The Biblical Idea of Conversion. Definition
The Characteristics of Conversion
The Different Elements in Conversion
The Psychology of Conversion
The Author of Conversion
The Necessity of Conversion
Relation of Conversion to other Stages of the Saving Process
Scriptural Terms for Faith
Figurative Expressions Used to Describe the Activity of Faith
The Doctrine of Faith in History
The Idea of Faith in Scripture
Faith in General
Faith in the Religious Sense and Particularly Saving Faith
Faith and Assurance
The Roman Catholic Conception of Faith
The Scriptural Terms for Justification and Their Meaning
The Doctrine of Justification in History
The Nature and Characteristics of Justification D. The Elements of Justification
The Sphere in which Justification Occurs
The Time of Justification
The Ground of Justification
Objections to the Doctrine of Justification
Divergent Views of Justification
The Scriptural Terms for Sanctification and Holiness
The Doctrine of Sanctification in History
The Biblical Idea of Holiness and Sanctification
The Nature of Sanctification
The Characteristics of Sanctification
The Author and Means of Sanctification
Relation of Sanctification to Other Stages in the Ordo Salutis
The Imperfect Character of Sanctification in This Life
Sanctification and Good Works
The Doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints in History
Statement of the Doctrine of Perseverance
Proof for the Doctrine of Perseverance
Objections to the Doctrine of Perseverance
The Denial of this Doctrine Makes Salvation Dependent on Man’s Will
PART FIVE
THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH AND OF THE MEANS OF GRACE
THE CHURCH
Scriptural Names of the Church and the Doctrine of the
Scriptural Names for the Church
The Doctrine of the Church in History
The Essence of the Church
The Many-sided Character of the Church
Various Definitions of the Church
The Church and the Kingdom of God
The Church in the Different Dispensations
The Attributes of the Church
The Marks of the Church
Different Theories Respecting the Government of the Church
The Fundamental Principles of the Reformed or Presbyterian System
The Officers of the Church
The Ecclesiastical Assemblies
The Source of Church Power
The Nature of this Power
Different Kinds of Church Power
THE MEANS OF GRACE
The Idea of the Means of Grace
Characteristics of the Word and the Sacraments as Means of Grace
Historical Views Respecting the Means of Grace
Characteristic Elements in the Reformed Doctrine of the Means of Grace
Meaning of the Term “Word of God” in This Connection
The Relation of the Word to the Holy Spirit
The Two Parts of the Word of God Considered as a Means of Grace
The Threefold Use of the Law
Relation Between the Word and the Sacraments
Origin and Meaning of the Word “Sacrament”
The Component Parts of the Sacraments
The Necessity of the Sacraments
The Old and New Testament Sacraments Compared
The Number of the Sacraments
Analogies of Christian Baptism
The Institution of Christian Baptism
The Doctrine of Baptism in History
The Proper Mode of Baptism
The Lawful Administrators of Baptism
The Proper Subjects of Baptism
Analogies of the Lord’s Supper among Israel
The Doctrine of the Lord’s Supper in History
Scriptural Names for the Lord’s Supper
Institution of the Lord’s Supper
The Things Signified and Sealed in the Lord’s Supper
The Sacramental Union or the Question of the Real Presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper
The Lord’s Supper as a Means of Grace, or Its Efficacy
The Persons for Whom the Lord’s Supper Is Instituted
PART SIX: THE DOCTRINE OF THE LAST THINGS
Eschatology in Philosophy and Religion
Eschatology in the History of the Christian Church
The Relation of Eschatology to the Rest of Dogmatics
The Name “Eschatology.”
The Contents of Eschatology: General and Individual Eschatology
INDIVIDUAL ESCHATOLOGY
The Nature of Physical Death
The Connection of Sin and Death
The Significance of the Death of Believers
Different Connotations of the Term “Immortality.”
