Round the Sphere Again: Controversial

Assurance
The first question and answer of the Heidelberg Catechism was, when it was written, a polemical statement (Carl Trueman), for 

At the pastoral heart of the Protestant Reformation lay the doctrine of assurance, the idea that every individual believer could know—indeed, should know—that God was gracious to them. This was critical because, as the Reformers rightly saw, it lay at the heart of the Christian life, a life which was to be marked not by works done in a servile manner in the hope of thereby earning God’s favour, but rather by works done out of gratitude to God for his grace, and in a spirit of confident freedom. Medieval Catholicism was built upon a different strategy, where doubt of God’s individual mercy was a means by which to keep believers on the straight and narrow, so to speak. When the Heidelberg Catechism kicks off with a statement about assurance, it was also kicking Catholicism in the theological shins.

Trueman says assurance is no longer the issue it once was “because the whole notion of assurance, and the lack thereof, has become nonsense for most Christians.” Read the whole piece to see why this is so.

Atonement
Martin Downes reposts a piece on the repugnancy of the atonement to the unregenerate mind (Against Heresies). Not everyone considers Christ dying in our place to be a beautiful thing!

Addressing
Rick Warren’s message at the Desiring God National Conference. (Phil Johnson with Christ Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron.)

Thankful Thursday

I’m thankful for the opportunity to sing with my church choir at an extended care facility this evening.

I’m thankful that the shortest day is almost here and it gets better after that. I’m thankful for oil in the tank that feeds the furnace. I’m thankful a my new humidifier to take the edge off the winter dryness.

I’m thankful for my youngest son who turned 21 on Tuesday. I’m thankful that he’s easy to please when it comes to parties and gifts. I’m thankful that he is willing to walk the dogs even when it gets cold.

I’m thankful for quiet times to think about the meaning of Christ’s birth.

On Thursdays throughout this year, I’m posting a few thoughts of thanksgiving along with Kim at the Upward Call and others. Why don’t you participate by posting your thanksgiving each week, too? It’ll be an encouragement to you and to others, I promise.

Theological Term of the Week

Molinism
A philosophical system named after Jesuit theologian Luis de Molina, a system which sought to maintain both the autonomy of human beings and the sovereignty of God by claiming that God’s knowledge of the free decisions of any human beings in any given circumstance was logically prior to his decree of what would happen in the world he would create.

• Scripture used to argue for Molinism, although it simply proves that God knows what would have happened under different circumstances, and not that this knowledge is logically prior to his creative decree:
  

  Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. (Matthew 11:20-21, ESV)
  

• Scripture that argues against Molinism by suggesting that God himself is the source of all knowledge:

  Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord,
  or what man shows him his counsel?
  Whom did he consult,
  and who made him understand?
  Who taught him the path of justice,
  and taught him knowledge,
  and showed him the way of understanding? (Isaiah 40:13-14 ESV)

• From The Westminster Confession of Faith, 1689:

  Chapter III- Of God’s Eternal Decree

  I. God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.

  II. Although God knows whatsoever may or can come to pass upon all supposed conditions; yet has He not decreed anything because He foresaw it as future, or as that which would come to pass upon such conditions.

• Herman Bavinck (Reformed Dogmatics) is critical of Molinism because in it

  God does not derive his knowledge of the free actions of human beings from his own being, his own decrees, but from the will of creatures. God, accordingly, becomes dependent on the world, derives knowledge from the world that he did not have and could not obtain from himself, and hence, in his knowledge, ceases to be one, simple, and independent – that is, God.

Learn more:

1. Theopedia: Molinism
2. Paul Helm: Molinism 101
3. Third Millennium Ministries: Does Matthew 11:20-24 teach Molinism (Middle Knowledge)?
4. James White: Explanation and Refutation of Middle Knowledge (YouTube video)
5. Turretinfan: Middle Knowledge (series of YouTube videos)

Related terms:

• decree of God
• sovereignty of God

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.