Reprobates
THE FAITH PURE, BOLD, PRACTICAL
Fear God,
it is the
beginning
of wisdom.
When you
fear only God
you don't
fear man
(and man's
opinion
of you),
which enables
you
to pursue
wisdom.
What are the conditions of admission into Christ's Kingdom? Simply practical recognition of the authority of the sovereign.
- A. A. Hodge
Posted by c.t. at 7/23/2021
Five solas, doctrines of grace, covenant of redemption (Covenant Theology is not the servant of infant baptism), Traditional Text, King James Version only; doing the two great commandments of Christ at the practical level (i.e. actually doing them); and recovering by degree the full image of God. This is the foundation I stand on and build upon.
ESSENTIAL I ~ II ~ III ~ IV ~ V ~ VI ~ VII ~ VIII ~ IX ~ X ~ XI ~ XII ~ XIII ~ XIV ~ XV ~ XVI ~ XVII ~ XVIII ~ XIX ~ XX ~ XXI ~ XXII ~ XXIII ~ XXIV ~ XXV ~ XXVI ~ XXVII ~ XXVIII ~ XXIX ~ XXX ~ XXXI ~ XXXII ~ XXXIII ~ XXXIV ~ XXXV ~ XXXVI ~ XXXVII ~ XXXVIII ~ XXXIX ~ XL ~ XLI ~ XLII ~ XLIII ~ XLIV ~ XLV ~ XLVI ~ XLVII ~ XLVIII ~ XLIX ~ L ~ LI ~ LII ~ LIII ~ LIV ~ LV ~ LVI ~ LVII ~ LVIII ~ LIX ~ LX ~ LXI ~ LXII ~ LXIII ~ LXIV ~ LXV ~ LXVI ~ LXVII ~ LXVIII ~ LXIX ~ LXX ~ LXXI ~ LXXII
STICK DRAWINGS & DIAGRAMS 1 (Note on 1) ~ 2 ~ 3 ~ 4 ~ 5
--Fuse the Word of God into Memory, Will, and Understanding Prayer and Fasting -- (of --) Acute Warring of the Holy Spirit with the carnal spirit -- (storms struggled through; extending limits to glorify God by doing it when it's most difficult) |
(Short Essay On My Reading History)
The practical, experimental level of the faith (the Puritans called it experimental Calvinism) is for those ready to leave off laying the foundation over and over and begin building the house (see Calvin's commentary on Hebrews 6:1).
Psalms 27:11 Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path...
"God examineth with trials, the devil examineth with temptations, the world examineth with persecutions."
- Henry Smith
"The word of God . . . is the light to our paths, the key of the kingdom of heaven, our comfort in affliction, our shield and sword against Satan, the school of all wisdom, the glass wherein we behold God's face, the testimony of his favour, and the only food and nourishment of our souls."
- Geneva translators, 10 April 1560
"When the heart is cast indeed into the mould of the doctrine that the mind embraceth - when the evidence and necessity of the truth abides in us - when not the sense of the words only is in our heads, but the sense of the thing abides in our hearts - when we have communion with God in the doctrine we contend for - then shall we be garrisoned by the grace of God against all the assaults of men."
- John Owen
"Where the Puritans excelled was at bringing this high view of God
down to the level of ordinary life. One Puritan woman - the wife of a
soldier in Cromwell's army - defined Christianity as
'that universal habit of grace which is wrought in a soul by the
regenerating Spirit of God, whereby the whole creature is designed up
into the Divine will and love, and all its actions designed to the
obedience and glory of its Maker.'
By defining the Christian faith in this way, she was making a
connection between the doctrines of grace and daily experience."
- the Doctrines of Grace,
Boice/Ryken
"Previously, men had looked to the Church for all the trustworthy knowledge of God obtainable, and as well for all the communications of grace accessible. Calvin taught them that neither function has been committed to the Church, but God the Holy Spirit has retained both in His own hands and confers both knowledge of God and communion with God on whom He will."
- B. B. Warfield (from his essay Calvin as a Theologian)
A plain path puritan. That means the faith that is pure, bold, and practical. Five solas. Doctrines of Grace. Covenant of Redemption. Experimental Calvinism. No clericalism, ritualism, formalism, or moralism. The devil's nightmare.
Holy Bible, AV1611
Iliad & Odyssey - Homer
On War - von Clausewitz
Wealth of Nations - Smith
Fourth Way - Ouspensky
Lives - Plutarch
History of the Peloponnesian War - Thucydides
"The fearful are in the forlorn of those that march for hell; the violent and valiant are they which take heaven by force: cowards never won heaven. Say not that thou hast royal blood running in thy veins, and art begotten of God, except thou canst prove thy pedigree by this heroic spirit, to dare to be holy despite men and devils."
- William Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armour
"As among all the doctrines of the gospel, there is none opposed with more violence and subtlety than that concerning our regeneration by the immediate, powerful, effectual operation of the Holy Spirit of grace; so there is not scarce anything more despised or scorned by many in the world than that any should profess that there hath been such a work of God upon themselves, or on any occasion declare aught of the way and manner whereby it was wrought... yea, the enmity of Cain against Abel was but a branch of this proud and perverse inclination."
