Josiah C > Recent Status Updates

The chapter on faith gave me a lot to think about. He deals with the free offer of the gospel to all people saying that this is the case because the gospel or the “warrant of faith” is offered to us in our lost state. However, my devil’s advocate question is, isn’t the offer still discriminatory since the elect are the only ones enabled to enact faith because of their regeneration?

Chapter 4 on the extent of the atonement is the strongest most concise argument I have read for limited atonement. Murray skillfully exegetes Romans 8:31-39 showing that Christ was given for “us,” i.e., the elect. I find the second line of reasoning even more convincing. This argument is that it is clear in Scripture that those for whom Christ died also die and live with Christ, and not all die and live in Him.

Really appreciated the chapter on whether Christendom could be oppressive. He really draws out and explains whey secularism is evil and oppressive and why confessing Jesus as Lord corporately is not.

My favorite part of the book so far has been Calvin’s friendships and the consistory minutes from Geneva. You get to see Calvin’s personality and pastoral heart when he is often viewed as a cold and harsh theologian.

This book is much more technical than I thought it would be since it it relatively short. The first chapter on the absolute necessity of the atonement versus the hypothetical necessity of the atonement was beautiful. It is not simply that God chose the bloodshed of the Son as the best option among many possible options, but that the bloodshed of the Son was the only means that rose from God’s very nature.

It has been good to read through. Because of my commitment to presuppositional apologetics, I am a bit uncomfortable with the philosophizing removed from an appeal to Scripture as the ultimate authority.

The book is good so far. I think he misses that έθνη means people group and not a geopolitical state in his understanding of the Great Commission and this impacts much of the thought of the book so far.