In our Bible study this morning, we started 1 Thessalonians, and we read through some very familiar passages. I realized that I have only gone through this letter in personal devotional reading and never in a "formal" setting (not sure how that happened), so I have always read it in the NIV: We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. But this morning I happened to have my NAS with me: We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father, knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you; for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. Always reading the NIV, I had no trouble viewing the phrase following "power" as an appositive; in other words, reading it as "with power, namely the Holy Spirit and the deep conviction thereby produced." That's certainly how the NLT interprets it: For when we brought you the Good News, it was not only with words but also with power, for the Holy Spirit gave you full assurance that what we said was true.
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William Perkins (1558-1602) was an important Puritan preacher and theologian. To make a very long story short, Puritans were heavily influenced by Calvinist theology, although they went beyond Calvin in several ways. In particular, Puritans took the doctrine of limited atonement and predestination to its natural conclusion: double predestination. Not only did God predestine some to be eternally saved, but that meant He predestined everyone else to be eternally damned. The other doctrine you will find in this chart is supralapsarianism ("before the fall"): God decreed who would be sent to heaven or hell before Adam was even created or committed the first sin.
{Aside: this is counter to the other view, infralapsarianism/sublapsarianism, which says that after Adam committed the first sin, God decreed that He would save some of those fallen and leave the rest to suffer their just condemnation.} In other words, before you were born (actually, before God created the universe), He had already determined whether you would go to heaven or hell. For obvious reasons, this created a great deal of angst among Puritan church members. There was nothing they could do to affect their eternal destination, and because it was God's choice alone there was also no way to know what God had chosen for you! This is a pastoral counseling nightmare. Anyway, because this theology was so frightening to common church members, pastors like William Perkins created elaborate charts describing the process of salvation so that concerned church members could find themselves on it, and that's what you have below. About the chart. I traced this from the standard Perkins chart to make it easier to read (which it's still not easy enough to read). The colors are my own, added so I could explain the groupings of things. |
AuthorIf I ever say something in here that doesn't make sense, please ask me to clarify. It always makes sense in my head, but that doesn't necessary mean anything to you . . . Categories
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