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Review of Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology

Simon Wartanian | 25,428 views | 1,938 words | 0:010:06 hours | 19 July 2015 19:18

...hamed about his belief in God’s absolute and holy Word.

The Bible is God’s sole authoritative Word, His very speech (2Tim 3:16). God used holy men as His instruments and spoke through them, not ignoring or overriding their vocabularies and use of language (2Pet 1:20-21).

It is incapable of being wrong, because it comes from the God who is the Truth (Jn 14:6) and who cannot lie (Heb 6:18). The Word of God reflects the character and its integrity is based upon the character of God.

The Bible, which is the collection of 39 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books is the very and certain Word of God.

See my commentary on the first chapter (Of The Holy Scriptures) of the 1689 Baptist London Confession.

Trinity

Dr Grudem excellently shows the basis of the doctrine of the Trinity from the Scripture and not from creeds as is often alleged by unbelievers. I have often gone back to chapter 14 (God in Three Persons: The Trinity) to get more insight into this great doctrine and the biblical support.

Dr Grudem goes on to prove the doctrine of the Trinity by using three statements that summarize the doctrine:

God is three persons.
Each person is fully God.
There is one God.

From there on he goes into the Scriptures to prove just that!

See my case for the doctrine of the Trinity in my commentary on the 1689 Baptist London Confession.

God’s Providence

This is the first chapter that I read from Grudem. Chapter 16: God’s Providence. And man...I was in for something. It was excellent and it was fully biblical. I loved it.

He defines God’s Providence as follows:

God is continually involved with all created things in such a way that he (1) keeps them existing and maintaining the properties with which he created them; (2) cooperates with created things in every action, directing their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do; and (3) directs them to fulfill his purposes.^[2]

God is absolutely sovereign over His creation. Nothing can happen without His will. Moreover He has ordained whatsoever comes to pass.

Although God is absolutely sovereign, even over chance events (Prov 16:33), man is still held responsible (Isaiah 11, Gen 50:20; Acts 4:27-28).

This is above our understanding, but it is what the Scriptures teach and thus we are to obey it.

This is not fatalism, this is the carrying out of a divine plan of a God who is just, holy, wise and merciful.

We are not “robots,” as many non-Calvinists would accuse Calvinists of making man, we make responsible choices, but these choices are absolutely under the control of God.

See my commentary on chapter 3 (Of God’s Decree) and chapter 5 (Of Divine Providence) on the 1689.

The Person of Christ

The treatment of of the Person of Christ is excellent. His two-fold natures in one Person, His effective and definite atonement, resurrection and ascension. All these he handles in part 4 with great care and persuasive biblical argumentation.

Before reading his treatment on the Person of Christ, I thought that Christ now was only divine and not man. God graciously used Dr. Grudem to persuaded me otherwise.

In the incarnation the Word took on flesh (Jn 1:1, 14). He did not lay aside His divinity, but added humanity to His divine Person (Phil 2:5-11). He was resurrected with a human body and went into heaven with that glorified body, nothing actually convinces us that the Lord Jesus ceased to be human at the moment of...

1 John 2:2, 'for the sins of the whole world'

Simon Wartanian | 18,025 views | 2,583 words | 0:13:28 hours | 09 February 2014 17:51

1 John 2:2 Propitiation For The Sins Of The Whole World Calvinism Election Predestination Limited Atonement Mercy Sovereignty

...rong). But His punishment was for others, not for Himself. The phrase for those of the whole world does not mean the salvation of all people. It does mean that, in keeping with God's promise to bless all the nations through Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:3), Jesus' saving death extends the offer of salvation to all nations.

This is what John Gill said: [4]

And he is the propitiation for our sins,.... For the sins of us who now believe, and are Jews:

and not for ours only; but for the sins of Old Testament saints, and of those who shall hereafter believe in Christ, and of the Gentiles also, signified in the next clause:

but also for [the sins] of the whole world; the Syriac version renders it, "not for us only, but also for the whole world"; that is, not for the Jews only, for John was a Jew, and so were those he wrote unto, but for the Gentiles also. Nothing is more common in Jewish writings than to call the Gentiles עלמא, "the world"; and

כל העולם, "the whole world"; and אומות העולם, "the nations of the world" {l}; [See comments on John 12:19]; and the word "world" is so used in Scripture; see Joh 3:16; and stands opposed to a notion the Jews have of the Gentiles, that אין להן כפרה, "there is no propitiation for them" {m}: and it is easy to observe, that when this phrase is not used of the Gentiles, it is to be understood in a limited and restrained sense; as when they say {n},

"it happened to a certain high priest, that when he went out of the sanctuary, כולי עלמא, "the whole world" went after him;''

which could only design the people in the temple. And elsewhere {o} it is said,

"amle ylwk, "the "whole world" has left the Misna, and gone after the "Gemara";''

which at most can only intend the Jews; and indeed only a majority of their doctors, who were conversant with these writings: and in another place {p},

