Reformed Churchmen

We are Confessional Calvinists and a Prayer Book Church-people. In 2012, we remembered the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer; also, we remembered the 450th anniversary of John Jewel's sober, scholarly, and Reformed "An Apology of the Church of England." In 2013, we remembered the publication of the "Heidelberg Catechism" and the influence of Reformed theologians in England, including Heinrich Bullinger's Decades. For 2014: Tyndale's NT translation. For 2015, John Roger, Rowland Taylor and Bishop John Hooper's martyrdom, burned at the stakes. Books of the month. December 2014: Alan Jacob's "Book of Common Prayer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Common-Prayer-Biography-Religious/dp/0691154813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417814005&sr=8-1&keywords=jacobs+book+of+common+prayer. January 2015: A.F. Pollard's "Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation: 1489-1556" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-English-Reformation-1489-1556/dp/1592448658/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420055574&sr=8-1&keywords=A.F.+Pollard+Cranmer. February 2015: Jaspar Ridley's "Thomas Cranmer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-Jasper-Ridley/dp/0198212879/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422892154&sr=8-1&keywords=jasper+ridley+cranmer&pebp=1422892151110&peasin=198212879

Friday, March 30, 2012

Andy Underhile: "T" of TULIP, Does it Matter Much?



Andy Underhile, a friend and fellow Churchman, a brother-elect in Christ’s Majesty, a justified sinner, a wicked man but justified, a Calvinist, but better, he is a man with biblical insight and has begun a series on TULIP. 

He develops the first point, “T” in his first post. See: http://andycontramundum.blogspot.com/2012/03/defining-t-in-tulip.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FDofecr+%28Contra+Mundum%29. Does the "T" in TULIP matter much?  We post responses for the sake of the youth, the younger theologues and the next generation.

We post Andy’s comments in black.  Reformation Anglicanism will amplify, revise and extend on Andy salutary post.  These revisions and extensions are not corrections, but are amplifications.  Our comments will be in blue. As the Rev. Dr. Jack Gerstner, Ph.D., Harvard, a mentor to this scribe in the 1970s, once exclaimed, TULIP is the “fairest flower in God’s garden.”  RA will never forget Dr. Gerstner’s lecture in the early 1970s at First Presbyterian, Pittsburg, PA.  This fair flower involves every loci of systematic theology.  Our audience must be young people, young theologues, young inquirers, collegians and others.  Old people, like me, have had our time and exposure, making our culpability or exonerations what they will be.  For the older, have we taught these things? If older, have you taught and defended these things?  If younger, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest.  Think and reach your own conclusions, as you assuredly will do, one way or another. We will offer a few annotations in the endnotes or the brief, annotated bibliography.  This is not a scholarly post, but a musing from an older Churchman.  I pray that my own children may read this.  Again, Andy Underhile’s notes are in black and RA’s in blue. 
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The acronym TULIP is a mnemonic device for Reformed soteriology;[i] that is, the doctrine of salvation. There are five letters, hence the frequent reference to 5-point Calvinism.
Does Canterbury teach TULIP?
ACNA? AMiA?  PEARUSA? CANA?
RA:  For the younger crowd, “Soteriology” is the “doctrine of salvation,” a standard locus or focus in all theologies.  My audience must be the younger crowd.  I should advise the younger crowd to procure and master Berkhok’s Systematic Theology.[ii]  Get it and read it.  Modern ministers will not advise you of this. The older man offers you this counsel. 
Apparently, as we write, there is a renaissance of inquiry into “TULIP” by what is called the “Young, Restless and Reformed,”[iii] a movement amongst American Baptists and Baptacostalists, e.g. Mahaney, Driscoll, Chandler, Piper, Mohler.   These men are “new joins” to the discussion of TULIP, arising since the 1990s. TULIP is standard fare amongst old school Confessional Presbyterians and Reformed Churchmen, but it is entirely new—coming off revivalist doctrine, worship and piety—amongst Baptists over the last twenty years.  Hence, to study “TULIP” is to study historic Presbyterianism, old school Anglicanism, and a part of Lutheranism.  Modern Baptists and Pentecostalists know little of these things.  Dr. Al Mohler, Southern Seminary, however, a “Southern Baptist,” stumbled into TULIP in the 1990s and has been aflame, ablaze and on fire since then.  Mohler’s fellow Baptists, the majority of them, are not amused by a discovery of TULIP.  RA well remembers Al’s energetic presentations at Ligonier Ministries in the late 90s.  Alas, Mohler “warmly” asserted TULIP, as if the second coming had occurred.  TULIP also, in better times, was accepted in the Church of England.  King James 1 and the Archbishop of Canterbury accepted the conclusions of the Synod of Dordt, 1618-1619, although, to their injury, it was not codified in doctrine.  To study TULIP is to study basic Biblical essentials in soteriology.
The letters stand for the following:  [RA:  For collegians and young theologies, this mnemonic needs to be memorized, along with the relevant biblical texts. TULIP, the fairest flower in God’s garden.]
Total Depravity [RA:  In this post, Andy deals with just the “T.”]
Unconditional Election
Limited Atonement
Irresistible Grace
Perseverance of the Saints

