Father, we thank you for your grace in sending your Son to be our Savior. Thank you for sending your Spirit into our hearts that we might trust Him as Lord and Savior and love Him and live for Him. Teach us even this evening we pray and we'll honor you through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, amen. Item number one, the quiz, let's do it. Have you benefited from reading, saved by grace? It's a fine book. I was thankful that the Lord called Anthony Hukamah home the glory. I was also sad. I could have used a few more of these good books, but I definitely use his the Bible in the future which is his best book and is the finest book on future things. It's his best book hands down. Creating God's image I use for the doctrines of man and sin as you know and saved by grace for the application of salvation. True or false according to Hukamah, that's right, not you or me. Number one, it is not necessary to include an invitation to come to Christ in the gospel call. It is false page 69. It is necessary. Well that doesn't especially mean coming up forward or so forth, but it does mean verbally inviting somebody to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is necessary. So one is false too. The preaching of the gospel is a well-man offer of salvation on the part of the preacher but not on God's part. False page 73, that would be a hyper Calvinistic understanding. Maybe even they would say it's not a well-man offer on the part of the preacher. I don't know. That leads to a lack of evangelism obviously. Two is false page 73. We can't always fit together God's control and our responsibility but they are so interwoven in the Bible we have to believe in both of them. Three, although I do respect those who draw the lines differently than I do in trying to put those things together. Three, Hukamah, regards both Armenianism and hyper Calvinism as rationalistic. True page 79, distinguishing rational that is using our minds and so forth from rationalistic which means using human reason as our ultimate norm or authority. Three is true 79, four. There is no difference between the effectual call and the gospel call. False page 86, there is a difference. Although the effectual call works through the gospel call but there is definitely a difference. The gospel call being outward as universal as the church can make it. Would that it were absolutely universal? The effectual call is inward. It is the result of the sovereign working in the Holy Spirit and it is therefore particular. Not everybody is effectually called. Five, four is false. Page 86, five, regeneration must be understood as the work of God alone. True page 95. It is God making alive those who were spiritually dead and hence unable to do anything to rescue themselves. Six, regeneration is a gradual process taking some years to complete. False, page 102. God is bringing us to Himself might take years to complete but regeneration is an event. It is a work of God whereby He gives us new life.
Six is false 102. Seven, baptism brings about regeneration. False page 109.
Eight, conversion is the work of both God and man. True page 114. Conversion is shorthand for repentance plus faith or better said repentance faith. God converts us and we repent and believe. It makes no sense to say God repents or God believes. It does make good sense to say God converts us. He enables us to repent and to believe by His Spirit He enables us to come to our spiritual senses as it were. Nine, true conversion can occur only once and always follows the same pattern. There's little variation. False, page 117 and following. Even the first part is ambiguous. True conversion can occur only once. It depends how you define it. If it's an evangelical conversion I would agree but there is the notion of Christians turning back from great backsliding but certainly the next part makes it false. We labored to show that conversions can be primarily intellectual or involving the will or the emotions. Although they always involve the whole person one of those aspects may predominate and we showed that in fact there is great variation between conversions. Number nine is false. 117 and 118. Ten, repentance should be distinguished from faith but never separated from it exactly. It's true. Page 123. I hope you're encouraged. I know you take your lick sometimes because my question was funny and missing but I hope overall you're encouraged that you've learned a lot. I really do hope that. 11, that's my goal. Not to frustrate you but to encourage you. We must distinguish between an initial repentance at the beginning of the Christian life and an ongoing repentance. True page 131. The ongoing repentance is a normal part of the Christian life. It's part of the healthy Christian life and in fact the most mature saints see much more clearly their sins. Years now we'll say it that way. Years after their conversion then when they first were saved. 11 is true as was 10 and as is 12. Faith is both the acceptance of a body of truth and personal trust in Christ. True page 134. It's knowledge, ascent and trust. 