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When we speak of God's presence, we are not, of course, speaking of a physical presence, for God is incorporeal. What we mean, rather, is that he is able to act on and in the creation and to evaluate authoritatively all that is happening in the creation. Since God controls and evaluates all things, he is therefore present everywhere, as present as an incorporeal being can be. But in this chapter, we are interested in something more than mere presence. For God is not only present in the world; he is covenantally present. He is with his creatures to bless and to judge in terms of the standards of his covenant.Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Kindle Locations 1778-1783). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.
There is a circularity here I do not doubt. I am defending the Bible by the Bible. Circularity of a kind is unavoidable when one seeks to defend an ultimate standard of truth, for one's defense must itself be accountable to that standard.The Doctrine of the Word of God
The Sabbath day in the OT was the day that belonged especially to the Lord. It is "a Sabbath to the LORD your God" (Ex. 20: 10). But Jesus declares that the Sabbath belongs to him: "So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath" (Mark 2: 28). Jesus is the head of the covenant, a role that only Yahweh could play.Systematic Theology
In Scripture, however, the goal of human life is to glorify God. Our dignity is to be found not in what we do, but in what God has done for us and in us. Our meaning and significance are to be found in the fact that God has created us in his image and redeemed us by the blood of his Son. The biblical writers, therefore, are not horrified, as modern writers tend to be, by the thought that we may be under the control of another. If the other is God, and he has made us for his glory, then we could not possibly ask for a more meaningful existence.Systematic Theology
The Two Kingdoms view maintains that the kingdom came in Jesus and will come again in Jesus' return, but that it is confined to the church in the period between Jesus' two advents. That view goes against the passages cited above. Clearly, the kingdom has in fact deeply affected human culture over the centuries: in the sciences, the arts, the treatment of orphans and widows, education, and every other area of importance to human beings.Systematic Theology
It should be evident from our study so far that Scripture speaks of only one kingdom of God. That kingdom is the historical program of God coming to overcome his enemies, to redeem his people, and to bring his lordship to bear on all areas of created reality. There is no "secular kingdom," no kingdom ruled only by natural law and not by Scripture. All people, all institutions, all spheres of human life have a responsibility to hear God's Word, to respond to it obediently, and to accept the renewal of God's grace.Systematic Theology
Students are welcome at such schools to study historical and contemporary theology, and to relate these to auxiliary disciplines such as philosophy and literary criticism. But they are not taught to seek ways of applying Scripture for the edification of God's people. Rather, professors encourage each student to be "up to date" with the current academic discussion and to make "original contributions" to that discussion, out of his autonomous reasoning. So when the theologian finishes his graduate work and moves to a teaching position, even if he is personally evangelical in his convictions, he often writes and teaches as he was encouraged to do in graduate school: academic comparisons and contrasts between this thinker and that, minimal interaction with Scripture itself.Systematic Theology
We need theology in addition to Scripture because God has authorized teaching in the church, and because we need that teaching to mature in the faith.
In the preaching of the kingdom, law and gospel come together. The coming of the kingdom is the coming of a King to enforce his law on a disobedient world, that is, to enforce his covenant against covenant-breakers. But the King who comes is full of love and forgiveness. So his coming is good news, gospel, not only because he judges the wicked, but because he brings redemption, forgiveness, and reward to his redeemed people.
Given that God does not actually grow weary so as to need literal rest, the celebratory rest might have easily occurred after three days, or after two, of even after one... It seems obvious to me that God intended the six-plus-one pattern for man's edification and imitation.The Doctrine of the Christian Life, 532
the trichotomist view that sin shuts down the spirit and that redemption reawakens it is without biblical basis. Further, it contradicts the biblical emphasis that the whole person is fallen into sin (e.g., Gen. 6:5) and needs the deliverance of Christ. Redemption is not a rearrangement of human faculties, putting one of them on top of the others. Plato imagined something like this, but it is not a biblical view. Rather, redemption turns the whole person, including all aspects of his personality, from hating God to loving him. Salvation, as Cornelius Van Til used to say, is ethical, not metaphysical.Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Kindle Locations 21024-21026). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.
