June 25, 2021 Show with David J. Engelsma on “The Belgic Confession” (Part 3)

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Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon,

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Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet

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Earth who are listening via live streaming at IronSharpensIronRadio .com. This is

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Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Friday. On this 25th day of June 2021,

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I'd like to start the program today with an urgent prayer request.

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My oldest brother, John, who many of you know through my public requests for prayer on his behalf, but for those of you who are not aware, my oldest brother,

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John, 76 years old, has cancer, critical stage emphysema, and an inoperable aneurysm.

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He has been in the hospital for several days after his last chemo and radiation treatment, which debilitated him.

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He has been in the hospital unconscious for the last several days.

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I don't know how much hope there is for him physically. Of course, with God, all things are possible.

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As a Calvinist, I do believe in a God who heals. I don't believe in modern -day healers, but I certainly believe in a

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God who heals. Our great physician is still at work. But I am praying especially because he still might be there at this very moment as I speak, but my dear friend,

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Pastor Mac Tomlinson of Providence Chapel in Denton, Texas, went to visit my brother,

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John, in the hospital today at the request of my sister -in -law, Jan, John's wife, and he is seeking to minister to my brother even in the state of unconsciousness.

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I ask of you to pray that in some way, either miraculously or through our

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Lord, awakening my brother, even if it's just long enough to hear and appreciate and discern and embrace the true gospel.

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I ask of you to pray that that occurs today while Pastor Mac is there so that I can also have extra confidence that my brother is truly on his way to meet his

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Savior in glory. So I appreciate your prayers on my brother John's behalf and on behalf of my entire family at this time.

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But today we have with us an extraordinary guest. He is certainly one of my favorite guests, and I know that he has become one of the favorite guests of my listeners.

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His name is Professor David J. Engelsma, and he is an author and was the professor of dogmatics and Old Testament studies for 20 years at Protestant Reform Seminary in Granville, Michigan, and he is now the emeritus professor since the

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Synod of 2008. He was the editor of the Standard Bearer magazine from 1968 to 2002 and is currently still a lecturer and preacher touring in North America and throughout the

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British Isles on behalf of the British Reform Fellowship, which is devoted to the spread and defense of the

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Reform faith in the United Kingdom. Today we are going to be addressing for the third time

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Professor Engelsma's new two -volume commentary on the

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Belgic Confession, one of the great historic confessions of the

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Christian faith, and in particular the Reform faith, which is one of the three forms of unity.

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And it is my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Professor David J. Engelsma.

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Thank you for having me, Chris, to this unique radio broadcast.

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I'm not aware of anything like it in North America or probably in the whole world, so it's a privilege for me to be involved with you again.

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Well, I truly appreciate that commendation, especially from somebody of your caliber. And if you could let our listeners know about this new two -volume commentary on the

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Belgic Confession, for those of our listeners especially who did not hear the first two parts of this discussion, tell our listeners perhaps a summary of why we are discussing this great confession today, and perhaps give a recap of what we've already addressed.

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The worth of my commentaries on the Belgic Confession really depends upon the importance of the

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Belgic Confession itself. For those who may be unfamiliar with it or whose knowledge of the

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Belgic Confession is little or none, the

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Belgic Confession is one of the great confessions or creeds or standards of the

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Christian faith, and particularly of the Christian faith as purely and soundly witnessed by the

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Reformed Holy Scripture. It was written in 1561.

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It was adopted officially as the authoritative creed of the Reformed churches worldwide at the

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Synod of Dort in 1618 and 1619. It is a thorough exposition of all of the main doctrines of the

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Christian faith, beginning with the truth of Scripture and concluding with the truth of the last things.

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The use of that confession in the Reformed churches worldwide over the years and still today has been that it binds

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Reformed office bearers, and therefore Reformed churches, to the Reformed creeds.

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For the Reformed churches in my tradition, the Dutch Reformed tradition, they include also these creeds due to the canons of Dort and the

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Heidelberg Catechism. The Belgic Confession has also been and still is today, for churches that are faithful to their subscription to this creed, a means of instruction of the young people and children of the church and of recent converts to the

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Reformed churches. It serves also as a test of orthodoxy, for example, with regard to the vital truth of the death of Jesus Christ, that the death of Jesus Christ was a substitutionary atonement in the place of and on behalf of the elect only.

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And it is a guide for the orthodox teaching of these Reformed churches in that all of the teachings in the

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Reformed churches, especially the public teachings and the preaching of the word, are to conform to the

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Belgic Confession and its exposition of these doctrines. The worth of my two -volume commentary, therefore, is basically the importance of the

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Belgic Confession. To my knowledge, there is not in the English language a contemporary exposition or explanation of the

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Belgic Confession. It was because I saw that lacuna that I set myself to the task of writing a thorough commentary on the

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Belgic Confession in two volumes. My commentary is an explanation of the creed.

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I wrote it for the laymen in the Reformed churches in the Calvinistic sphere, not for the theologians, although I dare to hope that the commentary is of benefit also to the ministers and theologians in the

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Reformed churches. The Belgic Confession commentary that I've written answers basically the question, what is the official creedal

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Reformed faith of Holy Scripture? The Belgic Confession answers that question and does not leave undecided what the position of the

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Reformed faith is on all the fundamental doctrines of the Christian religion. My commentary, therefore, is a condensed manual of the complete teaching of the

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Bible on the main truths of the Bible as officially adopted and approved by the great ecumenical assembly known as the

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Synod of Dort. In addition to explaining as faithfully as the

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Holy Spirit of Christ led me in making this commentary, the commentary takes into account recent controversies in the

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Reformed churches and even in the Christian churches more broadly, applying the

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Belgic Confession to these recent controversies. For example, in the

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Reformed sphere in North America, but also worldwide, there has been controversy of late concerning the infallibility of the

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Bible. There are those theologians, many of them, sad to say, who deny that the

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Bible is infallible. They contend that the Bible has many errors, starting already with Genesis 1 through 3 concerning the creation of the world in six days and the creation of man by the direct hand of God rather than that man descended from the beasts.

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What does the Belgic Confession say authoritatively about that deviation from the truth of Scripture and the

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Reformed faith in particular? I take that controversy into account in this commentary.

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Then also there is the related issue of the historicity of the account of creation and the historicity of the account of the fall in the opening chapters of the

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Bible. In recent times, quite dangerously and popularly, there has been departure from the

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Christian faith as expressed in the Reformed creeds in the matter of justification by faith alone.

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Strong parties have arisen and have made their position known in writing and in lecturing who contend that justification is not by faith alone as the

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Reformation and the Belgic Confession contend, but that justification of the sinner is by faith and by the good works of the believer, which is essentially the

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Roman Catholic position. I apply what the Belgic Confession teaches concerning justification by faith alone to this controversy.

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There are more of them as well. Although it is an exposition of a creed that was adopted in 1561, it applies this creed and the testimony of this creed to current events and developments in the

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Reformed churches especially. That, I do believe, makes this commentary important for especially

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Reformed Christians wherever they're found today and for Reformed churches and theologians as well.

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Well, I want to let our listeners know that they can purchase this two -volume commentary from Reformed Free Publishing Association, and their website is rfpa .org.

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R -F -P -A dot org. That stands for Reformed Free Publishing Association.

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R -F -P -A dot org. And hopefully we will remember to repeat that information later on in the program.

