Norman Shepherd and Justification

Federal Vision seems to be a slippery fish. Why? In my opinion and experience most who find themselves asserting all men associated therewith are heretics do so out of ignorance or from second/third/fourth hand information. This is not good. There is much that can be learned from all of the men involved. Do I agree with every point that each man asserts? Probably not, but there again I have not read, listened to nor looked at all of their stuff. The unfortunate place reformed/presbyterian Christendom is in at the moment is one of exaggerating truth over unity. Don't get me wrong, I am no ecumenicalist. Truth is important. It is vital. The Word is truth. At the same time the Word demands that we be unified (Jn 17 ). The Church is one and she has appropriate means to deal with those teaching heresy. This is not Facebook, Twitter, Blog rolls etc. In reformed/presbyterian circles being unified is very, very difficult. We want to split and schism over every little issue. How many Presbyterian denominiations exist in Australia? How many in the world? All hold to the truth broadly defined within the Westminster Standards. Why do we split and schism so much? A major reason is a low view of unity. Not every Christian is or will be a walking talking doctrinal dictionary. In fact, unity requires humility. The type that considers oneself as always reforming theologically and willing to serve the Church. Does this mean we should never disagree with people? No. We must be able to debate and argue the Scripture in love and maintain unity. Does this imply we should happily co-exist with those who are obscurring the Gospel? Absolutely not. What it does mean is refraining from taking peoples words in the worst possible light. We should always investigate things first hand and beware of those who simply devote all of their life to breaking down a position. I have recently written that the Gospel is new news. It is the revelation of something that has not been revealed before. This is primarily the fact that the Second Adam (a man) has entered the inner sanctuary and sits at the Father's right hand ruling the world. Does this mean I deny some of the other aspects of the Gospel. Absolutely not. Dim lights Embed Embed this video on your site   Dim lights Embed Embed this video on your site