Check your homework

Why should we study the Creeds and Confessions? Guy Waters - RTS professor writes in A Debtor to Mercy Alone: an interview with Guy Waters, part 1:

We don’t place the Standards over the Scripture, of course (WCF 1.10). The Standards and other faithful summaries of Christian doctrine allow us, as a friend of mine once put it, to “check our homework,” to compare our studies in the Scripture with those of competent and recognized students of the same.

I'm also watching a series of lectures on the Federal Vision given at Woodruff Road in February. Dr. Waters is one of the lecturers. He proves his point - the Westminster Confession of Faith allows us to "check our homework" as we look at errors such as the Federal Vision.
One of the complaints at the PCA General Assembly was that the study report on the FV needed more exegesis. But, if the study report is drawing from the Westminster Standards, we can have a level of confidence that a thorough exegesis has been done, unless of course we are looking to amend the Standards. Which may be the question for FV advocates.

June 26, 2007  |  Permalink   |  Comments (0)   |  TrackBack (0)

 

Biblical vs. Systematic Theology

Most of my friends don't have a clue what the Emerging/Emergent Church movement is - but they do share some of the same concerns that the Emerging church has with Reformed/Presuppostional Theology. My friends (and I) like narrative. As Paul Helm points out:

What happens is that in this effort to combine a narrative and a logical approach to theology the narrative approach invariably wins out. Stories are so much more fun than logical deductions and discriminations.

Donald Miller, known for his lived or hated "Blue Like Jazz", and his influence in the Emerging Church movement says in this month's issue of Christianity Today:

"Truth is rooted in story, not in rational systems. The Christian mission is not well served when we speak in terms of spiritual laws or rational formulas. Propositional truths, when extracted from a narrative context, lack meaning. "The chief role of a Christian," he says, "is to tell a better story."

The tension between the two is magnified on both sides - presuppositional apologetics vs. emerging metanarratives. I like Helm's piece because it highlights the strength of Biblical Theology and Systematic Theology.

Yes, I would agree that great minds like Helm and even Miller (in very different ways) probably can't hold the tension between the two. Me, I like my Biblical Theology with a strong dose of Systematics thrown in - my small mind has no problem holding the two as compatible.

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June 1, 2007  |  Permalink   |  Comments (0)   |  TrackBack (0)

 

Ordo Salutis - Circle or Line

In our study of the Westminster Confession we've been sharing our conversion stories. Conversion narratives bring home God's work and grace in saving us. We've used the Ordo Salutis to highlight each part of God's plan of salvation. In doing this we've struggled to narratively explain that regeneration precedes faith, that faith and repentance go together and are two sides of one coin, that justification, regeneration, and effectual call are instantaneous. It all gets rather confusing - but it's important that we see each part - as we relate the whole.
Paul Helm gives a helpful illustration at Helm's Deep::

Let us take an illustration. The ordo salutis (Rom 8.28 etc.) is a sequence, part of the grand narrative of redemption. But the concepts introduced into our understanding of that sequence, and the distinctions between them, between regeneration, conviction of sin, penitence, faith, assured faith, the external call, effectual calling, justification and sanctification etc. are logical distinctions. Do they all also record temporal distinctions as well? Is justification an event? And is sanctification another, coupled to the carriage of justification and pulled along by it? Is the carriage of justification in turn pulled along by the carriage of faith? Where does adoption fit in? Has it to be squeezed in somewhere between regeneration and faith? Or between faith and justification? Or is adoption simply another description of one or more of these elements? And what about union with Christ: is this also part of the temporal sequence of separately-identifiable occurrences? If so, can we find a gap for it, a spare carriage for it to occupy? Is the decree of God, eternally foreknowing the redeemed, also an event?

Later he quotes from Geerhardus Vos:

In Biblical Theology the principle is one of historical, in Systematic Theology it is one of logical construction. Biblical Theology draws a line of development. Systematic Theology draws a circle.

The Ordo Salutis for each of us is a circle with a our line of narrative drawn through it. Helpful illustration.

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