Worldview of the Western World II

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Worldview of the Western World II
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THE WESTMINSTERCONFESSI0N OF FAITH

• In the opinion of B.B. Warfield, The Westminster
  Confession and The Shorter Catechism are not only
  the most thoroughly thought-out statement ever
  penned of the elements of evangelical religion'
  but also one which breathes the finest fragrance
  of spiritual religion.' The Westminster
  Confession is unrivalled as a faithful and
  concise expression of God's revelation in
  Scripture.
• Quines introduction is found at the following
  web site
• http//www.pcanet.org/general/cof_origin.htm

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THE WESTMINSTERCONFESSI0N OF FAITH

• Excerpts
• The Bible passages listed below are footnotes to
  The Westminster Confession. Read the passages
  thoughtfully and look for similar ideas. Combine
  the thoughts from each footnote into one complete
  idea. If after reading each section of The
  Westminster Confession, you find any portion that
  does not reflect your understanding of the
  Scripture, then state your belief and give Bible
  references in support of your belief.
• Three examples are given to help you get Started.
• The footnotes are grouped together according to
  the thought composing the confession.

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THE WESTMINSTERCONFESSI0N OF FAITH

• PRELIMINARY STUDY OF THE SCRIPTURAL FOOTNOTES
  TOCHAPTER I OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE
• I.
• 1Romans 214-15 119-20 Psalms 191-3 Romans
  132 21
• Because man's conscience Romans 214, 15, the
  creation Romans 119, 20, and nature Psalms
  191-3 all point to a knowledge of God, man is
  without excuse Romans 132 21.
• 2I Corinthians 121 213 - 14
• Man, reasoning from himself, is unable to come to
  a true knowledge of God, but God was well pleased
  to explain what was necessary to be saved.
• 3Hebrews 11, 2
• God has gone to great effort to explain Himself
  throughout all history - first through the
  prophets and finally through His Son.

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THE WESTMINSTERCONFESSI0N OF FAITH
Romans 211-15 (NASB95)11 For there is no
partiality with God.12 For all who have sinned
without the Law will also perish without the Law,
and all who have sinned under the Law will be
judged by the Law13 for it is not the hearers
of the Law who are just before God, but the doers
of the Law will be justified.14 For when
Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively
the things of the Law, these, not having the Law,
are a law to themselves,15 in that they show the
work of the Law written in their hearts, their
conscience bearing witness and their thoughts
alternately accusing or else defending them,

• What follows are thoughts on the Westminster
  Confession.
• 1.     Although the light of nature, and the
  works of creation and providence do so far
  manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God,
  as to leave men inexcusable (Rom. 21415, Rom.
  11920, Ps. 1913, Rom. 132, Rom. 21) yet
  they are not sufficient to give that knowledge of
  God, and of his will, which is necessary unto
  salvation. (1 Cor. 121, 1 Cor. 21314)

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THE WESTMINSTERCONFESSI0N OF FAITH

• Holy Scripture to be most necessary (2 Tim.
  315, 2 Pet. 119) those former ways of Gods
  revealing His will unto His people being now
  ceased. (Heb. 112)
• What happened after the crucifixion? When was
  Pentecost, and when were the gifts of the Spirit
  given?

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World History (291-94)

• See notes under the section of the Reformation
  DVD and PDF files

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Revolutions WV (226-35)

• Calvin was a 2nd generation reformer
• Had an all pervasive worldview
• Applied Sola Scriptura more consistently
• Was a humanist scholar, his 1st work on Seneca
• One of the greatest expositors and commentators
  on the Bible
• The Epistemology of Calvin was based on Gods
  self revelation in Scripture.
• Man has a sensus divinitatis awareness of God
• And a semen religionis seed of religion
• The Bible serves as reading glasses to bring to
  our minds what we could not understand
• Our response to the knowledge of God is worship
  and piety
• The Sovereignty of God was central to Calvins
  theology.
• Most consistent Biblical worldview in the
  reformed tradition
• God is Lord of all temporal and spiritual
• Redemption is entirely of Gods sovereign
  electing grace
• Saving faith is a gift of God
• The Church and Society
• Invisible church of true believers, the visible
  was a mix of wheat and tares
• True church celebrates the Lords Supper,
  baptism, and preaching the Word
• Presbyterian government which influenced later
  democracies

