by Sam Waldron | May 31, 2022 | Systematic Theology
In this short blog post, we come once more to Chapter 5 of the 1689 which is entitled “Of Divine Providence.” Paragraphs 2-7 of this chapter all address questions raised by the doctrine of divine providence stated in paragraph 1. Greg Nichols put these questions clearly. Paragraphs 2 and 3 answer the question, What difference does it make what I do? Here is the Confession’s answer:
Although in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first cause, all things come to pass immutably and infallibly; so that there is not anything befalls any by chance, or without his providence; yet by the same providence he ordereth them to fall out according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently.
1689 5:2
Here the Confession explicitly confirms that it does matter what we do because God’s providence does not ignore or over-ride second causes and conditions but works through them. Certain actions on our part will have certain results. This is how providence works through second causes and necessary and free conditions.
God, in his ordinary providence maketh use of means, yet is free to work without, above, and against them at his pleasure.
1689 5:3
The main point here is that we must use the means because God ordinarily makes use of means. Thus, again, it matters what we do. Of course, according to the Confession, God’s hands are not tied by such means. He can work without them as in some miracles, above them as in other miracles like the feeding of the 5000 from the contents of the little boy’s lunch, and even contrary to them if he wishes. He can—if He sees good—make iron axe heads float.
Understanding that God controls the world through means should keep us from three things.
- A miserable anxiety and complaining about life–Everything is under the control of the living God. If you believe that, it will keep you from an anxiety and complaining which will make your lifestyle miserable.
- A paralyzing fatalism—What difference does the use of means make? All the difference in the world because God has ordained the means.
- A ruinous presumption—Do not presume that you will see the results and the outcome without using the means. Do not expect that God will save your loved ones unless you pray for them. Do not expect to be safe unless you take precautions. The means to salvation are repentance and faith. The means to profit is labour. The way to heaven is holiness and walking the narrow way.
Another question is commonly raised about God’s providence: If God is in control of all things, how can God blame me for my sins? The answer to this is explained in paragraph 4:
The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God so far manifest themselves in his providence, that his determinate counsel extendeth itself even to the first fall, and all other sinful actions both of angels and men; and that not by a bare permission, which also he most wisely and powerfully boundeth, and otherwise ordereth and governeth, in a manifold dispensation to his most holy ends; yet so, as the sinfulness of their acts proceedeth only from the creatures, and not from God, who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin.
1689 5:4
Though all sinful actions are included in God’s over-ruling providence, the actual sinfulness comes from the creature not from God. The reason is that God’s purpose in the sinful actions is holy, while the purpose of the creature is wicked. The sin is, thus, our fault. God neither authors nor approves of sin.
Dr. Sam Waldron is the Academic Dean of CBTS and professor of Systematic Theology. He is also one of the pastors of Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Owensboro, KY. Dr. Waldron received a B.A. from Cornerstone University, an M.Div. from Trinity Ministerial Academy, a Th.M. from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. From 1977 to 2001 he was a pastor of the Reformed Baptist Church of Grand Rapids, MI. Dr. Waldron is the author of numerous books including A Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, The End Times Made Simple, Baptist Roots in America, To Be Continued?, and MacArthur’s Millennial Manifesto: A Friendly Response.
by CBTSeminary | May 24, 2022 | Announcements
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 24, 2022
CBTSeminary Moving to a New Location in Owensboro, KY
OWENSBORO, Kentucky – Today Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary announced that its host church, Grace Reformed Baptist Church, has closed on an acquisition of new facilities on Frederica St. in the heart of Owensboro, KY.
Due to the tremendous blessing of God over the past 2 years, the church and seminary has outgrown their current facilities. The new building, formerly the meeting place of Ignite 360, will more than double the amount of available space for both the church and the seminary.
“These new facilities provide comfortable space for the programs of both the church and seminary for many years to come,” says Sam Waldron, pastor of GRBC and president of CBTSeminary. “We rejoice in this provision which the Lord has so graciously given to us. We are also grateful that he is planting a ‘banner for truth’ in the heart of Owensboro on the corner of Frederica and the Bypass.”
The church is currently raising the funds needed to complete extensive renovations on the building. They hope to complete the renovations by the first quarter of 2023 and to do so without incurring debt.
In addition to enlarged worship and fellowship space for GRBC, the facilities will feature a lecture hall, increased office and meeting space for seminary administration, an enlarged library, and several additional classrooms.
“We have sought the Lord and He has provided for His people,” said Brice Bigham, director of development at CBTSeminary. “We are excited about the opportunities that this opens for our students, both in Owensboro and abroad. The provision of this facility is a critical step in advancing both the quality and expansion of our programs.”