Testimony of General Revelation to the Immortality of the Soul
Testimony of Special Revelation to the Immortality of the Soul
Objections to the Doctrine of Personal Immortality and Modern Substitutes for It
The Scriptural View of the Intermediate State
The Doctrine of the Intermediate State in History
The Modern Construction of the Doctrine of Sheol-Hades
The Roman Catholic Doctrines Respecting the Abode of the Soul After Death
The State of the Soul after Death One of Conscious Existence
The Intermediate State not a State of Further Probation
GENERAL ESCHATOLOGY
The Second Coming a Single Event
Great Events Preceding the Parousia
The Parousia or the Second Coming Itself
Premillennialism
Postmillennialism
The Doctrine of the Resurrection in History
Scriptural Proof for the Resurrection
The Nature of the Resurrection
The Time of the Resurrection
The Doctrine of the Last Judgment in History
The Nature of the Final Judgment
Erroneous Views Respecting the Judgment
The Judge and His Assistants
The parties that will be judged
The Time of the Judgment
The Standard of Judgment
The Different Parts of the Judgment
The Final State of the Wicked
The Final State of the Righteous
DOGMATICS IN GENERAL Reformed
THE SEPARATE LOCI Theology
It is not necessary to say much about the nature of the work, as it has been before the public for more than fifteen years and has been widely used. And if the work may continue to be a blessing in many sections of the Church of Jesus Christ, it will only increase my knowledge of the abundant grace of God.
PART ONE
THE DOCTRINE OF GOD THE BEING OF GOD
The Existence of God
Man's religious consciousness replaced the Word of God as the source of theology. He does not deal with the doctrine of God in a coherent way, but only in a fragmentary manner, and concludes his work with a discussion of the Trinity.
Jesus said, "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself," John 7:17. For since the world through the wisdom of God did not know God through its wisdom, it pleased God through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believed," I Cor.
There are several false conceptions of God in our day, which involve a denial of the theistic conception of God. Because of the evil that is in the world, He must be considered limited in knowledge or power, or in both.
- The Knowability of God
This is the one he mainly leans on in his attempt to prove the existence of God. What was Kant's criticism of the arguments of speculative reason for the existence of God.
At the same time, it is claimed that man can acquire a knowledge of God which is completely sufficient to realize the divine purpose in man's life. And if this is true, it follows that religion presupposes the knowledge of God in man.
To have such a knowledge of God would be equivalent to comprehending Him, and that is quite out of the question: "Finitum non possit capere infinitum." Furthermore, man cannot give a definition of God in the true sense of the word, but only a partial description.
S ELF - REVELATION THE P REREQUISITE OF ALL K NOWLEDGE OF
- Relation of the Being and Attributes of God
The Reformers rejected the dualism of scholasticism and sought a synthesis of God's dual revelation. 11-127; Dickie, Revelation and Response, Warfield, Calvin and Calvinism (Calvin's Doctrine of the Knowledge of God).
It has also been pointed out that the Bible speaks of the nature of God in II Pet. The two ideas derived from these passages appear repeatedly in theology as indications of the Being of God.
Apart from the revelation of God in His attributes, we have no knowledge of God's being. The question is therefore not about the possibility of knowing God in the incomprehensibility of his being, but whether we can know God when he enters into relationships with the world and with us.
- The Names of God
Attributes are real designations of the Divine Being or, in other words, qualities found in God's Being. And since they are essential qualities, each of them reveals to us an aspect of God's Being.
From what has been said about the name of God in general, it follows that under the name of God we can not only include the appellative with which it is designated as. Bavinck bases his division of God's names on this broad conception of them and distinguishes between nomina propria (proper names), nomina essentialia (essential names or attributes) and nomina personalia (personal names such as Father, Son and Holy Spirit).
This is the name by which God appeared to Abraham, the father of the faithful, Ex. The exclusive character of the name is evident from the fact that it never occurs in the plural or with a suffix.
- The Attributes of God in General
While the plural tsebhaoth is used for the hosts of the people of Israel, the army is often referred to in the singular. In such cases the name is an expression of the special theocratic relationship in which God stands to Israel.
E VALUATION OF THE T ERMS U SED
The only real way to obtain completely reliable knowledge of the divine attributes is through the study of God's self-revelation in the Scriptures. In the theology of revelation we try to learn from the Word of God what the attributes of the Divine Being are.
S UGGESTED D IVISIONS OF THE A TTRIBUTES
- The Incommunicable Attributes
It can be said that such a treatment does not result in a unity and harmonious conception of the divine attributes. What objection is there to the conception of the attributes as parts of God or as additions to the Divine Being.
