CHRIST IS CENTRAL

It could not be clearer that DMLJ was not a system Calvinist, but a biblical Calvinist. This is unbelievably refreshing, is it not?  For him, everything had to be brought to the touchstone of God’s Word.  If a controversy arises, he asks, ‘What do the Scriptures say?’  To the word and to the testimony!  It was this that kept him on track down through the years.  Nothing was to take the place of the Word of God.

By extension, and because Christ is central to the Scriptural revelation, nothing is ever to replace Him and his message of salvation.  How sad that this is observed more in the breach than in the observance in today’s church!  I’m sure you have seen and heard how some ministers will actually replace Christ and the Gospel and the absolute need for the ‘new birth’ for the covenant.  Some ministers actually believe so strongly in the covenant and in covenant membership that they come very close to denying the need for the ‘new birth’!  Do you believe that?  I know of one minister who argued that his son ought to be eligible to be on the committee of his university Christian Union (CU) because he was a covenant child, even though he was not converted to Christ!  I know of another church situation where the application of covenant theology has led to logical conclusions, but not to biblical conclusions!  What serious and profound theological and spiritual difficulties the church gets herself into when she mis-applies covenant theology!  This is what allows unconverted people into church membership, into the eldership, and into the ministry.  This is also what wrecks Gospel ministries and Gospel ministers!  But who cares enough to say “Enough is enough.” 

But there is another slightly controversial point to be made here, and DMLJ makes it continually, and that is that confessional correctness can so often become a substitute for Christ in the church and for many reformed ministers.  Keep to the confession, and don’t worry too much about keeping to the Scriptures.http://96d537oavsftbra1j1pe5d3y32.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=CB21  Now the real problem here is that this will not be said out loud; but that is what happens in practice.  How revealing when an evangelical minister said to me that they were trying to get ministers to adhere more closely to the WCF.  I said, ‘But this is a subordinate standard of the church, not her supreme standard.’  This is the church again replacing Christ with the confession.  What a travesty!  DMLJ will have none of that, either.