LECTURE 1
By Eric H. Sigward
Presented at the Harvard Club of New York City, March 26, 2008
Ask members to sign signup sheet
Handout diagram of “Order of the Decrees”
What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What concord is there between the Academy and the Church? What between heretics and Christians? Our instructions come from “the porch of Solomon,” who had himself taught that “the Lord should be sought in simplicity of heart.” Away with all attempts to produce a mottled Christianity of Stoic, Platonic, and dialectic composition! We want no curious disputation after possessing Christ Jesus, no inquisition after enjoying the gospel! With our faith, we desire no further belief. For this is our palmary faith, that there is nothing which we ought to believe besides.
—Tertullian, The Prescription Against Heretics,
About eight years ago, December, 2000, I started a philosophy group here at the Harvard Club. Our first discussion centered on Epectetus, the Greek stoic. Through the years we discussed many philosophers both ancient and modern. At times, very discretely, never intrusively, I would suggest that conservative Christianity would find something to disagree with a given philosopher. One club member told me that Christian faith had no place in philosophy. Philosophy was about thinking and faith was about believing something. After a while, since I kept talking about Christian positions, several people suggested I lead a group that was more theological than philosophical. Hence, we come here tonight.
The quotation given above suggests that there can be no agreement between the principles of Jerusalem and Athens. Since Athens has, after a fashion, kicked me out, I now proceed to espouse the teachings of Jerusalem. I have training in theology and I ventured to structure this group after the fashion of lectures and free-for-all discussions. I don’t want to waste time, and so I want to plunge into B. B. Warfield’s small book of lectures, entitled, “The Plan of Salvation.”
This succinct book has many virtues that will serve the purpose of this course. For one, he shows the panoramic fight of Christian orthodoxy against Pelagianism in all ages; and this gives us a ready grasp of at least one of the polemical subjects in historic Protestant theology, the conflict between Pelagianism and a more consistent expression of salvation. As for relevancy, Warfield says that his church of 1915 faced a thorough Pelagianism, “A Pelagianism which out-pelagianizes Pelagus himself in the completeness of its naturalism is in fact at the moment intensely fashionable among the self-constituted leaders of Christian thought” (p. 9).
Another virtue of Warfield is that he is really talking about theology. He talks about God unabashedly. A third virtue, is that he shows the path to God, in Christian terms is via the person and work of Jesus Christ.
CHAPTER I:
The chapter heading quotation is important here. He quotes 1 Corinthians 1:30, “Of him are ye in Christ Jesus.”
That is to say, our minds are lifted above Christ Jesus, above space and time, to God. This is important because a group with the title "theology" in it should be concerned about knowing God. The subject of the book will is the eternal plan of salvation as it comes from God, the Father. Warfield says that the more technical designation is “The Order of Decrees.” According to the Westminster shorter catechism, “The decrees of God are his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. (Eph. 1:4,11, Rom. 9:22–23)
Thus, he lifts our minds immediately to God’s eternity, personality, purpose, glory, and power. Anything that detracts from these, he considers destructive of the genuine knowledge of God.
In this book, he will deal only with salvation, and I have thought that this book would be useful to us because it gives a certain historical panorama that we want in a group called, “Historic Protestant Theology.” There is more to the divine decree than salvation only. It also comprehends creation, the fall, and the condition of man brought about by the fall. These he considers presuppositions that will throw into greater relief the matter of the salvation of sinful man, his main point. There are also matters in the decree concerning the fruitfulness of the Christian life and the end of the world, but, he confines his discussion to the Plan of Salvation. He is involved in the eternal matters which have as their goal the salvation of man. The questions of God, man, creation, fall and redemption are all lifted into their most “archaic,” "beginning" or "eternal" phase of divine thought. The first word of John in his gospel is “archaeology” (explain). We are looking at things in their oldest, earliest, and above-space-and-time orientation.” We are directed to look into, not the temporal, finite, mortal aspect of salvation; but into its eternal,infinite, and immortal orientation -- into the divine mind itself.
Warfield argues for a personal God who has a plan. To this he contrasts mechanical Deism. He contrasts personal, Christian theism with impersonal law and mechanical precision of Deism. Theism delivers us into the hands of a person, whereas Deism delivers us into the teeth of a machine, he says. It makes every difference whether we are delivered by mere aimless law and chance fate or by an intelligent person. He prefers the notion of belief in a personal God who has immediate control over all the world he has made and in a personal plan of salvation. “The only question that can arise concerns not the reality but the nature of this plan” (p. 7).
