There is much talk of ‘hyper-Calvinism’ – even though one rarely comes across hyper-Calvinists anywhere in the world. It is like the references to those who are ‘dead orthodox’ while, though they exist, meeting one is a rare encounter. So, there is some ignorance of what are the tenets and consequences of ‘hyper-Calvinism.’
The baggage of Postmillennialism, its predictions of political supremacy, economic prosperity, and cultural victory for the people of God, will not fit through the narrow gate which leads to life.
“One major difficulty in critiquing Theonomy is the diversity of thought within the ranks of Christian Reconstructionists. There is a substantial difference of opinion among ‘Theonomists’ as to the specific application of Old Testament laws.”
Jesus is not abrogating the Sabbath when he claims his authority over it. Rather, by giving a divine interpretation of the Sabbath command, Jesus displays His own authority over His creation.
The fact is that one cannot neatly remove Genesis 1-11 from the biblical organism. It is not like removing scaffolding on a building after a paint job is finished. It is rather like wrenching the head from a living animal.
Modern men and contemporary theologians find it difficult in their minds to reconcile the classical theism of the Christian tradition and the Scriptures with a God who is relational. The fault is in their minds and logic not in classical theism. Paragraph 2 of Chapter 2 has for its explicit emphasis the relations of God to the world and mankind.
It seems to me that there are few things of which the Christian church and, indeed, our society, in general, need more than a return to the majestic view of God taught in the Scriptures and confessed in Chapter 2 of the 1689 Baptist Confession.
Although there are myriads of angels of the LORD, there is only one called “The Angel of the LORD”. The OT usually refers to Him when it speaks of a single “Malak” or messenger, especially under the designation “angel of the LORD” or “angel of God”. This is the messenger we want to focus our attention on in this study. As we will see, He is not a human nor an angelic messenger. Instead, He is a messenger in a category all His own!
The men of the Early Church would have a hard time understanding the separation that has been made in recent years between the preparation for preaching and the church—in particular the pastoral leadership of the church. What might we be able to learn from the post-apostolic patristic age in this regard? How might a study of the Early Church help us move forward with a mentorship-based understanding of preparing a man to preach?
Why does Scripture have authority with the Christian? The Confession answers that is not because of the testimony of any man or church, but because it is the Word of God. Last time we saw that this means that the Scripture is self-authenticating. It does not need the authentication of a supposedly infallible church, because it is itself the infallible Word of God. Rome’s claim to authenticate the Scripture to the Christian (and thus claim final authority over the Christian) is wrong because it usurps the authority of the Word of God over the Christian.