Theologies of culture without a transcendent norm are mere speculation.
Biblical & theological studies
Biblical exegesis and commentary
Francis J. Beckwith
Review of Hermes and Athena: Biblical Exegesis and Philosophical Theology, ed. by Eleanore
Stump and Thomas P. Flint
Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.
Who Were the Nephilim?
Michael Kelley
The Burden of God: Studies in Wisdom and Civilization from the Book of Ecclesiastes (694 k)
Thomas Schirrmacher
Law or Spirit? Galatians Between Legalism and Antinomianism (442 k) : Cover
Paul is fighting against the abrogation of the Old Testament Law as well as against using
this Law as way of salvation instead of God's grace.
Theological studies
Joel Herndon
Sola Scriptura and the Church Fathers
Herman Bavinck
Calvin and Common Grace
Horatius Bonar
Assurance of Salvation
G. W. Bromiley
Sacramental Teaching and Practice in the Reformation Churches (1.8 MB)
Jorge Ruiz - Westminster Hoy
N.T. Wright Or the Recatholisation of Protestant Thought Spanish - N.T. Wright o la
Recatolización del Pensamiento Protestante
No Dispensationalism Before Darby, Review of Dispensationalism Before Darby by William C.
Watson
An Overview of Millennial Systems, with a review of The Man of Sin: Uncovering the Truth
about the Antichrist, by Kim Riddlebarger
Fake Theology: Radical Two-Kingdom Theory, a prehistory and a review, a review of Saved to
be Warriors: Exposing the Errors of Radical Two-Kingdom Theology, by Bret McAtee
Norman Shepherd’s error in a nutshell
Reformed theology in its scholastic origins had a system of distinctions about the aspects of
justification which it referred to as “causes”. They might vary in the number of categories but
often distinguished 1) the efficient cause; God, who effects the justification 2) the meritorious
cause; Christ’s merit 3) the instrumental cause; faith which apprehends the meritorious cause 4)
the material cause; believing man who is the entity being saved 5) the formal cause; what is
transferred to man, the imputed righteousness of Christ and 6) the final cause; the end or goal
of justification. Robert Rollock, to take an example almost at random, in his “Treatise on
Justification” lists four causes, but breaks down the efficient cause into meritorious and
instrumental subcategories. (See Mid-America Journal of Theology 27, (2016): 99-110.)
Norman Shepherd set these distinctions aside and spoke merely of the “ground” of justification.
“Ground” then became a horribly ambiguous term which might take on any or several of the
above meanings, or change from one to another in the course of the argument without the
reader being alerted. Shepherd’s error, then, was to conflate the six causes into one ground, and
at the same time the conflation into a single term served as a camouflage of his error, as he did
not have to contradict distinctions he didn’t make or refer to.
Strangely, Shepherd’s colleagues at Westminster Seminary accepted to debate him in these
ambiguous terms, a condition which ensured nothing could be resolved clearly or proved.
Contra Federal Vision
When the Tyler branch of Christian
Reconstruction fell apart amid the
excesses of ecclesiasticism, one
faction, working with fellow spirits
mainly in the PCA, introduced the
Federal Vision, deviously named to
suggest that it was not the attack on
federal theology that was. This
movement amalgamated several
heretical doctrines such as the
confusion of justification with other
aspects of salvation (already a
feature of Tyler Reconstruction
influenced by Norman Shepherd),
institutional and sacramental
interpretations of Christian standing,
denial of the assurance of salvation,
adoption of the New Perspectives on
Paul’s view of law and justification,
and an affinity for postmodern
irrationality.
A great introduction to these issues is
a book that does not even mention
the Federal Vision, The Rise of
Moralism by C. F. Allison, now sadly
out of print. Search the used book
vendors and get yourself a copy.
See also the Monergism page.
Reformed
theology is
bicovenantal
(Covenant of
Works,
Covenant of
Grace).
Kuyperianism
is
tricovenantal
(adds Common
Covenant).
The Federal
Vision sees
only one
covenant.