Throughout this series of articles on the Canons of Dort, I have been emphasizing that they affirm two closely related and fundamental themes of the gospel. These are: God’s sovereign and gracious work. in the redemption of His elect people, and the comfort this work affords the Christian believer. Only the gospel of God’s free […]
In several previous articles on the Canons of Dort. I have referred to the implications of its confession of God’s sovereign grace in the salvation of His people for the preaching of the gospel today. However, these references were largely incidental to my purpose which was to summarize the teaching of the confession and to […]
“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” (Rom. 6:1–2) As these well-known words of the apostle Paul imply, it is possible to conclude wrongly from the teaching that we are saved by grace […]
Now that we have come to the end of our journey through the Canons of Dort, it is time to draw some conclusions regarding their continued usefulness and importance for the Reformed churches today. This will enable us to tie up some remaining loose threads in the previous articles, and to underscore what has been […]
In the first chapter of the book of Acts, we are told that the disciples, when they were in the presence of the risen Lord, inquired about the restoration of the kingdom to Israel: “And so when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, ‘Lord, is it at this time You are restoring […]
In this article I wish to introduce a new series of doctrinal studies devoted to the theme, “The Bible and the Future.” Though I am unable to predict how many articles this series will require, the following article is intended to serve as a kind of broad introduction to the subject of the future, approached from […]
In his Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin declares that the Old Testament was given to the people of Israel as a means to “foster hope of salvation in Christ until His coming.” All of the Lord’s redemptive dealings with His covenant people, prior to the birth of Christ in the “fullness of time,” […]
In a previous article addressing the subject of “total depravity,” I quoted from a statement of J.I. Packer in which he argues that the whole point of the Canons of Dort is that God saves sinners. The Triune God alone authors and accomplishes the salvation of His people; He does not simply make salvation possible and […]
One of the almost irresistible impulses among students of the Bible’s teaching about the future is the impulse to date the return of Christ. As we noted in our previous article, this is one of the questions about the return of Christ that should be addressed at the outset of any consideration of general eschatology […]
At the close of a previous article outlining the main aspects of the Old Testament’s view of the future, I noted that the Old Testament believer, peering over the immediate present toward the horizon of the future, was anticipating a new and better day. The whole of Old Testament revelation pointed in the direction of […]