4th Halo-halo Huwebes

MidTrib Out; PreWrath In

Zondervan has released a new edition of Three Views on the Rapture. The big surprise is that the MidTribulation Rapture position has been dropped in favor of the PreWrath view. Actually, it came not as a surprise to me anymore because I learned about the plan several months ago through a blog post by Alan Kurschner. I was then expecting Charles Cooper or Marvin Rosenthal to present and defend the position in this volume for they have been the primary advocates of the PreWrath view for nearly two decades now. What really came to me as a surprise is that the one chosen for the task is Alan Hultberg , a name I have not heard before. His profile at Talbot is found here. I am looking forward to Kurschner and Cooper's evaluation of Hultberg's presentation.

Douglas Moo who was also a contributor to the first edition returns to present and defend the PostTribulationism once again. Craig Blaising will stand for PreTribulationism. He is not new to the Counterpoints series since he stood for the PreMillenial position in the book Three Views on the Millenium and Beyond.

Watch Tower Vs. Watch Tower 

Because of this Christmas shopping advertisement in an old issue of Iglesia ni Cristo's (INC) Pasugo, I was reminded of two similar cases involving The Jehovah's Witnesses.

Case #1
The JW's believe and teach that Jesus was nailed on a stake, not a cross. They further believe that the cross is a pagan symbol and its use as a form of idolatry. Yet from January of 1891 to October of 1931, their publication Watch Tower displayed the cross symbol on the front covers.

case #2
The JW's believe and teach that saluting the flag is equal "to salute the Devil as the invisible god of the nation." Yet the May 15, 1917 issue of the Watch Tower contains this paragrah:

"Suppose the city or state officials should issue an order requiring, or even requesting that all persons display the American flag, what should we do? We answer, we think it would be right to display the flag in obedience to such an order or request. Everyone in America should take pleasure in displaying the American flag-- especially when requested so to do."
 

Sola Fide Safeguards Sola Gratia 

"The doctrine of free justification by faith only, which became the storm-centre of so much controversy during the Reformation Period, is often regarded as the heart of the Reformers' theology, but this is hardly accurate. The truth is that their thinking was really centered upon the contention of Paul, echoed with varying degrees of adequacy by Augustine, and Gottschalk, and Bradwardine, and Wycliffe, that the sinner's entire salvation is by free and sovereign grace only. The doctrine of justification by faith was important to them because it safeguarded the principle of sovereign grace."

 - J.I. Packer & O.R. Johnston

Historical and Theological Introduction

in Martin Luther's The Bondage of the Will

(Fleming H. Revell, 1957) p.58

Upon Hearing About a Friend's Death

"O, how I repent of our vain controversies when we last met, and we spoke so little of Jesus. O, that we had spoken more one to another! Lord, teach me to be always speaking as dying to dying."

-  Robert Murray McCheyne

Ecumenism in Heaven??? 

"Will there be in heaven saints saved according to a score sorts of gospel? Will these agree together to sing the same song? And what will the song be? Saved on different footings, and believing different doctrines, will they enjoy eternal concord, or will heaven itself be only a new arena for disputation between the varieties of faith."

            - Charles Spurgeon

Progressive Theology

Sword & Trowel (April, 1888)