A Union with Christ Launch Pad

For those desiring to learn more about the Reformed doctrine of union with Christ, this post by Justin Taylor will prove helpful: Union with Christ: A Crash Course

The links to Richard Gaffin and Sinclar Ferguson's lectures alone make paying the link a visit worthwhile, not to mention the link to Phil Gons' website which contains a wealth of bibliographical information!

Jared Oliphint opines that Dr. Gaffin's upcoming book, By Faith, Not By Sight, will be released in Kindle format and I am certainly looking forward to that. In the meantime, I got myself Marcus Peter Johnson's One with Christ: An Evangelical Theology of Salvation.

Rage On!

In his trademark wit and humor, Dr. D. G. Hart responds to Justin Taylor's newest inveighing against "angry Calvinists" here (labeling Driscoll as clairvoyant was like fly on flypaper!).

***I had to take down the Heidelblog-derived content at the request of Dr. Clark***

Dr. Carl Trueman exhorts us to rage where rage is required:

And, while it may salve the surprisingly sensitive aesthetic consciences of some to convince themselves that our critiques are simply in bad taste, nothing more than the routine rants of rabid Reformed rottweilers, this is simply not the case.....Rather, we do what we do because we simply refuse to allow to go unchallenged the received mythology concerning the evils of Reformed Orthodoxy; we do what we do because we love the Reformed faith as much as we dislike shoddy historical writing; we do what we do to make our own small contribution to criticism of the bland aesthetic tastes of modern evangelical theology; and, above all, we do what we do because to remain silent at such a time as this would be to abdicate our moral responsibility to the church. In short, we do it because it is right for us to do so. The light may well be dying, but we will rage, rage against it; and be assured, we will never go gentle into that good night. (Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light, WTJ 70 [2008]: 18)

Westminster Wednesday: Trueman on Bog Standard Evangelicalism

The idiom, "bog standard," is of British origin, essentially meaning "ordinary." As an adjective to the term, "evangelicalism," it gains a positive connotation.

Carl Trueman writes:

"Now, I am a confessional Presbyterian, but at my core I am what, to use British idiom, we would call a bog-standard evangelical, nothing fancy, someone with a central commitment to what the seventeenth century divines would have called 'fundamental articles:' prosaic, simple stuff like the Trinity, the Chalcedonian definition, justification by faith, penal substitution, bodily resurrection, final judgement etc. Just your standard theological meat and potatoes - no doctrinal equivalents of your poncey ciabattas or effeminate moccacino espressos."

Hidden Treasure

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field (Matt. 13:44).

I liken my having embraced confessionally Reformed theology, piety, and practice to the circumstance of the man in the parable of the hidden treasure. Both of our experiences entail having found riches beyond the worth of everything we possessed at the time, a consideration of the ignoble nature of our lot, a refusal to allow the chance of gain to escape, and the giving up of garbage for gold.

Make no mistake about it, the process was not easy. It could not have been. As the selling of everything the man had involved utmost joy, so must it have been laced with pain—pain brought on by the stepping out of his comfort zone, pain through the chastisement of the people in the periphery who thought that perhaps his sanity had taken a leave of absence, all sorts of pain. And yet it would have been a lot more painful had he not seized the prize! The heart had been captured and relenting was not an option.

Many in broad evangelicalism, and most of these of the younger ilk, are finding the expression of the Christian faith in their churches to be barren, hollow, shallow, and devoid of faithfulness to Scripture, especially after having come into contact with the historical and confessionally Reformed one. Even though raised in that consumer-driven paradigm, the allure of truth is stronger and they now find themselves at a crossroads. The man in the parable of the hidden treasure has much to say to them. Sell and buy! Leave error and enter into truth! Though it may cost you your comfort and the esteem of family and friends, leave that apostate church for the confessionally Reformed one. If it is the treasure of a catholic faith rooted in the doctrinal integrity reclaimed by the Reformation that you seek, this you shall find.

What Does "Evangelical" Mean?

"...'Evangelical' (a term so controversial that the entire annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in 2001 was devoted to 'Defining the Boundaries of Evangelicalism'). In this work I will be no more precise when defining Evangelical than to mean the theology and practice considered orthodox by a consensus of the heirs of the Reformation. In addition to the Reformation doctrines commonly known as the solas, this definition would include the divine inspiration of the sixty-six books of the Bible, the deity of Jesus Christ, the necessity and sufficiency of His life and death as an atonement for sinners, and the imperative of the new birth in order to have eternal life."

- Donald S. Whitney, Defining the Boundaries of Evangelical Spirituality (A Paper Presented on November 15, 2001 at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society)