In Psalm 106, we read here about sin and salvation. There is a very realistic description of Israel ’s
sin - ‘They soon forgot what He had done and did not wait for His
counsel... They despised the pleasant land; they did not believe His
promise... They grumbled in their tents and did not obey the Lord...
They rebelled against the Spirit of God’(Psalm 106:13,24-25,33). This is
not only ancient history. It’s the story of our life! We read this, and we must join in Israel ’s
confession of sin: ‘We have sinned, even as our fathers did; we have
done wrong and acted wickedly’(Psalm 106:6). The history of Israel
is not only a history of sin. It is also a history of salvation: ‘He
saved them...’(Psalm 106:8,10). As we read of God’s salvation, we must
echo the prayer of God’s people - ‘Save us, O Lord our God...’- and join
with them in praising God - ‘Praise be to the Lord...’(Psalm
106:47-48).
A response to a comment by G. R. Osborne on Berkouwer’s understanding of the doctrine of final perseverance
In his contribution to Clark Pinnock (editor), Grace Unlimited (1975), G. R. Osborne states that Berkouwer, in Faith and Perseverance, pp. 9-10, “speaks of the time less ness of the doctrine of final perseverance, founded on ‘the richness and abidingness of salvation” (p. 188, emphasis mine). This single-sentence comment on Berkouwer’s view hardly gives a fair indication of the type of thinking found in Chapter 1 of Berkouwer’s Faith and Perseverance - “Time li ness and Relevance” (pp. 9-14, emphasis mine). Berkouwer insists that “the living preaching of the Scriptures, which offer no metaphysical and theoretical views about … ‘permanency’ as an independent theme in itself, does nothing to encourage ‘a continuity which is … opposed in any way to the living nature of faith” (p. 13). Berkouwer stresses that “The perseverance of the saints is not primarily a theoretical problem but a confession of faith” (p. 14) and that “The perseverance of the saints is unbreakably connected wi...
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