Henry B. Dendy, Editor

“ Adoption brings certain privileges that are denied to those not adopted. First, they receive God's name, and as members of the family can now call God, Abba, Father. They are pitied, protected, and provided for. They are sometimes even chastened by God as a Father, "yet never cast off, but sealed to the day of redemption, and inherit the promises as heirs of salvation."
It is comforting to know that the act of adoption cannot be annulled; the new birth can never be undone; the resurrection to newness of life can never be reversed. ”

“ In the United States not much has been heard in recent years about the sovereignty of God. In England there is an association called the Sovereign Grace Union, dedicated to the purpose of proclaiming salvation by grace, one hundred per cent grace, the grace of God, apart from all human merit. No doubt loyal Presbyterians believe in sovereign grace too, after a fashion; but would it not be better if we dusted off our Confessions, used them as a guide in our Bible study, and then proclaimed the message with heavenly enthusiasm? ”

“ For example, one professor writes that the humanism which he advocates "means that the comforting faith in some guarantee of human values is replaced by a resolute readiness to face the tragedies and crises of life in terms of our knowledge of their naturalness and probability, finding in the sense of friendly comradeship with our fellows a more than satisfying compensation for loss of the cozy but illusory feeling that underneath are the everlasting arms of a divine protector." ”

“ Justification is God's judicial act of acquittal, but acquittal never comes to a man without regeneration and effectual calling. God never pardons a man without removing his heart of stone and supplying him with a heart of flesh. Christ's perfect righteousness is never imputed without the sinner's being raised from the dead and given a new life. ”

“ Not only because of particular sins and temptations, but also because of differences of temperament, of upbringing, of education, of the cultural and historical conditions of one's age, no one pattern of experience fits everybody. Some are too fearful of presumption, others are not fearful enough. Elijah went to heaven in a fiery chariot, but Jeremiah may have died in despondency. Assurance of salvation, like other blessings, does not come to all Christians; but it is a part of the fullness of God's grace which we may legitimately and consistently hope to enjoy. ”

“ The imputation of our guilt to Christ and of his righteousness to us, together with his satisfying divine justice, is disparaged and belittled as a mere legal and commercial transaction. Something repulsive is supposed to attach to a "merely legal" atonement. Would an illegal atonement be more attractive? What is really repulsive about this doctrine is its view of man as a depraved sinner and of salvation as altogether by God's grace. Sinful men hate the doctrine because it reveals their sin; proud men hate it because it prevents them from earning heaven by their own merits. ”

“ Since a naturalistic worldview cannot justify any type of life, or even life itself, except as an expression of irrational personal preference, it has no more ground for objecting to Christianity than to communism.
The Christian view, however, includes much more than a bare belief in some sort of future rewards and punishments. It even goes beyond the notion of the immortality of the soul. Christianity teaches the resurrection of the body—a doctrine doubly based on information given us by God and an exemplification of it in the historic event of Christ's rising from the tomb. ”

“ Repentance therefore is a change of mind with respect to sin and God. From this description it will be seen that repentance is not an act that occurs just once or several times sporadically: it is a life long habit, a continuing state of mind, a fixed disposition or temperament.
Second, repentance, so understood, can only be an evangelical grace and a gift of God. Human nature as totally depraved cannot voluntarily develop a holy hatred for sin nor turn to God. "There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that seeketh after God." Hence repentance, like faith, is a gift. ”

“ If the evangelist had to depend solely on his own powers of persuasion, the job would be discouraging and indeed impossible. But the respectable sinner is as dead in sin as the drunken bum. No one can be saved without God's effectual call. Everyone who is born again is "born not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." ”

“ Against the fundamentalists, who insisted on the inerrancy of the Bible, the modernists asserted that the Confession does not say that the Bible is inerrant. And neo-orthodoxy loudly insists that the word of God is found in the Bible, perhaps only in the Bible, but that not everything in the Bible is true. They could even point to the catechism as quoted above. "Does it not say that the word of God is contained in the Scriptures? Somewhere, but not everywhere, between Genesis and Revelation, the word of God is to be found." ”

“ In contrast with these few and doubtful verses, the Scriptures speak many times and clearly of God's Fatherhood in relation to a portion of mankind. Of the Pharisees, Jesus said, "ye are of your father the devil"; but he taught his disciples to pray, "Our Father." The most familiar figure of speech by which entrance into the Christian life is described is that of a new birth. Not all men, but some only are born again, not by their own will, but of God; and thus God gives them authority to become sons of God. ”

