Most Recent Posts
Most Recent Posts
Bibliography on Common Grace
11/26/25
2025
Keathley, Ben. “But What Does It Look Like? Common Grace and Special Revelation in Counseling Practice.” Southeastern Theological Review 16, no. 2 (Fall 2025): 47–64. https://www.sebts.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/4-But-What-Does-It-Look-Like-Keathley.pdf.
Brooks, Nate. “‘I Never Reconcile Friends’: The Complementarity of Scripture and Common Grace for Counseling.” Southeastern Theological Review 16, no. 2 (Fall 2025): 35–45. https://www.sebts.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/3-I-Never-Reconcile-Friends-Brooks.pdf.
McNeely, Travis. "Elements of Truth or Eclecticism: Understanding Common Grace within the Biblical Counseling Framework." Gloria Deo Journal of Theology 4 (2025): 23–51. https://g3min.org/journal_article/elements-of-truth-or-eclecticism-understanding-common-grace-within-the-biblical-counseling-framework.
Bob Kellemen. “God’s Sovereign, Christ-Glorifying Common Grace: Over Every Square Inch!” RPM Ministries, September 2025. https://rpmministries.org/2025/09/sovereign-christ-glorifying-common-grace/.
Evans, Keith. “The Use of Extra-Biblical Methods in Counseling.” Truth in Love, episode 527. Biblical Counseling Coalition, July 28, 2025. https://biblicalcounseling.com/resource-library/podcast-episodes/extra-biblical-methods-in-counseling/.
Adkins, Marshall. “Implications of Common Grace.” Truth in Love, episode 508. Biblical Counseling Coalition, March 17, 2025. https://biblicalcounseling.com/resource-library/podcast-episodes/implications-of-common-grace/.
Kellemen, Bob. “A Trilogy on Common Grace, the Sufficiency of Scripture, and Biblical Counseling: Clarity and Charity Leading to Unity.” RPM Ministries, February 2025. https://rpmministries.org/2025/02/trilogy-cg-bc/.
Welch, Edward T. “A Response to Francine Tan’s JBSC Article.” Journal of Biblical Soul Care 9, no. 1 (Spring 2025): 98–105. https://acbcdigitalresources.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/resources/JBSC/Spring+2025/JBSC+Spring+2025+Updated.pdf.
2024
Brooks, Nate, Tate Cockrell, Brad Hambrick, Kristin Kellen, and Sam Williams. “What Is Redemptive Counseling / Clinically Informed Biblical Counseling?” Paper presented by faculty of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2024. https://www.sebts.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/What-is-RCCIBC.pdf.
Gifford, Greg. "What Can the Natural Person Know? 1 Corinthians 2’s Use of Spiritual versus Natural Knowledge." Paper presented at the 76th Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, San Diego, CA, November 19–21, 2024.
Gifford, Greg. “What Can an Unbeliever Know?” Truth in Love, episode 481. Biblical Counseling Coalition. September 2, 2024. https://biblicalcounseling.com/resource-library/podcast-episodes/what-can-an-unbeliever-know/.
Gifford, Greg E., Heath Lambert, and Dale Johnson. A Call for Clarity: A Critical Examination of Contemporary Counseling Controversies. Association of Certified Biblical Counselors, 2024.
Tan, Francine. “Common Grace in Debate: A Response to Edward T. Welch’s ‘Common Grace, Knowing People, and the Biblical Counselor.’” Journal of Biblical Soul Care 8, no. 2 (Fall 2024): 71–105. https://acbcdigitalresources.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/resources/JBSC/FALL2024/JBSC+FALL+2024.pdf.
Kellemen, Bob. “A Word from Bob: Common Grace and Biblical Counseling: Wisdom from Reformed Theologians.” RPM Ministries, July 2024. https://rpmministries.org/2024/07/cg-bc-10-rt/.
Lambert, Heath. “Six Crucial Confusions of the New Integrationists.” First Thoughts (First Baptist Church Jacksonville), May 28, 2024. https://fbcjax.com/first-thoughts/six-crucial-confusions-of-the-new-integrationists/. Video, 0:42:47.
