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Originally Posted by JOwen  I guess this is not a big shocker to anyone who has followed the Trinity Foundation over the years. In this link, Robbins castigates Douglas Kelly's assertion that the WCF taught an Experimental Calvinism. Rubbish! The WCF taught the trichotomatic view of Faith in WLC Question 72: What is justifying faith?
Answer: Justifying faith is a saving grace, wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Spirit and Word of God, whereby he, being convinced of his sin and misery, and of the disability in himself and all other creatures to recover him out of his lost condition, not only assents to the truth of the promise of the gospel, but receives and rests upon Christ and his righteousness, therein held forth, for pardon of sin, and for the accepting and accounting of his person righteous in the sight of God for salvation.
Belief, assent, and trust, plain and simple. The WLC separates "receives" and "rests" for the express purpose of underlining the need for the truth to pass into personal persuasion. It is the separating of assent and trust that Clark and Ribbins take issue with. Here, they believe is where we enter the "navel gazing" element that leads to improper introspection. Belief and assent is all that is needed according to Clark. |
There have been other discussions on this board about
the head/heart dichotomy and it appears that there are a reasonable amount here who believe that it's bunk.
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Robbins claims that the WCF does not teach a Reformed form of mysticism we call experiential. Has he ever read the codifiers of the WCF? Even the supra Rutherford, who is clearly objective in his approach of apprehension makes ample room for the head/heart distinction Robbins takes issue with. As one reads the codifiers of the Standards, the more infra the more experimental. Ribbins needs to get his head out of objective rationalism for a moment and take a heartfelt look at the testing and proving of genuine faith as is so clearly explained in the Word.
Robbins also takes a potshot at Beeke and any of our Churches which teach the Puritan ideal of faith.  |
And you take potshots at John Robbins. What's your point?
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Originally Posted by PuritanCovenanter Quote:
Originally Posted by Staphlobob Quote:
Originally Posted by JM I love both Robbins and Beeke, we're family. | That's where I stand also. | Me too. |
So here's a question: if the bible says that the "word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God," how is it possible that an unbeliever could
truly assent to the teachings of scripture? If he seems to assent but is not regenerated, the problem seems to be not that he needs to add something else, but that he never assented to begin with and the Word is still foolish to him.