The Federal Vision and Sin

Source: Amazon.com: Books

 By Pastor Dewey Roberts - Posted at Vanguard Presbyterian Church:

My wife and I have recently started reading through J. C. Ryle’s Holiness, one of the greatest Christian books of all-time in my opinion. In his first chapter on “Sin,” Ryle wrote: “People will never set their faces decidedly towards heaven, and live like pilgrims, until they really feel that they are in danger of hell. . .Those whom the Spirit draws to Jesus are those whom the Spirit has convinced of sin” (J. C. Ryle, Holiness, James & Clarke Co., Ltd., 1956, p. 10). There is a great dearth of preaching on the doctrine of sin in these days. That is particularly true of those who are proponents of the Federal Vision.

When I wrote my book on the Federal Vision almost a decade ago now, I did not have a chapter on the FV’s doctrine of sin for one important reason. I could not find quotes from the FV writers concerning their doctrine of sin. I wanted to write my book in such a way that I was quoting their own statements about every doctrine covered. The doctrine of total depravity or original sin is not covered very much by them. I think the reason why is because the doctrine of sin is so much against their basic theology. I am going to state in this article what I would have written if there had been a chapter on “The Federal Vision and Sin.”

Before I do that I want to deal with an issue of some confusion concerning the views of one of the leading proponents of the Federal Vision, Doug Wilson. Many people have read his article, “Federal Vision No Mas.” Few people are better at marketing things than Wilson is. ‘No mas’ is a reference to that famous statement of Roberto Duran when he was getting beaten badly by Sugar Ray Leonard and wanted out of the fight so he waived his hands, walked away and said, ‘No mas.’ That is Spanish for, ‘No more.’ Wilson wrote that article on January 17, 2017. It was later carried on The Aquila Report. Many people read it there as well. I fear that many people read the ‘No Mas’ part of his headline and jumped to the conclusion that Wilson had changed his mind on his views and had rejected the Federal Vision heresy. I see things completely differently. I think Wilson realized in early 2017 that he was losing the fight in his defense of the Federal Vision as an orthodox theological system and had to change the script someway, somehow. So, he wrote, ‘No Mas.’

My book, Historic Christianity and the Federal Vision, had been published in in March of 2016. Some people close to Wilson bought the book and shared it with him. Chapter by chapter my book showed that the Federal Vision is not only erroneous, but heretical. No one has even attempted to respond to my book. Portions of it have been published on The Aquila Report without anyone coming forth to dispute any of it. In fact, Wilson and the Federal Vision proponents tell their followers not to read my book (which I know for a fact through the father of one of Wilson’s and Steve Wilkins’ followers). I think my book is what caused him to throw the white flag. So, he said he did not want to be called Federal Vision anymore. Here is a quote from him:

"This statement will represent a change in what I will call what I believe. It does not represent any substantial shift or sea change in the content of what I believe. . . I would still want to affirm everything I signed off in the Federal Vision statement."

Continue here.