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I know that today one of the things you wanted to address that we did not highlight in other interviews on the

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Belgic Confession, our previous two interviews, I know that one of these issues is that, in your opinion, failure to submit to and use the

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Belgic Confession for present -day churches, and for present -day serious developments in the

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Reformed community worldwide, and especially that the Synod of Dort adopted a form that binds all

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Reformed office -bearers to adhere to the Belgic Confession, an instrument known as the

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Formula of Subscription. So, if you'd like to begin with that issue.

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Chris, I appreciate your bringing that up and calling the attention of the audience to this important fact and description of the functioning of the

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Belgic Confession. As a creed, or confession, of the

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Reformed churches, the Belgic Confession has binding authority upon the office -bearers in the

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Reformed churches, theologians, ministers, elders, and deacons. And its authority is put into effect in this way, that whenever a man is called into office in the

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Reformed churches, he signs that document to which you have referred, the

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Formula of Subscription. That Formula of Subscription binds him to teach in conformity to the

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Belgic Confession, and forbids him to teach contrary to the content of the

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Belgic Confession. So that when a man signs the Formula of Subscription, he binds himself to be faithful to the instruction of the

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Confession, and to be guided by the content of the Belgic Confession. When, therefore, a

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Reformed office -bearer, a minister especially now, in his preaching and teaching, deviates from and contradicts the instruction of the

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Belgic Confession, he is breaking a virtual oath that he has made when he has entered into his office.

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Then, of course, considering himself to be free with regard to his instruction, he goes off in whatever theological direction he chooses to go.

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With regard to this matter of the infallibility of Scripture that I referred to earlier, the

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Belgic Confession teaches the infallibility of an inspired Scripture. Scripture is without error, and is to be regarded as the very

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Word of God in everything that it teaches and enjoins. In many circles today, in Reformed churches also, the infallibility of Scripture is denied, openly and explicitly denied.

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Theologians contend that the Bible contains many errors, many errors not only of fact, but many errors also of doctrine.

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Particularly, and especially, errors with regard to its account of the origins of the world and the origins of the human race in particular.

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These theologians and ministers are impressed by the apparent findings of science, which contend for a creation, not a creation, a world of billions of years, and the human race that is much older than the teaching of Scripture would allow for.

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And they teach evolution. They may put adjectives in front of it, theistic evolution as they please, but it's basically evolution in contradiction of the

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Bible's teaching of creation. Now that is a sheer violation, apart from the error that they make with regard to their explanation of the world and of the human race, that is sheer violation of the oath that they have made when they entered into their office in the formula of subscription that they would not teach contrary to the

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Belgic Confession, as well as the Canons of Dort and the Heidelberg Catechism, and for Presbyterians, the

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Westminster Standards. They're breaking their oath. They're violating their trust.

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And that indicates that the problem in the churches is not only that these ministers violate their commitment to the

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Belgic Confession, but also that the churches do not exercise discipline upon these faithless ministers and theologians.

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The ministers and theologians are allowed to get away with their breaking of their oath and commitment to uphold the

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Belgic Confession. When the Belgic Confession functions in a church the way it should, that's for the welfare of the members of the congregation.

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They're not led astray by heretical ministers and theologians. And the glory of God, which is at stake in the matter of the truth confessed by the

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Belgic Confession, is maintained when the Belgic Confession functions as it ought to function, and as a standard and official guide of all of the instruction in the

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Reformed churches. The Belgic Confession therefore has, as do all the Reformed creeds, and I might add all of the

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Christian creeds, including the Nicene and the Apostolic creeds, the

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Belgic Confession has a powerful and important and saving place in the

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Reformed churches. Now, as important as confessionalism being put into place and to be seriously adopted by churches, the tragedy is that throughout history you have had people give lip service, and really, through dishonesty, perhaps when they're being ordained, they will sign an agreement to a confession and really, either that they start off never really intending to follow it, or don't even know it, or they later devolve into apostasy.

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But one person that comes to mind immediately, a person that you are no doubt very familiar with, the notorious

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Charles G. Finney, who was a

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Presbyterian minister. How on earth he was ever ordained by a

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Presbyterian body as a minister is absolutely astounding, but he would later make the claims that the

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Westminster divines had created a paper pope and had elevated their confession and catechism to the papal throne into the place of the

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Holy Ghost. And obviously, well it's actually not very obvious to many evangelicals and fundamentalists who still uphold

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Finney as a hero, Finney was even theologically, if you can believe it's possible, more heretical in many ways than even the

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Church of Rome when it comes to justification, when it comes to the necessity of grace, and so on.

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He was basically a Pelagianist, he wasn't even a semi -Pelagianist. But if you could, give the listeners this warning about the seriousness that must be held when churches adhere to one of the great confessions, or all of them, that mere lip service cannot be satisfactory.

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What you have just described is the mystery of iniquity in the last days, another name for which is apostasy.

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Preachers, influential preachers and theologians, including theologians who are professors of theology training young men to become ministers of the word, fall away from the

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Christian faith and deny fundamental doctrines of the

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Christian faith in spite of and contrary to the promise they have made to uphold the faith by their adherence to the creeds.

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These men train or influence the young men who are just entering the ministry, who become their eager disciples, and who bring their heresies and false doctrines into the catechism class of the young people, into the pulpits by which the people are misled.

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And the effect of all of that is the falling away of entire denominations of churches.

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That Presbyterian church to which Finney belonged, and in which he subscribed falsely and faithlessly to the

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Westminster standards, is now revealing itself simply as a false church, where there is open denial of the deity of Jesus Christ, of the resurrection of the body, and similar fundamental doctrines.

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The Bible prophesies that that will take place in the last days. There will be a great falling away leading up to the second coming of Jesus Christ.

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So the Bible warns us that these things are going to happen, but on our part we have a responsibility to maintain the truth and to fight vigorously on behalf of the preservation of the

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Reformed churches in which we are members. And the way to do that is that the consistories, the elders first of all, take the minister in charge who is preaching false doctrine and discipline him, deposing him from his office and removing him from his place of influence in the congregation.

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And the same thing with professors of theology in the seminary. That's how the churches fight to preserve themselves, or be preserved by Christ really, as true churches of Jesus Christ.

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Invariably when that happens, which you have described in the case of Finney, there's no discipline in the church, no exercise of the keys of the kingdom, barring ministers from, prospective ministers from the office when they are questioned by the assemblies, and disciplining those who are in the office who show themselves as heretical.

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That's going on today, and office bearers, this is an important feature too, elders who are untrained and often tend to be overawed by the degrees and education of their learned minister or their learned professor of theology, have an authoritative standard in hand by which to test these unfaithful office bearers.

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The Belgic Confession, when the minister is teaching that the Bible is full of errors, starting with the opening chapter of the

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Bible, the elders in the elders' bench reach for their copy of the

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Belgic Confession and read the opening articles, I think two through seven, and discern that that teaching by the minister or the professor of theology contradicts the

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Belgic Confession's testimony to the authority of Holy Scripture and therefore proceed on the basis of this authoritative document to take action against the minister.

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The elders have an instrument in hand by which to deal with these treacherous men.

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We have to go to our first station break right now. If anybody would like to join us on the air with a question of their own for David J.

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Engelsma on the Belgic Confession, and of course you can ask any question in regard to theology, doctrine, the scriptures, etc.