"amle ylwk, "the whole world" fell on their faces, but Raf did not fall on his face;''

where it means no more than the congregation. Once more, it is said {q}, when

"R. Simeon ben Gamaliel entered (the synagogue), כולי עלמא, "the whole world" stood up before him;''

that is, the people in the synagogue: to which may be added {r},

"when a great man makes a mourning, כולי עלמא, "the whole world" come to honour him;''

i.e. a great number of persons attend the funeral pomp: and so these phrases, כולי עלמא לא פליגי, "the whole world" is not divided, or does not dissent {s}; כולי עלמא סברי, "the whole world" are of opinion {t}, are frequently met with in the Talmud, by which, an agreement among the Rabbins, in certain points, is designed; yea, sometimes the phrase, "all the men of the world" {u}, only intend the inhabitants of a city where a synagogue was, and, at most, only the Jews: and so this phrase, "all the world", or "the whole world", in Scripture, unless when it signifies the whole universe, or the habitable earth, is always used in a limited sense, either for the Roman empire, or the churches of Christ in the world, or believers, or the present inhabitants of the world, or a part of them only, Lu 2:1; and so it is in this epistle, 1Jo 5:19; where the whole world lying in wickedness is manifestly distinguished from the saints, who are of God, and belong not to the world; and therefore cannot be understood of all the individuals in the world; and the like distinction is in this text itself, for "the sins of the whole world" are opposed to "our sins", the sins of the apostle and ot...

1689 Baptist Confession Chapter 25: Of Marriage - Commentary

Simon Wartanian | 15,478 views | 4,518 words | 0:23:28 hours | 06 March 2015 19:40

The 1689 Second Baptist Confession Of Faith Confession Commentary Reformed Baptist Chapter 25 Chapter Twenty-five Marriage One Man One Woman Homosexuality

... one, especially in sexual intercourse. Physically they are two, but spiritually they should become of one mind and one soul. This also points to the inseparability of the man and woman in marriage. They become one and therefore, it is not lawful to disjoint them by divorce. This is what our Lord said based on citing Genesis 2 in Matthew 19:5-6. Moreover and most importantly for the purpose of this paragraph, we see in this the monogamy of marriage. There was only one Adam and one Eve from the beginning. Not multiple wives. The first polygamist was Lamech (Gen. 4:19). Polygamy was a violation of this institution of monogamous marriage from the beginning. Polygamy was tolerated by God in the Old Testament. But it is not His institution. Furthermore, marriage is between two persons of the opposite sex. There was one Adam and one Eve, a male and a female. Homosexuality is everywhere prohibited by the Scriptures.

When the Pharisees asked the Lord Jesus concerning divorce in Matthew 19:3-9, He went back to the beginning and to the ideal picture of marriage even before the Fall. God “created them from the beginning made them male and female” and He also added, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (Matt. 19:4-5). Then He concludes with, “So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matt. 19:6). The Lord Jesus goes back to the origin of marriage and concludes from thence not only monogamy but also, since marriage consists in the becoming one of the two, that divorce is not part of the original intent of God. Though, because of humanity’s wickedness, God made provisions for divorce under the Mosaic economy (Matt. 19:7-9), yet as our Lord said, “from the beginning it was not so” (Matt. 19:8). Therefore, we admit without difficulty that what is said of Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon and so on, in having more than one wife is not said with the approval of God, since “from the beginning it was not so.” We accept that these were broken people with a lot of problems, not least their understanding of marriage. The Lord never commanded men to marry more than one wife. The narrative in Genesis 2:23-24 clearly communicates the idea of monogamous marriage. This is even more strengthened when we consider the instance when our Lord touched on this passage in Matthew 19.

As to the issue of homosexuality, it was both far away from the minds of the inspired writers of Holy Writ, as it was from the framers of the Reformed Confessions. It was not until recent times that homosexuality gained popularity and acceptance in Western culture. I do not claim that it did not exist in the ancient world, it clearly did. This is seen, among other things, from the fact that both testaments condemn it (Gen. 18; Lev. 18:22; 20:13; Rom. 1:26-27; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; 1 Tim. 1:8-11). But we can conclude that any sexual relationship outside of covenant marriage between a man and a woman is sinful simply from Genesis 2.

§2 The Ends of Marriage

Marriage was ordained for the mutual help of husband and wife, 1 for the increase of mankind with a legitimate issue, 2 and the preventing of uncleanness. 3 ( Genesis 2:18; Genesis 1:28; 1 Corinthians 7:2, 9 )
1. Gen. 2:18; Prov. 2:17; Mal. 2:14
2. Gen. 1:28; Ps. 127:3-5; 128:3-4
3. 1 Cor. 7:2, 9

Marriage was ordained of God for three purposes. Firstly, for the mutual help of husband and wife (G...

A Review Of Robert Martin's The Christian Sabbath

Simon Wartanian | 5,701 views | 553 words | 0:02:49 hours | 21 July 2016 16:43

Paul Martin The Christian Sabbath The Lord's Day SundayFourth Commandment Book Review Reformed Baptist

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