God as the Absolute Being)
- T HE S ELF -E XISTENCE OF G OD
- T HE I MMUTABILITY OF G OD
- T HE I NFINITY OF G OD
- T HE U NITY OF G OD
- The Communicable Attributes
God's infinity is God's perfection, whereby He is free from all limitations. In this sense of the word, God's infinity is simply identical with the perfection of his divine being.
God as a Personal Spirit)
The Lord not only says that God is a spirit, but that he is spirit. Paul speaks of him as "the King eternal, immortal, invisible" (1 Tim. 1:17), and again as "King of kings and Lord of lords, who only has immortality, dwelling in an unapproachable light; whom no one has seen or can see; to him be glory and eternal power," I Tim.
I NTELLECTUAL A TTRIBUTES
It is called necessary knowledge because it is not determined by the operation of divine will. This faithfulness of God is of extreme practical importance to God's people.
M ORAL A TTRIBUTES
Another important aspect of God's goodness and love is His mercy or tender compassion. Finally, God's holiness is also revealed in the Church as the body of Christ.
A TTRIBUTES OF S OVEREIGNTY
- The Holy Trinity
At present we are primarily concerned with the will of God as the capacity for self-determination. The first is the will of God's decree, which is largely hidden in God, and the second is the will of the commandment, which is revealed in the law and the gospel.
The Arminians, Episcopius, Curcellæus, and Limborgh, revived the doctrine of subordination, chiefly again, it seems, to maintain the unity of the Godhead. For some time, interest in the doctrine of the Trinity waned, and theological discussion centered more specifically on the personality of God.
The Old Testament therefore contains a clear expectation of a more complete revelation of the Trinity in the New Testament. The existence and functioning of the three persons in the divine being is marked by a certain order.
The work of the Holy Spirit includes the following in the natural realm: (1) The generation of life. Of even greater importance is the action of the Holy Spirit in the field of salvation.
THE WORKS OF GOD
The Divine Decrees in General
One and all reject the doctrine of absolute predestination and replace it with a conditional predestination. Modern liberal theology does not deal with the doctrine of predestination, as it is fundamentally anthropological.
S CRIPTURAL N AMES FOR THE D IVINE D ECREES
The Pope mentions the doctrine of predestination only in passing, but Miley introduces it as a question for discussion. Raymond discusses only the doctrine of election, while Watson devotes considerable space to it in considering the scope of the atonement.
God's decree, in turn, is the basis of his free knowledge or scientia libera. That which is essential to the interior of God cannot form any part of the content of the decree.
This means that it does not depend in any of its details on anything that is not part of the decree itself. It is customary to speak of God's decree respecting moral evil as permissive.
O BJECTIONS TO THE D OCTRINE OF THE D ECREES
- Predestination
But it is now widely recognized that such freedom of the will is a psychological fiction. In the present discussion it is used mainly in the last sense, but not entirely to the exclusion of the second meaning.
By the end of the Middle Ages, it became very clear that the Roman Catholic Church would allow a great deal of leeway in the doctrine of election. In churches of the Arminian type, the doctrine of absolute predestination has been supplanted by the doctrine of conditional predestination.
S CRIPTURAL T ERMS FOR P REDESTINATION
Both decisions meet within the same individual, but in such a way that, viewed from the human side, man is always opposed, but viewed from the divine side, he is always chosen. The words always refer to man's predestination to a certain purpose, and it is clear from the Bible that the end may be either good or evil, Acts 4:28; Ephesus.
In these words, the attention is drawn to the fact that God presents a definite plan for Him to which He steadfastly sticks. Christ was the object of election in the sense that (1) a special love of the Father, distinct from His ordinary love to the Son, rested on Him from all eternity, I Pet.
The decree of election: (1) Is an expression of God's sovereign will, His divine good pleasure. That the glory of God is the supreme purpose of the electing grace is made very emphatically in Eph.
S UPRA - AND I NFRALAPSARIANISM
- Creation in General
So this means that the decree regarding the fall of the angels is part of their predestination. She is inclined to deny, explicitly or implicitly, that it is merely an act of God's good pleasure.