It should perhaps be said at this juncture that Warfield’s formulation, while perfect in its own logical way of asserting God's person and plan, was improved in later years through the work of Cornelius Van Til at Westminster Seminary. Van Til realized that Warfield was too abstract about his God and plan, that a better way lay open to the Christian for the defense of the faith. One must first embrace the whole biblical system of faith, the Reformed faith, or Historic Protestant Theology. No minimal understanding would give intelligibility to the subject. Man ought to embrace the entirety of the biblical system. There would be no more talk of a mere theism, but of a Reformed, Trinitarian, Christian Theism delivered to sinful man via regeneration, repentance and faith. Warfield’s Princetonian system became known as a “block house methodology," and Van Til’s became known as “Modern Reformed Presuppositionalism.” I hope in later lectures or discussions to elaborate on these two different methods of apologetics; but for the moment I am content to talk about the doctrines that Warfield brings up. Warfield is positive about his subject matter, but later writers felt he should have been even more positive.
Regarding the plan of salvation, Warfield notes that numerous variations have arisen on this theme. He will enumerate on a scale of being from “most profound and far reaching” to those of “less radical effect.” Four distinctions have created parties and divisions in the history of the church. The parties and divisions are:
1) Naturalism vs. Supernaturalism. The line here is whether God has planned to leave men to save themselves, or whether he has planned to save them himself by intervention. The consistently naturalistic scheme is known as Pelagianism. It affirms that all the power exerted in saving man is native to man himself. Warfield notes that there was “never a period in the history of the Church in which naturalistic conceptions of the process of salvation were more wide-spread than at present.” He says, that
A Pelagianism which out pelagianizes Pelagus himself in the completeness of its naturalism is in fact at the moment intensely fashionable among the self-constituted leaders of Christian thought. And everywhere, in all communions alike, conceptions are current which assign to man, in the use of his native powers at least the decisive activity in the saving of the soul, that is to say, which suppose that God has planned that those shall be saved, who, at the decisive point, in one way or another save themselves" (p. 9). I suppose that Warfield is talking about modern Arminianism and liberalism.
The entire organized Church, he says, is supernaturalistic. One would have to go out on the fringes of the Church to Unitarianism to find an organized body of Christians who do not espouse supernaturalism. The Supernaturalist says that the power exerted in saving the soul is entirely from God. There may be subsidiary differences in the part man plays. The other distinctions, which we shall approach next time are:
2) Sacerdotalists vs. Evangelicals
3) Evangelical -- Universalists vs. Particularists
4) Particularist – Non-consistent vs. Consistent
5) Consistent Particularist – Supralapsarian vs. Infralapsarian
Turn on overhead projector.
Hand out List of the Decrees.
Ask questions:
Go over lecture and ask questions about relevant points, Warfield’s views, personal views, etc.
Please continue to read Chapter I for next month.
PART II: THE ORDER OF THE DECREES
Web Links
Warfield's missing diagram:
www.girs.com/library/theology/syllabus/order.gif
Warfield's "The Plan of Salvation":
www.lgmarshall.org/Warfield/warfield_plan.html (and other sites)
PART III: THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA
OUTLINE OF THEOLOGY
Presented at the Harvard Club of New York City
By Eric Sigward, March 24, 2008
“Systematics seeks to offer the truth about God as revealed in Scriptures as a whole, as a unified system” (Cornelius Van Til, Systematic Theology, p. 2). We present the truth about God as revealed in Scripture by means of:
1. Exegesis
2. Biblical Theology
3. Systematics
4. Apologetics
5. Practical Theology
6. Church History
Systematic theology has been developed in opposition to error. Systematics and apologetics are therefore mutually dependent upon one another.
CLASSICAL LOCI OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY:
1. Scripture
2. God – Theology Proper
3. Man – Anthropology
4. Salvation – Christology and Soteriology (work of the Holy Spirit)
5. The End of History – Eschatology
6. Church – Ecclesiology
To these may be added:
1. Bible Study Methods
2. The Law – Moral Principles
The word, “theology” implies “theos,” God and “logos” the Word. Therefore, the word in its original Greek found in John 1:1 implies God and Christ. The knowledge of God is related to the knowledge of Christ and thus the Trinity. Theology and soteriology are related in the word “theology.” Therefore, Warfield is helpful in establishing the knowledge of God as possible only with Christ. Warfield’s book compares and contrasts superior and inferior ways of knowing God, even within the confines of the Christian Church and he compares the history of the various formulations. My views here are affected by a unique pronunciation I heard from a Greek waiter at a diner. I do not propose that people ordinarily think this way when they use the word, "theology."