12 is true 134, 13. It is impossible for true believers to lack assurance of salvation. False page 149 obviously things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you might know that you have eternal life. They believe in the name of the Son of God. There's no reason to think that that said ironically or less than truly what he writes that they might at least have their assurance strengthened as a matter of fact there are degrees of assurance and a believer could even lack assurance even altogether which would be an anomaly but it would be the Lord's way of dealing with us because of our sins. I'll give you some examples and I'm sure if history teaches me anything you'll have lots of questions tonight as we try to relate some of those concepts because they're difficult. They really are. I'm at least understanding better why they're difficult. 14 according to Roman Catholic theology justification is a declarative act rather than an infusion of grace. False 163. Hans Kungen said that but it's one of the things that got him declared an unofficial teacher no longer an official teacher of Roman Catholic doctrine that is not that's the Reformation theology that's Lutheran or Calvinist theology not Roman Catholic theology it's an infusion of grace rather than a declaration of righteousness. So 14 is false page 163 15 justification is a process as the key word here by which God purifies us false page 178 that's a definition of progressive sanctification progressive sanctification is a process justification is an act of God's pure grace whereby he forgives all our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight because of the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone I just butchered the shorter catechism but it's close this the idea 16 justification involves guilt whereas sanctification involves pollution true page 178 16 is true 178 17 our adoption by God has a future dimension true page 187 a lot of these were answered in class and I'm glad because you had your work cut out for you this semester and where there was help like that I'm glad for that 18 it's just reinforces what you're learning 18 union with Christ has its roots in divine election true page 56 true page 56 somebody asked about the order of my presentation of the application but I do with fitting the doctrines and combination to fit time slots like hours or something of teaching I don't even remember although I don't know that there's an ideal order for dealing with those things and I don't know if there's a wrong order either that's another matter to discuss those things 19 union with Christ should be thought of solely in an individualistic sense false page 66 when we are joined to the Son of God spiritually we are joined to all other believers who are joined to the Son of God so it is individual but it is automatically corporate and ecclesiological or ecclesiastical those who are joined the Christ belong to all other people who have been joined to Christ has great applications for our view of the unity of the Christian church and even things like trans-denominational fellowship 20 sanctification must be understood as the work of God alone believers play no part in their sanctification false according to hookama page 200 and following I agree as long as this is understood of speaking of progressive sanctification we do have no part in initial sanctification and as far as final sanctification goes depends how you can screw that to looks like God does the pushes us over the hump for that one too but in terms of progressive sanctification we are we are very much involved under God but we are indeed involved and required by him to pursue not only the means of grace but the means of sanctification if you will they're the same thing understood in different terms so 20 is false page 200 and 201 21 a Christian is partly a new self and partly an old self false page 212 we are new selves with old natures according to hookama he wants to avoid kind of a christian schizophrenia idea and I think he has a good point 22 Wesleyan's Week in the Bible's definition of sin true page 220 22 is true page 220 23 those who have true faith can never totally nor finally the adverbs come from Saint Augustine fall away true page 234 the meaning is they can partially or less than ultimately that is they can get themselves in the serious trouble okay and for all intents and purposes of peer unsaved and whatever and even be such that a person could not tell whether they were even Christians or they themselves might not know but Augustine as the one who said the elect actually is how he said it can neither totally nor finally fall away 24 the security of believers is inseparable from their perseverance true page 236 I will argue that way in a few minutes turtle security is inseparable from perseverance God keeps us and because of that as a reflex action we keep keeping on sometimes some days some weeks you might have been so discouraged that you felt like throwing in the towel okay but God just buis us up like a cork in the on the water we just kind of come bouncing back sometimes the surprise surprising ourselves and no matter what a Christians theological orientation we give God the glory when that happens 24 is 236 the security of believers is inseparable from their perseverance I'll talk about those issues in a couple of minutes 25 God keeps his people from falling away through means and these means include warnings against apostasy true page 247 I don't think that's the major purpose of the apostasy warnings but it is one of them 25 is true page 247 give me a number correct over 25 you learned a lot of things from this book and that's good any questions it's always clear as a mirror but I was going to say bud right give me a number correct over 25 yes I see a hand my evangelist eyes are getting sharper here I was out of hand oh okay any upward motions in this class will be interpreted as the raising your hands like a friend of mine whose father was a pastor he became the boy he became disillusioned with a church for a while he used to just to peak during the altar calls and he said his father would start saying yes I see one I see one when there were no hands yet because nobody wanted me first
