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All Sides Claim Calvin As Their Mentor
Sir: Since this newspaper began, debate has continued amongst correspondents as to what true religion entails. It is interesting to note that John Calvin has invariably been put forward as representing all sides in their highly different positions. This is neither surprising nor helpful. Calvin was a second generation Reformer whose works reflect strong Lutheran, Zwinglian, Bullingerite and Bucerian influences in their conflicting aspects. Furthermore, whereas Calvin’s Swiss and Strasburg teachers were men of peace and developed their own theology within their own pastoral duties amongst churches who loved them, Calvin was a man of strife in a frequently rebellious church. The Geneva Council treated Calvin as a foreigner, refusing him citizenship until the latter period of his life. Moreover, Calvin formulated most of his…
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Is Grace Common?
Do you believe in common grace? To answer this question one needs to be able to define what common grace is. Unfortunately, the term means different things to different people. For some common grace describes God’s good gifts or common provisions in nature such as sunshine and rain. Some see it in terms of talents or gifts that lead to human distinction in art, sport or music. Others discern the restraining hand of God holding back human wickedness by conscience and the structures of law, order and civil government; keeping society from deteriorating into anarchy. All things to all men If this was the extent of common grace teaching we could be content, but it does not stop there. Recently, common grace has taken on…
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New Focus Interview On Hyper-Calvinism
Antinomian Hyper-Calvinism Versus The Law And The Gospel A New Focus Interview With George M. Ella Q. The 18th century controversy regarding Hyper-Calvinism and Antinomianism seems to have emerged again in recent years and, although your book William Huntington: Pastor of Providence has been welcomed by many, a few voices maintain that you have opened old wounds and should have let sleeping dogs lie. A. Wounds caused by cries of Hyper-Calvinism have long been open and much salt has been rubbed in them in recent years. The once sleeping dogs of Antinomianism have been barking loudly for all to hear for some time. My aim in reviving Huntington’s teaching on the full Law and the full Gospel, as also my publications on Cowper, Gill and…
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The Articles Of Faith Of A Strict And Particular Baptist Church
Articles Of The Faith And Order Of A Primitive Or Strict And Particular Baptist Church Of The Lord Jesus Christ, Based On The Declaration Of Faith And Practice Of John Gill, D. D., 1720 Anne Askew, Martyred 1846“I am not she that list My anchor to let fall, For every fleeting mist, My hope’s substantial."Gorge Murrell, St. Neots“I may lose all my friends. Well, be it so, if it is God’s will; but I am determined to go to hevane alone, rather than walk in fellowship with any who repudiate His truth, and decline to obey His commandments.”------------------------------- Introduction: Having been enabled, through Divine grace, to give ourselves to the Lord, and likewise to one another, according to the will of God[1], we count it…
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Sabbath-Breaking: A Crime Worthy Of Death?
In Numbers chapter 15 an incident is recounted from Israel’s wilderness wandering. It concerns a man who gathered sticks on the sabbath day, and the high cost of his actions. Today, in Britain, we have completely erased capital punishment from the list of possible sentences for wrongdoing. The ultimate act of retribution, the death penalty, is no longer available to judges even for the most heinous of crimes. Sabbath breaking But in Old Testament Israel this was not the case. There were numerous crimes such as murder, adultery and idolatry that earned the punishment of death. However, there were also other crimes such as disobedience towards parents, gluttony, and sabbath-breaking that equally brought down the wrath of the executioner. In our modern culture in which…
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Banner On Hypers
Letter to the Banner of Truth (not printed) Dear Christian Friends, I was surprised to find myself labeled a Hyper-Calvinist in your February issue with your corollary that I am not amongst those who “confront their hearers with the immediate responsibility of trusting Christ, directly encouraging them to trust him, and appealing to them to do so now!” Naturally, when one starts with a false premise one draws a faulty conclusion. Actually, I abhor Hyper-Calvinism and have aired my views against it in many publications and lectures. I am particularly suspicious of the Supralapsarian kind as found in Calvin’s Institutes, Book III, Chap. XXIII:7 and his Articles Concerning Predestination. I reject Calvin’s studies regarding predestination and election which leave out the covenant of grace and…