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Our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com, C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.

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Please, at the very least, give us your first name, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence, if you live outside the

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USA. Don't go away. We'll be right back with David J. Engelsma and part three of our discussion of his two -volume commentary on the

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Belgic Confession. Hello, dear ones.

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Again, I'm Pastor Anthony Invinio, and thanks for listening. Welcome back. This is Chris Arnzen, if you just tuned us in.

34:39

Our guest today on Iron Sharpens Iron radio is David J. Engelsma, and we are discussing the third part of our interview on his new two -volume commentary on the

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Belgic Confession, a discussion that we began several months ago. And if you have any questions for David Engelsma on the

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Belgic Confession or on any matter that involves theology, doctrine, the scriptures, etc.,

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our email address is ChrisArnzen at gmail .com, ChrisArnzen at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least, city and state of residence, and country of residence.

35:18

We have Anthony in Hoshton, or Hockton, Hoshton, I don't know,

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Hoshton, Georgia. And Anthony asks, Was the

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Belgic Confession primarily designed to strengthen individual saints in their personal piety by striving to provide accuracy in doctrinal beliefs, and not as concerned with having an outward focus in interacting with a fallen world and engaging the declining culture with gospel motives?

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Would the idea be, let's get the doctrine correct, then encourage members to live it out before the unsaved, or would we then let the preaching instruct the saints to fulfill

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Matthew 28? My initial response is that the

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Belgic Confession had as its purpose the strengthening and preservation not only of the saints, the

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Reformed believers, but also of the churches, the Reformed churches in the lowlands, which are now

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Belgium and the Netherlands. And the purpose of Debray and of the

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Synod of Dort that adopted the Belgic Confession as official authority in Reformed churches was not to change the culture or to win the culture for Christ, just as that has never been the main purpose, if a purpose at all, of the

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Reformed faith. But I must add the proviso that in those days

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Reformed leaders, including Debray and Calvin, were afflicted with something of the idea that the

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Christian faith should influence society and even make a Christian nation.

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That's undeniable. And I think that comes out in one of the later articles of the

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Belgic Confession, the article that treats of the magistrates or the civil government.

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I might have talked about that in an earlier interview. Yes, you said that there were areas in that section that you had disagreement with the

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Great Confession. Yes, it gave to the magistrates, did that article, the authority to establish or preserve a

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Christian state by executing those who differed from the creedal

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Reformed faith. There was something of that in the Belgic Confession's purpose, but it was very much secondary.

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And the main purpose of the Belgic Confession was spiritual and ecclesiastical, the welfare of the

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Church and the godly faith and life of the believing Reformed Christian.

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Well, thank you, Anthony. And guess what? You have won a free two -volume set of the

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Belgic Confession commentary by our guest, David Engelsma. Make sure you give us your full mailing address in Hoshton, Georgia.

38:56

And forgive me if I'm mispronouncing the city in which you live. Just not to derail the conversation too much, but I have not the greatest knowledge of the study of martyrdom in the

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Church. But to my knowledge over the years that I've been a

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Christian, outside of the Church of England, which for a number of centuries in the past was like a pendulum going back and forth from Romish heresies to Protestantism, but the streets of England ran red with blood for quite a while with the execution of individuals both by Catholics who executed

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Protestants and also Protestants who executed Catholics. But outside of the

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Church of England, executing quite a number of people, and of course we have the tragic example in our own

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Reformed heritage where Miguel Servito, Michael Servitus, was executed in Geneva for a denial of the

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Trinity and a rejection of infant baptism. I don't know of too great of an example where there were massive, considerably large persecutions by Protestants of others that led to their torture or death.

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Am I just ignorant of history? Because you were just speaking of, the reason why I'm even asking it, you were speaking of the section in the

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Belgic Confession over which you had disagreement about the civil magistrates' authority in those areas.

41:14

But can you enlighten me about what you know about Church history and martyrdom? You are certainly right that the

41:23

Roman Catholic Church was far and away more guilty of physical punishments, including death penalties, including the stake of religious dissidents as they viewed them, than were the

41:42

Protestants. The Roman Catholics imprisoned and tortured and killed vast numbers of persons for their disagreement with the

41:53

Roman Catholic faith. But there was, in the early years of the Reformation and following, a tendency among the

42:02

Protestant leaders, including the Reformed leaders, to promote the civil state by means of the sword, which always includes punishing to the point of killing those that dissented from this

42:19

Christian state. I was reading just last night, for my own entertainment, the volume in Will Durant's History of Civilization that deals with developments in Great Britain at the time of the

42:35

Reformation. A powerful figure there was John Knox. John Knox considered it to be his calling as a

42:43

Protestant preacher and the calling of the Puritan Protestant faith to promote the

42:55

Protestant state by means of the sword. I groaned when I was reading some of his pronouncements and some of his actions as well.

43:06

There was that notion among Protestants, and Calvin shared that, that it wasn't only the spiritual sword that promoted the kingdom of Christ, but also the physical sword.

43:19

That involved Calvin and the death of Servetus, as you pointed out, but also other activities as well.

43:26

Over the years, Protestantism, in its purity, recognized that that was not the calling or responsibility of the church.

43:38

The church was not called to promote the civil state with the sword, but that the kingdom of Jesus Christ was spiritual, and the kingdom of Jesus Christ is promoted by a spiritual means, the sword of the word of God.

43:52

Now, following up on that, in recent times, there has appeared schools of thought within Presbyterianism that tends in that direction again of insisting that the state must be

44:12

Christianized. And to my mind, that always involves the use of physical power and punishments in order to accomplish

44:22

Christianizing, that's their term, not mine, the Christianizing of nations.

44:28

I'm fearful of that trend and that train of thought. And I actually, when

44:36

I was giving my description of the history of martyrdom, I forgot to mention a significant area of which

44:43

I was aware, not that I'm an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but the

44:48

Lutheran persecution of the Anabaptists. Now, this was not actually done by the

44:57

Lutheran churches per se, it was the state church, the government in Germany that was involved in this.

45:07

In fact, from my understanding, people wrongly associate

45:12

Luther with being actively involved in ordering the execution of Anabaptists, but to my knowledge, he just refused to give them safe passage.

45:24

I'm not saying that that was an acceptable thing, but he refused to give them safe passage, and a lot of it had to do with a fear of Luther, because there was an existence of anarchy among the

45:39

Anabaptists, so the Anabaptists were not a monolithic group, that was just a single term to describe anybody that believed in the necessity of baptism for believers only.

45:51

So you had theologically orthodox people being mixed in with heretical people and so on.

45:57

But even giving Luther a kinder view in his involvement in this, it was still in error.

46:09

Am I misrepresenting anything to your knowledge? No. Luther was the best of all the

46:15

Reformers when it came to distinguishing between the civil government promoted by an earthly sword and the spiritual kingdom of Christ promoted by the spiritual sword of the word.

46:27

There are passages in Luther in which he vehemently opposes the notion that you punish heretics with the sword or with the stake, and promotes the spiritual kingdom of Christ, which is put forward by the word of God only.

