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You don't say what it was that he did, but a wise old Puritan (I forget which one!) said that a fallen minister should not return to his post until his repentance became as well-know as the offense.I was thinking it was Charles Spurgeon who said that?
No...He leans toward the Theonomic side of things.
In His book Mission Of God He attempts to look back and sort through what churches have done in trying to understand the law and the Christian.
He knows some of the previous attempts at any kind of theonomy where not thought through well enough, but rather awkwardly thrust forth.
So...he looks to see how we can obey what is indeed written.
I will look to supply some quotes from a few of his books, as time permits.
One of the problems that I am seeing today is a reluctance of some young professing Christians to be baptized. They seem to regard baptism as an optional extra. It isn't, of course; the Scriptures know nothing of unbaptized Christians.
We have a young lady at our church aged 17 who gives every sign of being soundly converted, but who wants to wait to be baptized until ome unspecified time in the future. Apart from disobedience to the Scriptures (eg. Acts 2:38), it means that she can't come into membership and properly under the discipline of the church.
If she was 12 or 13, it might be sensible to wait until adolescence kicked in, but at 17 there doesn't seem any reason to wait.
Is this something you see in the USA?
A significant fraction of believers think God has exhaustively predestined whatsoever comes to pass. We are all like actors on a stage, simply mouthing our words and doing our foreordained actions. But the fly in the buttermilk is that such a viewpoint means we are not responsible for our sinful thoughts and actions as they were foreordained by God and we cannot resist His power to compel.
Thus any system of theology that hold humanity responsible for sin is not a closed theology, but an open, at least partially, theology.
The good news, the gospel of Christ, declares we can be forgiven all the consequences of "our" sin, whether volitional or inadvertent.
Thus to embrace "closed theology" is to deny the very foundation of the gospel.
God is sovereign in that God either causes or allows whatsoever comes to pass. Thus no one is claiming "rogue atoms" are in play.
No verse says God causes all things, thus He allows humans to sin or not, rather than compels their sins by predestining them. When a sparrow falls upon the ground, it does not occur "apart" from the Father. Some add to scripture this means apart from the Father's knowledge, care, will, or allowance. Clearly Matthew 10:29 is vague, so to read into it exhaustive predestination, allows others to read into it allowance.
If a sinner has "free will" then his or her choice to sin or not has not been predestined. Some posters want to have it both ways, God causes everything but we are still responsible for the sin He compels. Utter nonsense.
To embrace "closed theology" is to deny the very foundation of the gospel.
One can be proud of any number of things without them being sin but what Satan took pride in is what made his pride a sin.
Pride leads to a fall Isaiah 14:12-14
I will ascend to heaven
I will raise my throne above the stars of God
I will sit on the mount of assembly
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds
I will make myself like the Most High.'
Lucifer [satan] sought to be better than God and was cast down.
Lucifer fell because of sinful actions brought about by his sinful ambitions. Pride was the reason for his fall.
#37Silverhair, Apr 22, 2024
Lucifer was perfect and sinless up until that very moment. Either by his own will or God's will he puffed himself up to the point where he was transformed into an evil being and recruited a third of heaven to join him in his rebellion (if Revelation 12:4 is to be interpreted that way). From the Calvinist's perspective Adam was decreed to fall because the Son was slain for the redemption of the human race before creation. If Lucifer fell before creation then his fall was either before or after the Son was slain. If it was before the Son was slain then the Son was decreed to be slain because of Lucifer's fall. If it was after the Son was slain then Lucifer was decreed to fall.
#38Baptizo, Apr 22, 2024