grace to receive instruction on this vital subject.” Who said this?  C.H. Spurgeon — the great English Baptist preacher!  Certainly a man beyond our suspicion of secretly purveying a Presbyterian view of the sacraments to the unsuspecting evangelical masses.

Covenant theology flows from the trinitarian life and work of God.  God’s covenant communion with us is modeled on and a reflection of the intra-trinitarian relationships.  The shared life, the fellowship of the persons of the Holy Trinity, what theologians call perichoresis or circumincessio, is the archetype of the relationship the gracious covenant God shares with His elect and redeemed people.  God’s commitments in the eternal covenant of redemptive find space-time realization in the covenant of grace. [1]

Footnotes  

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[1]  Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III, What is Covenant Theology, FPC Jackson Sermons.

Meditating on the Glory of Christ

In the 1680s when the greatest theologian of the English speaking world, John Owen was dying, he came up with his last book, a discourse on the glory of Christ. The book is packed with meditations on the glory of Christ – His person, office and grace. In the preface, Owen notes why meditating on the glory of Christ ought be the diligent business of every Christian.  Owen says,

The revelation made of Christ in the blessed gospel is far more excellent, more glorious, and more filled with rays of divine wisdom and goodness, than the whole creation and the just comprehension of it, if attainable, can contain or afford. Without the knowledge hereof, the mind of man, however priding itself in other inventions and discoveries, is wrapped up in darkness and confusion. This, therefore, deserves the severest of our thoughts, the best of our meditations, and our utmost diligence in them. For if our future blessedness shill consist in being where he is, and beholding of his glory, what better preparation can there be for it than in a constant preview contemplation of that glory in the revelation that is made in the Gospel, unto this very end, that by a view of it we may be gradually transformed into the same glory? [1]

When William Payne, the editor of Owen’s book on the glory of Christ, visited him near the end, Owen said to him, “O, brother Payne, the long-wished for day is come at last, in which I shall see the glory in another manner than I have ever done or was capable of doing in this world.” [2] John Owen thus died meditating on the glory of Christ and with a deep and joyful conviction that death is not the termination but the consummation of his enjoyment of Christ.  Owen describes the kind of restful life one would live if meditating on the gospel glories of Jesus Christ is one’s chief delight,

Our beholding by faith things that see not seen, things spiritual and eternal, will alienate all our afflictions, — make their burden light, and preserve our souls from fainting under them. Of these things the glory of Christ, whereof we treat, is the principal, and in due sense comprehensive of them all. For we behold the glory of God himself "in the face of Jesus Christ." He that can at all times retreat unto the contemplation of this glory, will be carried above the perplexing prevailing sense of any of these evils, of a confluence of them all. "Crux nil sentit in nervo, dum animus est in coelo." (One does not feel the pain of the cross when his mind is on heavenly things.) [3]

Footnotes  

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[1]  John Owen, Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ in His Person, Office, and Grace, in The Works of John Owen, vol. 1 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1965), 275.

[2] Peter Toon, God’s Statesman: The Life and Work of John Owen (1971; reprint, Eugene, Ore.:Wipf & Stock, 2005), 171.

[3] John Owen, Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ in His Person, Office, and Grace, in The Works of John Owen, vol. 1 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1965), 278.

Friday Features : Reformed Theology – 2

Lecture #2 : Catholic, Evangelical, and Reformed

In his second lecture Dr. R.C Sproul  moves on to show how Reformed theology is not just a theology but also a systematic theology. At the heart of this systematic understanding of God’s Word is the true knowledge of God.  How one defines sovereignty and how applies that to one’s theology determine all else about what one thinks of God and how He relates to His creatures. Considering this, and how it applies to biblical theology, Dr. Sproul continues this series by examining how Reformed Christianity is Catholic, Evangelical and Reformed in its faith.

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