RickyReformed
Puritan Board Freshman
...letter #1?
Limits of Human Reason
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I have followed with interest the discussion between J. Tuininga, B. Woudenberg, and other brothers from the Protestant Reformed, Liberated, and newly-federating churches. It seems to me that the heart of the issue involved with the Protestant Reformed understanding of the covenant and their rejection of the free offer has not yet been articulated clearly.
It is thought that we who accept the free offer reject logic. The problem, however, is not with logic per se, but rather with the exaltation of finite human reason over the Word of God. We do not hold contradictory views in tension, but we recognize that the richness of biblical revelation must fix human reason within its prescribed bounds. Unbelievers, we know, suppress the truth (Rom. l: 18), making their autonomous reason the arbiter over God. But beyond this extreme lies the possibility that we, even as believers, demand that as finite, sinful creatures we can fit an infinite, incomprehensible God into our logical constructions. This is another, more subtle form of idolatry of reason, which, I concede, most of us are guilty of in one way or another.
The PR's do not see how God can freely offer the Gospel to unbelievers, while simultaneously decreeing them to reprobation. But using identical logic, Arminians do not see how God can freely, "sincerely" uphold His righteous Law, and yet decree that men break it. Or, to put the matter even closer to home, does God really sincerely despise sin in His children? If so, why do they yet sin since God has the power to change this fact? Are His statements about His hatred of sin insincere? Should we mark them with asterisks? What about Adam? Did God decree the Fall? If He did not, then He is not absolutely sovereign. But how could He justly decree the Fall, when Adam was not created corrupt? For that matter, how could Adam fall if he was created upright?
You see, we are dealing with reason both crippled by the Fall, and limited by creaturehood. What may seem contradictory to it may be perfectly consistent, but simply beyond our grasp. A statement that rings of truth in one sense may be untrue in another, and we may have difficulty in distinguishing between those senses. The law of non-contradiction still stands, but we have to concede that we are necessarily limited in our application of it.
Meanwhile, drawing the Protestant Reformed line in the sand, the Declaration of Principles enshrines the refusal to concede such limitations. Or is it enshrined? Woudenberg denies that the PR's have elevated the Declaration to confessional status: "It was not that anyone joining our churches was required to consider this binding of their consciences..." On the other hand, what he does not tell us is that it was made very clear that no man holding to the Liberated view of the covenant would ever hold ecclesiastical office in the PR churches.
Functionally speaking, this means that the Principles were treated as a confessional matter. contortions: Gen, 17:14 now means that the father who fails to circumcise his child has broken the covenant by failing to pass on the sign. In arguing this, Woudenberg writes, after a "close look at (this) leading text," that "the breaking of the covenant is not to be first in it and then out."
Apostasy is impossible. But how can this interpretation stem from a close look at this verse? For it is the "uncircumcised male child" - that is the "person (who) shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant." It is beyond question that the primary covenant-breaker in the text in question is not the father at all, but the child who has not received the sign - "in (the covenant) and then out."
Moreover, Woudenberg's suggestion is in direct contradiction to Hebrews 10, which tells us that he who has broken covenant has "trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which HE WAS SANCTIFIED a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace" (v 29). There is no honest way of escaping the force of these words. The Spirit of grace sanctifies people in the blood of the covenant - and these people are not elect. There is grace, there is sanctification in the covenant ("in it", and there is apostasy ("out". [It should be clarified that covenant judgment visits disobedient children within, and also excommunicated children without. Excommunication itself is, of course, a covenant judgment.] That is not Arminianism, it is not irrational; it is simply the Biblical Doctrine of the covenant, which seems to defy (not deny) logic.
It is not enough to deny the "new hermeneutics." We also must deny any thorough-going rationalism which flattens the textured richness of God's Word for the sake of fitting it into the limited envelopes of our reason. Because of this, we must resist the Protestant Reformed approach to Scripture on these issues. We must be reformed to all of God's Word, in the glorious completeness of its counsel.
