Calvin contra Federal Vision (Galatians 3:11-12)

11. But that no man, is justified by the law. He again argues from a comparison of contradictory schemes. “If we are justified by faith, it is not by the law: but we are justified by faith therefore it is not by the law.” The minor is proved by a passage from Habakkuk, which is also quoted in the Epistle to the Romans. (Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17.) The major is proved by the difference in the methods of justification. The law justifies him who fulfills all its precepts, while faith justifies those who are destitute of the merit of works, and who rely on Christ alone. To be justified by our own merit, and to be justified by the grace of another, are two schemes which cannot be reconciled: one of them must be overturned by the other. Such is the amount of the argument: let us now attend to the separate clauses….

12. And the law is not of faith. The law evidently is not contrary to faith; otherwise God would be unlike himself; but we must return to a principle already noticed, that Paul’s language is modified by the present aspect of the case. The contradiction between the law and faith lies in the matter of justification. You will more easily unite fire and water, than reconcile these two statements, that men are justified by faith, and that they are justified by the law. “The law is not of faith;” that is, it has a method of justifying a man which is wholly at variance with faith.

But the man who shall do these things. The difference lies in this, that man, when he fulfills the law, is reckoned righteous by a legal righteousness, which he proves by a quotation from Moses. (Leviticus 18:5.) Now, what is the righteousness of faith? He defines it in the Epistle to the Romans,

“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved.” (Romans 10:9.)

And yet it does not follow from this, that faith is inactive, or that it sets believers free from good works. For the present question is not, whether believers ought to keep the law as far as they can, (which is beyond all doubt,) but whether they can obtain righteousness by works, which is impossible. But since God promises life to the doers of the law, why does Paul affirm that they are not righteous? The reply to this objection is easy. There are none righteous by the works of the law, because there are none who do those works. We admit that the doers of the law, if there were any such, are righteous; but since that is a conditional agreement, all are excluded from life, because no man performs that righteousness which he ought. We must bear in memory what I have already stated, that to do the law is not to obey it in part, but to fulfill everything which belongs to righteousness; and all are at the greatest distance from such perfection.

In an attempt to find a third way in order to bridge Roman Catholicism with Protestantism and so reunite Christendom a ‘theological movement’ called Federal Vision has creeped upon the Reformed scene. One of the main thrusts of Federal Vision advocates is to equate faith with faithfulness so that being justified by faith alone is equated with being justified by faithfulness alone. Anybody who has been around Reformed Theology will realize that when we make faith in justification mean our faithfulness in sanctification the gospel chicken has been set loose in the legalistic fox coup with the consequent life expectancy being what one might expect of a chicken in a fox coup. Among many of the Federal Visionists there is an inability to realize that in justification Faith does its proper work and shows itself faithful by resting in Christ alone.

Another thrust of many of the Federal Vision ‘theologians’ is to deny the concept of Merit in theology thus reducing or perhaps even eliminating the Biblical legal, forensic and juridical categories that are so front and center when discussing the Theological doctrine of justification. Naturally with the reduction of ‘Merit’ categories (an unfortunate introduction according to many of them brought in by Anselm) there follows a reduction of forensic categories and the emphasis shift naturally from the court-room to the family-room and justification begins to be interpreted far more relationally then it does legally. Among many of the Federal Visionists there is an inability to realize a couple things on this score;

First, in Theologies (such as found in Holiness Churches as one example) where justification is emphasized in relational terms that use the family room as metaphor the legal and forensic dynamics of justification are seldom given their full force. The relational seldom makes room for the judicial because God’s love smothers and suffocates His justice.

Second, Judicial categories can include the relational categories as long as we realize that our High Priest Advocate that speaks before the Father for us is also our Elder Brother. If we keep that in mind then we can continue to properly emphasize both the Judicial and the Relational aspects of Justification with the caveat that the only way to get to the living room is through the court room. We don’t need to soft pedal the forensic aspects of justification such as the Federal Visionists do in order to emphasize the relational aspects.

Another tactic of many Federal Visionists is to deny double imputation. Following in the tradition of John Wesley here, many FV types freely admit that our sin is imputed to Christ but refuse to entertain the notion that Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us. The consequence of single imputation is that while forgiveness eliminates the debt of sin that we owed our creator, what is now required is for the believer to begin to live in such a way where personal righteousness can be accrued that will be acceptable before the Father. Now FV types insist that this lived out righteousness is Holy Spirit wrought and is the consequence of being in Union w/ Christ. The problem with this arrangement though is that the spotlight is taken off of Christ’s Righteousness for us and is placed upon our righteousness for Christ. The doctrine of single imputation granted by our subjective Union w/ Christ subtly shifts the Theological emphasis away from God’s judicial declaration of innocence for the sake of Christ Righteousness and moves the emphasis to how we co-operate with Christ as He works His righteousness us. Whereas in traditional Reformed doctrine what happens subjectively within us (Union w/ Christ) is based upon the Objective work of Christ for us, outside of us, with the Federal Vision movement what happens is that the Objective (The legal declaration of Righteousness in Heaven’s court) is made to be dependent upon what happens within us (our Union w/ Christ). (For those in the know in some respects it really is akin to Osiander’s view of Justification that Calvin combats in his Institutes.)