46:50

Now towards the end of his life, when he became a crotchety old man to start with, and the

46:56

Anabaptists disappointed him by not converting to the Lutheran Protestant faith, he wrote some dreadful tracts in which he contradicted everything that he had said rightly before and urged that the

47:10

Anabaptist radicals be executed. But even there, part of it was due to the revolutionary nature of the

47:17

Anabaptists and not simply to their bad religion as Luther regarded it. And what would you like to say today that we haven't already addressed in regard to the holy inerrant scriptures themselves and how the

47:34

Belgic Confession addresses them? I'd like to point out that the

47:41

Belgic Confession recognizing the fundamental importance of scripture as the foundation of the faith begins with a long section on scripture running from Article 2 through Article 7.

47:57

And in those articles, the Belgic Confession sets forth and commits

48:05

Reformed Christianity to the right doctrine of holy scripture.

48:12

There's even the word infallible in that section of articles.

48:18

The Belgic Confession calls scripture the infallible standard or witness of the truth.

48:28

It maintains that the scriptures are from God. They are inspired. It declares that the scriptures are authoritative with regard to everything that they teach concerning salvation, concerning the

48:43

Christian life, concerning everything that the scriptures teach. They are not to be questioned or contended with.

48:53

With regard to its own authority, in a lovely insight, it describes the authority of scripture as self -attesting.

49:06

That is, scripture does not have its authority because the church gives that authority to scripture, which is really a blow at the

49:14

Roman Catholic view of scripture. But other explanations of the authority of scripture as well.

49:23

You and I as believers and all believers receive holy scripture as the infallible authoritative word of God because the

49:31

Holy Spirit, by means of the scriptures themselves, bind that infallibility and authority and inspiration of scripture upon our hearts.

49:43

Then, in a powerful article, it describes the

49:48

Bible as sufficient. Sufficient for everything we need to know and everything concerning how we live with regard to salvation.

49:58

We don't have to depend upon tradition, the teachings of the fathers, or of the church that has gone before us, back to the apostles.

50:10

We find the scriptures to be sufficient with regard to all of our salvation.

50:19

That's the highest possible view of scripture. No one may consider himself to be a

50:26

Reformed believer who deviates from that high view of scripture.

50:33

No one may consider himself to be a Christian who denies the authority of scripture because the authority of scripture is the authority of God himself.

50:43

One who challenges the authority of scripture with regard to anything that it teaches is really putting something, or himself, above the authority of God himself.

50:56

That's not only unreformed, that's unchristian. In the course of setting forth that high view of scripture, something that needs to be emphasized to the current generation of confessing

51:10

Christians, and particularly to the young people who are coming up in the church, that has to be emphasized, this high view of scripture.

51:21

Everything depends on it. If that falls away, that high view of scripture, there's nothing of the

51:26

Christian religion that necessarily remains. Everything can be questioned and set aside.

51:32

In regard to, as it sets forth, this high view of scripture, the

51:37

Belgic Confession either refers to or quotes in part the two outstanding passages in the

51:45

New Testament on the matter of the inspiration and the authority of scripture. That enables me to point out that in all that it teaches, sometimes explicitly, often implicitly, the

51:59

Belgic Confession considers itself to be bound to the Word of God. It is not, therefore, an authority alongside scripture.

52:08

It's not an authority certainly above scripture. It's an authority because it is based upon scripture and presents scripture's teachings in all of the articles.

52:18

But in the section on scripture, it refers to or quotes in part the two main passages in the

52:25

New Testament in which scripture testifies to its own authority and origin and inspiration.

52:33

From Timothy 3, all scripture is given by inspiration of God, where the word is theopneustos in the

52:42

Greek, one word, which means God -breathed. Scripture says of itself that it is

52:48

God -breathed. In fact, can we pick up right where you left off with that scripture is God -breathed, because we have to get to our midway break?

52:55

I hate to interrupt you at such an important moment. But please be patient with us, folks.

53:01

It's the longer break in the middle of the show, because Grace Life Radio, 90 .1 FM in Lake City, Florida, requires of us a longer break because they are required by the

53:10

FCC to have a longer break so that they can have their public service announcements made and other local things to localize

53:19

Iron Trip and Zion Radio and all of their programming geographically to Lake City, Florida. And we also air, at this time, our globally heard commercials simultaneously.

53:30

Please respond to them as often as you can, and to further ensure you'll do that, write down as much of the information as you can provided by our advertisers so that they will be pleased with the responses and remain our advertisers, because we need our advertisers to exist.

53:45

We'll be right back after these messages. Don't go away. Back together again, yeah.

53:54

Back together again, yeah. Hi, I'm Phil Johnson, host and executive director of Grace To You, the media ministry of John McArthur.

54:06

I hope you plan to join me and Chris Arnzen, host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, for the

54:12

G3 Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, Thursday, September 30th through Saturday, October 2nd.

54:18

The theme this year is Christ is supreme over all. My friend Chris Arnzen and I will be joined by several of our other friends, including

54:26

Votie Balcombe, Justin Peters, Daryl Bernard Harrison, Virgil Walker, and James White.

54:33

More than 20 other speakers will be joining us, and the lineup this year includes my pastor, John McArthur.

54:40

For details, visit G3Conference .com. That's G3Conference .com.

54:46

Chris Arnzen and I hope to see you September 30th through October 2nd at G3 2021.

54:53

This is Phil Johnson reminding you that Christ is supreme over all. When Iron Sharpens Iron Radio first launched in 2005, the publishers of the

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New American Standard Bible were among my very first sponsors. It gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the

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I'm Pastor Nate Pickowitz of Harvest Bible Church in Gilmanton Iron Works, New Hampshire, and the

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NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Rich Jensen of Hope Reform Baptist Church in Quorum, New York, and the

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NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Sulay Prince of Oakwood Wesleyan Church in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the

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NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor John Sampson of King's Church in Peoria, Arizona, and the

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NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Chuck Volo of New Life Community Church in Kingsville, Maryland, and the

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NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Steve Herford of Eastport Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, and the

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NASB is my Bible of choice. I'm Pastor Roy Owens, Jr. of the

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Church in Friendship in Hopley, Texas, and the NASB is my Bible of choice.

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Here's a great way for your church to help keep Iron Sharpens Iron Radio on the air. Pastors, are your pew bibles tattered and falling apart?

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Hi, I'm Buzz Taylor. Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio has had a long -time partnership with our friends at CVBBS, which stands for Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service.

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Please let our friends at CVBBS know that you heard about them on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

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Here's what Gary DeMar, president of American Vision, had to say about Iron Sharpens Iron Radio recently.

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Good to be back, Chris. I always enjoy our time here. I have to tell you, you're one of the better interviewers out there, and I've been doing this for 30, more than 30 years.

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Wow, that's some compliment. How much do I owe you for that? You don't have to owe me anything.

58:45

We're in good shape. I'm glad you said it on the air, so I don't have to brag about myself.

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Tell your friends and loved ones about Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, airing live Monday through Friday, 4 to 6 p .m.

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Eastern Time, at ironsharpensironradio .com. Getting a driver's license.

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Running a cash register. Flipping burgers. Passing sixth grade. Do you know what they all have in common?

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Becoming a parent. My name is A .M. Brewster. I'm the president of Truth, Love, Parent, and host of its award -winning podcast.

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Please visit us at TruthLoveParent .com. I'm David Costa, professor of apologetics and Islam at Toronto Baptist Seminary.

01:00:16

I'm thrilled to introduce to you a church where I've been invited to speak and have grown to love,

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Hope Reform Baptist Church in Coram, Long Island, New York, pastored by Rich Jensen and Christopher McDowell.

