This is blog number six in the series on why I am not a dispensationalist. In short, as I hope has become clear, I believe dispensationalism to be based upon an inadequate hermeneutic which leads to unbiblical theological conclusions. In my previous blogs, I outlined why a dispensational hermeneutic and the dispensational view of Israel and the Church as two separate people of God are both in error. In my last blog, I explored the implications of moving away from these two di

Let me remind you of where we have come now that we are 5 blogs into this series. In my previous blogs, I outlined why a dispensational hermeneutic (point 1), the dispensationalist view of Israel and the Church as two separate people of God (point 2-3, 6) and the place ethnic Israel is given in God’s eschatological program (point 5) are all in error. In this blog, I want to explore the implications of moving away from dispensationalism and its core values. It is not easy to l

In my last two blogs, using Christ’s Prophetic Plans as my guide, I outlined why a dispensational hermeneutic (point 1) and why a dispensationalist belief in a hard distinction between Israel and the church (points 2, 3, 6) are in error. In this article, I will show that the dispensationalist view of the restoration of ethnic/national Israel (point 5) is also in error. Before we get too far I want to remind you, once again, that there are several different flavours of dispens

In my last blog, I outlined why a dispensational hermeneutic is in error. In this article, I will show that the dispensationalist view of Israel and the church (point 2-3, 6) as two separate peoples of God is also in error. As stated before I will be using Christ’s Prophetic Plans as my primary, but not only, source for dispensational arguments as it is a popular and easily accessible text written by the faculty of The Master’s Seminary and edited by John MacArthur. Before we

In my last blog, I left you hanging. I stated, quite boldly, that I am not a dispensationalist but did not give any reasons as to why. This blog and the next 3 or 4 will outline those reasons. As a covenant theologian and non-dispensationalist, there are a few beliefs that I do not hold which have become somewhat mainstream in North American Evangelicalism. For example, I do not believe that God has two peoples with two distinct covenantal relationships with him such that the

We have begun a sermon series on Revelation which will last until mid-June. We are only into chapter 2, but I’m sure it has already become evident that my understanding of eschatology (end times) and my reading of Revelation is not the typical reading that we are bombarded with in mainstream Evangelicalism. Most of us are used to hearing about the end times from the mouths or pens of people like David Jeremiah (Agents of the Apocalypse; Is This the End?); John Hagee (Earth’s

In the previous post I articulated 5 reasons why we, as a Reformed Church, practice credobaptism (CB) and, therefore, do not baptize infants. The simple reason is that we do not believe it to be a practice that is mandated in Scripture. Here are 4 more reasons why we do not practice paedobaptism (PB). [Note: many of my arguments have been gleaned from a myriad of sources. I am particularly indebted to work done by John Piper, Sam Storms and the volume edited by Thomas Schrein

It is clear that the New Testament teaches believer’s baptism. This is such a plain reality that both credobaptists (those who practice only baptism upon confession of faith; hereafter CB) and paedobaptists (those who also practice the baptism of the children of believers; hereafter PB) recognize this fact. Both sides agree together that we are to preach “believe and be baptized” and extend that baptism to those who have made a profession of faith. The Bible is perfectly clea

In the simplest of terms the doctrine of irresistible grace, or better effectual calling, points to the clear biblical reality that Christians cannot take credit for their salvation. Since we are totally depraved and totally unable to come to Christ on our own, we are in need of outside help to do so. Those who come to faith in Christ are not more intelligent, more spiritually aware or religiously harder working people than those who don't come to faith. God's grace alone is

There is no doubt that, other than unconditional election, limited atonement is the Reformed doctrine of salvation with which people struggle the most. This is usually the case because people don't fully understand how Scripture presents the work of Christ and what it actually accomplished. The Doctrine Properly Understood Limited atonement is derived from Scripture which states that the death of Christ actually accomplished salvation for the elect rather than making salvatio

'Election'... 'Predestination'... say these words to a room full of Christians and many of them begin to feel very uneasy, if not outright contempt. (Technically these are slightly different theological concepts, the latter being broader than the former, but we will use these terms synonymously in this post). These terms should not bring this kind of reaction. They are, after all, biblical concepts. Nobody can say they don't believe in election and predestination for the simp

All Christians believe, or at least should believe, in the sovereignty of God. Listen to people pray and they confirm that belief. People pray for God to have his hand in everything from weather, to protection, to health and strength, to wisdom, to the changing of someones heart and mind, to the salvation of another persons soul. In the way we think about and pray about the stuff in our lives, from the simple to the complex, we all believe that God is in control and that he i

How are people saved? The answer to this question is pretty simple and is agreed upon by most Protestant Christians - we are saved by faith alone in the work of Christ alone. But ask a follow-up question - Why is one person saved, and another person is not? - and the disagreements fire up pretty quickly. Let's take the example of Sven and Goren. They have a mutual friend, Fredrick, who is a believer and who has witnessed to them faithfully over the course of their lives. Sven

My students know that I have two tenets which guide my scholarship and theological thinking; and I demand that it guides theirs as well. Ironically, both were gleaned from an Arminian (at least he got these two things right). Before you say "I disagree" you must say "I understand" - So many Christians err on this one. They disagree with things they have no idea about. They may have heard from someone about Reformed theology (hereafter RT), and the person they heard it from ma

We have covered the nature of Reformed theology (hereafter RT) - it's history and theology - over the last number of blogs. Now I want to explore why it is a such a beautiful thing. The following is a list of realities that highlight what makes Reformed theology so wonderful and imminently practical. It has a rich history - RT beliefs were held in the church from its earliest days. The great Augustine (late 300's) articulated the foundations of RT soteriology and theology pro

Let's start by making sure we understand one important point. There is a difference between Reformed theology and Reformed soteriology (doctrine of salvation). They are not mutually exclusive, but they are different. Reformed soteriology is a part of Reformed theology, but the latter is broader, and includes, but is not limited to, the former. When most people think of Reformed theology, they think of sovereignty, Calvinism, TULIP, predestination / election, or something lik

It is time for us to take a deeper look into the theology part of Reformed theology. By now I hope we realize that Reformed theology is much deeper than simply the '5 points of Calvinism', or predestination or simplistic ideas like that. It is an ancient, rich and deep faith that is based on centuries of biblical exegesis, biblical theology and systematic reflection. As a result of its commitment to exegesis, Reformed theology embraces the 5 solas of the Reformation - Scriptu

The Reformed view of the Bible is simple. We believe that the Bible is inspired by God, infallible, inerrant, authoritative, sufficient, unified, necessary, useful, singular in truth and powerful. God does not continue to speak today, since the canon is closed, but he illuminates his word through the work of his Holy Spirit to make us alive in Christ as we deepen our understanding of Scripture. Our bibliology informs our reading of Scripture and church practice. It is why we

Before we get into the details of Reformed theology, I want to debunk a few of the stereotypes, misnomers and flat out errors that have a tendency to pop up whenever Reformed theology is mentioned. People have a tendency to fear that which they don't understand, or to oppose that which they only know via stereotypes and unfair and biased characterizations. This whole series of blogs is intended to waylay those fears. We begin this series by dealing with a few general statemen

What's in a name? A lot actually. A simple reference to the name of something will bring to mind the thing itself, or at least a persons experience and understanding of that thing. For example, say the word 'dog' and, in my mind, my Chocolate Lab and my Beagle immediately pop to mind; as well as feelings of happiness, love and excitement. But if you owned, say, a German Shepherd, or a Chihuahua, it would be those dogs that came to mind, not a Lab or a Beagle and probably the