when I knew the guy it wasn't such a happy time he was kind of in rebellion but the Lord got the hold on later on John okay I've been asked to comment on the similarities between reformed and room between Lutheran and Roman Catholic views of baptism they are very similar
both Luther and Lutheranism and official Roman Catholic teaching would teach that baptism is regenerative so there are great similarities yes I can think of a couple passages that say that but the word the spirit the best answer would be the spirit brings about regeneration yes but a couple passages lead us to conclude that the spirit uses the means of the word to bring about regeneration James one in first Peter one I'm thinking of give me a number correct over 25 give me your name and box number and pass those in please and we'll do our last lecture and then we'll head for home
you all have these notes in your packet am I right you read my paper on this subject that's great that's great you read my paper on this that is the sixth it's going to be published in the next issue of our seminary journal those are obtainable by the way in the administration building ask for Zen Graham who will gladly sign you up for a subscription for like eight dollars a year for two issues or something it's very inexpensive and you may even be able to get selected back issues I've done a series of six articles is the sixth one on these doctrines one introductory one working with bibliography and then four one each on preservation perseverance assurance and apostasy and then the fifth one is basically what you read it's been somewhat updated a little bit improved but you read the basic concepts anyway I'm going to go through the four doctrines and paint a picture by with the help of these charts to help you see things in relation to one another preservation is gods keeping Christians saved I like this rather than eternal security because it look it sounds more dynamic to me eternal security sounds like something in the bank kind of like once saved always saved it's true but it's just potentially misleading preservation is gods keeping us saved so it's not a static conception but an active one as a matter of fact when we study the doctrine of God and the works of God we talk about God's providence in terms of two major aspects government and preservation government means God directs things toward his ends preservation means God maintains his creation he preserves it takes care of it preservation understood so tireologically understood with reference to salvation could be viewed even as salvation could be viewed as a subset of God's providence and that way God has two works creation and providence and salvation is viewed as a subset of that likewise preservation of believers individually and corporately could be viewed as an aspect of God's mighty providence there are two basic views and that is that preservation is unconditional it rests in God alone and isn't dependent upon human anything another view is it's conditional and conditioned upon human faithfulness the accent here is decidedly on the divine or the human sides now both of those sides are true as Hukamah mentioned in many different ways divine sovereignty human responsibility comes to come to play in the matter of salvation differently with different doctrine so he could say regeneration is solely the work of God and sanctification understood as progressive sanctification is the work of God and human beings okay but Calvinism emphasizes that preservation is a divine plan and work and is thereby unconditional conditional and unconditional means vis-à-vis human action human doing human believing I want to be careful when I say doing because that's a misrepresentation of Armenianism which is not a works theology but a faith theology Armenians hold that God's keeping us ultimately is conditioned upon the structures he has set up which is given his human creatures freedom of the will and our salvation ultimately depends upon what we do with his grace whether we forfeit it or not and thus our human faithfulness or faithlessness will decide whether we're saved or not in the end in terms of scripture I have no doubt the Bible puts the emphasis on the divine side in terms of preservation okay systematic theology is legitimate for Calvinist and Armenians too so Armenians may have reasons to qualify certain conclusions but they have in fact had a tendency to move toward the emphasis more of the divine side let me talk further about this by going on the Armenian side traditional Armenianism which is mediated in Great Britain and the United States through John Wesley's work ministry and writings said that preservation was unlikely okay Wesley said things like more than not lose it by the end of the month maybe he