Over the course of this series of posts, Lord willing, we will briefly explain what is meant by each of the five points. [RA:  Thanks Andy, an important issue.  Andy, Articles 9-12 of the “Thirty-nine Articles” for the Church of England and Chapter Six of the “The Westminster Confession of Faith” provides an excellent preliminary study.   Also, the Irish Articles of 1615, 11-17, 22-28.  We ask the young theologues to ask, review and draw their own conclusions. ] After so many more weighty theological posts, why something so fundamental and basic now? [RA: Exactly, because TULIP is foundational, basic and essential.] I take nothing for granted. [RA: Wise.]  I have been a Christian long enough to know that much of Christian doctrine goes unexplained and it is simply assumed by preachers and teachers that their congregations are fully conversant with these things. I feel it wise to, every now and again, go back and refresh our memories about some of the simple basic truths of our most holy faith.
 
RA:  We share Andy’s concern re: the five points and that’s why his post is important.  One cannot, as Andy indicates, take this for granted.  To settle this issue is to deal with a host of other related issues as well. Every loci of theology is affected:  God, humanity, Christ, redemption, church and sacraments, and eschatology.  Further, Andy is correct to note that “preachers and teachers” assume these things.  The neo-Calvinists, as they call themselves at Gospel Coalition, Together for the Gospel, and at Mohler’s seminary are pressing these things.  For this RA is thankful, however, these Anabaptists have other things to learn.  We recommend a book here by R. Scott Clark, Recovering the Reformed Confessions. While Scott’s book does not amplify on TULIP per se, it does offer a wider review of Reformed life in the Confessions which includes the Synod of Dort.[iv]

Total Depravity

RA:  The “total” in Total Depravity refers to the entirety of a person’s constitution: mind, thoughts, will, decisions, feelings, affections and body. 
 
The doctrine of Total Depravity, or as it is sometimes known, Total Inability, teaches the complete inability of man to save himself, or indeed to have any part in saving himself because of the effects of sin in the soul. [RA:  One must read Martin Luther’s exquisite Bondage of the Will.”[v] For young people, collegians, and novices, this is eminently readable.  It’s a book that must be digested.  Roman Catholics will never discuss this.  Mainline liberal clerics exist in some other parallel universe.  You can easily dismiss mainline clerics as not knowing, understanding or believing in the "T."  American “evangelicals” essentially dismiss this.  As noted, some neo-Calvinists—to use their term—are rediscovering this.  Confessionally Reformed Churchmen have long taught these matters.)  Man is dead in his sins and trespasses (Ephesians 2:1). Therefore he can do nothing, as a corpse, to bring himself back to life. Every part of man's nature was corrupted by sin, therefore, we say that man has a sinful nature, which longs only to rebel against God (Hosea 6:7; Gen. 6:5; Psalm 58:3). [RA:  There are important implications here for evangelism and discipleship.  First, there is confidence for the Bishop (Senior Presbyter and Churchman amongst fellow Presbyters, juniors), Presbyter and Deacon.  Teach the Christian faith.  Leave the results to God, since God alone “raises” the “dead” to faith in the teaching of the faith.  This writer has seen it many, many times.  In an earlier life, when teaching and living amongst Marines and Sailors, I would tell a young man or small group, allow me to teach the Christian faith.  Upon permission, the teaching would occur.  I’d teach the essentials without American salesmanship, revivalism or gimmicks.  I told the novices this was my approach.  Give me six weeks, men, to present the case for classical Christianity.  Let me teach.  Further, let us learn together.  I told them I was a fellow-learner, reviewing old lessons, and the Chief in the class…but no pressure. Decide in six weeks if you wanted more.  These lads always wanted more.  No pressure.  Yet, many times, a lad would come to me sometimes weeks later—without my solicitation—plop down and say, “Sir, I gave my life to Christ last night…”  Again, trust in God’s work alone to raise the dead.  Two of those men went into and continue in full time ministry.  The Word alone controls the landscape.  While men are dead in sins and trespasses, His Majesty raises the dead to lives of faith, repentance and duty.