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It's such a joy to witness and experience fellowship with people of God like the dear saints at Hope Reform Baptist Church in Coram, who have an intensely passionate desire to continue digging deeper and deeper into the unfathomable riches of Christ in his holy word, and to enthusiastically proclaim

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Christ Jesus the King and his doctrines of sovereign grace in Suffolk County, Long Island, and beyond.

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I hope you also have the privilege of discovering this precious congregation and receive the blessing of being showered by their love as I have.

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For more information on Hope Reform Baptist Church, go to hopereformedli .net.

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That's hopereformedli .net. Or call 631 -696 -5711.

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That's 631 -696 -5711.

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Tell the folks at Hope Reform Baptist Church of Coram, Long Island, New York that you heard about them from Tony Costa on Iron Sharpens Iron.

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We are excited to announce another new member of the

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In Psalm 139 verse 14, the psalmist offers praise to the

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Lord like this. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, and wondrous are your works that my soul knows very well.

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You saw God's goodness and mercy, kindness, and the beauty in what

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God has designed, and he has erupted into praise. In any crisis or problem, brothers and sisters, our only fallback position is to trust

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God's design. And once we do, there is nothing for us to do but to erupt in praise to him.

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When the whole world is searching for a solution, God in his infinite mercy has given us what we need to address this illness, which can be very serious.

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Such is the beauty of his design. Knowing that design, how can we not erupt in praise to our great

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God like the psalmist did? May God bless you and give all of us wisdom to see greater things in his design.

01:03:53

Thank you. If you love

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Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio, one of the best ways you can help keep the show on the air is by supporting our advertisers.

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One such faithful advertiser who really believes in what Chris Arnton is doing is

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Dan is the president and founder of the Historical Bible Society. Their mission?

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To foster belief in the credibility of scripture as the written word of God. They go to various churches, schools, and institutions to publicly display a rare collection of biblical texts, along with a fascinating presentation by Mr.

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You can have your own copy of this 44 -page genealogy book for a donation of $35 or more.

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Thanks for helping to keep Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio on the air. Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said,

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Give yourself unto reading. The man who never reads will never be read. He who never quotes will never be quoted.

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He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves that he has no brains of his own.

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Solid -ground -books .com, always mention that you heard about them from Chris Arnzen on Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio.

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Please always remember also how valuable, how important, how vital solid -ground -books .com

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You're going to be doing yourself and anyone for whom you are purchasing gifts from solid -ground -books .com

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and always mention Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio when making your purchases. Before I return to our guest,

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David J. Engelsma, and our third discussion that we began a few months ago on the

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Belgic Confession and his two -volume commentary on this confession, which may very well be the only modern edition of a commentary on this great confession of the faith, a third of the

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Three Forms of Unity. Before we return to that discussion, I just have a couple of important announcements to make.

01:09:20

Once again, I'd like to repeat, especially for those who tuned in late, please pray for my oldest brother,

01:09:26

John, 76 years old, in a hospital in Texas, who is and has been unconscious for the last several days after a debilitating round of chemotherapy and radiation a couple of weeks ago.

01:09:44

My brother, John, I don't have a lot of confidence that he embraced the true gospel, and I'm just asking for your prayers that during my friend's visit, my friend

01:10:00

Pastor Mack Tomlinson of Providence Chapel in Denton, Texas, a Reformed Baptist congregation, during his visit with my brother,

01:10:08

John, even though he's unconscious, I ask of your prayers that somehow the gospel once again gets through to my brother, and that somehow he receives it and gives some kind of evidence that I can hold onto as a reason for rejoicing and a reason to have confidence that he is on his way to eternal glory with Christ.

01:10:35

Please pray for his wife, Jan, his daughter, Regina, and all of his children,

01:10:41

Patrice and Eric and JJ, and pray for me and my brother,

01:10:47

Bob, my sister, Mary, as we are going through this trial. Also, pray for my brother,

01:10:53

Bob. He emailed me, I guess it was yesterday, that he is having a tumor removed from his bladder.

01:11:00

He is 64 right now, and I would appreciate your prayers.

01:11:07

Thankfully, my brother, Bob, is a born -again believer in Christ. Also, folks, please, if you love this show, you don't want it to disappear from the airwaves, go to www .ironsharpensironradio

01:11:18

.com, click support, then click, click to donate now. You could donate instantly with a debit or credit card in that fashion.

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If you prefer snail mail, sending checks the old -fashioned way through the

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United States Postal Service, or whatever postal service happens to be yours if you live outside of the

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United States, if you prefer that, well, a physical address will appear on your screen when you click support at www .ironsharpensironradio

01:11:48

.com. If you'd like to advertise with us, please send me an email, chrisarnson at gmail .com,

01:11:54

and put advertising in the subject line, as long as whatever it is you are promoting is compatible with my beliefs.

01:12:00

You don't have to believe lockstep identically with me, but you need to be promoting something that is at the very least compatible with what

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I believe, and I would be more than thrilled to help you launch an ad campaign because we are in very urgent need of your advertising dollars.

01:12:15

That's chrisarnson at gmail .com, and put advertising in the subject line. Please always remember that Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, one of the main reasons we exist is to be a friend and a help and a platform to the local church.

01:12:32

I never want the local church to be harmed financially or in any other way through the existence of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

01:12:41

Therefore, please don't siphon money away from the regular giving that you're accustomed to to your own local church where you are a member in order to give to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

01:12:51

In other words, don't financially punish your own church by blessing us financially.

01:12:56

Now, obviously, you would never think of it in that way, but in essence, that may be what you're doing.

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So I'm asking you, please, don't siphon money away from your giving to your local church to give to us. Also, don't put your family in financial peril by giving to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

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If you are really struggling to survive and make ends meet, please wait until you are blessed financially with an increase of your ability to be benevolent before you give.

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But if you are blessed financially above and beyond your ability to provide for your church and family, you have extra money collecting interest in the bank.

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You have extra money for recreational purposes, for trivial purposes. And you love this show.

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You look forward to it every day. You listen to it live or you download the recordings or both.

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You share the free recordings with your friends and family and loved ones. Well, if you're in that category and you have that extra money, please help us.

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We need your money to exist. We have been hit really hard financially due to the Corona virus pandemic hysteria because tragically, many of our listeners have been damaged financially unnecessarily by heavy handed authoritarian government restrictions.

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So please help us replenish that which we have lost financially and go to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio dot com.

01:14:24

Click support, then click. Click to donate now. Last but not least, if you are not a member of a local theologically sound

01:14:30

Bible believing church, no matter where you live on the planet Earth, I may be able to help you find a church.

01:14:35

Sometimes even within minutes from where you live, as I have done already with people all over the globe in our listening audience.

01:14:45

So send me an email to Chris Arnzen at Gmail dot com if you are in that category and put I need a church in the subject line, whether it's because you need a permanent church home where you live.

01:14:56

Because you're visiting someplace on vacation and you want to visit a theologically sound church or you have family, friends and loved ones anywhere in the world who are not members of a good, solid, biblically faithful church.

01:15:10

Well, I may be able to help. Send me an email to Chris Arnzen at Gmail dot com and put I need a church in the subject line.