was depressed when he wrote that journal entry but it was very much conditioned upon human faithfulness and how can I say it there were lots of unfaithful people in the churches we have seen this in our own day in churches where people are routinely saved again I once made the mistake my view at the time was to send a new disciple to the closest believing fellowship it is no longer my view because this woman went to the closest fellowship and the people were getting saved every little every Sunday and she saw it immediately and questioned the pastor and had instincts just an understanding given by God I would say to know that that was wrong a friend who took her not me another friend who took her was interpreting it in terms of her own Baptist theology and she said oh they're just getting re-dedicated and the new Christians said no that's not what they're saying they're not saying that they're getting re-dedicated they're saying that they're getting saved again that's destructive of the Christian life I don't say that nastily and I really am impressed with a shift with a shift that Howard Marshall and others have exhibited because of the stress on God's work okay they've really listened to the Bible and they say although preservation ultimately is conditioned upon human faith it is likely rather than unlikely that one who believes will be saved in the end how can they say it they're putting the stress on God's side is this a better view of the Christian life decidedly because what it comes down to for Howard Marshall in his book kept by the power of God a study of perseverance and falling away which I use from my seminar on perseverance and apostasy in an attempt to get some fairness in that course he basically says you're safe barring and outright renunciation of your faith you don't have to live in fear okay of sinning I mean this does not encourage sin you with me but you don't have to fear live in fear of sinning and losing your salvation okay or of losing it for any other reason then by an outright apostasy if you apostatize you can be unsaved after you are saved we'll talk about apostasy later on our minions are divided as to whether that happens whether one can be saved again or not okay the Hebrews passages if you really push them and they teach you can fall away from grace they look to me like they say you can't be saved again which creates a problem some are willing to admit that others don't like that conclusion obviously Wesley thought you could be saved no more than once anyway I acknowledge the movement of Howard Marshall and like minded Armenians he's a British Methodist and a great New Testament scholar who has trained noodles of professors for our school and others around the world so I really and respect his life and ministry he teaches in the inner city and so forth just the godly man no doubt about it he listens to the scriptures I see real progress in his theology there and I'm pleased for it Calvinism breaks down unfortunately I say this into two groups the traditional line coming from Calvin himself is that preservation gods keeping his people is inseparable is correlative it's a good word with perseverance that is those whom god saves and keeps keep on keeping on they persevere not perfectly but really so seen from the perspective of preservation perseverance is a consequence of preservation we persevere because god keeps us see from the perspective of perseverance perseverance is a an evidence of salvation in gods keeping a godly man named Zane Hodges and now a whole society the grace evangelical society these are godly people I respect them they're largely in a dispensational camp and they by no means represent all dispensationalists Hodges taught at Dallas seminary for many years and has since left since not representative of Dallas although someone hold these views he makes preservation independent from perseverance he cuts the historical cord that binds those together and says it is not necessary to live for the lord if you have been saved you can be saved and be carnal doesn't he doesn't recommend that but his motivation for opposing carnality in the Christian life is not that that could betray the fact that you're not even saved okay it is not necessary to pursue holiness in order to be saved that didn't come out right that's exactly what he accuses us of he accuses us of works salvation those whom god has saved freely by his grace do not necessarily walk in god's commandments that's a way to save okay you could be saved and not live for god I'm talking about not only snapshots but motion picture can show you don't live for god all right and you still could be perfectly saved in his estimation no said Calvin no says Birkhoff no says who come up and I would put my voice in there two of it matters yes says Hodges if you say differently you're making salvation dependent in some sense upon works no we're not we're just saying God's grace is real and it shows up in a changed life you're teaching merit theology no we're not we're teaching free grace that results in a changed life and so forth the debate will continue but this society is small but vigorous and you're not you can now get for yourself a grace they call them a grace pastor or even youth pastor this society is really active any questions on preservation that's kind of a scope of the of the situation yes