Man’s sin is extensive as well as intensive. Individuals may not be as bad as they can be; they are as bad off as they can be. The effect of the fall upon man is that sin has corrupted every part of his personality: intelligence, emotions and will. [RA: We noted this earlier.] The unregenerate person is declared to be "dead" in sin. Apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit the natural man is "blind" and "deaf" to the message of the gospel. [RA: Regeneration is entirely in God’s hands, not our’s.  While we must present an intelligent, develop and cogent case from Scriptures, there is no need for gimmicks, tricks or other manipulative devices to gain an audience.]There is a natural but total inability to come to faith in Christ apart from a divine work of grace in the heart. [RA: Amen.]
 
Every act of an unbeliever is done outside of faith in Christ. Scripture says that whatever is not of faith is sin (1 Cor. 14:23). In our flesh there dwells "no good thing" (Rom. 7:18). [RA:  Of recent inquiry, is our study of literature. The darkness, melancholy, despairs and hopelessness of humans apart from Christ is underscored.  RA asked the literature teacher this week, “Based upon all our readings this semester, is everything dark and dreary?  Am I reading these things correctly?”  She responded that she, a 30somethingish near finishing her doctorate in English, had the same response during her undergraduate days, to wit, “Does anyone just write for “shits and giggles?”  In other words, she saw what I was seeing.  She concurred that even in the comedies, there is darkness and dreariness, but, in literature, one gets used to it.  A theological analysis of literature is a standing order for RA’s day.)   All of our righteousness is as "filthy rags" (Isa. 64:6). Even acts of apparent self-sacrifice mean nothing to God, for even the "sacrifices of the wicked are an abomination (Pro. 21:27).
What about the "good" in the world? What about the fact that unsaved husbands and wives usually loves each other and their children? First of all, total depravity takes into account what we call Common Grace, that is, God's restraining power over the sinfulness of men. [RA:  In this mix, one may add the federal and state courts.  A federal Judge told me recently, “Judges view themselves on the frontlines containing chaos.  The Judges see the disorders and dysfunctions of depravity.  We may thank His Majesty for courts in the order of common grace.  More could be said, but we shan't.]  Secondly, all who do not worship God are idolaters. [RA:  Here one must teach and press the issues of the first commandment.  This first commandment leads us to Christ, the Cross, the atonement, forgiveness, saving faith, saving repentance and justification by faith alone. The Westminster Larger Catechism lays these issues out, enlightening all readers.  Convicting, invincibly, any reader. Apart from regeneration, there is no interest in this issue.  For converted Churchman, this question is lively and active.
 
Here’s a wise voice in the Westminster Larger Catechism.  Young inquirers, non-Christians, and collegians, you can learn these things, objectively. 
Question 104: What are the duties required in the first commandment?
“Answer: The duties required in the first commandment are, the knowing and acknowledging of God to be the only true God, and our God; and to worship and glorify him accordingly, by thinking, meditating, remembering, highly esteeming, honoring, adoring, choosing, loving, desiring, fearing of him; believing him; trusting, hoping, delighting, rejoicing in him; being zealous for him; calling upon him, giving all praise and thanks, and yielding all obedience and submission to him with the whole man; being careful in all things to please him, and sorrowful when in anything he is offended; and walking humbly with him.
“Question 105: What are the sins forbidden in the first commandment?

“Answer: The sins forbidden in the first commandment are, atheism, in denying or not having a God; idolatry, in having or worshiping more gods than one, or any with or instead of the true God; the not having and avouching him for God, and our God; the omission or neglect of anything due to him, required in this commandment; ignorance, forgetfulness, misapprehensions, false opinions, unworthy and wicked thoughts of him; bold and curious searching into his secrets; all profaneness, hatred of God; self-love, self-seeking, and all other inordinate and immoderate setting of our mind, will, or affections upon other things, and taking them off from him in whole or in part; vain credulity, unbelief, heresy, misbelief, distrust, despair, incorrigibleness, and insensibleness under judgments, hardness of heart, pride, presumption, carnal security, tempting of God; using unlawful means, and trusting in lawful means; carnal delights and joys; corrupt, blind, and indiscreet zeal; lukewarmness, and deadness in the things of God; estranging ourselves, and apostatizing from God; praying, or giving any religious worship, to saints, angels, or any other creatures; all compacts and consulting with the devil, and hearkening to his suggestions; making men the lords of our faith and conscience; slighting and despising God and his commands; resisting and grieving of his Spirit, discontent and impatience at his dispensations, charging him foolishly for the evils he inflicts on us; and ascribing the praise of any good we either are, have, or can do, to fortune, idols, ourselves, or any other creature.
As such, you can see that no one, repeat, no one, of any station, position or attainment, has kept this law.  Hence, Christ, the Cross and the atonement.