Lambert, Heath. “A Commentary on Priests, Zombies, and Prophets.” First Thoughts (First Baptist Church Jacksonville), May 17, 2024. https://fbcjax.com/first-thoughts/a-commentary-on-priests-zombies-and-prophets/. Video, 0:20:12.
Lambert, Heath. “Priests in the Garden, Zombies in the Wilderness, and Prophets on the Wall: The Current State of the Contemporary Biblical Counseling Movement.” First Thoughts (First Baptist Church Jacksonville), May 13, 2024. https://fbcjax.com/first-thoughts/priests-in-the-garden-zombies-in-the-wilderness-and-prophets-on-the-wall-the-current-state-of-the-contemporary-biblical-counseling-movement/. Video, 0:44:54.
Baker, Ernie. “Presuppositionalism, Common Grace, and Trauma Theory.” Journal of Biblical Soul Care 8, no. 1 (Spring 2024): 64–87. https://acbcdigitalresources.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/resources/JBSC/Spring2024/JBSC+Spring+2024+Final.pdf
Chou, Abner. “Common Grace and the Sufficiency of Scripture.” Journal of Biblical Soul Care 8, no. 1 (Spring 2024): 7–23. https://acbcdigitalresources.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/resources/JBSC/Spring2024/JBSC+Spring+2024+Final.pdf
Gifford, Greg E. “Editorial: The Battle for Biblical Counseling.” Journal of Biblical Soul Care 8, no. 1 (Spring 2024): 4–6. https://acbcdigitalresources.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/resources/JBSC/Spring2024/JBSC+Spring+2024+Final.pdf
Welch, Edward T. “Common Grace, Knowing People, and the Biblical Counselor.” Journal of Biblical Soul Care 8, no. 1 (Spring 2024): 24–40. https://acbcdigitalresources.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/resources/JBSC/Spring2024/JBSC+Spring+2024+Final.pdf
Poulton, Jared. “Clarifying Common Grace for Counselors: Part Two.” Biblical Counseling Coalition, January 26, 2024. https://www.biblicalcounselingcoalition.org/2024/01/26/clarifying-common-grace-for-counselors-part-two/.
Poulton, Jared. “Clarifying Common Grace for Counselors: Part One.” Biblical Counseling Coalition, January 24, 2024. https://www.biblicalcounselingcoalition.org/2024/01/24/clarifying-common-grace-for-counselors-part-one/.
Brooks, Nate. "Book Review: Biblical Counseling and Common Grace." The London Lyceum, January 22, 2024. https://thelondonlyceum.com/book-review-biblical-counseling-and-common-grace/.
Jared S. Poulton, “Reforming Counseling: The Adaptation of Van Tilian Concepts by Jay Adams,” PhD diss., (The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2024), 3.
Brooks, Nate, Brad Hambrick, and Kristin Kellen. “SEBTS Counseling Professors Roundtable: As It Is and As It Could Be.” Southeastern Theological Review 15, no. 1 (Spring 2024): 73–86. https://www.sebts.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Updated-15.1.pdf.
Brooks, Nate. “Everybody Integrates: Biblical Counseling and the Use of Extrabiblical Material.” Southeastern Theological Review 15, no. 1 (Spring 2024): 7–19. https://www.sebts.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Updated-15.1.pdf.
2023
Brooks, Nate. “What Did David Powlison Teach about Scripture and Psychology?” Biblical Counseling Coalition, October 20, 2023. https://www.biblicalcounselingcoalition.org/2023/10/20/what-did-david-powlison-teach-about-scripture-and-psychology/.
Lambert, Heath. 2023. Biblical Counseling and Common Grace. Wapwallopen, PA: Shepherd Press. (explores common grace's limits in soul care, emphasizing Scripture's sufficiency over integrationist uses.)
Bolt, J. (2023). The Christian Reformed Synod of 1924: Unfinished Business on Common Grace Part 2. Calvin Theological Journal, 58(2), 265–304.
2022
Bolt, J. (2022). The Christian Reformed Synod of 1924: Unfinished Business on Common Grace Part 1. Calvin Theological Journal, 57(2), 271–312.