Another tendency of many Federal Visionists is to toy with the idea of the perseverance of the Saints. Here a real confusion reveals itself by not being able to distinguish between those who fall away who only had the accidents of the covenant and those who have the essence of the covenant. Some have even spoke of temporary justification, which belongs to those who have ‘temporary faith,’ and who were temporarily elect. This then is combined with lectures about initial justification that does not always end up in eschatological justification. (I still haven’t received an answer from any of them if all those who are initially justified are the same set as those who are eschatologically justified.)

The Federal Visionists create all these new categories in order, in their understanding, to take seriously the passages that deal with apostasy and falling away.

Now, having made this mini-critique of Federal Vision we will end by observing that though they royally mess up justification there is much else in this movement that is beneficial (covenantal thinking, theonomy, presuppositionalism, post-millennialism, ecclesiology, sacramentology, etc.) and thought provoking. Further, we will add that many of the enemies of the Federal Vision (The Klineans) have a disease that is every bit as life threatening as what we find in the worst Federal Visionists.

The Reformed Church is being put in a position of having to make a Hobson’s choice where either option yields the equivalent result. Would you like the Arsenic of the Federal Visionists or the Strychnine of the Klinean Radical Two Kingdomists?

What a mess.

Demographics And Death

“Census Bureau figures indicate that non-Hispanic whites– the people who used to be simply referred to as ‘Americans’ — constituted 88 percent of the US population of the US population in 1960. By 1990 they were reduced to 73 percent. By 1990, proportionally, there were fewer European-Americans than in 1790. If trends continue, it is projected that European-descended whites will be a numerical minority in the United States by mid-century (2050).”

Talking about race or ethnicity today has become the great national taboo unless you talk about it in terms of European White Christians accepting the displacement of their unique theology and culture by non-European, non-white, non-Christians. For example, among the PC crowd, it is perfectly acceptable to have a NAACP but it is racist to have a League of the South. For example, among the PC crowd, it is perfectly acceptable for people to vote for somebody solely because He is black (watch the coming South Carolina Democratic primary to see this play out) but it is not perfectly acceptable to vote for somebody solely because they are White. For example, among the PC crowd, it is perfectly acceptable to have a United Negro College fund but people would think it racist odd if people asked for donations for the United Caucasian College fund. For example, among the PC crowd, black people can talk about what it means to be ‘Black and Reformed,’ but let somebody start talking about what it means to be ‘White and Reformed’ and suddenly the conversation is racist.

I have no problem with organizations like the Black Congressional Caucus or Miss Black America, or Laraza or any number of other organizations committed to advance the agenda of any particular ethnic group. My only problem arises when it becomes racist for European, White, Christians to have organizations to promote the advance of their own unique culture.

Like it or not, for all it faults and errors, American culture is the sub-creation of people that were predominantly European, White, and Christian. If you change the demographics of a country you will change its culture. If you don’t like European, White, Christian culture you will think that the eclipse of European, White Christian culture is great and you will work to dilute the demographic makeup of America either by the policy of illegal immigration or by the policy of teaching European White Christian children to embrace non-European, non-White, and Non-Christian culture through the Governmental educational agencies (public schools). If you do like European, White, Christian culture you better wake up to what the near future holds for you and your seed in a new culture created by a new demographic that does not esteem, European-ness, Whiteness or Christianity. Might I suggest a close look at what Robert Mugabe has done to Zimbabwe since European, White, Christian, Rhodesia was demolished.

Now this post isn’t politically correct so I will try to cover myself just a little bit in ending by noting that in 1965 when, under the leadership of Senator Edward Kennedy, these United States crafted new immigration legislation that revoked the immigration policy of 1924 and began the de-Europeanizing, and de-Christianizing of America the National Association of Evangelicals said at the time that increasing ‘diversity,’ as the 1965 legislation did, would undermine American culture.

Evangelical organizations could get away with saying that then. Now no Evangelical organization would dare get close to saying that for fear of being seen as ‘not Jesus loving.’

What changed?

My Roots — Scot-Irish

‘The Scotch-Irish are the most inflexible people in the world when they are right, and the most vexatiously pig-headed and mulish when wrong, on the face of the earth…but while such foolish contentiousness is extremely disgraceful to religion, and no doubt throws the devil into perfect convulsions of sardonic glee, it is consoling to see that the persons really active in the evil-doing are few, and that there are many moderate, forbearing, forgiving Christians, whose pious endurance of these annoyances honors the gospel as much as the conduct of others disgraces it.’

