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Dec 15, 20258 min read

The Doctrine of the Church

Pages 1047-1343

2022-08-16 22:07 Pages 1040-1080

What I learned:
  1. The church includes believers from both the Old and New Testament. Dispensationalists believe otherwise.
  2. The two metaphors analogizing a “body” and Christ from 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4 should not be confused with one another.
  3. Grudem criticizes the Seeker-Sensitive movement for their shadowing God’s holiness with a “broader emphasis on God’s immanent compassionate love.”
  4. John Wesley claimed he lived and died a member of the Anglican church.
Interesting Quote:
  • We should not try to exclude people from the fellowship of the church until they by public sin bring discipline upon themselves. On the other hand, of course, the church should not tolerate in its membership “public unbelievers” who by profession or life clearly proclaim themselves to be outside the true church. (1051)
  • from George Ladd The church is the community of the Kingdom but never the Kingdom itself.. The Kingdom is the rule of God; the church is a society of men. (1058)
  • many liberal Protestant churches are in fact false churches today. (1063)

2022-08-16 22:14 Pages 1080-1120

What I learned:
  1. Catholics treat Tradition as authoritative as Scripture.
  2. The books in the Apocrypha were not officially considered Scripture by the Roman Catholic church until 1546. disputed
  3. Catholics believe baptism itself forgives all sins.
  4. Romans 14:1-23 allows for a wide degree of tolerance.
  5. There are no apostles who can speak and write the very “words of God”, yet there are still effective missionaries and church planters who are called “apostles.”
Interesting Quote:
  • In preaching the gospel and in exercising church discipline the church now exercises the authority of the keys of the kingdom. (1099)

2022-08-16 22:24 Pages 1120-1160

What I learned:
  1. Ephesians 4:11 can be better translated as “shepherd-teachers” to include them both as one position.
  2. Grudem interprets 1 Timothy 2:14 in light of how God created gender differences resulting in women being more inclined toward a relational and nurturing emphasis. This explains that Eve was less to inclined to oppose the serpent and accept his lies.
  3. Women can teach in informal settings but not like elders teaching publicly in formal settings.
Interesting Quote:
  • The woman author does not have teaching authority over an assembled congregation or a group of men. (1155)

2022-08-16 22:33 Pages 1160-1200

What I learned:
  1. Deborah and Huldah prophesied privately.
  2. Women can be called to ministry, just not to be a pastor/elder in a church.
  3. The Greek word for baptism means “to plunge, dip, immerse” something in water. Biblical examples who immersion in bodies of water was how they exercised baptism.
Interesting Quote:
  • Moreover, there is not one example in the entire Bible of a woman doing the kind of congregational Bible teaching that is expected of pastors/elders in the New Testament church. (1167)
  • The seeds for the destruction of slavery were sown in the New Testament (see Philem. 16; Eph. 6:9; Col. 4:1; 1 Tim. 6:1-2), but no seeds for the destruction of marriage, or the destruction of male-female differences as created, are sown in the Bible. (1169)

2022-08-16 22:40 Pages 1200-1240

What I learned:
  1. The paedobaptist views baptism in parallel with circumcision in the Old Testament. Another big proponent of this view is the existence of household baptism in the early church which Grudem claims all members in the family became believers prior to their baptism.
  2. In principle, there is no need to be ordained clergy to baptize someone.
  3. God takes delight in creation.
Interesting Quote:
  • Catholics hold that the sacraments work even apart from the faith of the people participating in the sacrament. (1202)

2022-08-20 12:00 Pages 1240-1280

What I learned:
  1. In 1 Corinthians 1:7, Paul mentions the possession of spiritual gifts in context of waiting for Christ’s return.
  2. A worship leader should lead people to worship, not simply worship God by himself or with the band while everybody else watches. (1249)
  3. Grudem no longer considers marriage and celibacy as spiritual gifts since the Greek word used for gifts (charisma) is being used in a general context in 1 Corinthians 7:7. Paul used it in other passages as a general word for blessings or favor (Romans 5:15, 6:23; 2 Corinthians 1:11).
  4. Spiritual gifts can be boiled down to two gifts as Peter does so in 1 Peter 4:11: whoever speaks and whoever serves.
  5. Gifts can weaken when unused or neglected (Romans 12:7; 1 Tim. 4:14).
  6. The spiritual gifts Paul urges us to pursue are those that most build up the church. The “greater gifts” mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:31 are connected to the “greater” gift of prophecy which builds up the church in 1 Corinthians 14:12.
Interesting Quote:
  • This means that worship is doing the will of God. (1243)
  • Just as the Holy Spirit himself is in this age a “down payment” (2 Cor. 1:22 NASB mg.; cf. 2 Cor. 5:5; Eph 1:14) of the fuller work of the Holy Spirit within us in the age to come, so the gifts of the Holy Spirit gives us are partial foretastes of the fuller working of the Holy Spirit that will be ours in the age to come. (1258)
  • on defending continuationism based on Chantry’s argument for Paul’s usage of teleios for perfect, Yet here again we must note that a word does not have to be used to refer to the same thing every time it is used in Scripture (1278)