These passages do not make precise distinctions between these terms-certainly not precise enough to define metaphysical components of human existence. Scripture typically uses "spirit" and "soul" interchangeably.Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Kindle Locations 21024-21026). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.
prayer changes things. Or to put it more theologically, God ordains prayer as a means to change history. There are things that happen because of prayer, and things that do not happen because of no prayer. In 2 Chronicles 7:14, God says that if his people will humble themselves and pray, then he will forgive their sin and heal their land. In Luke 11:9-10, Jesus says that he who seeks, finds. And James 4:2 says that if we don't have things we need, it is because we do not ask. Prayer really does work.Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Kindle Locations 26957-26961). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.
prayer is a means of fellowship with our heavenly Father - In Luke 11:9-13, Jesus says that prayer is like a child's going to his earthly father. Cf. Matt. 6:9. The child wants something, and the father is eager to give. But the father does not give until the child asks. Any of us who are parents understand the dynamic here. We want to give good things to our children, but even more, we want a good relationship with them. Our heavenly Father wants the same. He does not want to be a kind of machine that dispenses goods, but to really be our Father, a real person.Systematic Theology
Scripture speaks often of the wrath of God as his response to sin. Wrath differs from jealousy and hatred, in that (1) jealousy is more focused on the specific sin of idolatry; wrath opposes our sin in general; (2) jealousy and hatred are motives for wrath; wrath actually executes punishments.Systematic Theology
The fact that he judges all things in heaven and earth implies that his standards are the highest standards of righteousness.Systematic Theology
The older theologians made a number of distinctions within God's righteousness that can be presented in a Ramist outline: 1. Internal (God's moral excellence) 2. External (the rectitude of his conduct) a. rectoral or legislative (promulgating just laws for his creatures) b. distributive (administering rewards and punishments) i. remunerative (distribution of reward) ii. retributive (distribution of punishment)"Systematic Theology
Peace comes from God alone, since the fall has made us prone to wars and fightings (James 4:1-3). Peace, as all other blessings of salvation, makes us like God. So like all other blessings of salvation and Christian virtues, peace among men is the reflection of God's own nature; it is a divine attribute. God is completely at peace with himself.Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Kindle Locations 7386-7389). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.
The Bible is clear in the sense that it leaves us no excuses for our disobedience. If God's Word were unclear and we did something wrong, we could go back to God and say, "God, you didn't speak clearly to us, you didn't speak the Word so that we could understand it. So naturally we went our own way. There was no other way to go." Well, that would be foolish. That would be itself a very disobedient response to God's Word. But God speaks His Word to us and speaks it as the one who is authoritative, as the one who judges our behavior, and as the one who leaves us without any excuses.
remember that our salvation goes back even before the beginning of our faith, into eternity past. Salvation begins in election. This is an even more ultimate reason why we will persevere. In chapter 11, I quoted Romans 8 at some length. Note there how the apostle Paul connects election and perseverance. Paul sees a golden chain: from God's foreknowledge and predestination in eternity past, to calling and justification, to glorification. Those who are predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ cannot fail to be glorified. So we hear the language of perseverance.Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Kindle Locations 25705-25709). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.
other passages put the point even more strongly: we have eternal life here and now, not only in the future: "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him" (John 3:36 ); "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life" (John 5:24);Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Kindle Locations 25705-25709). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Notice also John 10:27-29: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." Nobody can snatch a believer out of God's hand. These verses speak of eternal life in the future for those who believe today.Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Kindle Locations 25705-25709). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.
I confess also to being rather perplexed about the recent controversy in evangelical circles over lordship salvation.25 The question concerns whether confessing the lordship of Christ is necessary at the beginning of the Christian life, or whether it can be postponed until a later time. But the lordship of Jesus is absolutely fundamental to the preaching of the gospel in the NT. It is inconceivable that anyone could respond appropriately to that gospel without confessing from the heart that Jesus is Lord (Rom. 10:9-10). To acknowledge the lordship of Christ is not, of course, to be sinlessly perfect or flawless in one's discipleship. Scripture teaches plainly that sincere believers do sin (1Â John 1:8, 10); they act inconsistently with their profession.Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Kindle Locations 1462-1468). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.
In defining theology, it is not strictly necessary to align it with a single biblical term, but it is certainly an advantage when we can do this. I propose that we define theology as synonymous with the biblical concept of teaching, with all its emphasis on edification.Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Kindle Locations 1225-1227). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.
If my understanding is correct, then both the procession and the sending mentioned in the verse take place in history. Now, that understanding does not make the verse irrelevant to the doctrine of eternal procession, for as we have seen it is legitimate to find an analogy between the historical and the eternal relationships among the persons of the Trinity. But if both the procession and the sending of John 15:26 take place in time, that would support, by analogy, the view that the Spirit's eternal procession is from both Father and Son.Systematic Theology
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