Required reading
Discussions (Vol 2) by Robert L. Dabney (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read 'Broad Churchism'.
My summary
This week Dabney gives us his comments on broad churchism.
Firstly Dabney unpacks:
(i) "Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus."— 2 Tim. i. 13;
(ii) "Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers." — Titus i. 9.
Then Dabney gives us proofs that the texts require of all church teachers and rulers a strict and harmonious conformity to revealed doctrine. He states that:
(i) every honest man believes that the individual teacher in the church is absolutely bound to declare the 'whole counsel of God' as he himself conscientiously understands it;
(ii) the visible church is as truly a witnessing body as an individual herald of the gospel;
(iii) a church, whose teachers are not heartily agreed in doctrine, can only have peace within itself at the cost of a Sadducean indifference to truth;
(iv) the effectual defence of orthodoxy excludes broad churchism.
What grabbed me
I liked Dabney's comments about the unity of Reformed doctrine: 'This demonstration is enhanced by the fact that the truths of redemption are a connected system. To say that it carries evidence to the human reason is to admit that its several propositions must have a logical dependence ; for if the reason of man has any methodical law, a corresponding method must appear in that set of affirmations which are to commend themselves to the reason as truths. When, therefore, the advocates of doctrinal license say, meaning to utter a reproach, that "orthodoxy is remorselessly logical," they have in fact spoken the highest praise. That it is logical in the dependence of its propositions is one of the prime signatures of truth. The revealed system is a regular arch ; the removal of the smallest stone loosens another, and that another, until the very keystone is shaken and the whole structure endangered. The surrender of a point of doctrine not fundamental to salvation endangers others more important than itself.'
Amen!
An example is the popular view that denies the historicity of the fall. So much damage is done to salvation doctrines once you no longer hold that Adam was a real man.
Next week's reading
Read 'Fraternal correspondence'.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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