2022-08-22 21:56 Pages 1280-1300

What I learned:
  1. Cessationists who believe in illumuniation from the Holy Spirit should come to realize the gift of prophecy in the New Testament is not vastly different in practice.
  2. Not all miracles accompanied the giving of Scripture. Elijah and Elisha don’t have any writings in the Bible—nor does Stephen and Phillip.
  3. B.B. Warfield, author of Counterfeit Miracles, supported cessationism to refute claims of miracles from Roman Catholicism and other heretical sects. He wrote this before the Azusa Street Revival—the outset of the Pentecostal and charismatic movement.
  4. The Greek word for prophet in the New Testament times had a broad range of definitions. Verse like Titus 1:12 and Luke 22:64 show usage of the word outside of its narrower meaning in the Old Testament. Various extra biblical manuscripts also prove this.
Interesting Quote:
  • quoting Donald Gee (Assemblies of God) Many of our errors where spiritual gifts are concerned arise when we want the extraordinary and exceptional to be made the frequent and habitual. (1283)
  • The apostles are the New Testament counterpart of the Old Testament prophets (see 1 Cor. 2:13; 2 Cor. 13:3; Gal. 1:8-9, 11-12; 1 Thess. 2:13; 4:8, 15; 2 Peter 3:2). (1294)
  • the problem of successsors to the apostles is solved not by encouraging Christians to listen to the prophets (even though there were prophets around) but by pointing to the Scriptures. (1299)

2022-08-27 16:00 Pages 1300-1330

What I learned:
  1. The “prophets” in Ephesians 2:20 and 3:5 refer to a small group of individuals who weren’t apostles but were closely connected to them and played a foundational role in the beginning of the church.
  2. Timothy was told to teach Paul’s instructions to the church and the Thessalonians were told to affirm the tradition they were taught by Paul. Teachers, not prophets, were the leaders of the early church.
  3. Matthew quotes Isaiah 53:4-5 with reference to physical healings performed by Jesus.
  4. 2 Chronicles 16:12-13 illustrate how it was wrong for King Asa to rely on doctors or medicine instead of relying on the Lord.
  5. According Zephaniah 3:9, we will all have “pure speech” and call upon the name of the Lord in the with one accord. We will all speak the same language in heaven (in addition to our current ones on Earth).
  6. Grudem explains 1 Corinthians 14:20-25 really well. Paul’s quotation of Isaiah 28 gives context to what he means by a “sign”.
  7. Sign is used to mean “sign of God’s attitude.” Tongues are a sign of judgement to unbelievers because they would only hear unintelligible speech and will certainly not be saved. Prophecy, on the other hand, is a sign of blessing for believers.
Interesting Quote:
  • The healing miracles of Jesus certainly demonstrate that at times God is willing to grant a partial foretaste of the perfect health that will be ours for eternity. (1315)

2022-09-10 16:43 Pages 1330-1350

What I learned:
  1. The gift of words of wisdom and knowledge are not based on a special revelation spontaneously given by the Holy Spirit. It is based on wisdom acquired throughout life.
  2. “Personal eschatology” is the study of the future events that will happen to individuals. “General eschatology” is the study of the last days’ events like the Second Coming, the millennium, final judgement, etc.
  3. We know Jesus’ Second Coming will be a personal and bodily return based on Acts 1:11 when it says He will come in the same way as the disciples saw him ascend into heaven.
  4. We should still commit to long-term activities despite knowing Christ can return at any moment. This is also why he did not share exactly when he would return.
  5. The Jehovah Witnesses have wrongly predicted certain dates of Jesus’ return. They justify that He returned on October 1, 1914 in an invisible way, but that does not stay true to Acts 1:11.
Interesting Quote:
  • To some extent, the degree to which we actually long for Christ’s return is a measure of the spiritual condition of our lives at the moment. (1345)

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