“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Rom. 5:1
“Being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son…”
Rom. 5:9-10
“And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins… according to the prince of the power of the air… we… were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”
Eph. 2:1-3
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Order of Contents
Intro
Articles 22+
Quotes 20
Historical 2
Latin 1
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Intro
Eternal Justification, the belief that the elect are justified from eternity and through their whole lives are legally righteous before God, is the first stepping stone to hyper-calvinistic antinomianism.
Rom. 5:1-11 is one of Paul’s main arguments against eternal justification. The context is explicitly about justification. The passage says that the elect person is under the common judicial wrath of God (Rom. 5:8-10) until they are converted and are only justified upon the instrument of faith, which occurs in time. Then, and only then, according to Rom. 5:1, does a person have peace with God.
The near-only proof-texts used for eternal justification are Eph. 1:3-4 & Rom. 9:7-23, which speak of God eternally choosing the elect unto salvation. Upon these passages it is claimed that the elect person is never under the wrath or legal judgment of God for sin. These passages, however, in context, speak of eternal election (choosing), not of justification, which two things are very different in many particulars:
(1) God’s decree is an eternal purpose to effect future events which are not yet effected, grounded upon God’s free pleasure. God’s decree of election is an eternal, free, unconditioned act of God choosing which persons to bestow salvation, and all the means to it, upon; whereas,
(2) Justification is a temporal, instantaneous, declaration and act of God grounded in the legal imputation of Christ’s righteousness upon the sinner’s spiritual union unto Christ through the instrumental means and condition of faith.
Compare Westminster Larger Catechism #12, 32 69 & 70.
Eternal Justification breeds many further erroneous corollaries, such as:
– that elect persons are never under the Covenant of Works in Adam;
– that the Covenant of Grace is wholly eternal and is in no way conditional
. (contra WLC #32);
– that God only loves the elect and only hates reprobate creatures;
– that for assurance one is to simply wait for the Holy Spirit to reveal to them
. that they are elect and hence justified already;
– that faith is simply a passive recognition of this, has no active quality, and
. is not an instrument of receiving Christ;
– that sanctification is wholly forensic and instantaneous, and does not
. include a real definitive and progressive change, etc.
The Westminster Confession, 11.4 pre-empted this cesspool of errors in stating that:
“God did, from all eternity, decree to justify all the elect;[l] and Christ did, in the fullness of time, die for their sins, and rise again for their justification:[m] nevertheless they are not justified, until the Holy Spirit doth in due time actually apply Christ unto them.[n]
[l] Gal. 3:8. 1 Pet. 1:2,19,20. Rom. 8:30
[m] Gal. 4:4. 1 Tim. 2:6. Rom. 4:25
[n] Col. 1:21,22. Gal. 2:16. Tit. 3:3-7
God’s eternal decree is to justify believers through faith in time.
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Articles
1600’s
Ames, William – Section 9 of Ch. 27, ‘Of Justification’ 1 page in The Marrow of Sacred Divinity (1639)
D.H. – An Antidote Against Antinomianism… The Unjustifiableness of Justification before Faith… (London: G.B. & R.W., [1643]) 42 pp.
Rutherford, Samuel
The Trial & Triumph of Faith (1645)
Sermon 24, ‘Justification not Eternal’, pp. 358-363
Sermon 18, ‘Christ’s Satisfaction Performed on the Cross for Sin is not Formally Justification, but Only Causatively, Fundamentally, or Meritoriously’, pp. 210-213
A Survey of the Spiritual Antichrist, pt. 2
Ch. 18, ‘That we are not Justified until we Believe’
Bedford, Thomas – Ch. 3, ‘A Brief Answer to the Arguments of H. D. by him brought to prove Justification before Faith, i.e. before the act of Believing’ in An Examination of the Chief Points of Antinomianism (1647), pp. 25-33
Mather, Richard – The Sum of Certain Sermons upon Gen. 15:6, wherein Not Only the Doctrine of Justification by Faith is Asserted & Cleared, & Sundry Arguments for Justification before Faith, Discussed & Answered: but also the Nature & the Means of Faith, with the Imputation of our Sins to Christ, and of Christ’s Righteousness to us are Briefly Explained & Confirmed (Cambridge, MA: Samuel Green, 1652) 45 pp.
Woodbridge, Benjamin – ‘Justification by Faith: or, a Confutation of that Antinomian Error, that Justification is before Faith; being the Sum & Substance of a Sermon’ (1652)
Woodbridge (1622-1684) was a reformed puritan.
Burgess, Anthony – The True Doctrine of Justification Asserted and Vindicated, from the Errours of Papists, Arminians, Socinians, and More Especially Antinomians (1655), pp. 185-216 on Mt. 6:12 IA
Lecture 21, ‘The Antinomian Arguments for Justification before Faith Answered’
Lecture 22, ‘More Arguments to Prove Justification before Faith Answered’
Lawson, George – p. 304 of ch. 22, ‘Of Justification by Faith in Christ’ in Theo-Politica, or, a Body of Divinity containing the Rules of the Special Government of God (1659)
Dickson, David – pp. 92-93 of Ch. 11, ‘Of Justification’ in Truth’s Victory Over Error: or the True Principles of the Christian Religion Buy (1662) This was the first positive commentary on the Westminster Confession.
