"Regarded by many as Jonathan Edwards' greatest work, The Freedom of the Will examines the nature and state of man's will, explaining that man's will is fallen and in need of God's grace for salvation. In 1754 Edwards published The Freedom of the Will, which although it was written long before the modern debate over Open Theism, thoroughly answers and demolishes the errors of this view. The full title of Edwards' great philosophical work is, " An Inquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions of the Freedom of the Will which is Supposed to be Essential to Moral Agency, Virtue and Vice, Reward and Punishment, Praise and Blame." His text was Romans 9:16, "It is not of him that willeth." One of the authors that he was refuting was Daniel Whitby, an Arminian minister in the Church of England. Whitby was known for being strongly anti-Calvinistic, and later gave evidence of strong Arian and Unitarian tendencies. In 1710 he had written his Discourse on the Five Points [of Calvinism]. What Edwards interacted with most was the fourth discourse on "The Liberty of the Will of Man in a State of Trial and Probation." Whitby's statement, "It is better to deny prescience [foreknowledge] than liberty." Is from that section. He also said that it is better to say that God does not know the future, or that God both does and doesn't know the future. One can see the "Openness of God" theology in these statements three hundred years ago. Edwards responded in The Freedom of the Will that man freely chooses whatever seems good to him, but that what seems good to him is always based on an inherent predisposition. That inherent predisposition has been foreordained and predestined by a sovereign God who does not inhibit man's ability to freely choose from a limited menu. For Edwards the issue regarding a totally free will is a simple one: either contingency and the liberty of self-determination must be run out of this world, or God will be shut out." (from Monergism Books) _______
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- "God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established." - Westminster Confession of Faith (Original Edition), 3:1, "Of God's Eternal Decree"
The Infinity of God, and the Beauty and Depth of Reformed Theology, by Stephen Charnock, Dr. R.C. Sproul, Charles Hodge, Joseph Pipa, Arthur Pink, Greg Price, John Gill, Dr. Curt Daniel, and Others (Free MP3s, Books, Etc.)
There Can Be No Compromise Between Calvinism & Arminianism, Refuting the Arminian Heresy, by Dr. Steven Dilday, A.W. Pink, Calvin, McMahon, Boston, Flavel, Martin, Charnock, Price, Schwertley, et al. (Free Reformed MP3s, Books, etc.)
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- John Calvin wrote, "If it be asked, then, by what things chiefly the Christian religion has a standing amongst us, and maintains its truth, it will be found that the following two not only occupy the principal place, but comprehend under them all the other parts, and consequently the whole substance of Christianity, viz., a knowledge first, of the right way to worship God; and secondly of the source from which salvation is to be sought. When these are kept out of view, though we may glory in the name of Christians, our profession is empty and vain." - Cited in, Carlos, Eire, War Against the Idols: The Reformation of Worship, p. 198, citing from Calvin's On the Necessity of Reforming the Church (free book online).
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- The establishmentarianism of the Reformation was not limited to just individual divines, "Dr. M'Crie in his STATEMENT OF THE DIFFERENCE (which is on the Puritan Hard Drive), shows that all the Confessions of the Protestant and Presbyterian Churches of the Reformation, both in Britain and on the Continent of Europe, held and maintained the Establishment Principle." M'Crie goes on give extracts from THE CONFESSION OF HELVETIA; THE CONFESSION OF BOHEMIA, called the CONFESSION OF THE WALDENSES; THE CONFESSION OF SAXONY; THE FRENCH CONFESSION; THE BELGIC OR DUTCH CONFESSION; THE CONFESSION OF THE ENGLISH CONGREGATION IN GENEVA; THE SCOTS CONFESSION and THE WESTMINSTER CONFESSION, all proving that "these confessions harmoniously agree in declaring as with one mouth that civil authority is not limited to the secular affairs of men, and the public care and advancement of religion is a principle part of the official duty of magistrates." See our publication of Theodore Beza's (Calvin's successor in Geneva) HARMONY OF THE PROTESTANT CONFESSIONS (section 19, "Of the Civil Magistrate" [on the Puritan Hard Drive]) and the Westminster Confession of Faith (chapter 23) to confirm M'Crie's findings. M'Crie, in opposition to Tangelder, then rightly concludes, "Such is the harmony of doctrine in the Protestant churches on this head, expressed in their confessions and public formularies drawn from the word of God; a harmony which deserves great attention, and from which none should rashly depart." The only so-called Protestant group that generally opposed establishments was the anti-covenantal, anabaptists. (Dr. Reg Barrow,Reg Barrow's Reply to Christian Renewal Regarding Their Review of Mike Wagner's Presbyterian Political Manifesto, on the Puritan Hard Drive
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Antichrist Unmistakably Revealed, by Pastor Greg Price, John Calvin, Dr. Steven Dilday, John Owen, W.J. Mencarow, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, J.A. Wylie, Richard Bennett, John Foxe, George Gillespie, David Steele and Others (Many Free Reformation Resources)
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- I lay down this maxime of Divinitie; Tyranny being a worke of Sathan, is not from God, because sinne either habituall or actuall, is not from God; the power that is, must be from God; the Magistrate as Magistrate, is good, in nature of office, and the intrinsecall end of his office, Rom. 13:4. for he is the Minister of God for thy good; and therefore a power ethicall, politick, or morall, to oppresse, is not from God, and is not a power, but a licentious deviation of a power, and is no more from God, but from sinfull nature, and the old serpent, then a license to sinne. - Samuel Rutherford, Lex Rex (1644, emphases added) on the Puritan Hard Drive
- "The nations are bound to recognize the Bible as the supreme law of the land; as the standard of civil legislation. God's law as recorded in the Bible, reaches all the possible relations of humanity; extends to every duty that can be performed, and fastens its claims on associated bodies of men, as well as upon individual persons. Were this not true, we should have this monstrous anomaly in Jehovah's government, that while men, as individuals, are bound by the laws recorded in the Bible, in their congregated capacities, they may set these laws at defiance, and even contemn as citizens, what as Christians they are bound to honor and obey. ... The nations are bound to evince their subjection to the Son of God, by filling all their official stations with upright, godly and able men. ... In all their political institutions the nations are bound to subserve the interests of the church of God, and promote, truth and godliness. ... In all their civil, criminal, and international concerns, the kingdoms should have a supreme regard to the glory of God." - The Subjection of Kings and Nations to Messiah (1820, emphases added) by James R. Willson on the Puritan Hard Drive
This may very well be the best series of sermons ever preached on this topic! - The following quote speaks of John Calvin's mature thinking about resistance to illegitimate civil rulers. "One factor behind this rising tension was that Huguenot political rhetoric had required a decidedly anti-royalist tone during the second and third civil wars. While Calvin's Institution of the Christian Religion seemed to suggest that private citizens owed their obedience even to an ungodly king -- only lesser magistrates could legally oppose the authority of a wicked king -- his biblical commentaries published late in his life offered more intriguing possibilities. In his Readings on the Prophet Daniel first published in 1561, Calvin argued that when Daniel refused to obey King Darius, 'he committed no sin', since whenever rulers disobeyed God, 'they automatically abdicate their worldly power'. Calvin went even further in his Sermons on the Last Eight Chapters of the Book of Daniel published posthumously in 1565. Describing the same biblical incident, Calvin argued that when Kings defy God, 'they are no longer worthy to be counted as princes ... [And] when they raise themselves up against God ... it is necessary that they should in turn be laid low'." - Mack P. Holt, The French Wars of Religion 1562-1629, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995, 2005), p. 78, emphases added.
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- "The idea of millions of years came from the belief that the fossil record was built up over a long time. As soon as people allow for millions of years, they allow for the fossil record to be millions of years old. This creates an insurmountable problem regarding the gospel. The fossil record consists of the death of billions of creatures. In fact, it is a record of death, disease, suffering, cruelty, and brutality. It is a very ugly record. The Bible is adamant though, that death, disease, and suffering came into the world as a result of sin. God instituted death and bloodshed because of sin so man could be redeemed. As soon as Christians allow for death, suffering, and disease before sin, then the whole foundations of the message of the Cross and the Atonement have been destroyed. The doctrine of original sin, then, is totally undermined. If there were death, disease, and suffering before Adam rebelled-then what did sin do to the world? What does Paul mean in Romans 8 when he says the whole of creation groans in pain because of the Curse? How can all things be restored in the future to no more death and suffering, unless the beginning was also free of death and suffering? The whole message of the gospel falls apart if one allows millions of years for the creation of the world." - The Necessity for Believing in Six Literal Days, by Ken Ham (Free MP3), emphases added above https://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/cm/v18/n1/six-days (Free Online Article). Also hear Six Day Creation & The Eisegesis Problem by Ken Ham (Free MP3) and "The Doctrine Of Original Sin (26 Free MP3s) by Jonathan Edwards
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"Christ is the very essence of all delights and pleasures, the very soul and substance of them. As all the rivers are gathered into the ocean, which is the meeting-place of all the waters in the world, so Christ is that ocean in which all true delights and pleasures meet." "We are never nearer Christ than when we find ourselves lost in a holy amazement at His unspeakable love." "So in love is Christ with holiness that he will buy it with his blood for us." "We trust as we love, and where we love. If we love Christ much, surely we shall trust him much." "Unfathomable oceans of grace are in Christ for you. Dive and dive again -- you will never come to the bottom of these depths!"
"They who love any thing better than Christ are not worthy of him." - Covenanter field Minister James Renwick, on the day of his martyrdom (on the Puritan Hard Drive)
Prayer keeps the heart open to God -- but shut to sin. |
- "Another instance in which posterity is recognized in covenant obligation is found in Joshua 9:15. This covenant was made between the children of Israel and the Gibeonites. Between four and five hundred years after that time, the children of Israel are visited with a very severe famine, in the days of David. 2 Sam. 21:1. And it is expressly declared by the Lord that, 'It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.' And at the same time, v. 2, that very covenant is recognized, and the breach of it is stated, as being the formal reason of the divine displeasure. Now, had it not been for this covenant, the extirpation of the Gibeonites would not have been imputed to Israel as a thing criminal; for they were comprehended in Canaanitish nations, which God had commanded them to root out." - William L. Roberts, The Reformed Presbyterian Catechism (1853, emphases added), pp. 139-140, on the Puritan Hard Drive.
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Overcoming Temptation by John Owen, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Thomas Brooks, Thomas Manton, William Spurstowe, Dr. Joel Beeke, Greg Price, et al. (55 Free MP3s) https://ow.ly/ypZGr
The Remainders of Indwelling Sin: The Nature, Power and Deceit Of It, By John Owen, Dr. Steven Dilday, Jonathan Edwards, Dr. R.C. Sproul, Thomas Watson, Paul Washer, the Westminster Divines, Dr. Joel Beeke, Stephen Charnock, Greg Price and Others https://ow.ly/ypZSw
https://ow.ly/ypZN2 The Carnal Mind Enmity Against God, The Fleshly Mind Is What Has Gone Astray From God by Charles Spurgeon, Jim Dodson, John Owen, Paul Washer, John Flavel, Greg Price, Stephen Charnock, Dr. R.C. Sproul, Thomas Brooks, and Others https://ow.ly/ypZN2
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