Theology (the Prince of the Sciences): Credenda: Federal Vision 002

I have just completed reading of the first essay in the book, Federal Vision, entitled "Covenant and Election" by John Barach. In this essay, Mr. Barach explores the relationship between covenant and election (thus the title). The big concern for the writer is the pastoral concern for the church member who is struggling with questions like these: "Am I elect? How do I know? Can I really be confident of these things?" And he also wants to address the others who just view election as another theological subject to study, polish, and put back on the shelf. I recommend reading the essay in its entirety to get the whole treatment of the subject.

Lest I find myself compelled to write an essay on the subject myself, I will just confine myself to a few observations and quotes from the essay.

Here is something that caught my eye:
(from p.31-32 of the above mentioned book)

We need to hold three things together as we think about the relationship between covenant and election.

First, God has eternally predestined an unchanging number of people out of the whole world to eternal glory with Christ. We read that from Genesis 1:1 on. We know that from Ephesians 1:11: God "works all things after the counsel of His will."

Second, God's covenant includes some who have been so predestined to eternal glory with Christ, but it also includes others who have not been predestined to eternal glory with Christ but who will apostatize.

Third, God addresses His people as a whole, and that includes each one in the covenant, head for head, as His elect. That is the big issue we need to think through. God, in the Bible, through His prophets and apostles, addresses His people publicly as elect, as chosen.

Now the big question is this: May we speak the language of Scripture? May pastors address their congregations the way Moses and the Psalms and Peter and Paul do, the way that God does? Or maybe the bigger question is this: May we do anything but? Shall we not learn from Scripture how congregations are to be addressed?

If we try to do our theologizing and our pastoring and our speaking to God's people from the perspective of God's eternal predestination we run into all kinds of difficulties with the way God speaks in Scripture. We start to think that God shouldn't talk the way He does, and we don't want to talk that way either.

We are uncomfortable sometimes saying to our churches or to members of our churches or to our children, "God chose you." But God speaks that way. We are uncomfortable sometimes saying to them, "Jesus died for your sins." We start to reason that Jesus died for the full and final salvation of those and those only whom God has predestined to eternal glory in Christ and we don't know with infallible certainty that this child, this church member, this congregation has been predestined.

If we try to work from the perspective of God's eternal predestination, we have trouble saying things to the flesh-and-blood people in our churches that Peter and Paul and the other writers of Scripture had no trouble saying to the churches they addressed.

If we try to do our theologizing, our pastoring, our preaching from the perspective of what God has hidden, on the basis of the secret things of His predestination, we discover that we have a hard time applying not only the promises but also the warnings of Scripture to the real flesh-and-blood people in the pews.

To illustrate how one should preach a passage of scripture such that the emphasis is God's emphasis, I link here the sermon that first gave offense to the departing elder.

My pastor's Sunday evening sermon on the topic of Federal Vision is fairly clear (at least from the middle road position on the issue), and gives an explanation that makes me wonder why the departing gentleman had to do the "I'll take my toys and go home" approach. But we must all love our brothers even if they are mistaken.

We'll have to wait until the sermon is posted on my church's web site so that I can link to it here. When the sermon is posted I'll make an entry linking to it.

Novo Visum.
Neue Ansicht.