Wilde, Ed. “A Theological Critique of Empiricism.” Journal of Biblical Soul Care 6, no. 1 (Fall 2022): 49–99. https://acbcdigitalresources.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/resources/JBSC/Fall+2023+JBSC_Dec+27.pdf.
2021
Wilde, Ed. "The Manner in Which a Biblical Counselor Should Interact with Secular Psychology." Journal of Biblical Soul Care 5, no. 1 (Fall 2021): 27–63. https://www.masters.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/JBSC5.1-1.pdf.
2020
Mouw, Richard J. All That God Cares About: Common Grace and Divine Delight. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2020.
Barrett, Matthew. “Common Grace, Natural Revelation, and the Sensus Divinitatis.” Themelios 45, no. 3 (2020): 434–48.
2019
Newhesier, Jim. “Preaching, Counseling, and Common Grace Wisdom.” Biblical Counseling Coalition, March 1, 2019. https://www.biblicalcounselingcoalition.org/2019/03/01/preaching-counseling-and-common-grace-wisdom/.
2018
Wilde, Ed. "Why Common Grace Is Not Enough for Christians Who Counsel, Part 2." Journal of Biblical Soul Care 2, no. 1 (Fall 2018): 5–30. https://www.masters.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/JBSC2.1.pdf.
Stephens, Samuel. “The History of Christian Counseling and General Revelation: The Misuse of a Biblical Doctrine.” Biblical Counseling, February 23, 2018. https://biblicalcounseling.com/resource-library/essays/the-history-of-christian-counseling-and-general-revelation-the-misuse-of-a-biblical-doctrine/.
Wilde, Ed. "Why Common Grace Is Not Enough for Christians Who Counsel." Journal of Biblical Soul Care 1, no. 2 (Spring 2018): 58–72. https://www.masters.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/JBSC1.2_Final.pdf.
2017
Douma Jochem. 2017. Common Grace in Kuyper, Schilder, and Calvin: Exposition, Comparison, and Evaluation. Lucerna: Crts Publications: November 29, 2017.
Nathan D Shannon, “Christian Cultural Defeatism in the Arts: The Theology of a Common Grace Misstep,” Journal of Reformed Theology 11, 4 (2017): 402, https://doi.org/10.1163/15697312-01104011
2016
Hanko, Ronald. 2016. Christianizing the World: Reformed Calling or Ecclesiastical Suicide?. Jenison, MI: Reformed Free Publishing Association. (critiques common grace as unbiblical, linking it to postmillennial overreach.)
Kuyper, Abraham, Common Grace: God’s Gifts for a Fallen World. Edited by Jordan J Ballor, Stephen J Grabill, and J. Daryl Charles. Translated by Nelson D Kloosterman and Ed M Van der Maas. Collected Works in Public Theology. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016.
Charles R. Biggs, “Common Grace: John Calvin, Abraham Kuyper and Cornelius Van Til” (Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, 2016), https://ketoctin.org/wpcontent/uploads/2012/12/PRTS.2016.Soteriology.Common-Grace-and-theGospel.finaldraft.April_.2016-1.pdf
Lambert, Heath. “Biblical Counseling, the Sufficiency of Scripture, and the Use of Extra-Biblical Information..” Biblical Counseling, April 11, 2016. https://biblicalcounseling.com/resource-library/articles/biblical-counseling-the-sufficiency-of-scripture-and-the-use-of-extra-biblical-information-part-i/.
Heath Lambert, A Theology of Biblical Counseling: The Doctrinal Foundations of Counseling Ministry (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2016)
2015
Van Til, Cornelius. 2015. Common Grace and the Gospel. 2nd ed. Edited by K. Scott Oliphint. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing. Originally published 1972. (Presuppositional Reformed; examines common grace in apologetics and gospel offer, replying to critics like Hoeksema.)
Clark, R. Scott. “The Gospel Is Not Common.” Heidelblog, April 2015. https://heidelblog.net/2015/04/the-gospel-is-not-common/.
2014
Bolt, John. “Herman Hoeksema Was Right (On the Three Points That Really Matter).” In Biblical Interpretation and Doctrinal Formulation in the Reformed Tradition: Essays in Honor of James De Jong, edited by Arie C. Leder, 295–318. Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2014.
