Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Stellman and the failure to distinguish terms

I have come to understand the gospel in terms of the New Covenant gift of the Spirit, procured through the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ, who causes fruit to be borne in our lives by reproducing the image of the Son in the adopted children of the Father - Jason Stellman [Source]

Stellman's apostasy from the Faith has been saddening. In this quote, one sees the failure to properly distinguish terms and the different stages of redemption.

The Holy Spirit does give us the "New Covenant gift of the Spirit" and so on. But the fruits of the Gospel is not the same as the Gospel itself. Stellman does not seem to be properly distinguishing terms and concepts, but just mix everything into one big blur.

Terms are important in theological discussions. For example, Christians have always believed in salvation by works — Christ's work, not ours. Our Spirit-wrought works are a posteriori evidence of faith, and therefore it can be said that it is a posteriori necessary for salvation, while for Romanists Spirit-wrought works are co-terminus with grace unto salvation. The usage of terms and the order of the stages of salvation make all the difference between orthodoxy and heresy.

It is not enough for Stellman to say that the Gospel includes all these spiritual things which he mentioned. Stellman has to show that this constitute the crux of the Gospel and not the fruit of the Gospel. If Stellman merely shows that the Gospel message includes all these in the text of Scripture, it would only go to show that he continues to fail to properly distinguish terms.

5 comments:

Brandon said...

Thanks Daniel. It appears that they have taken down Stellmans article. I don't know why.

Daniel C said...

@Brandon:

you're welcome. I don't know why either

Augustinian Successor said...

Jason Stellman has gone Roman? Well, whatdaya know? I don't follow his blog apart from knowing about his authorship of one or two books. But never had the inkling that someone like him would swim the Tiber. So, coming from Jason Stellman, I'd say that the fact of his conversion is a bit bizarre ...

Augustinian Successor said...

Very intriguing that you have had a steady stream of PCA ministers swimming the Tiber ... and now someone like Jason Stellman ...

Daniel C said...

@Jason:

yea, sad though