Arminianism is that theology following James Arminius there's no there are no names that's those are my terms this is a traditional viewpoint that you encounter if you have a friend who is part of the Church of the Nazarene or the Salvation Army or most most Methodist bodies that are concerned with matters of salvation Bible you know believing Methodists Wesleyan Methodists free Methodists united Methodists where there's that concern for you know Wesley's gospel and so forth would be much more there some are moving this way like I say and I applaud the move obviously I'd like to see a move one more slot to the left but still that is so much healthier than what I call the inzy outsy view okay really this is disastrous for the Christian life you are you you are in a precarious situation because you could you know be lost tonight or tomorrow or whatever no you're safe I have found in teaching perseverance and apostasy over the years the Lord has always given me students at least from an Arminian background many times Arminian students I've welcomed them they've helped keep me and the other Calvinists honest very many times they've told me that never in their lives have they studied Romans 8 John 10 and other passages before we shake the head at them and wag the finger most Calvinists have in some of the apostasy passages I find too but by and large those students move to this because of the strength of those passages for systematic reasons they may say no well I'm still not persuaded I think those Hebrews warning passages especially six and 10 hold out the possibility for defection okay but they say by and large you're certainly right God keeps us and they even gain a greater sense of assurance accordingly so I applaud that and I really appreciate their honesty to listen to the Bible perseverance is it belongs on the chart with progressive sanctification there's no doubt about that yes that's exactly right sanctification is initial progressive and final if I am right I'm confident of that that is correct perseverance and progressive sanctification overlap they overlap in speaking about the progressive aspect of the Christian life one in terms of holiness God initially sets us apart unto holiness by his spirit and he gives us his spirit and the spirit stays with us and produces the fruit of the spirit and produces holiness and God works in us both to willing to work for his good pleasure Philippians 2 and so forth lots of passages teach that perseverance overlaps in that it's progressive but it views the Christian life from a different perspective than sanctification it views the Christian life from the perspective of Christians continuing on now one of the things that continue on in is holiness so there's definitely an overlap perseverance in holiness overlaps with sanctification real overlap will be to that just in a moment unless they have you have other questions on perseverance preservation I mean okay comment yes let me summarize the question by just making a comment it is true that the Bible speaks of false professions of faith it's even more complicated than that but yes the Bible speaks of false professions of faith just to cite one example Matthew 7 Jesus said many will say to me the many is absolutely frightening many will say to me in that day Lord Lord didn't we do all these things in your name and the things are remarkable cast out demons perform miracles and prophesy Jesus does not deny that they did those things in his name he does deny that they were ever saved the part from me you evil doers he says I never knew you so yes the Bible does know about false profession could Wesley have misinterpreted some of those professions as possessions as some people say as genuine when they were false of course and we have to be careful in terms of pastoral work the key is to disciple people if we disciple people then they get grounded in as a matter of fact studying all the application of salvation has caused me to be more careful has caused me to rely more upon God's spirit in these areas we don't even know when we were saved always it's not even that important the main thing is to know that we're saved now many times in discipleship the person then says oh now I understand the bit about the cross you're thinking yikes were they even saved don't raise it with them just rejoice and make sure they do and go on it's not even that important that you can name the day the important thing is that you know the Lord now so the key is discipling following up folding people into a small group in the church and so forth one on one is the best along with other things men with men and women with women in that way let's go on and get some correlation here between preservation and perseverance perseverance is Christians continuing in faith love and holiness those are my summaries you could do that in different ways but those are at least three big categories in which we keep on someone said in an adult Sunday school class once I said what's preservation they said God God's keeping us God keeping hold of us and not letting go something like that I said what's perseverance and they said hour keeping on keeping on I thought those are pretty good ways to say it perseverance breaks down into those who hold its necessary for salvation and those who hold it is unnecessary this overhead transparency is is utterly