“ If God had not begun a good work in us, totally depraved as human nature is, the work would not have begun. If God did not intend to complete that good work in us, it would not be completed. And if there were the slightest possibility that it would not be completed, we could not have the comfort of assurance. That is to say, as the "perseverance of the saints depends not on their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election," so assurance of salvation presupposes the perseverance of the saints. ”

“ In most cases where the English translation speaks of being free from the law, the Greek more accurately says justified from the law. That is, we are free from the penalty of the law. It does not mean that we are free to disobey God's commands.
This is not legalism. Legalism, or justification by works, is the unscriptural teaching that man can merit heaven by his own efforts. And it is very strange that modernists, who have rejected the gracious sacrifice of Christ, should accuse anyone of being legalistic. ”

“ There are those who regard the Westminster Confession as a meaningless form to which lip service is paid at ordination. In the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. on several occasions candidates for the ministry, when examined by Presbytery, have doubted or denied the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, the existence of Satan and hell—not to mention effectual calling and the perseverance of the saints—and yet the Presbytery voted to ordain them, and they professed in words their adherence to the Confession they had just contradicted.
No one compels a young man to become a Presbyterian minister. ”

“ What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?
"A. The word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him."
Since the Roman church still exists, and since there are still those who claim private guidance and revelation, the Westminster standards are as timely today as they ever were. Sermons and Sunday School lessons should constantly refer to them. ”

“ If it is strange that this lovely Arminian saint could become at least somewhat of a Calvinist without knowing it, it is far more strange that anyone who bases his faith on the firm foundation of God's word could ever be an Arminian. ”

“ In conclusion, for these articles must be extremely brief, no matter how great the totality of our good works, they do not merit pardon for sin or eternal life. Contrary to the modernist and Romanist theories of salvation by works, Calvinism teaches that when we have done all we can, we are still unprofitable servants. The Roman notion that some men can do actually more than God requires, and that the extra merits earned by these men avail for other less energetic sinners, is a Satanic delusion. Christ alone has satisfied the justice of his Father, and he has satisfied it perfectly. ”

“ The Westminster Confession was never intended to be either an empty form or an obstacle to church union. With the other reformed creeds, the Thirty-Nine Articles, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Canons of the Synod of Dort, it was a statement of what all the ministers earnestly believed and faithfully preached. These creeds were bonds of union, not causes of discord. Discord comes when men of opposing views subscribe to the same verbal formula. But the creeds were never intended to hide differences behind a veil of meaningless words. ”

“ Times of great religious awakening are characterized by a zeal to understand God's word. People study the Bible. Not only are its obvious teachings scanned, but its deeper doctrines are carefully examined. However, when the love of many waxes cold, and when unbelief comes in like a flood, the discouraged faithful are satisfied to defend a few vital doctrines. Sometimes it is even said that Christians ought not to go too deeply into the Scriptures. ”

“ When the Confession continues by insisting that divine worship requires a mediator and that that Mediator is Christ alone, we think of many people who try to pray, to approach God, to perform religious exercises, without using the name and merit of Christ. Whether images, idols, and saints be added, or whether Christ be subtracted, it is all equally an abomination to God. ”

“ For the same reason "Religious worship is to be given to God . . . alone; not to angels, saints, or any other creature." It is evident therefore how far Roman Catholicism, with its images, its prayers to the saints, and its Mariolatry, has departed from the Christian faith. Roman Catholics try to defend themselves from the charge of idolatry by saying that they do not confuse the image with the person represented and do not worship the image; they merely use the image to help them concentrate on Mary, a saint, or Christ. ”

“ In contrast with a certain modern error the Westminster doctrine should be insisted upon that since the fall there has been only one method of salvation. Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Peter, Paul, and you and I are saved only through the merits of Christ. Neither conscience nor the law nor anything else has the power to redeem a sinner.
Above it was said that the implications of the doctrine of the Covenant are not always so clear, though they are pervasive. ”

“ On the contrary, a confessional church, if it believes its Confession, knows what the significance of the sacraments is, understands why it administers them, and, instead of relying on vague answers, unguided imagination, or aesthetic taste, can give clear-cut, above-board explanations from the word of God. ”

“ Sin is any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God. To define sin as selfishness or to restrict sin to known sins is inadequate. Sin is defined in terms of the law of God. And no mere man since the fall is able perfectly in this life to keep God's commandments—even for a day. ”

“ Honor and truth may offer lesser risks with mediocre rewards; Stalin's choice brought immense rewards even though the risk was great. Because secularism and left wing politics provide no logical ground for choosing a life of honesty and truth, the theological conservatives are justified in suspecting that totalitarianism will be the actual result.
For that matter, can humanism give a reason for not committing suicide? Of course, when things go well with us and we are enjoying ourselves, we may prefer to live a little while longer. ”