Tim Gallant
Sexsmith, AB
[Edited on 4-10-2004 by RickyReformed]
[Edited on 4-10-2004 by RickyReformed]
Title edited by puritansailor
Limits of Human Reason
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have followed with interest the discussion between J. Tuininga, B. Woudenberg, and other brothers from the Protestant Reformed, Liberated, and newly-federating churches. It seems to me that the heart of the issue involved with the Protestant Reformed understanding of the covenant and their rejection of the free offer has not yet been articulated clearly.
It is thought that we who accept the free offer reject logic. The problem, however, is not with logic per se, but rather with the exaltation of finite human reason over the Word of God. We do not hold contradictory views in tension, but we recognize that the richness of biblical revelation must fix human reason within its prescribed bounds. Unbelievers, we know, suppress the truth (Rom. l: 18), making their autonomous reason the arbiter over God. But beyond this extreme lies the possibility that we, even as believers, demand that as finite, sinful creatures we can fit an infinite, incomprehensible God into our logical constructions. This is another, more subtle form of idolatry of reason, which, I concede, most of us are guilty of in one way or another.
The PR's do not see how God can freely offer the Gospel to unbelievers, while simultaneously decreeing them to reprobation. But using identical logic, Arminians do not see how God can freely, "sincerely" uphold His righteous Law, and yet decree that men break it. Or, to put the matter even closer to home, does God really sincerely despise sin in His children? If so, why do they yet sin since God has the power to change this fact? Are His statements about His hatred of sin insincere? Should we mark them with asterisks? What about Adam? Did God decree the Fall? If He did not, then He is not absolutely sovereign. But how could He justly decree the Fall, when Adam was not created corrupt? For that matter, how could Adam fall if he was created upright?
You see, we are dealing with reason both crippled by the Fall, and limited by creaturehood. What may seem contradictory to it may be perfectly consistent, but simply beyond our grasp. A statement that rings of truth in one sense may be untrue in another, and we may have difficulty in distinguishing between those senses. The law of non-contradiction still stands, but we have to concede that we are necessarily limited in our application of it.
Meanwhile, drawing the Protestant Reformed line in the sand, the Declaration of Principles enshrines the refusal to concede such limitations. Or is it enshrined? Woudenberg denies that the PR's have elevated the Declaration to confessional status: "It was not that anyone joining our churches was required to consider this binding of their consciences..." On the other hand, what he does not tell us is that it was made very clear that no man holding to the Liberated view of the covenant would ever hold ecclesiastical office in the PR churches.
Functionally speaking, this means that the Principles were treated as a confessional matter. contortions: Gen, 17:14 now means that the father who fails to circumcise his child has broken the covenant by failing to pass on the sign. In arguing this, Woudenberg writes, after a "close look at (this) leading text," that "the breaking of the covenant is not to be first in it and then out."
Apostasy is impossible. But how can this interpretation stem from a close look at this verse? For it is the "uncircumcised male child" - that is the "person (who) shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant." It is beyond question that the primary covenant-breaker in the text in question is not the father at all, but the child who has not received the sign - "in (the covenant) and then out."
Moreover, Woudenberg's suggestion is in direct contradiction to Hebrews 10, which tells us that he who has broken covenant has "trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which HE WAS SANCTIFIED a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace" (v 29). There is no honest way of escaping the force of these words. The Spirit of grace sanctifies people in the blood of the covenant - and these people are not elect. There is grace, there is sanctification in the covenant ("in it", and there is apostasy ("out". [It should be clarified that covenant judgment visits disobedient children within, and also excommunicated children without. Excommunication itself is, of course, a covenant judgment.] That is not Arminianism, it is not irrational; it is simply the Biblical Doctrine of the covenant, which seems to defy (not deny) logic.
It is not enough to deny the "new hermeneutics." We also must deny any thorough-going rationalism which flattens the textured richness of God's Word for the sake of fitting it into the limited envelopes of our reason. Because of this, we must resist the Protestant Reformed approach to Scripture on these issues. We must be reformed to all of God's Word, in the glorious completeness of its counsel.
Tim Gallant
Sexsmith, AB
[Edited on 4-10-2004 by RickyReformed]
[Edited on 4-10-2004 by RickyReformed]
Title edited by puritansailor