+ Creedal Trinitarian, Predestinarian, Confessional, Paedobaptist, Covenantal, Pronomian, Real Presence Sign-and-Seal Means of Grace Sacramentalist, RPWer, Exclusive Scripture Singer, Non-Instrumentalist, Three Marks Ecclesiologian, Presbyterial, Church History Enthusiast, Amillennial, and an Earthly Pilgrim On the Way to the Heavenly City
“How Many Points?” by Dr. Richard A. Muller, P. J. Zondervan Professor of Historical Theology, Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan
In conclusion, we can ask again, “How many points?” Surely there are more than five. The Reformed faith includes reference to total inability, unconditional election, limited efficiency of Christ’s satisfaction, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints, not as the sum total of the church’s confession but as elements that can only be understood in the context of a larger body of teaching including the baptism of infants, justification by grace alone through faith, the necessity of a thankful obedience consequent upon our faith and justification, the identification of sacraments as means of grace, the so-called amillennial view of the end of the world. The larger number of points, including but going beyond the five of Dort, is intended, in other words, to construe theologically the entire life of the believing community. And when that larger number of points taught by the Reformed confessions is not respected, the famous five are jeopardized, indeed, dissolved —and the ongoing spiritual health of the church is placed at risk.
You get the point.
8 thoughts on “Why Every Self-Respecting Reformed Christian Must be a Tuliper…”
Here’s Dr. Kim Riddlebarger’s response to JMac’s “Why Every Self-Respecting Calvinist is a Premillennialist”:
http://kimriddlebarger.squarespace.com/a-reply-to-john-macarthur/
Guess who said this:
“But bottom line here, of all people on the planet to be pre-millennialist it should be Calvinists; those who love sovereign election. Let’s leave amillennialism for the Arminians. It’s perfect! It’s ideal. It’s a no-brainer. God elects nobody and preserves nobody. Perfect! Arminians make great amillennialists. It’s consistent. But not for those who live and breathe the rarified air of sovereign electing grace. That makes no sense. We can leave amillennialism to the process theologians… or the ‘openness’ people… Let’s leave amillennialism to the charismatics in the semi-Pelagians and other sorts of go in and out of salvation willy-nilly; makes sense for their theology…â€.
Was this John Macarthur or Ronald Mcdonald?
@[1309830334:2048:Jeremiah Paul G. Manuel] Hahaha!
@[1309830334:2048:Jeremiah Paul G. Manuel] Beware you might be called a “hater.”
Pastor @[1213080169:2048:Nollie Malabuyo] hehe. I invited the JMac Unida Division for next week. They haven’t replied though. Michael said he might depending on the situation of his father. They just got out of the hospital. I just called him this morning.
What’s an “RPWer”? Or a “Three Marks Ecclesiologian”?
I included all things that the Reformers taught and practiced, which probably none of us can absolutely follow. But only approximate to the best that we can. I couldn’t think of a better term than “Exclusive Scripture Singer” to refer to singing only inspired Psalms and songs in both OT and NT.
Some of these OT songs are: The Song of Moses and Miriam (Exod. 15), Spring up, O well! (Num. 21:17-18), The Mosaic Song of Witness (Deut. 31:19-32:44), The Song of Deborah and Barak (Judges 5), The Song of the Vineyard (Isa. 5:1-7), An Eschatological Song (Isa. 26-27), and The Prayer of Habakkuk (Hab. 3).
Some of the NT songs are: Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55), The Song of Zechariah (Luke 1:67-79), The Angelic Doxology (Luke 2:14), Simeon’s Nunc Dimittis (Luke 2:28-32), A Pauline Christological hymn (Col. 1:15-20), The Carmen Christi (Phil. 2:5-11), A New Song (Rev. 5:9-10; 14:3), The Song of Moses and of the Lamb (Rev. 15:3-4), The Hallelujah chorus (Rev. 19:5-7).
Comments are closed.