Owen, John – ch. 5, ‘About Justification before Believing’ in The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (d. 1683) in Works, 10.449-51
Turretin, Francis – 9. ‘Was justification made from eternity or is it made in time? Is it an undivided act taking place at one and the same time?’ in Institutes of Elenctic Theology, tr. George M. Giger, ed. James Dennison Jr. (1679–1685; P&R, 1994), vol. 2, 16th Topic, pp. 682-85
Flavel, John – ‘Appendix 2, Error 1’ 13 pp. in Planelogia: A Blow at the Root of Antinomianism (1691) Here is an easier to read version.
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1700’s
Edwards, John – p. 782 of Theologia Reformata: or, The Body & Substance of the Christian Religion, vol. 1 (1713)
John Edwards (1637–1716) was a reformed Anglican, the son of Thomas Edwards, who wrote the famed book ‘Gangraena’ in the 1640’s.
Dixon, Anthony – ‘Eternal Justification Unmasked, being the Substance of a Sermon’ (England, 1790) 24 pp.
This sermon is excellent. The sermon is on Abraham being justified by works, according to James 2:21. Dixon takes it in the traditional Protestant sense, that believers’ works declare and demonstrate them to be just, contra those who say that they are justified but have no works to prove it.
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1800’s
Fuller, Andrew – pp. 759-60 of Antinomianism Contrasted with the Religion Taught & Exemplified in the Holy Scriptures (†1815) in Works, vol. 2 of 3, pp. 759-60
Girardeau, John – pp. 101-7 of The Federal Theology: its Import & its Regulative Influence (1884) in Memorial Volume of the Semi-Centennial of the Theological Seminary at Columbia, South Carolina
Girardeau, a southern presbyterian minister and professor, is especially helpful in delineating how Christ’s seed were virtually justified in Christ at the cross and Resurrection.
Buchanan, James – pp. 251-52 of Lecture 9, ‘Justification; the Proper Nature of the Blessing’ (1867) in The Doctrine of Justification
Bavinck, Herman – ‘Justification in Time or Eternity?’ in Reformed Dogmatics, 4.214-219
Bavinck is especially helpful on the Dutch context, in contrast to Alexander Comrie and Abraham Kuyper who affirmed a certain eternal justification.
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1900’s
Pink, A.W. – ch. 7, ‘Its Objects’ 19 paragraphs in The Doctrine of Justification
Berkhof, Louis – ‘Eternal Justification’ (1950) 31 paragraphs from Systematic Theology
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2000’s
Zaspel, Fred – ‘The Doctrine of Eternal Justification: a Critique’ n.d. 14 paragraphs
Zaspel is a particular baptist minister.
Fahy, Paul – ‘The Controversy Over the Doctrine of Eternal Justification’ (2005) 35 pp. Appendix 1 on p. 13 is ‘Argued Texts’, App. 2 on p. 17 is ‘Quotes from Eminent Theologians’ and App. 3 on p. 29 is ‘The Arguments of John Gill for a Complete Eternal Justification’.
Fahy is a particular baptist minister in England. The theologians quoted against Eternal Justification in Appendix 2 are:
Turretin, Berkouwer, C. Buck, J.P. Boyce, A.A. Hodge, Calvin, Owen, A.W. Pink, T. Goodwin, Flavel, Ames, Spurgeon, Beeke, A’brakel, Thornwell, Buchanan, Schwertley & Berkhof.
Ditzel, Peter – ‘A Rebuttal to George M. Ella’s “John Gill & Justification from Eternity”’ (2009) 23 pp.
Ditzel is a particular baptist. This article is doctrinal in nature, and not about John Gill’s historical view per se.
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Quotes
A Collection of Quotes
Fahy, Paul – Appendix 2, ‘Quotes from Eminent Theologians’ in ‘The Controversy Over the Doctrine of Eternal Justification’ (2005), pp. 17-28
Fahy is a particular baptist minister in England. The theologians and documents quoted against Eternal Justification are:
WCF, Turretin, Berkouwer, C. Buck, J.P. Boyce, A.A. Hodge, Calvin, Owen, A.W. Pink, T. Goodwin, Flavel, Ames, Spurgeon, Beeke, A’brakel, Thornwell, Buchanan, Schwertley & Berkhof.
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Quote
John Murray
‘Justification’ in Collected Writings, vol. 2, p. 203
“Justification is not the eternal decree of God with respect to us, nor is it the finished work of Christ for us, when once-for-all He reconciled us to God by his death; nor is it the regenerative work of God in us, nor is it any activity on our part in response to and embrace of the gospel, but it is an act of God, accomplished in time wherein God passes judgment with respect to us as individuals.¹
¹ Buchanan, The Doctrine of Justification (1867), pp. 251-52
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Historical Theology
About the 1600’s
Articles
McKelvy, Robert – “‘That Error & Pillar of Justification’: Eternal Justification” Pre being ch. 10 of Drawn into Controversie: Reformed Theological Diversity & Debates within Seventeenth-Century British Puritanism Buy pp. 223-62
Beeke, Joel & Mark Jones – ch. 8, ‘Thomas Goodwin & Johannes Maccovius on Justification from Eternity’ in A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life (RHB, 2012), pp. 133-49
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Book
Mason, Matthew – The Significance of the Systematic & Polemical Function of Union with Christ in John Owen’s Contribution to 17th Century Debates Concerning Eternal Justification MTh thesis (Oak Hill College, 2005) 70 pp.
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Latin Article
1600’s
Voet, Gisbert – 27. ‘Of the State of the Elect Before Conversion’ in Select Theological Disputations (Utrecht: Waesberg, 1655), vol. 2, pp. 402-24
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“But when it pleased God, who separated me [Paul] from my mother’s womb…” [Yet Paul remained unconverted up through a portion of his adult life, persecuting Christians.]
Gal. 1:15
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Related Pages