revealing to me the Grace Evangelical Society and Zane Hodges or have gone out in the limb and sorted off because everybody else disagrees with them on this one that's amazing uh Calvinist and Wesleyan are united in this in holding that God keeps us saved and guess what they're right oh it makes a little bit of a stickier thing because those passages by themselves can kind of shiver your timbers you have to persevere to be saved pursue holiness the writer to the Hebrew says without holiness no one will see the Lord is that salvation by works no that's Hebrews 12 14 you know it's it's the Christian life by works if you will and it's simply saying God's people will live like God's people overall every snapshot won't be a classic for the album but the motion picture will show the people of God not totally quitting and maybe you will chart your Christian growth the way one of my teachers did in seminary he really got our attention you know here's the perfection he said well I'll show you the chart here's perfection here's absolute sinless perfection and here's a time chart here's when I'm saved and he said something to Christian life is looking for another color here there we go it's just like this he said that that that is not quite realistic in his experience others say it's just like this that doesn't quite do it either he said if he were to chart his and I think he maybe offered his wife's help in this regard uh it would be more like this with ups and downs and so forth but that running through it is real growth I think we all breathe the sigh of relief because we cannot imagine that man sinning but he could and he wasn't trying to pretend he was a super saint and we actually I think grew more by his honest admission than I don't know equally with other things we grew believers of all persuasions have historically held that perseverance is necessary okay the people of God continue on
Calvinists and Armenians disagree of course and this too but they're on the same basic side of the ledger Calvinists hold it is necessary and inevitable the inevitability comes out of some scripture passages as I try to show them my notes Hebrews 3 among others uh John 15 comes to mind I'm actually forgetting a few passages uh but is also comes from correlating the claim is that the Bible begins to correlate in those places uh first John 219 implies it correlating preservation and perseverance because God keeps us we keep on and said from the other side continuing on is a fruit and evidence a result of God's keeping us uh Wesley and Marshall would be united in saying it is necessary you Calvinists are right and we appreciate your Bible study on that score but we're not going to go all the way with you on the inevitability no that would breed license perhaps the reason the grace evangelical society sticks in my crawl all right is that it is an illustration of the worst Armenian fears being realized understand I can be more tolerant of errors in my opponents theology than in my own theology you with me and to say that uh perseverance is not necessary for salvation is so obviously unbiblical you have to twist a lot of passages and that is exactly what these guys do they make perseverance passages into rewards passages okay uh the passage says you have to persevere it's true but not for salvation because that would endanger the freedom of God's grace it's perseverance for rewards in the millennium they continually work with what they call a rewards model any comments on perseverance does this make sense after you're reading your readings yes sir I guess I don't quite understand your question for Wesley God gives equal prevenient grace to everyone and the difference between a saved and unsaved person at the end of the day is that the saved person believed and the difference between a saved person who perseveres and one who doesn't is that the one stop believing for some reason rather fell away so God isn't impugned okay I think that's weak in that in an a sense impunes God I'm not criticizing Wesley's motives at all but in effect it's sort of because of the way the Bible presents preservation as God's work and Wesley in particular his handling of something like Romans 8 and those great passages leaves much to be desired and others Howard Marshall and Grant Osborne have done much better with those passages and that's why some of them have moved in fact Wesley said in Romans 8 Paul had a private revelation from God that neither life nor death nor things present or things to come would separate him from love of God but that is not true for all Christians I'm sorry Paul says we is not talking in the first person singular but the first person plural of all believers he wasn't claiming some special experience as an apostle but rather he's claiming what is true of all believers how else would he comfort the Romans who were suffering in the present the immediate preceding context of Romans 8 28 and following he assures them a future glory even in the midst of their present suffering so there's no intent on Armenians to to denigrate the doctrine of God whatsoever as to whether their theology does that in the long run or not is a matter of personal evaluation it certainly is a free will theology and as such as the strengths and weaknesses of a free will theology the assurance of salvation is a matter we should take up after a break