01:15:17

That's also the email address where you can send in a question to David J. Engelsma on the

01:15:22

Belgic Confession. This is part three of a discussion that we began several months ago. Our email address is

01:15:28

Chris Arnzen at Gmail dot com. Chris Arnzen at Gmail dot com. And Professor Engelsma, you were quoting from Second Timothy chapter three before we went to the midway break regarding the fact that all scripture is

01:15:41

God breathed. And if you could pick up where you left off. I was saying that in the

01:15:48

Belgic Confession's long treatment of Holy Scripture, it either refers to quotes or summarizes two passages of Scripture, especially two outstanding passages on Scripture in the

01:16:04

New Testament. First Timothy three, which says all scripture is given by inspiration of God, according to the

01:16:11

King James Version, which is a translation of one word in the Greek that means God breathed.

01:16:17

All scripture is God breathed. That's the awe and respect and obedience that we owe to the scriptures, including ministers and theologians.

01:16:29

The other passage is Second Peter chapter one, where the Apostle, probably even more powerful a passage on Scripture as the inspired word of God than First Timothy three, where the

01:16:41

Apostle says we have a more sure word of prophecy in Scripture than the word that the

01:16:48

Apostles heard when the voice of God directly called them to recognize

01:16:54

Jesus as God's beloved son. Tremendous testimony to the worth of Scripture.

01:17:01

And I am not going to give an explanation here, but take the opportunity to remark that in my commentary,

01:17:08

I give brief explanations of both of these passages as I do of passages concerning other doctrines in the

01:17:18

Belgic Confession, so that the reader of the commentary gets some understanding, if he didn't have it before, of the passages that undergird and supply the evidence for whatever doctrine the

01:17:34

Belgic Confession is talking about. There's explanation of Scripture in the commentary. As far as I'm concerned, that's all

01:17:41

I have to say about the doctrine of Scripture in the Belgic Confession. Now we have

01:17:48

Chris, love the name Chris, from the town of Babylon, not the notorious place indicated in the

01:17:57

Scriptures, but this is the town of Babylon on Long Island, New York. Chris says, you have made it very clear, as do the confessions, that the man -made confessions, although based on the

01:18:11

Bible, are never to be viewed as being on par or superior to the

01:18:18

God -breathed Scriptures. That is very evident from history, and it is very evident from what you have already said today.

01:18:27

But what practical counsel do you have for churches and church leaders not to slip into that heresy of elevating the confessions too highly?

01:18:41

It may be disguised by some members and even leaders constantly referring to the confession, because that is what confessionalists do, but the unseen aspect is the motivation going on in the mind and heart when doing so, and they may be, either consciously or unconsciously, truly elevating the confessions to an unbiblical level of authority.

01:19:10

The weakness or error that Chris describes is not the great error in the church today.

01:19:16

It doesn't suffer. Generally, the church does not suffer from elevating the confessions above Scripture.

01:19:25

The great danger is to demote the authority of Scripture to a far lesser position than it ought to occupy in the

01:19:33

Christian church. But if there is that danger of elevating the creeds above the

01:19:39

Scriptures, the way to react against that is for the ministers, especially, to emphasize to the congregation what the

01:19:50

Belgic Confession itself says. The sole authority, in the end, over the faith and life of the church and over the faith and life of the individual believer is

01:19:59

Scripture. What the creed does is summarize the teaching of the

01:20:07

Bible to bring it in a clear, succinct way to the attention of the members of the congregation.

01:20:19

And if all of the teaching of the church is to be measured against the creed, the creed is always to be measured against Scripture.

01:20:28

There is a way for the Christian church to bring alleged errors in the creed to the attention of the church so that the creed can be corrected.

01:20:40

The formula of subscription that I referred to earlier allows for this, that an individual member who is convinced that something in the creed is mistaken or an error can bring that alleged error to the attention of the church authorities so that the creed may be changed.

01:21:00

That, of course, may never be done with the teaching of Scripture, which brings out again the sole authority of Scripture, in the end, even over the creeds of the church.

01:21:37

We also want to thank Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, CVBBS .com, who will actually be shipping these volumes out to you at no charge to you or to RN Trippin's Iron Radio.

01:21:50

We have an anonymous listener who says, I am remaining anonymous because I am in disagreement with my own congregation.

01:21:59

Although the congregation is confessionalist, they do not perpetuate the confession's idea or teaching that the

01:22:10

Pope is the Antichrist. I happen to believe that this is still true and he should be identified as such.

01:22:17

I'm wondering what your opinion is, and I was wondering if the three forms of unity have that designation for the

01:22:24

Pope or the papacy, as do the Westminster Confession and the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith.

01:22:32

The three forms of unity, including the Belgic Confession, do not describe the

01:22:38

Pope in that terminology as did or do the

01:22:44

Westminster Standards, depending upon whether that line has been changed by certain

01:22:49

Presbyterian congregations and denominations. But the condemnation of the

01:22:58

Pope and the false doctrine that he stands for in the three forms of unity come down to describing the

01:23:09

Pope and the Roman Catholic Church as the Antichrist, not in the sense of the political power in the book of Revelation, but as the religious aspect to the

01:23:27

Antichrist. According to the book of Revelation, there is a beast from the sea and a beast from the earth, both of which constitute the entity of the

01:23:39

Antichrist of the last days. The beast out of the sea is the political

01:23:46

Antichrist, which will also consist of the personal Antichrist, the man who is the personal

01:23:53

Antichrist. But that beast out of the sea, representing the political power, the union of all the nations under one political head, is aided and abetted for a while by a beast out of the earth, which is the religious aspect of the

01:24:10

Antichrist. By which the Antichristian power deceives the nations of the world.

01:24:16

That's the power that will also be able to do miracles, according to Revelation 13, is it?

01:24:26

In any case, the papacy and the Roman Catholic Church are referred to by the beast out of the earth.

01:24:37

And I do not look for, we do not look for a personal

01:24:42

Pope to become the Antichrist in the world's last days. Now, that is something that you're deducing from what the book of Revelation is teaching, because is it not true that the term

01:24:57

Antichrist is nowhere to be found in the book of Revelation? That's right. The only place in the Bible where the term

01:25:03

Antichrist occurs is in the epistles of John. And one thing that Chris should realize, and you can respond to what

01:25:13

I'm about to say to Chris, is that just because a congregation or a denomination or even an individual may disagree with the designation of Antichrist to the

01:25:27

Pope, as the confessions originally stated, the Westminster and the 1689

01:25:33

London Baptist Confession. That doesn't mean necessarily. I mean, it could mean this, but it doesn't necessarily mean, and I think most often it does not mean that the church or congregation or denomination is being soft on the errors of the papacy or of Rome.

01:25:50

They are just speaking from their eschatological point of view. Like, for instance, for me to say

01:25:58

I don't believe that Hitler is the Antichrist or was the Antichrist doesn't mean that I'm soft on Hitler.

01:26:04

It doesn't mean that I'm excusing in any way that monster of humanity that was spawned from the pit of hell.

01:26:14

It doesn't mean that I am in any way being compromising or soft on Hitler.

01:26:20

It just means eschatologically I don't believe that he fits into the paradigm. Does what

01:26:26

I am saying make sense to you, David? Let me first of all correct something

01:26:32

I said. I was talking about the beast out of the sea and the beast out of the earth that's found in Revelation 13.

01:26:41

Two beasts, and in my understanding of the chapter, those are figurative descriptions of the

01:26:48

Antichristian world power of the last days. The personal Antichrist will be a political figure in my judgment.