Vidu, Adonis. “Common Grace and Particular Redemption: A Tension in Reformed Theology?” Themelios 39, no. 2 (2014): 229–42.
2012
Powlison, David. How Does Scripture Teach Us to Redeem Psychology? Journal of Biblical Counseling 26, no. 3 (2012): 18–27.
2011
Kuyper, Abraham, Wisdom & Wonder: Common Grace in Science & Art. Edited by Jordan J Ballor and Stephen J Grabill. Translated by Nelson D Kloosterman. Grand Rapids: Christian’s Library Press, 2011.
Beach, J. Mark. “Calvin’s Treatment of the Offer of the Gospel and Divine Grace.” Mid-America Journal of Theology 22 (2011): 55–76.
Dennison, William D. “Antithesis, Common Grace, and Plato’s View of the Soul.” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 54, no. 1 (2011): 109–31. https://etsjets.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/files_JETS-PDFs_54_54-1_JETS_54-1_109-131_Dennison.pdf.
2010
Powlison, David. The Biblical Counseling Movement: History and Context. Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2010.
Garcia, Mark A. “Uncommon Grace: The Reformed Doctrine of Common Grace and the Grace of Election.” Themelios 35, no. 1 (2010): 4–18.
Raabe, Paul A. “Common Grace and the Christian's Engagement with Culture: A Biblical and Theological Perspective.” Journal of Ministry Marketing & Management 10, no. 1 (2010): 1–15.
Johnson, Dennis E. “Common Grace and Theological Scholarship.” Westminster Seminary California, July 27, 2010. https://www.wscal.edu/resources/article/common-grace-and-theological-scholarship/.
2009
Hart, Darryl G. “Neutrality, Schnootrality.” Old Life Theological Society, August 2009. https://oldlife.org/2009/08/14/neutrality-schnootrality/.
2008
Bolt, John, editor’s introduction to “Common Grace.” In Essays on Religion, Science, and Society, by Herman Bavinck, translated by Harry Boonstra and Gerrit Sheeres, 31–64. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008. (Note: Bolt's introduction provides historical and theological context on common grace in Bavinck's thought.)
Bavinck, Herman. Reformed Dogmatics. 4 vols. Edited by John Bolt. Translated by John Vriend. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003–2008.
2007
Powlison, David. Cure of Souls (and the Modern Psychotherapies). Journal of Biblical Counseling 25, no. 2 (2007): 5-36.
Kloosterman, Nelson D. “Common Grace and Christian Social Ethics.” Mid-America Journal of Theology 18 (2007): 7–28.
2006
Willborn, C. N. “Common Grace: A Nineteenth-Century Contribution to the Current Debate.” The Confessional Presbyterian 2 (2006): 41–52.
2004
Jay E. Adams, Is All Truth God’s Truth? (Memphis, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 2004).
2003
Engelsma, David J. 2003. Common Grace Revisited: A Response to Richard J. Mouw’s He Shines in All That’s Fair. Grandville, MI: Reformed Free Publishing Association. (rejects common grace as diluting total depravity, arguing it conflates general providence with salvific favor.)
Mathes, Glenda. “3000 People Attend a Debate on Common Grace.” Banner of Truth, December 5, 2003. https://banneroftruth.org/us/resources/articles/2003/3000-people-attend-a-debate-oncommon-grace/.
2002
Mouw, Richard J. 2002. He Shines in All That's Fair: Culture and Common Grace. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. (Integrationist, Defends Kuyperian common grace for cultural engagement)
Dennis E. Johnson. “Spiritual Antithesis: Common Grace, and Practical Theology.” January 2, 2002. https://www.wscal.edu/resources/article/spiritual-antithesis-common-grace-and-practical-theology/.
Horton, Michael S. “Providence and Common Grace.” Modern Reformation 11, no. 5 (September/October 2002): 25–31. https://www.modernreformation.org/resources/articles/providence-and-common-grace.
2001
Mouw, Richard J. “Ways of Framing the Debate over Common Grace.” Calvin Theological Journal 36, no. 2 (November 2001): 336–43.
2000
Powlison, David. Affirmations & Denials: A Proposed Definition of Biblical Counseling. Journal of Biblical Counseling 19, no. 1 (2000): 18–25.