About CBTSeminary
The vision of CBTSeminary is to see the church of the Lord Jesus Christ strengthened and expanded worldwide, to the end that Christ would be known, loved, and exalted. Its mission, therefore, is help the church to prepare men to undertake the full range of pastoral responsibilities they will face in serving Christ and His kingdom, and to equip Christians for effective service in the church. They do this work by providing rigorous academic training and by facilitating extensive pastoral mentoring.
To learn more about Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary, visit CBTSeminary.org.
CBTS Faculty fully subscribe to the 1689 Confession of Faith, hold an advanced
degree in their field of instruction, and possess significant pastoral experience.
by Jon English Lee | May 24, 2022 | Historical Theology, Systematic Theology
Continuing our series on the Sabbath, this post will look at the thought of the early church father Ignatius of Antioch to see what he thought concerning the Sabbath/Lord’s Day debate.
Ignatius of Antioch
Ignatius was the bishop of Antioch around the beginning of the second century. Most scholars believe that he was martyred under the Roman emperor Trajan around 110 AD. ((Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981), 2/2.435-72. See also Michael W. Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers: Greek texts and English translations (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2007), 170.)) Ignatius wrote his letters while being taken to Rome for his execution. Ignatius wrote one if his letters to the church at Magnesia, a city found in what is now Asia Minor.
Text
Epistle to the Magnesians 9:1. “If, then, those who had lived according to the ancient practices came to the newness of hope, no longer keeping the sabbath but living in accordance with the Lord’s day [μηκέτι σαββατίζοντες ἀλλά κατά κυριακήν ζῶντες], on which our life also arose through him and his death…” ((Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers, 208. ))
Significance
A first significance found in Ignatius’ arguments is the “sharp contrast he draws between ‘sabbatizing’ and ‘living according to the Lord’s Day.’” This is the first time in recorded Christian literature that the matter had been put in such a way. ((Rordorf, Sunday, 261.)) Ignatius is not arguing, as Paul often does, with concern for Gentile freedom from the law. Rather, his words betray a “more thorough-going distinction between Judaism and Christianity.” Furthermore,
The Sabbath, for Ignatius, is the badge of a false attitude to Jesus Christ, while Eucharistic worship on the Lord’s Day defines Christianity as salvation by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is an early witness to the dissociation of Christianity from Judaism which characterizes the second century, and to the wholly negative attitude to Sabbath observance that was the corollary of that. ((Bauckham, “Sabbath and Sunday,” in Carson, From Sabbath to Lord’s Day, 261.))
Ignatius demonstrates the growing tendency for Christians to separate themselves from Jewish customs and advocates a distinctively Christian practice of Lord’s Day gathering.
A second significance is the clear foundation that Ignatius gives for Lord’s Day observance: the resurrection. The church father, less than a generation removed from the Apostles, shows the beginnings of a Lord’s Day theology that will begin to blossom over the coming centuries.
The next post in the series will look at some other figures in church history to see what they thought concerning the doctrine of the Sabbath.
by Sam Waldron | May 17, 2022 | Systematic Theology
In this brief blog post, we come to Chapter 5 of the 1689 which is entitled “Of Divine Providence.” Here is how paragraph 1 of its seven paragraphs reads:
God the good Creator of all things, in his infinite power and wisdom doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures and things, from the greatest even to the least, by his most wise and holy providence, to the end for the which they were created, according unto his infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of his own will, to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, infinite goodness, and mercy.
2LCF 5:1
This is the summary statement of the doctrine of God’s providence. In general everything said in this paragraph and, indeed, in this chapter is the outworking or expression of God’s decree as taught in Chapter 2. This is so because chapter 4 on creation and chapter five on divine providence are intended to tell us how God worked out His eternal decree by the works of creation and providence.
- The author of providence is first emphasized: ‘the good Creator.’ It is crucial that we always recognize the goodness of the sovereign God of providence and never lose faith in that goodness.
- The foundation of providence is next stated: ‘his infinite power and wisdom.’ The God of providence is not only good, but also infinitely powerful and wise. His goodness is not contradicted or arrested by anything in His providence.
- The essence of providence is next stated: ‘uphold, direct, dispose and govern.’ Here is a simple definition of a word and concept increasingly foreign in our day. God’s providence speaks of His complete control of history for working out His eternal purposes
- The objects of providence are next mentioned: ‘all creatures and things, from the greatest even to the least.’ God’s providence is completely universal. There are no “maverick molecules” as R. C. Sproul once said.
- The nature of providence is not fatalistic, impersonal, or amoral. Rather the Confession says that God works out things: ‘by his most wise and holy providence.’ He is wise and holy in all He does in His universal providence.
- The compatibility of providence (with his creation) follows next: ‘to the end for which they were created.’ God does not do crazy stuff with creation. He does not make pigs fly or fish walk on land. His providence deals with His creatures in a way that is according to the purpose for which they were created.