- John Owen, A Discourse Concerning The Holy Spirit
The antithesis of vanity is: faith. The antithesis of worldly pride is: repentance. The antithesis of self-will is: descent-of-the-dove God's will.
"To fear God only and not man
makes you a dangerous figure on the landscape of the world.
Expect war, and fight like a king."
11 Comments:
I’m coming to believe that God is in meticulous moment by moment direct control over all of it. He creates, upholds and sustains the lot of it.
W.
I don't even watch the news anymore, and it still seeps into my mind, and I lose it. Imagine what S. is going through in Australia! Canada is pretty bad too, though.
Hebrews 1:[3] who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Acts 17:[28] for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.'
Colossians 1:[17] And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
So even things which we might consider antithetical to God‘s nature he uses ultimately for his good purposes.
Philippians 4:6[6] Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; [7] and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
This is the old thing though where you don't want to acquiesce to Satan. What you're saying though us don't be uselessly angry about what's going on. A good, difficult reminder.
That is the Work in Christian language. Don’t become completely identified, remember God is directly controlling EVERYTHING! He is creating, upholding and sustaining it all right down to the last particle. That’s a direct assault on our vanity, worldly pride and self will. We want to be islands unto ourselves, mini Gods relying on our own worldly efforts to please God.
Satan is part of the creation, God created and controls him, he can’t do anything without Gods permission. W.
It's tricky though because you don't want to veer into determinism or Muslim kismet-like fatalism.
God is sovereign in creation, providence, and grace. That covers everything. He is also the first cause. Yet He also operates via secondary causes. That is where we come in. And though God is sovereign we are still responsible. And prayer is meaningful. There is some mystery in this. I think it has to do with infinity. Because since secondary causes can be either determined, contingent, or free this creates a matrix of cause and effect that is infinitely complex. God sees it. It's like 2+2 to Him. He's omniscient. We are not thus our choices are made in a real moral theatre. God knew what Adam would choose, but from Adam's perception it was a real choice.
Given Heb 1:3, Col 1:17, Acts 17:28 it now seems obvious that God determined all things. If he upholds all things moment by moment to the point that should he remove his power everything would instantly disappear, then it becomes obvious he controls everything. That doesn’t mean at the storyline level we don’t make real decisions and choices etc but we have whatever level of control God has determined we have. At the transcendental level he sustains and upholds all things. It really is the only way to make sense of it without appealing to mystery which has always been a problem for Calvinism.
Hebrews 1: [3] who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
If God must be metaphysically disconnected from you when you are sinning then he is not upholding your existence by his power - and that would contradict Hebrews 1:3. Denying that would mean you affirm another ultimate power (a big no no). There is no mystery here. I mean there is mystery in God’s existence, but the bible does speak clearly on all this and doesn’t affirm free will. We can’t have free will if God is to remain sovereign and we don’t want to venture into various forms of deism. -W
A little more - On human responsibility:
Human responsibility is an aspect of creation and is one of the ways God has chosen to make creation.
So God has chosen that people will exist, that they will be given commands, that will obey or disobey those commands - and be held responsible. And whether or not God is in control of all that is irrelevant to what human responsibility is as a concept. It’s nothing more than you being responsible to the commands of God. So there is no contradiction there.
Calvinism teaches that God controls all things, determines all things, purposed all things, planned all things, and that he holds people responsible. Yes, it teaches both are true. People assume (quite wrongly) that responsibility presupposes freedom from God, which would make it a contradiction. God holding people responsible is part of what he’s determined. -W
In my explanation at base I'm recognizing the Creator/creation divide. From God’s point of view His decree plays out as He decrees it. From our point of view the matrix of secondary cause and effect is so infinitely complex that it's almost like a living organism. Anyway the difference is like as a galaxy to a solar system. Different cosmoses.
Appealing to mystery is not a fault of Calvinism. Deut. 29:29. Calvin referenced it often. Rationalism and putting reason on the throne of the Holy Spirit is to be avoided.
One angle on evil no theologian I know of has taken is we have bodies that evil can be inflicted on. Originally Adam was to be glorified after his probation. A glorified body can't be harmed. Also, a world where everyone has what God has can't suffer from theft. This makes evil defunct. But Adam fell, and creation fell as well. So forget free will as an explanation and just talk about these easily harmed bodies and the scarcity if riches in this world.
I meant to say Calvinist theologians often appeal to mystery - in places where they shouldn’t. Sproul at times appealed to mystery and I now believe he was wrong because God in Heb 1:3 tells us that he upholds all things, AND God tells us that he holds us responsible. He can say both because he upholds all things at the transcendental level and determines that he can hold us responsible at the storyline level, where we actually make real choices, decisions and exercise our will. Everything that takes place on the storyline level is also determined by God including the point that our actions, choice and decision are real and meaningful. We like to believe we have our own little live that God knows nothing about where we can get some independence from God. Remember, he upholds everything… This is not rationalism it’s biblical. Nowhere in the bible does it say that just because God determines all things that he can’t hold us responsible. This answers many of the questions that Sproul and others didn’t, they appealed to mystery instead of just stating what the bible actually says and leaving it at that.
Deuteronomy 29 [29] "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
‘but those things which are revealed belong to us’ We should be wary of delving into the mystery’s of God but this isn’t one of them. -W
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