Gritters, Barry. “Grace Uncommon: A Protestant Reformed Look at the Doctrine of Common Grace.” Grandville, MI: Protestant Reformed Churches in America, 2000. https://www.prca.org/pamphlets/pamphlet_55.html.
Bolt, John. “Common Grace and the Christian Reformed Synod of Kalamazoo (1924): A Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Retrospective.” Calvin Theological Journal 35, no. 1 (April 2000): 7–35. https://www.prca.org/articles/ctj1.html.
Bolt, John. “Common Grace, Theonomy, and Civic Good: The Temptations of Calvinist Politics (Reflections on the Third Point of the CRC Kalamazoo Synod, 1924).” Calvin Theological Journal 35, no. 2 (November 2000): 216–31.
1999
Jan Van Vliet, “From Condition to State: Critical Reflections on Cornelius Van Til’s Doctrine of Common Grace,” The Westminster Theological Journal 61, 1 (1999): 73
1998
Greg L. Bahnsen, Van Til’s Apologetic: Readings and Analysis (Phillipsburg, N.J: P&R Publishing, 1998), 407.
1997
Powlison, David and Welch, Ed. 1997. Response to Hurley and Berry. Journal of Psychology and Christianity 16, no. 1 (1997): 303.
Powlison, David and Welch, Ed. 1997. “Every Common Bush Afire with God”: The Scripture’s Constitutive Role for Counseling. Journal of Psychology and Christianity 16, no. 4 (1997): 293–371.
1996
Powlison, David. Modern Therapies and the Church’s Faith. Journal of Biblical Counseling 15, no. 1 (1996): 32–41.
1995
John Frame, “Van Til on Antithesis,” Westminster Theological Journal 57 (1995): 88–89.
1994
Armstrong, Jonathan. “Common Grace: A Not So Common Matter.” Reformation & Revival 3, no. 1 (Winter 1994): 91–104.
1993
Powlison, David. Critiquing Modern Integrationists. Journal of Biblical Counseling 11, no. 3 (1993): 24-34.
Powlison, David. 25 Years of Biblical Counseling: An Interview with Jay Adams and John Bettler. Journal of Biblical Counseling 12, no. 1 (1993): 8–13.
William D. Dennison, “Van Til and Common Grace,” Mid-America Journal of Theology 9, 2 (1993): 225-247. https://www.midamerica.edu/uploads/files/pdf/journal/03journal92dennison.pdf
.
1992
Walter Campbell-Jack, “Grace without Christ? The Doctrine of Common Grace in Dutch-American Neo-Calvinism” (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Edinburgh, 1992).
1991
Jacob Klapwijk, S. Griffioen, and G. Groenewoud, eds., “Antithesis and Common Grace,” in Bringing into Captivity Every Thought: Capita Selecta in the History of Christian Evaluations of NonChristian Philosophy (Lanham, Md: University Press of America, 1991)
1989
Raymond C. Van Leeuwen, “Herman Bavinck’s ‘Common Grace,’” Calvin Theological Journal 24 (April 1989): 35–65
1988
Powlison, David. Crucial Issues in Contemporary Biblical Counseling. Journal of Biblical Counseling 9, no. 3 (1988): 53–78.
1986
Henry Vander Kam, “Some Comments on Kuyper and Common Grace,” Mid-America Journal of Theology 2, 1 (March 1986): 51-60.
1984
Which Presuppositions? Secular Psychology and the Categories of Biblical Thought. Journal of Psychology and Christianity 12, no. 4 (1984): 270–278.
Donald K/ McKim, Readings in Calvin’s Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1984)
1983
Frame, John M. 1983. The Doctrine of the Christian Life. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2008. (relates common grace to "civic righteousness" and societal well-being, with implications for Christian engagement with culture.)
1971
Sproul, R. C. 1971. "A Loving Provision." In Grace Unknown: The Heart of Reformed Theology, 165–174. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1997. (frames common grace as God's kindness to the unthankful, e.g., Luke 6:35, as a witness to all humanity.)
1969
Van Til, Cornelius. A Survey of Christian Epistemology. 2nd ed. In Defense of Biblical Christianity 2. Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1969.
