The Westminster Confession of Faith by John Gerstner.
Calendar
Categories
Recent Comments
- timlyg on Bible Study: 1 Kings
- timlyg on Bible Study: 1 Kings
- timlyg on Bible Study: 1 Kings
- timlyg on Bible Study: 1 Kings
- timlyg on Bible Study: 1 Kings
Meta
The Westminster Confession of Faith by John Gerstner.
Chapter 1: of the Holy Scripture
iv: B. B. Warfield:
Reformation: The Canon is a collection of inspired books.
Roman Catholicism: The Canon is an inspired collection of books.
Chapter 2: of God and of the Holy Trinity
Beginning Prayer - "...help us to know Thee as far as [Thou has deemed that] we are able to know Thee..."
i: "...body, parts, or passions..." Here passions refers to bodily passions, desires.
ii: God has everything. Spinoza: God needed to create the world. Thus his god is a lesser god.
iii: Trinity, one in essence/substance, theototes (deity). Russell of Jehovah's Witnesses said it's gibberish.
Chapter 3: Of God's Eternal Decree
i: Analytical Proposition on definition of God. "...whatsoever comes to pass..." God's in control...."yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures..." Gerstner challenged his students to write down an example of their disagreement against the fact that God is utterly sovereign without doing violence to man's will; they couldn't.
ii: Some says that God decreed because He has foreseen it. This obliterates that notion. Me: Molinism failed. Gerstner: If God had to foresee it first (Postdestination instead of Predestination), then somebody else's running the universe. The foreseeing is based on the decreeing, not the decreeing on the foreseeing.
iii. Gerstner finds this section particular difficult. He would have put Chapter 6 before Chapter 3. Discuss the fall of man before you talk about the decrees of God. Luther had the same order as Gerstner as well. Anyway is valid though this is just easier to understand - Per Gerstner. Foreordination of reprobation is a permissive decree. These Westminster fathers are obviously infra- not supralapsarian. If He chooses to save all of the world, praise be to His universal mercy; If to save none of them, His justice and sovereignty be praised; if He redeems some of them, His justice and His mercy be praised.
Pingback: Sunday Worship – 2020-02-09 | My Journal