Robert Dabney
Southern Reformed Theologian

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The Reverend Dr. David Macrea, a Scots minister, on a visit to America, interviewed the great commander of the Confederate Forces, General Robert E. Lee, and asked him, “What race do you believe makes the best soldiers?” General Lee answered: “The Scotch who came to this country by way of Ireland.” Dr. Macrea asked him, ” Why do you say that, General?” “Because,” replied this great soldier, “they have all the dash of the Irish in taking a position and all the stubbornness of the Scotch in holding it.”

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“The Scots-Irish came to prize aggressiveness and cunning, and they insisted on choosing their own leaders based on those traits. They developed a distrust of government, which seemed to exist only to burn their homes, seize their property, and kill their kin. And they reserved to themselves the right to judge the laws they lived under and determine whether they would obey them or not.”

Huckabee the Liberal Statist

Tonight I ran into an well informed, articulate and intelligent young man who is home schooled. I am not surprised by his polish for he comes from a good family. His Father is a good man who, like many beguiled homeschoolers, supports Mike Huckabee. There likewise may be some kind of official connection between the family and the HSLDA organization, which would account for why Father and Son are such adamant Huckabee supporters. In the course of the evening I made the comment that Mike Huckabee was a Liberal Statist. The young man hurried over to me and asked me if he could talk to me about my comment. What follows is a paraphrase of our conversation.

Mark — “You know Mike Huckabee is not a Liberal.”

Pastor Bret — “Why sure he is Mark. When you look at his tenure as Governor of Arkansas the tax level went up significantly during his time in office.”

Mark — “But Pastor you don’t understand. Huckabee had to raise taxes in order to attract better teachers to Arkansas since the pay rate for teaches in Arkansas was among the bottom in the United States.”

Pastor Bret — “Mark, I thought your Dad would have taught you that it is wrong for the Government to create make work jobs. Public teaching is nothing but a government works project. If Governor Huckabee was Christian he would have, at the very least, encouraged parents to pull their children out of government schools instead of helping to perpetuate and bolster them by stealing from some people in order to give money to school teachers who are teaching our children with a anti-Christ theology. Increasing pagan teacher’s salaries is no Biblical reason for picking somebody’s pocket through increased taxation Mark.

Mark — “Pastor you don’t understand that one of those tax increases was approved by 80% of the people.”

Pastor Bret — “Mark, if 100% of the people voted to steal from one set of people in order to give the ill gotten gains to another set of people does it make it right for a Governor who claims to be a Christian to support that kind of legislation?”

Mark — “So you don’t think that they should have taken care of their roads?”

Pastor Bret — “Taking care of roads would be one of the legitimate exercises of government Mark. He could have taken the money the State stole from the people to give to teachers and used it for the roads Mark.”

Pastor Bret — “Now let me ask you a question Mark. How can Governor Huckabee not be a Liberal Statist in light of the fact that he wants to pay the state tuition cost for the children of illegal immigrants? Mark, where will the money come from in order to subsidize the education of the children of illegal immigrants? Naturally, it would come from the pockets of citizens of Arkansas who would probably prefer to spend their money on the needs of their own respective families.”

Mark — Silence.

Pastor Bret — “Mark, obviously you’ve looked at the issues and that being so how can you try and insist that Governor Huckabee is not a Liberal Statist when the President for the ‘Club for Growth’ said of him ‘Huckabee’s ten-year economic-policy record as the governor of Arkansas is mixed, at best. His history includes numerous tax hikes, ballooning government spending, and increased regulation.'(?) That sounds like a Liberal Statist by any objective standard.”

Mark — Silence.

Pastor Bret — “Mark, you also have to wonder about the presence as a key adviser on Huckabee’s staff of a high profile member (Richard Haas) of the Council of Foreign relations. I don’t know if you know much about the CFR Mark but it is an organization that is committed to a globalist policy which would result in the eclipsing of American Sovereignty. Certainly that is what we might expect from a liberal Statist.”

Mark — Silence.

Pastor Bret — “Finally Mark you need to keep in mind that Conservatives from Huckabee’s own denomination have said that the Governor never supported conservative causes when he was involved in the Southern Baptist denomination.”

Mark — Silence.

Pastor Bret — “You are well read Mark but you need to go below the surface. Mike Huckabee is a liberal Statist and he is all the more dangerous because he wraps all his policy talk in Jesus clothing. He actually may be the worst candidate in the field right now because so many of his policies are so far away from the Christian faith he is so constantly invoking.

Now, you and your family might want to consider Ron Paul. Congressman Paul is the closest thing to a Christian candidate in the campaign right now and he would be worthy of your support.”

