We had a good full day at the conference today. We began with a prayer meeting and then after breakfast we had another session helpful session on mission with Brooks Buser. After coffee we split into a men's and women's stream. The men's stream was quite demanding as Enoch Adekoya sought to distill parts of his PhD, speaking on Christian nationalism.
In the afternoon a number of us made the short journey to Carey Baptiist Chruch in Moulton, where we were shown a number of items in connection with the missionary William Carey. An interesting time.
Back at the centre we had the prayer and share session and then the second more wide ranging evening session with Austin Walker on particular redemption. There was also a brief exposition of Chapter 7 of the 1689 Confession from Fabio Silva.
Austin Walker
... Certain dangers arise if the Church does not confess and preach particular redemption. If it is not clearly defined, then few will really know what the Bible teaches. If the objection is raised that we are being overly precise and creating unnecessary division among Christians it is because doctrinal precision is not to be eschewed in favour of vagueness and open-endedness. Either Christ died for all men or he died for his people whom he deliberately intended to save. It is not adequate simply to say that salvation is all of grace. The fact is that universal redemption is unbiblical. Follow out its implications and it destroys God’s gospel. Alec Motyer has a fine chapter in a recent book, From Heaven He Came and Sought Her. He expounds the atoning work of the suffering servant found in Isaiah 52:13-53:12. He concludes that the death of the servant was complete and efficacious for his innumerable elect from every nation. In keeping with the rest of the Scripture, Isaiah’s language is such that particular redemption is the only conclusion that can be drawn. At the same time Motyer affirms that redemption in no way inhibits the universal proclamation of the good news and the invitation to God’s salvation. ...
What difference does it make whether we believe in particular redemption? There are several considerations for us in our witness-bearing and preaching. First, we should be full of confidence in the preaching of the gospel as God’s chosen means to save sinners. The preacher should be directly evangelistic and address sinners with warmth and genuine concern for their salvation. Believing in particular redemption should add to his confidence, urgency and intensity as he pleads and invites sinners to come to Christ. Second, and closely related to the first, the preacher should have the utmost confidence in the all-sufficiency of Christ, of his death on the cross and his power actually to save sinners. That will also, thirdly, affect the way that the preacher freely offers Christ, salvation and the forgiveness of sins to all kinds of guilty sinners. There should be no hesitation or reservation in freely offering Jesus Christ to all. He is offering them not the possibility of salvation but the certainty of salvation because as Christ’s ambassador he is offering them the person of the Saviour in all his capacity to save sinners.
However, simply preaching particular redemption, (Calvinistic orthodoxy, if you will), is not enough. We also believe in the power of the Holy Spirit. When Paul went to Thessalonica the gospel came to them ‘not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance’ (1 Thess 1:5). That should become the constant prayer, the longing and expectation of the church of Christ, in every generation. The preacher is totally dependent on God for success in preaching Christ. In his sovereignty, God takes preachers with mistaken views about redemption and the work of Christ and uses them to advance his kingdom in this world.
However, that should not make us think that after all it does not really matter what we believe and preach, that we can be Calvinistic or Arminian. The key question is always, what do the Scriptures teach and how is God to be glorified? In every generation the church of the Lord Jesus Christ needs to be clear in its understanding of the gospel and of the way in which God saves sinners.
My personal conviction is that relegating such matters as particular redemption to the place of non-essential, secondary truth actually undermines the maintaining of the biblical gospel. Brief statements of faith which are not specific about the matters discussed above will do nothing either to promote and maintain the biblical gospel. In fact, they unwittingly encourage a spirit of indifference towards matters of doctrine. Our forefathers drew up confessions of faith for a good reason. They wanted to set out their convictions about the specific teaching of the Bible in as full and clear a way as possible. It has always been a puzzle to me that today’s generation of Christians seems happy to confess less truth than our forefathers. To do that jeopardises the faithfulness and well-being of the church and is in grave danger of detracting from the glory that belongs to God and of providing a platform for the entry of error and heresy.
C H Spurgeon (as quoted by AW)
There is no such thing as preaching Christ and him crucified, unless we preach what is nowadays called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel … unless we preach the sovereignty of God in his dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of his elect and chosen people which Christ wrought out upon the Cross; nor can I comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called.
C H Spurgeon’s Autobiography, 4 vols. (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1899), I:172.
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