01:26:56

Now with regard to submitting to the Westminster Confession's statement of the papacy as the

01:27:04

Antichrist, I generally agree with what you've said, Chris. If I were a

01:27:10

Presbyterian bound by the Westminster standards that called papacy the

01:27:16

Antichrist, and I disagreed with that, I would consult with my elders and indicate to them that I took exception to that particular line in the

01:27:28

Westminster Confession of Faith, I think it was. That I would not militate against that description, but I would interpret it in such a way that the papacy and the

01:27:40

Roman Catholic Church will certainly be part of the Antichristian world power in the last days, but as the ecclesiastical factor in that reality of the

01:27:49

Antichrist, not as the political power. By the way,

01:27:55

I owe my deepest and sincerest apologies to Chris, that was not

01:28:00

Chris that sent in the question about the Antichrist, it was an anonymous listener, so sorry

01:28:07

Chris, I didn't mean to publicly associate you with that question and get you into trouble with your church or something.

01:28:14

It was the anonymous listener, and thank you anonymous for the very interesting question, and if you email me, obviously

01:28:24

I won't identify you publicly, but if you email me your full name and your city and state, or your full address

01:28:31

I should say, you have won the two -volume commentary on the

01:28:36

Belgic Confession of Faith by our guest David J. Engels, this beautiful hardback two -volume commentary published by Reform Free Publishing Association, and we thank them and we thank

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CVBBS .com for actually physically shipping the commentary out to you at no charge to you or to Iron Trip and Zion Radio.

01:29:02

Let's now address the non -controversial issue that everybody agrees on, free will.

01:29:13

This is a subject that obviously has separated the body of Christ for millennia.

01:29:22

People have disagreed over this, and even in the

01:29:28

Reformed faith there are some different ways of explaining the tension between the sovereignty of God and the freedom of man.

01:29:40

And perhaps you could even explain in regard to the confession, the

01:29:45

Belgic Confession, how it is clearly in opposition to the non -Reformed or Arminian or Roman Catholic understanding of free will, but at the same time clearly is teaching that men are indeed responsible for their actions and even their thoughts.

01:30:10

We are not robots who are forced against our will, quote, quote, to either obey and serve

01:30:19

God or to rebel against Him. When you bring up the subject of the issue of free will, you are referring, as far as the

01:30:29

Belgic Confession is concerned, to Articles 14 and 15. In Articles 14 and 15, the

01:30:38

Belgic Confession treats of the fall of total depravity and of the bondage of the human will.

01:30:45

And I may say, because that's what we're talking about, that I treat these matters in detail and carefully in my commentary.

01:30:55

According to Articles 14 and 15 of the Belgic Confession, although God created man good, man by his own will fell into sin, and the fall of man into sin resulted in his becoming totally depraved.

01:31:16

These articles teach total depravity, and that leads the

01:31:23

Belgic Confession, and now I'm quoting, to say this, therefore we reject all that is taught repugnant to this concerning the free will of man, since man is but a slave to sin and has nothing of himself unless it is given from heaven.

01:31:37

Then follow a series of references to important scriptures that teach, and now

01:31:44

I'm quoting again from the very end of Article 14, there is no will nor understanding conformable to the divine will and understanding, but what

01:31:52

Christ hath wrought in man, which he teaches us when he saith, without me ye can do nothing.

01:31:59

End of quote. So the article teaches a historical fall of the human race in the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the garden according to Genesis Chapter 3.

01:32:11

We come back to the authority of scripture in this regard. The articles imply the historicity of Genesis 1 -3.

01:32:18

The articles teach total depravity, and the total depravity of the

01:32:24

Confession and of the Reformed faith is not only this, that every part of man is depraved, but that every part of man is depraved totally.

01:32:35

There is no good remaining in fallen humanity. Apart from the saving work of Jesus Christ, there is nothing in humanity, nothing in any human being, but depravity.

01:32:49

That leads the article, which indicates the contest of the

01:32:57

Belgian Confession with Roman Catholicism, that leads the Confession to reject,

01:33:03

I quote now, All that is taught repugnant to this concerning the free will of man, since man is but a slave to sin.

01:33:10

End of quote. So it takes up the cudgels against the heresy of free will as taught by the

01:33:17

Roman Catholic Church, and will be taught about 60 years later after the

01:33:22

Belgian Confession was written by the Armenian party and the Reformed churches.

01:33:29

And that theory of free will on the part of the Roman Catholic Church and on the part of Armenian doctrines and churches amounts to this.

01:33:41

Man is not totally depraved after the Fall, but there remains some good in him and some ability for spiritual good so that he is capable of making a decision for Jesus Christ when

01:33:55

Jesus Christ is presented to him in the Gospel. In other words, he is capable by himself and of himself to believe in Jesus Christ and by that faith possess salvation.

01:34:09

That means simply that the sinner saves himself and that God is dependent upon the sinner for the salvation of the sinner.

01:34:18

Everything depends upon the choice of Jesus Christ by the free will of the sinner.

01:34:26

God does not deny that the sinner, that is totally depravity, does not deny that the sinner chooses everything that he does make a decision for voluntarily on his own part.

01:34:44

That is, what he does, he does freely and not under any compulsion.

01:34:50

God does not force him to choose adversely to the Gospel or to choose for any particular sin that the sinner decides to walk in.

01:35:00

Nevertheless, spiritually he is incapable of choosing Christ or God and the good.

01:35:07

The effect of that doctrine, which the 14th article of the

01:35:13

Belgic Confession grounds repeatedly in Scripture, the force of total depravity is that the sinner is completely dependent upon the will of God and particularly the will of God in election for his salvation.

01:35:28

Salvation does not depend upon and is not accomplished by the will of the sinner, but by the will of God.

01:35:36

The Confession condemns free will and all Reformed churches, and Presbyterian churches too, because Westminster teaches the same thing, that man is totally depraved and does not possess a free will.

01:35:50

All Reformed churches are committed to this doctrine of total depravity and a denial of free will.

01:35:57

But Arminianism has introduced the doctrine of free will in some form or other into Evangelical and Reformed churches today.

01:36:08

The judgment, the severe judgment, but the true judgment upon all the churches that teach free will is that they have departed from the

01:36:16

Gospel of Grace. The Apostle in Romans 8, Romans 9 says,

01:36:23

Salvation is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God who showeth mercy.

01:36:30

There explicitly the Bible denies that salvation is the matter of the accomplishment of the will of the sinner, or that salvation depends upon the will of the sinner.

01:36:41

To teach that salvation is accomplished by the free will of the sinner is to deny that salvation is accomplished by the mercy of God.

01:36:49

In many Evangelical churches today, free will has taken over.

01:36:56

Billy Graham, to a large extent, has been responsible for this, as though salvation depends upon the choice that the sinner makes for God by his own ability.

01:37:06

And that's actually in spite of the fact that he was raised in the Bible Presbyterian denomination, which is thoroughly

01:37:14

Calvinistic. I'm afraid that today, this error of free will, which according to the

01:37:23

Belgic Confession is fundamental, is reappearing in Calvinistic churches.

01:37:29

And it's doing that by a doctrine that's called the well -meant Gospel offer.

01:37:36

That's the teaching that God in the Gospel makes an offer of salvation to all the members of the church, or to anybody to whom the

01:37:44

Gospel comes, out of love for everybody in the audience and with a sincere desire to save everybody in the audience.