For more detailed information on the perils of Mike Huckabee go to,

http://www.spunkyhomeschool.blogspot.com/

http://www.home-school.com/news/huckabee.html

Reformed Pastor’s Meeting

Victor entered into the small and sparsely furnitured room where the pastor’s meeting was held every fortnight with the wariness of a mongoose that was entering into a cobra’s nest. It wasn’t that the room was full of enemies. The other pastors were jovial and collegial enough — the kind of guys who would be great company on the golf course or at a ball game. No, it wasn’t the pastor’s themselves who were the enemies but rather it was their respective worldviews that often played the cobra to Victor’s mongoose.

Rev. Shirley saw Victor walk in and loudly said, half in jest and all in earnest,

“Well, if it isn’t our resident Gehngis Khan Reformed Theologian.”

“At your service, and looking for bad ideas in order to rape, pillage and burn” Victor replied going along with the metaphor.

The gathered group seemed to get a charge out of the levity and the meeting was soon started under sustained gales of laughter and rich bonhomie.

The Pastor’s gathering usually started by discussing contemporary issue. In this context Rev. Marcuse piped up by observing that, ‘we Reformed people need to realize that there are lots of Christians in other denominations.’

Rev. Marcuse, having gained the floor warmed up to his subject.

“We Reformed people are such theological elitists. We think that God is going to ask everybody who stands before the pearly gates when they die whether or not they were Reformed. We need to make our churches more acceptable to people who are coming out of non-Reformed traditions.”

Having heard the voice of Nag, Victor went into Riki Tiki Tavi mode.

“Well, certainly Herb, God isn’t going to quiz people on whether or not they were Reformed or not but He does put a high premium on His people trusting Christ alone which is the one doctrine that separates us from all those Christians that you just said that we need to make our Churches more acceptable to.”

Rev. Marcuse, who knew more about the sociology behind putting the meat in Church seats then he did about theology hissed at Victor.

“So, are you saying that the Reformed Church alone has the Gospel?”

Victor, laconically replied, that while he did not doubt that, due to felicitous inconsistency, there were many Christians in other Christian faith traditions that in point of fact he did indeed believe that the Reformed Church articulated the gospel with a clarity to which no other denomination came close.

Herb, quickly responded by asking, “I don’t know how you can say that.”

Victor sighed wondering how another Reformed pastor could imply that different denominational theologies were like so many Ice Cream flavors at the local Baskin Robbins, each flavor being superior to another only by way of individual preference but all being equal in terms of portals through which individuals might think about the God of the Bible.

All this galloped wildly through Victor’s mind but he only responded by saying,

“Herb, the Theologies of Arminians, as one example, are seriously messed up. I don’t think we can encourage them by communicating that their theology is anything but messed up.”

The Pastor from Mirks Bay, Rev. Standstill quickly intejected,

“But Victor, my Theology is seriously messed up also.”

Now Victor knew that Brian was just trying to be humble at this point but the idea that humility should serve as masquerade for confidence almost pushed him over the edge.

Victor clenched his teeth and bit his tongue at the same time working at finding a measured response.

“Brian, I appreciate the humility that recognizes that everybody’s theology must be constantly Reforming but to throw that comment into this conversation in such a way as to equalize Reformed Theology with Arminian Theology does a great disservice.”

Victor pressed on,

“Come on y’all, if we can’t be confident enough to insist that Reformed Theology is superior in comparison to those other non-gracious systems of thought then we really have to ask why we aren’t working for the end of Reformed denominationalism. I mean, why should we be distinct in any way if we can’t go around insisting that our Theology is THE Theology? Why not return to our communities and work on merging all of the local Churches into one big mega-Church? Why bother signing the form of subscription if you merely believe that your strawberry theology is only personally preferable to the Assembly of God guy’s chocolate theology?”

Herb Marcuse sniffed contemptuously. He had built his mega church by means of a leveling theology where the ‘cringe factor’ of the Gospel had been largely eliminated. The people that attended Herb’s Church wouldn’t recognize Reformed Theology from Mormon Theology and he intended to keep it that way. Herb avoided words like ‘discipline’ and ‘repentance’ and worked hard to finesse sin issues in the congregation as opposed to confront them and he reckoned that Victor should treat him with the same courtesy.

“Besides,” thought Rev. Marcuse, “Victor will never be anything but a fringe player playing the part of the loose cannon.”

The rest of the group shifted in their leather chairs uncomfortably until Rev. Shirley told a joke about a Methodist Pastor, a Reformed Pastor and a Eastern Orthodox Pastor together on a fishing trip. The punch line was something about the Reformed Pastor not bothering to put bait on his line because he figured that God predestined him to catch fish.

Everybody laughed including Victor who was at the same time wondering why he bothered attending these meetings.