Bolton On Papists And Antinomians … Federal Vision and R2k

“Just as the Papists set up the law for justification, so the Antinomians decry the law for sanctification. We claim to be free from the curses of the law; they would have us free from the guidance, from the commands of the law. We say we are free from the penalties, but they would abolish the precepts of the law. They tell us that we make a false mixture together of Christ and Moses, and that we mingle law and Gospel together. How unjustly they lay this charge against us, let men of understanding judge. We cry down the law in respect of justification, but we set it up as a rule of sanctification. The law sends us to the Gospel that we may be justified; and the Gospel sends us to the law again to inquire what is our duty as those who are justified.”

Samuel Bolton
The True Bounds of Christian Freedom

“Just as the Federal Visionists set up the law for justification so the R2K Antinomians decry the law for sanctification. We claim to be free from the curses of the law; R2K would have us free from the guidance, from the commands of the law. We say we are free from the penalties, but R2K would abolish the precepts of the law. R2K tell us that we make a false mixture together of Christ and Moses, and that we mingle law and Gospel together. How unjustly R2K lays this charge against us, let men of understanding judge. We cry down the law in respect of justification, but we set it up as a rule of sanctification. The law sends us to the Gospel that we may be justified; and the Gospel sends us to the law again to inquire what is our duty as those who are justified.”

Samuel McAtee Bolton
The True Bounds of Christian Freedom
Interpolated Version

The Federal Vision boys are a little more subtle than this alteration of a quote by Bolton which originally had “Papists” for Federal Vision and “Antinomian” for WSC R2K. The Federal vision will often concede that we are not justified by law keeping and then will turn around and with the magic of covenantal nomism say, in essence, “but we do keep our Justification by law keeping,” thus making justification contingent on our performance after being justified. This suggest that the Federal Visionists have not yet become familiar with their sin and how because of our sins even our best of works after Justification need to be imputed with the Righteousness of Christ to be counted as meeting the standard. Contra the Federal Visionists boys we do not obey after our subjective Union with Christ and Justification so as to maintain an otherwise uncertain standing before the Father. We obey after our subjective Union with Christ and Justification from the gratitude that flows from the certainty that despite our being unworthy servants (Luke 17:10) our “obedience” is still accepted for the sake of Christ’s finished work on our behalf.

Both Federal Vision and R2K are poison to the soul of Christ honoring obedience. Federal Vision poisons the soul by corrupting the motivation of obedience. WSC R2K poisons the soul by reducing the necessity for obedience. Federal Vision and R2K are mirror errors. They are to the theological landscape today what Eutychianism and Nestorianism were to the early Church — to wit, two errors that each exist off the existence of the error of the other.

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him. View all posts by jetbrane