- The determining causes of God’s providence are then identified. They are twofold. God’s mind controls His providence. Thus, the Confession mentions: ‘his infallible foreknowledge.’ God’s will also controls His providence: ‘and the free and immutable counsel of his own will.’ This makes explicit the relation of His providence to His decree.
- The goal of providence is, of course, the highest goal. All is done “to the praise of the glory …” No less and no other goal is conceivable or consistent with who God is.
We may recognize and rest in a divine superintendence of history that controls and directs to a good end every detail of our lives.
Dr. Sam Waldron is the Academic Dean of CBTS and professor of Systematic Theology. He is also one of the pastors of Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Owensboro, KY. Dr. Waldron received a B.A. from Cornerstone University, an M.Div. from Trinity Ministerial Academy, a Th.M. from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. From 1977 to 2001 he was a pastor of the Reformed Baptist Church of Grand Rapids, MI. Dr. Waldron is the author of numerous books including A Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, The End Times Made Simple, Baptist Roots in America, To Be Continued?, and MacArthur’s Millennial Manifesto: A Friendly Response.
by Tom Nettles | May 12, 2022 | New Testament, Practical Theology, Systematic Theology
By the command of Jesus, when those from “all nations” marked out for salvation, come to believe, we are to baptize them. The first mark of confidence that a person has heard with understanding, has confessed with conviction and has believed in his heart that God raised Jesus from the dead is baptism. None else are to be baptized. Not believers and their households but believers only. If households are instructed and also believed, then and then only are households baptized (Acts 16:31-34; 1 Corinthians 1:16; 16:15, 16). None can be a candidate for baptism who does not hear and understand the gospel. None except those who shun any pretensions of personal merit and embrace the surpassing excellence of the righteousness that comes from God by imputation of Christ’s obedience are candidates for baptism. Those who repent unto the forgiveness of sins are the true candidates for baptism.
Baptism shows that they are separated from this world and united to Christ in his redemptive work and to other believers in the community of the redeemed: “All of us who have been baptized … were baptized into his death … [that] we might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3, 4). Every person, not only every land, is a mission field for this presentation of the gospel for this purpose. Wherever in the world we baptize, we testify to the enduring nature of the entire command. Whether we baptize believers here in our home churches or in places with sparse or no Christian preaching, then we confess that all that Jesus said in this command still has authority in all nations. We confess with Watts,
Worthy is He that once was slain,
The Prince of Life that groan’d and died;
Worthy to rise, and live, and reign
At his almighty Father’s side.
By Christ’s command, we testify to the absoluteness of the Christian message by invoking the name of the triune God at the observance of this ordinance on the one professing belief of the gospel. There is no other God but the God who exists eternally in a true and undiluted fellowship of three distinct persons, existing in the same nature. In the covenant of redemption, co-eternal with the purpose, will, rationality, consciousness, and love within the three-personed deity, each divine immutable, all-wise person assumed a fitting aspect (an oikonomia, a plan of distribution of work) of the whole work of redemption (Ephesians 3:9-12). Baptism, therefore, assumes both the eternal purpose and historic operations of each person in order to accomplish this glorious work—”In the name [singular] of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”—that is, on the basis of the singular and simple authority of the triune God. Peter’s statement in Acts 2:38—”in the name of Jesus Christ”—is not stating a formula for baptism. He is restating the authority of the risen Jesus by which baptism in the name of the Trinity is performed. Even so did Paul baptize the disciples of John the Baptist (Acts 19:5) on the stated authority of Jesus and in light of the work of Jesus announced by John as a sign of their reception into the new Israel, the new people of God, the holy nation.
Having been incorporated as a community by baptism, disciples are to be taught “to observe all things.” Paul always saw this as consistent with his ministry. Titus 1:1 condenses this stewardship with the words, “Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior.” His commission was not complete until both the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness had been proclaimed. All of this is an outworking of the covenantal arrangement—immutably, unwaveringly, promised in the trinitarian fellowship—for eternal life for sinners. The “faith of God’s elect” would be established in the context of the proclamation of a number of revealed truths. This saving faith be in full agreement with “their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness.” My next entry will seek to delineate some of the revealed propositions that constitute saving faith and also how such implies the truth that leads to godliness.
Dr. Tom Nettles is widely regarded as one of the foremost Baptist historians in America. He joined the faculty of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary after teaching at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School where he was professor of Church History and chairman of that department. Previously, he taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. He received a B.A. from Mississippi College and an M.Div. and Ph.D. from Southwestern. In addition to writing numerous journal articles and scholarly papers, Dr. Nettles has authored or edited nine books including By His Grace and For His Glory, Baptists and the Bible, and Why I Am a Baptist.
Courses taught: Historical Theology of the Baptists, Historical Theology Overview, Jonathan Edwards & Andrew Fuller.
