What makes the doctrine of Definite Atonement so indispensable?

“Did Jesus make salvation possible for all or did he actually save his people from their sins?”

That is the profoundly important question that Dr. Michael Horton took up in his plenary session at the 2019 Westminster Seminary Faculty Conference in Escondido, CA on January 19, 2019.

Watch Dr. Michael Horton's plenary session from the 2019 Faculty Conference here: https://wscal.edu/resourc…/a-real-atonement-for-real-sinners

I (Pastor Norm), was in attendance at this conference and was tremendously blessed in my heart and soul by Dr. Horton’s message. We were richly fed from the Word of God concerning the Lord’s eternal plan of salvation for his people and the indispensable nature of the doctrine of the definite atonement.

This doctrine, contained in the teachings of the Christian church throughout the centuries and featured in our Reformed and Presbyterian confessions, is also known as the doctrine of the limited atonement (focusing on the actual # of the redeemed who have been bought with a price by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ).

May the LORD nourish your heart and soul through His glorious ministry of grace and kindness to you in Jesus Christ our Good Shepherd who has laid down his life for his sheep.

Thank you to Westminster Seminary California for making this video available for the building up of Christ’s Church!

Thank you to Mingheras Cosmin on Unsplash for the most appropriate photo!

Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Psalm 43 and the things we say to ourselves...

Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them but they are talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment [in this psalm] was this: instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: “Self, listen for moment, I will speak to you.” (Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression, 20)

Pastor John Piper’s sermon on this same psalm is also really helpful guidance and an uplifting message for you if you’re wrestling through any hardships at present. Watch or read his sermon here

Still it remains true, "Whosoever shall believe, shall not perish."

Within the Christian church there has been considerable interest in Jesus’ words in Mark 3:29 and the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

In words that are penetrating and gospel-oriented, Thomas Boston wrote the following about this particular matter:

I doubt if the sin against the Holy Ghost can justly be said to be a limitation of God's grace in Jesus Christ. For in the original authentic gospel-offer, in which is the proper place for such a limitation [if there was any] that grace is so laid open to all men without exception, that no man is excluded; but there is free access to it for every man in the way of believing, (John 3:15,16, Rev 22:17); and this offer is sometimes intimated to these reprobates, who fall into that sin, else they should not be capable of it. It is true, that sin is a bar in the way of the guilty, so as they can never partake of the grace of God in Christ; for it shall never be forgiven, (Matt 12:31, Mark 3:29); and any further ministerial application of the offer to them seems to cease to be lawful or warranted, (1 John 5:16). But all this arises from their own willful, obstinate, despiteful, and malicious rejecting of the offer: and fighting against the Holy Ghost, whose office it is to apply the grace of Christ; and not from any limitation, or exclusive clause in the offer, for still it remains true, "Whosoever shall believe, shall not perish."

Footnote 25 in Edward Fisher, The Marrow of Modern Divinity (Fig. Kindle Edition)

Photo credit to:  Ian Espinosa on Unsplash

"Christ's global garden grows in local plots"

One of the recent trends that has spread rapidly among evangelical Christian churches has been the 'multi-site model' of setting up a single congregation with numerous locations for gathering. Michael Horton highlights some of the issues inherent in this approach in his excellent book, Ordinary: Sustainable Faith in a Radical, Restless World

"One example of the tendency to shift our focus from the ministry to the ministers, I believe, is the proliferation of multi-site churches. I am not in any way suggesting that those who favor a multi-site model of ministry are guilty of reckless ambition. I take it for granted that they are motivated by mission and would agree heartily with much else that I’ve argued here. My concern, however, is that the model is more susceptible to a greater focus on the minister than on the ministry.

Regardless of intentions, the medium ensures that he can never be the pastor, but only a celebrity teacher. By being the “pastor” of many churches, he is actually the pastor of none. Furthermore, it is his board that has the last word. This model seems far more hierarchical than the others it rebelled against.

Christ’s global garden grows concretely only in local plots."

(Kindle: location 1931)

Joanna Wishard