'I will bring Judah and Israel back from captivity and will rebuild them
as they were before. I will cleanse them from all the sin they have
committed against Me... Then this city will bring Me renown, joy,
praise, and honour before all nations on earth...'(Jeremiah 33:7-9).
What great blessing lay ahead of God’s people! God was pointing His
people to the place of blessing: Jesus Christ - ‘the righteous Branch
from David’s line’(Jeremiah 33:15-16). ‘In Christ’, we have ‘every
spiritual blessing’: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has
conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him’(Ephesians 1:3; 1
Corinthians 2:9). God has so much blessing to give to us. Come to Him
and receive His blessing: ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you; I will
show you wonderful and marvellous things that you know nothing
about’(Jeremiah 33:3).
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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