And soon theologians engaged in various efforts to harmonize the doctrine of creation with the teachings of science and philosophy. 1:1,2 and the secondary creation of the following verses; and still others, that the days of creation were actually long periods of time.
S CRIPTURAL P ROOF FOR THE D OCTRINE OF C REATION
He strongly defended the doctrine of creation ex nihilo, but distinguished two moments of creation: the production of matter and spirits from nothing, and the organization of the material universe. The Reformers held firmly to the doctrine of creation from nothing by a free act of God in or in time, and regarded the days of creation as literally six days.
God himself or, more specifically, the will of God is the cause of the world. The question of the final end of God in the work of creation has been frequently debated.
D IVERGENT T HEORIES R ESPECTING THE O RIGIN OF THE
It is true that in so doing, He would also cause the heavens to declare His glory, and the firmament to show His handiwork, the birds of the air and the beasts of the field to magnify Him, and the children of men to sing His song. the praises.
W ORLD
Creation of the Spiritual World
As for the time of creation of the angels, the prevailing opinion was that they were created at the same time as the material universe. The former thought that the knowledge of angels is purely intuitive, but the latter claimed that it can also be discursive.
Eighteenth-century rationalism boldly denied the existence of angels and explained what the Bible teaches about them as a kind of refuge. No one who bows to the authority of God's Word can doubt the existence of angels.
The good angels are also immortal in the sense that they are not subject to death. 4. THEY ARE PART GOOD AND PART EVIL. The Bible provides very little information about the original state of the angels.
He may be one of the seven angels who are said to stand before God in Rev. The name Michael (literally: "who if God?") has been interpreted as an indication of the second person of the Trinity.
From the fact that he is called "the archangel" in Jude 9, and from the expression used in Rev. The passages in Daniel also point to the fact that he is a prince among them.
- Creation of the Material World
2:2, where he is called "the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience." He is superhuman, but not divine; has great power, but is not omnipotent; exerts influence on a large but limited scale, Matt. Like the good angels, the fallen angels also possess superhuman power, but their use of it contrasts sadly with that of the good angels.
But this is objectionable for three reasons: (a) because the following narrative is connected with the first verse by the Hebrew conjunction waw (en), which would not be the case if the first verse were a title; (b) because, on that supposition, there would be no account at all of the original and immediate creation; and (c) since the following verses contain no account whatsoever of the creation of heaven. Then in the second verse the author describes the original state of the earth (cf.
- Providence
The separation is carried even further in the separation of the sea and the dry land, cf. Some theologians tried to reconcile the creation story with the discoveries of science in the study of the earth through the
P ROVIDENCE IN G ENERAL
While Luther believed in general providence, he does not emphasize God's preservation and governance of the world in general as much as Calvin does. Theologians generally distinguish between general and particular providence, the former indicating God's control over the universe as a whole.
P RESERVATION
It is unreasonable, because it implies that God communicated self-being to the creature, while self-being and self-standing are incommunicable properties that characterize it alone. Given the fact that the expression can be misunderstood, it is best to avoid it.
C ONCURRENCE
That the work of God and that of the creature coincide. There is not a single moment when the creature works independently of the will and power of God.
G OVERNMENT
In the physical world He has established the laws of nature, and it is by means of these laws that He administers the government of the physical universe. In the mental world he administers his government as a means through the properties and laws of the mind and immediately by the direct action of the Holy Spirit.
E XTRAORDINARY P ROVIDENCES OR M IRACLES
Miracles are mainly objected to because they imply a violation of the laws of nature. Older Reformed theologians did not hesitate to speak of it as a violation of the laws of nature.
PART TWO
THE DOCTRINE OF MAN IN RELATION TO GOD
MAN IN HIS ORIGINAL STATE
- The Origin of Man
- T HE D OCTRINE OF M AN IN D OGMATICS
- S CRIPTURAL A CCOUNT OF O RIGIN OF M AN
- T HE E VOLUTIONARY T HEORY OF THE O RIGIN OF M AN
THE CREATION OF MAN WAS, IN THE STRICTEST SENSE OF THE WORD, AN IMMEDIATE ACT OF GOD. Obviously, God's work in the creation of man was not conveyed in any sense of the word.
