As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
As presented to the Council on Dispensational Hermeneutics, September 16, 2020, with the title The Biblical Origin of Individual Civil Liberties, and Two Competing Views on Their Legitimacy and Implementation.
“The latest research reveals several doctrines evangelicals get wrong including the alarming fact that nearly two-thirds of respondents (65%) say Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God….some churchgoers are either misinformed or lazy when it comes to their theology—being easily swayed from sound doctrine by doctrine that only sounds correct.” - F&T
“The works of Bavinck are enjoying a new day in the sun, and now comes a highly anticipated volume that ushers the multifaceted man himself into the light: James Eglinton’s Bavinck: A Critical Biography. Eglinton, senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, is well-equipped to write such a book, and we corresponded about this new biography.” - TGC
“Gender confusion. …Experience-driven hermeneutics. …Personality-centered ministry. … Biblical [in]sufficiency.” - GARBC
Read the series.
Some object to the exegetical and theological conclusions above. On the basis of texts like Psalm 115:3, they argue that God’s desires must be coterminous with God’s decrees. That is, all that God desires he must decree. Or, all that God decrees exhausts all that God may desire. Accordingly, they impose one or more of the following limitations on the text.
Unlike you and me, God has both the power and prerogative to bring all his desires to fruition. “Our God is in the heavens,” declares the psalmist, “he does all that he pleases” (Ps. 115:3). Nevertheless, the Sovereign God of all creation has not chosen to fulfill every one of his wishes he has disclosed to us.
“In a recent op-ed for The Washington Post, Michael Gerson critiques those who prize ‘authenticity’ and uncensored ‘passion’ over self-control and contemplative restraint. He contrasts two philosophical systems, one reliant on Aristotelianism, the other derived from Jean-Jacques Rousseau.” - Amer. Conservative
“Our disagreement on finer points of theology should not tear apart our unity in the Gospel,” Greear said. “Calvinism is never an issue to me…. I can assure you that what is not biblical is sitting around bickering about finer points of theology when people are lost and going to Hell.” - CPost
“But his method of restoring ‘sacred words’ to our common vocabulary runs the risk of redefining them.” -CToday
Read Part 1.
There are all kinds of philosophies which the Christian should avoid. The Apostle warns,
See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. (Col. 2:8)
Discussion