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Ephesians 28

• Eph 28 th/ ga.r ca,riti, evste seswsme,noi
  dia. pi,stewj\ kai. tou/to ouvk evx umw/n( qeou/
  to. dw/ron for by grace you are saved through
  faith and this is not of yourselves, it is the
  gift of GodThis is the most debated text in terms
  of the antecedent of the demonstrative pronoun,
  tou/to. The standard interpretations include (1)
  grace as antecedent, (2) faith as
  antecedent, (3) the concept of a grace-by-faith
  salvation as antecedent, and (4) kai. tou/to
  having an adverbial force with no antecedent
  (and especially).
• The first and second options suffer from the fact
  that tou/to is neuter while ca,riti and pi,stewj
  are feminine. Some have argued that the gender
  shift causes no problem because (a) there are
  other examples in Greek literature in which a
  neuter demonstrative refers back to a noun of a
  different gender,51 and (b) the tou/to has been
  attracted to the gender of dw/ron, the predicate
  nominative. These two arguments need to be
  examined together.
• While it is true that on rare occasions there is
  a gender shift between antecedent and pronoun,
  the pronoun is almost always caught between two
  nouns of different gender. One is the
  antecedent the other is the predicate nom. In
  Acts 810, for example (ou-to,j evstin h
  du,namij tou/ qeou/), the pronoun is masculine
  because its antecedent is masculine, even though
  the predicate nom. is feminine. In Matt 1338
  inverse attraction takes place (the pronominal
  subject is attracted to the gender of the
  predicate nom.) to. de. kalo.n spe,rma( ou-toi,
  eivsin oi uioi. th/j basilei,aj (the good
  seed, these are the sons of the kingdom).52 The
  construction in Eph 28, however, is not parallel
  because dw/ron is not the predicate nom. of
  tou/to, but of the implied it in the
• page 335

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Ephesians 28

• following clause. On a grammatical level, then,
  it is doubtful that either faith or grace is
  the antecedent of tou/to.
• More plausible is the third view, viz., that
  tou/to refers to the concept of a grace-by-faith
  salvation. As we have seen, tou/to regularly
  takes a conceptual antecedent. Whether faith is
  seen as a gift here or anywhere else in the NT is
  not addressed by this.53
• A fourth view is that kai. tou/to is adverbial,
  though this view has surprisingly made little
  impact on the exegetical literature.54 If
  adverbial, kai. tou/to is intensive, meaning and
  at that, and especially, without having any
  antecedent. It focuses on the verb rather than
  on any noun. In 3 John 5 we see this usage
  pisto.n poiei/j o eva.n evrga,sh eivj tou.j
  avdelfou.j kai. tou/to xe,nouj55 (you do a
  faithful deed whenever you render service for
  the brothers, and especially when you do it for
  strangers). If this is the force in Eph 28, the
  text means for by grace you are saved through
  faith, and you are saved especially not by your
  own doing it is the gift of God.
• The issues here are complex and cannot be solved
  by grammar alone. Nevertheless, syntactical
  considerations do tend toward one of the latter
  two views.56

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MacArthur Eph 28

• Our response in salvation is faith, but even that
  is not of ourselves but is the gift of God.
  Faith is nothing that we do in our own power or
  by our own resources. In the first place we do
  not have adequate power or resources. More than
  that, God would not want us to rely on them even
  if we had them. Otherwise salvation would be in
  part by our own works, and we would have some
  ground to boast in ourselves. Paul intends to
  emphasize that even faith is not from us apart
  from Gods giving it.
• Some have objected to this interpretation, saying
  that faith (pistis) is feminine, while that
  (touto) is neuter. That poses no problem,
  however, as long as it is understood that that
  does not refer precisely to the noun faith but to
  the act of believing. Further, this
  interpretation makes the best sense of the text,
  since if that refers to by grace you have been
  saved through faith (that is, to the whole
  statement), the adding of and that not of
  yourselves, it is the gift of God would be
  redundant, because grace is defined as an
  unearned act of God. If salvation is of grace, it
  has to be an undeserved gift of God. Faith is
  presented as a gift from God in ?2 Peter 11?,
  ?Philippians 129?, and ?Acts 316?.
• John MacArthur, Ephesians (Chicago Moody Press,
  1996, c1986). 60.

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LACTANTIUS (c. 240-c. 320)

• Christian apologist and historian most
  frequently reported of the Latin Fathers of the
  Church
• Very little is known about Lactantiuss life.
  Born probably in North Africa, and said to have
  been a pupil of Arnobius, he was in mid-life
  appointed by the emperor Diocletian as a teacher
  of rhetoric in Nicomedia, the imperial capital.
  After Diocletian began to persecute Christians,
  Lactantius returned to the West about 305.
• His Divinae institutiones (seven volumes, c.
  304-313), his principal work, is hailed as the
  first systematic Latin account of the Christian
  attitude toward life. It combats polytheism as
  the basis of all errors, identifies the demons as
  the source of error, and exposes the frailty of
  philosophy. The latter part of the work discusses
  fundamental ethical ideas, the proper way of
  worshiping God, and immortality. Although he was
  later called the "Christian Cicero" by Pico della
  Mirandola, Lactantiuss theology was considered
  somewhat superficial, perhaps because he became a
  Christian only in mature years. Other works of
  his that have survived include De Ira Dei, which
  upholds Gods punitive justice, and De Mortibus
  persecutorium, a product of his last years, which
  is a valuable historical source, though
  criticized for having dwelt overmuch on the
  terrible fates of persecuting emperors. About 317
  Lactantius evidently came out of retirement to
  tutor Crispus, son of the emperor Constantine.
• J. D. Douglas, Philip Wesley Comfort and Donald
  Mitchell, Who's Who in Christian History
  (Wheaton, Ill. Tyndale House, 1997, c1992).