God’s
love for us inspires our loyalty to Him: ‘Your love is ever before me,
and I will walk continually in Your truth’(Psalm 26:3). Loyalty to the
Lord involves worshipping Him and walking with Him (Psalm 26:11-12).
Walking with God is not easy. There are ‘enemies round about’ us (Psalm
26:4-5, 9-10; Psalm 27:2-3,6,11-12). What are we to do? We are to
worship God: ‘One thing have I asked of the Lord…that I may dwell in the
House of the Lord…’(Psalm 27:4). What are we doing when we gather in
the Lord’s House for worship? This is what we are doing - ‘Wait for the
Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage’(Psalm 27:14). Where
does our strength come from? It comes from God: ‘The Lord is my light
and my salvation… The Lord is the stronghold of my life’. Strong in Him,
we say, ‘My heart will not fear… I will be confident’(Psalm 27:1,3).
In this post, I will draw comparisons between Arminius and Berkouwer. * Bangs points out that the historical situation in Holland was not a simple one - Calvinism coming in, Arminius nearly ruining it and the Synod of Dort restoring it: “The earliest Dutch Reformed leaders don’t seem to be Calvinists at all. They rise out of the soil, here and there, nurtured by the old Dutch biblical piety, not seized by dogmatic insights, but steadily pressing toward a purified life of faith according to Scripture” (p. 21). This emphasis is similar to Berkouwer’s insistence that election is not a special gnosis for the theological elite. Rather, it is a confession of faith, arising from the hearts of those who have come to know the grace of God ( Divine Election (DE), p. 216). * Bangs observes that Arminius’ theological method is “practical and through faith”: “For the Theology which belongs to this world, is practical and through faith: Theoretical Theology belongs to the o...
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