01:37:52

That's the well -meant Gospel offer. That implies that salvation, in the end, depends upon the decision of the sinner, not upon the love of God.

01:38:03

Because the love of God, according to this theory, is for all in the audience, those who are saved and those who perish.

01:38:10

And in that love for all and desire to save all, God offers salvation. And that implies that those who are saved are saved by their will and not by the sovereign will of God.

01:38:24

Now, can I just ask you to explain, because what you have just said is a very controversial issue, as you know, that divides those that profess to be

01:38:34

Calvinist. In fact, I would probably, well, not even probably,

01:38:40

I'm pretty certain that the majority of the Reformed, even confessionally

01:38:46

Reformed church, outside of the Protestant Reformed denomination, believes in the free offer of the

01:38:55

Gospel. There is, I think, from what

01:39:01

I have heard in reaction to your view, not your personal view, but the view of the

01:39:09

Protestant Reformed denomination and others that agree with it, that there seems to be a misunderstanding of what you are saying that lends to the incorrect accusation of hyper -Calvinism.

01:39:24

There seems to be an idea that in what you just said, it necessitates your denial of an indiscriminate evangelism to every creature, no matter how pious the pastor or perverse the prostitute.

01:39:46

Everyone, I know, needs to be evangelized according to your view.

01:39:52

So this is a misinformed reaction to what you just said, is it not? I agree with you that what

01:39:59

I have just said is a minority opinion in Reformed circles.

01:40:05

I was going to add, when I had finished describing the well -meant offer, that now your email server will be lighting up with questions and objections.

01:40:17

But I carefully described what I call deliberately the well -meant offer. There is a use of the phrase free offer that can be rightly explained.

01:40:27

But I explained the well -meant offer this way, a desire, a gracious desire on the part of God to save everybody in the audience, and presenting the gospel as his offer to them all, out of that sincere desire to save them all.

01:40:45

Now with regard to the call of the gospel, I agree with you. In the preaching of the gospel,

01:40:51

God sincerely calls everyone in the audience to repent and believe, whether they are prostitutes or drug addicts or murderers or homosexuals or whatever they may be, and adds the promise that everyone who comes to Jesus Christ by a true faith will be received by him and will be saved by him, regardless how enormous his sin and guilt may have been.

01:41:18

The repudiation of the well -meant offer has nothing whatsoever to do with the promiscuous preaching of the gospel, which

01:41:25

I firmly believe preached to everybody indiscriminately, or the call to everybody to repent and believe, or the promise that everyone who does repent and believe will be saved.

01:41:37

That is gospel truth, that is biblical, that is reformed. But the well -meant offer is different.

01:41:45

It says that God loves everybody and desires to save everybody, and in that love for everybody, offers them all with a desire to save them all as that offer goes out.

01:41:57

That's different. Yeah, I apologize for confusing the two terms of free offer and well -meant offer.

01:42:03

Well, that's often done. I'm glad you brought it up, because that may clarify matters for some. And we have to go to our final break right now.

01:42:14

It's going to be a lot more brief than the other breaks. If you intend to send in a question, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com.

01:42:21

C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com. As always, give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence, if you live outside of the good old

01:42:34

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We'll be right back after these messages, so don't go away. If you love

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Banu Gadi earned a doctorate in pharmacy degree and is very knowledgeable on the current coronavirus pandemic.

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Please contact Dr. Gadi so he and his expert staff can give you proper guidance amid all the contradictory confusion we are all hearing in the media.

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To find the pharmacy nearest you, call 516 -354 -2000. That's 516 -354 -2000.

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Or order online at leesdrugsrx .com. That's L -E -E -S -drugsrx .com.

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Don't forget to ask about their discount generic drug program. Welcome back. Greetings in the matchless name of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. My name is Banu Gadi. I'm a pharmacist in New York, which is the epicenter of the latest crisis the world is going through.

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In Psalm 139, verse 14, the psalmist offers praise to the Lord like this.

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I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. And wondrous are your works that my soul knows very well.

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He saw God's goodness and mercy, kindness, and the beauty in what

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God has designed. And he has erupted into praise. In any crisis or problem, brothers and sisters, our only fallback position is to trust

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God's design. And once we do, there is nothing for us to do but to erupt in praise to him.

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When the whole world is searching for a solution, God in his infinite mercy has given us what we need to address this illness, which can be very serious.

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Such is the beauty of his design. Knowing that design, how can we not erupt in praise to our great

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God like the psalmist did? May God bless you and give all of us wisdom to see greater things in his design.

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Thank you. Welcome back, and we have another anonymous listener for David J.

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Engelsma. The anonymous listener says, My non -Calvinistic church where I am a member seems to be confusing predestination, more specifically double predestination, with equal ultimacy.

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If you could help give me some way to convince them, or at least to demonstrate to them, that they are in error in this caricature.

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I would first of all ask what they mean by equal ultimacy. I understand equal ultimacy to mean that equal worth and value are ascribed to reprobation as to election.

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And that's contrary. The Reformed faith, that's erroneous. The Reformed faith, which has always confessed election and reprobation, has always also maintained that election is the main thing, and that reprobation is secondary to election, and that the importance of reprobation is mainly that it underscores the significance of election as a gracious act of God.

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What is important, most important, centrally important, is that God has elected some human beings unto salvation in Christ, so that the source and foundation of all salvation is the grace of God to his glory, and that reprobation is his bypassing or rejecting others, which underscores the graciousness of God's election.

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The take, really, in the confession or denial of reprobation is the insistence or minimizing of the truth of election.

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To deny reprobation is to deny election at the same time, because election is

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God's choice of some human beings only, which implies that he has rejected the others.

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If one doesn't believe that God has reprobated some, neither does he believe that God has elected certain particular persons unto salvation.

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Yeah, the reprobation aspect is, according to the Westminster and the 1689

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London Baptist Confession, is that God is leaving them, the reprobate, in their own state of sin.

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He's not actively intervening and rescuing them as he does with the elect.

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It's not that man is somehow neutral by nature, and God is equally intervening to save the elect and making the morally neutral man unsavable.

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It's that he's leaving them in this condition they were already in. Am I explaining that somewhat? In Article 16 of the

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Belgian Confession on Eternal Election, the main part of which article is a confession and explanation of God's gracious election of some, the article ends,

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God is just, in leaving others in the fallen perdition wherein they have involved themselves.

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Amen. Well, we are out of time, brother, and I think we need at least one more interview, at least one more on this great confession, to further discuss predestination and faith and justification and sanctification, doctrine of the

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Church, the doctrine of last things, rescatology. I would welcome the chance yet, if I may say so, to respond to the questions that Calvinists have concerning my denial of the well -meant offer of the gospel.

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Yes, that would be also fascinating to hear. Well, if anybody wants to find out more about this commentary and about many other things that David J.

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Engelsma has written, go to RFPA, which stands for Reformed Free Publishing Association, rfpa .org,

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and don't forget about our friends at cvbbs .com, who have always shipped out our winners, the free books and Bibles they have won from this program, cvbbs .com,

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cvbbs .com. I want to thank everybody for listening. I want to thank brother

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Engelsma for being such a superb guest today. I hope you all have a safe, blessed, and happy weekend, and a

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Christ -honoring Lord's Day, and I hope you all always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater