Introduction to the Confession

It was a while back that I somehow came into contact (I don't remember how, maybe through James White?) with the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith and I found myself at home in it. Though I did not study it very deeply. This time I have taken the time to go through it with Sam Waldron which I though he did a very good job.

Introduction to Covenant Theology

Before beginning my study of the confession, through a brother I got into the subject of Baptist Covenant Theology, I got the work of Pascal Denault The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology and Waldron's A Reformed Baptist Manifesto. Sometime later I got the recent Recovering a Covenantal Heritage volume. I have been more and more interested in this stream of Reformed Theology.

Introduction to Baptistic Convictions & Calvinism

I first became baptistic simply through reading the New Testament and finding no evidence of any infant baptism. I was baptized in the Armenian Church as an infant and was attending a Baptist church in Holland and was convinced that my baptism was no baptism. So on 14-06-2013^[1] I was baptized after a profession of faith. At that time I was in the process of studying the Doctrines of Grace. Sometime later, by the grace of God I came to embrace and glory in them.

The Confession

The first and foremost thing that I love about this Confession is it's high, high, high view of God's sovereign freedom. I love it and that is exactly how I believe t...

R.C. Sproul – Willing To Believe

The Controversy Over Free Will

Although read in Dutch^[1] I’ve was motivated to get this work by watching RC Sproul’s teaching series on the book called Willing to Believe^[2]. It helped understand the issues surround the question of human freedom and sovereignty. I remember that it was not much later than that I was studying Jonathan Edwards’ The Freedom of the Will, which was somewhat difficult.

In this great work this master theologian gives a historical theological study of important theologians throughout the history of the Christian church on the question of human freedom. He goes through some Christian heroes and giants of the faith like Augustine, Edwards, Luther and Calvin. Also some who were non-Christian and anti-Christian in their theology and thinking like Charles Finney and Pelagius. Lastly, theologians who belong more to the in house debate between Arminianism/Semi-Pelagianism and Calvinism, like Jacob Arminius himself.

The Pelagians

Pelagius was a British monk living in the fifth century and he is known to have a huge dispute with Augustine on the nature of man and free will. Pelagius reacted to a seemingly harmless prayer of Augustine which said: Grant what Thou commandest, and command what Thou dost desire. Harmless doesn’t it? Well, that’s not what Pelagius thought. He thought it outrages, because it showed man’s total dependence on God to graciously grant the ability to obey Him. Pelagius believed that comma...

The document can be found here.

General Resources used

• Wayne Grudem; Systematic Theology Chapter 16 – God’s Providence
• A.W. Pink; Sovereignty of God
• R.C. Sproul; What is Reformed Theology?
• David N. Steele, Curtis C. Thomas, S. Lance Quinn; The Five Points of Calvinism: Defined, Defended, and Documented
• James R White; Potter's Freedom: A Defense of the Reformation and the Rebuttal of Norman Geisler's Chosen But Free
• ESV Study Bible
• ESV MacArthur Study Bible
• ESV Reformation Study Bible
• NLT Study Bible
• HCSB Study Bible

Verses

• Nathan Pitchford, What the Bible says about the Doctrines of Grace
• Calvinism Fact Sheet by Joel Barnes
• Scriptures Supporting God's Full Providence and Sovereign Ordination of All Events
• God is Sovereign
• Verses showing God's Sovereignty, salvific work, and man's nature
• The Sovereignty of God, verses

Commentaries

• John Calvin
• John Gill
• John Gill, The Cause of God and Truth
• Bob Utley, You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series (NT)
• Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Complete)
• Johann Albrecht Bengel, Gnomon of the New Testament
• Adam Clarke, Commentary and Critical Notes
• Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges
• Jamieson, Fausset, Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

The Word software resources

• The software can be downloaded from here.
• Various modules can be download from...