John Gerstner Lectures

If you’ve never listened to the later Dr. John H. Gerstner you are neglecting a benefit for your soul from one of God’s wonderful gifts to the church. Dr. Gerstner (1914-1996) was “Professor of Church History at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and Knox Theological Seminary. He was an authority on the life and theology of Jonathan Edwards. Gerstner counted among his students R.C. Sproul and wrote several books, including Primitive Theology.” The principle work for which he is remembered is The Rational Biblical Theology of Jonathan Edwards. You can read a short memorial of his life and work here.

You can read two of Dr. Gerstner’s articles over at Lionier’s website. The first is “God’s Providence: a Two Edged Sword (Part 3),” and the second “True and False Assurance.”

Ligonier has also posted several of Dr. Gerstner’s audio lecture series:

• The Westminster Confession of Faith with Dr. John Gerstner

  The Westminster Confession of Faith has, for hundreds of years, served as the doctrinal foundation of the Reformed churches. In this series, Dr. John Gerstner focuses his lifetime of scholarship on a comprehensive treatment of the meaning and application of …Read More 
  
  Continue at Nicholas T. Batzig

Comparing the Confessions

For those who would like to examine the differences between the 1646 Westminster Confession of Faith and the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, a very helpful tabular comparison can be found at this link. 

HT: Effectual Grace

Colson Calls for Doctrinal Boot Camp: But Which Doctrine?

In 1994 Chuck Colson attempted to convince evangelicals that the decline of the culture was so precipitous that they needed to set aside the historic Protestant doctrine of justification in favor of an intentionally equivocal statement about how we are accepted by God. That statement was called “Evangelicals and Catholics Together.” That was seventeen years ago. Just three years ago, he was still defending ECT and again in 2009. Today, however, he seems to be taking a different approach. In an essay in Christianity Today posted today he calls evangelicals to consider a “doctrinal boot camp.”

He writes:

An aversion to doctrine caused some thoroughly orthodox young evangelicals to decline to sign the Manhattan Declaration (which defends human life, traditional marriage, and religious liberty), even though the document is rooted in Scripture. As one young evangelical explained to me, “We don’t like dogmatic statements that a lot of people have to sign.” What about the Nicene Creed or the Westminster Confession of Faith? Keep Reading>>>

The Unspeakable Consolation of Providence