De Regno Christi

I don’t believe this discussion has meandered, appearances to the contrary. We began with what deficiency in the Reformed world we thought we were trying to address, and from that beginning we have talked about tradition, ecclesiology, apostasy, sacraments and more. With a few exceptions, we have pretty much covered the waterfront. In this post, [...]

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As a litigator and one who argues in front of people for a living, I think it is important to understand the arguments people make in their rhetorical form in order to clearly see the underlying interests, position, strengths, and weaknesses which those rhetorical forms are intended to advance or protect in the confusing context [...]

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No one doubts that 20th Century Protestant literature was anemic. Sure, we can boast of C.S. Lewis and T.S. Eliot but they were both high church Anglican with anglo-catholic sentiments. Why do Roman Catholics and Anglo-Catholics have such fertile imaginations and why are we so barren? I wonder if the Federal Vision is an attempt [...]

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I have already mentioned that I wonder about FV institutionally or formally. Now I’ll raise the question of tone. Sometimes it doesn’t seem that I can take FV really seriously. Two examples will have to suffice. James Jordan, the pater familia of FV, wants to sing the service but he has no problem admitting to [...]

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Allow me to echo Darryl and Bill’s sentiments that we had hoped to hear from FV folks that their movement was intended, as DG put it, “to be a substantial critique of modernity in favor of ecclesiology and real (though spiritual) church power.” Instead, it has apparently succumbed to the very forces of modernity and [...]

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Peter Darryl and Bill have returned us to the question of what problems in Reformed churches the FV has been trying to fix. I think a central one has to do with the way we treat covenant children. That is to say, though paedocommunion has not been overtly in play during the FV controversy, the [...]

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Darryl has raised the question of whether or not the FV really represents a high ecclesiology. If the need of the hour is a restoration of the doctrine of the church, and if FV types say we are all about that, then isn’t it inconsistent if the FV is spread across denominations and does not [...]

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Topic: The topic to be debated: First, What is the problem in Reformed Christianity that Federal Vision is trying to fix? Second, is it a real problem, and, if so, did/does the FV address it adequately? Finally, if FV is inadequate, what alternative plan for addressing the problem do FV critics propose. I think the [...]

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After over a week of discussion and debate, I am acquiring a better sense of what FV is as an institution. I realize folks like Mr. Jordan want us to go to the substance and forget the form. But those weren’t the rules DRC established going in. I have been looking all along for a [...]

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Peter A background issue in the discussion of apostasy has to do with time, and God’s relation to it. This is what I was getting at in my post last week on election and reprobation, though in retrospect that post was probably premature. Anyway, the apostasy discussion has provoked it again. I argued in that [...]

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