If one truly assesses the first commandment, the “T” of TULIP gains clarity. 
Herein, one stands before St. Paul’s clear lesson in “The Epistle to the Romans.”




For old Prayer Book Anglicans, it gives the sense of the confession in Morning and Evening Prayer, that we have erred and strayed from Thy ways like lost sheep, having trusted too much in the devices and desires of our own hearts.  Fellow Prayer Book Churchmen, you know the rest.  You know the prayer of confession for Holy Communion.  It "is what it is" and "was what it is."
The essence of idolatry is actually self-worship and the image merely becomes the tool or instrument for the attainment of the worshippers’ desired ends. Thus, we are on solid Biblical ground for saying that much of the "good" in the world is simply the result of self-interest. If I kill my customers, I can't get them to buy my products, thus murder cramps my style. Moreover, it seems warranted by Scripture, in light of language about sinners' deadness and blindness and alienation of mind, to assert that our depravity is so bad that we misread our world and see in it as a much better place than it is.
 
RA:  It is very, very important to study the texts noted in the briefly annotated bibliography, including the Biblical texts.

This is, no doubt, an unpopular doctrine, because our world unquestioningly accepts the idea that all men are basically good, that there is good in everyone. True Christians much abominate such a belief. Scripture declares that all men are sinners, all men seek only evil continually, all men are at enmity with God and all men stand before God with nothing but the menstrual rags of our "righteousness."
Posted by Andy at 10:30 AM
RA:  What Andy Underhile has noted here about the “T” of TULIP is emphatically underscored by Confessional Lutherans, old school Anglicans (in better days, but still in the BCP) and Presbyterians. 

The "T" of TULIP, does it matter?  Indeed it does.  It is foundational to Christian Churchmanship, conversion, saving faith, saving repentance, justification, joy, gratitude, worship, praise and piety.
Young inquirers about Christianity, you will need to think this matter through, from Genesis to Revelation.  It is of the essence of Christianity.  Young people, be careful, it's dangerous out there.  Read, mark, think and digest.
Young inquirers, you are on your own, essentially.  The modern salesmen will not teach these things.  Andy has.  So has the historic, biblical, catholic, and apostolic church, so deeply obscured by Pastorpreneurs, liberals, charismatics, Baptacostals and other mobocrats, democrats and enthusiasts. It's tough being young in these days.  But, read and follow this old scribe's musings, Andy's post, and the bibliography.
Thank you, Andy, for your timely post.   "T" matters.





[i] Boettner, Loraine. The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination.  Grand Rapids, MI:  Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1991.  Print.  A must-have and must-read for young theologues and collegians.  This volume is not optional. This suggests, as we write, the production of a basic bibliography for young theologies.
[ii] Berkhof, Louis.  Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1996. Print.  My father handed this volume to me at age eighteen and fresh out of high school.  He also handed me Charles Hodges’s three-volume Systematic Theology.  Dad’s counsel was simple.  “Read ten pages a day, ten chapters from the Old Testament and ten chapters from the New Testament every day.”  I don’t think that counsel can be improved by anyone.  Young people should still heed this counsel. 
[iii] Hansen, Collin.  The Young, Restless and Reformed.”   Wheaton, IL:  Crossway, 2008.  Print.  For students of Baptacostalist and Baptist developments in the US, this journalist volume should be read.  It’s a fast read, a few hours.

[iv] Clark, R. Scott.  Recovering the Reformed Confessions. Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 2008.  Print.  This is another must-have and must-read.  Again, young thinkers in Christ must read and review Scott’s book.  Any bloggers reading this must assess Scott’s book.

[v] Luther, Martin.  Bondage of the Will.  We believe Greensboro, NC: Empire Books, 2012, is one publisher, but there are others.  Print.  Clearly, a must-have and must-read for the young theologue.  It entails an important discussion between Martin Luther and Erasmus.

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