1959
Richard Arden Couch, “An Evaluation and Reformulation of the Doctrine of Common Grace in the Reformed Tradition” (Ph.D. Dissertation, Princeton Theological Seminary, 1959)
1955
Murray, John. 1955. "Common Grace." In Collected Writings of John Murray, vol. 2, 93–119. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1977.
1954
Daane, James. A Theology of Grace: An Inquiry into and Evaluation of Dr. C. Van Til’s Doctrine of Common Grace. Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans Pub, 1954.
1953
Masselink, William. General Revelation and Common Grace : A Defense of the Historic Reformed Faith Over against the Theology and Philosophy of the So-Called “Reconstructionist” Movement. Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans Pub, 1953.
1952
Van Til, Cornelius. A Letter on Common Grace. Philipsburg, N.J.: Lewis Grotenhuis, 1952.
1951
Masselink, William. Common Grace and Christian Education: Or, a Calvinistic Philosophy of Science. Chicago, 1951.
1949
Bavinck, Herman. 1949. Reformed Dogmatics. Vol. 4. Translated by John Vriend. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008. (emphasizes unity of nature and grace.)
1947
Van Til, Cornelius. Common Grace. Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed Pub, 1947.
1946
Cornelius Van Til, "Common Grace - II," Westminster Theological Journal 8.2 (May 1946): 166-200.
1945
Cornelius Van Til, "Common Grace - I," Westminster Theological Journal 8.1 (Nov. 1945): 39-60.
1942
Hoeksema, Herman. “Herman Hoeksema’s Critique of Common Grace in Common Grace and the Gospel by Cornelius Van Til.” The Standard Bearer 18 (1942). https://www.cprf.co.uk/articles/hhvantilcritique.pdf.
John Murray, "Common Grace," Westminster Theological Journal 5.1 (1942): 1-28.
1941
Van Til, Cornelius. 1941. "Common Grace." Westminster Theological Journal 3 (2): 87–109. (argues common grace provides point of contact for apologetics without implying salvific favor.)
1938
Berkhof, Louis. 1938. Systematic Theology. 4th ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996. (Part 4, Section 3 details common grace as curbing sin, maintaining moral order, and distributing talents, distinguishing it from Arminian views.)
1923
Herman Bavinck, Foundations of Psychology (Beginselen der Psychologie), trans. Jack Vanden Born, Nelson D. Kloosterman, and John Bolt, 2nd ed. (Kampen: J. H. Kok, 1923), ii.
1928
Kuiper, Herman. 1928. Calvin on Common Grace. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. (Comprehensive compilation of 170+ pages of Calvin's quotes on common grace, emphasizing its role in restraining sin and enabling civic good.)
1925
Kuiper, Henry J. The Three Points of Common Grace. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1925.
1909
Bavinck, Herman. “Calvin & Common Grace.” The Princeton Theological Review, Vol. 7 No. 3, Translated by Geerhardus Vos (1909), 437-465. https://www.amazon.com/Calvin-Common-Grace-Herman-Bavinck-ebook/dp/B00DRLG2KG
1902-1904
Kuyper, Abraham. 1902–1904. Common Grace. 3 vols. Translated by Nelson D. Kloosterman and Ed M. van der Maas. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2016–2019. (Seminal Dutch Reformed work; defines common grace as God's restraint of sin and sustenance of creation, enabling cultural development; foundational for Neo-Calvinism.)
1559
Calvin, John. 1559. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Translated by Henry Beveridge. Grand Rapids: Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 2008. (Calvin discusses God's general providence and gifts to the unregenerate as precursors to common grace, e.g., Book 2, Ch. 2-3.)
Other
Clark, R. Scott. “Resources on the Nature/Grace and Sacred/Secular Distinctions.” Heidelblog, [n.d.]. https://heidelblog.net/nature-grace-sacred-secular/.
Debates on Common Grace
August 29, 2025 by Shane Becker
ACBC Journal (2025)
Summary: In Spring 2024, Ed Welch contributed an article on common grace for biblical counseling to the Journal of Biblical Soul Care, published by ACBC. Francine Tan, an ACBC staff member and student at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, responded critically in the next Fall 2024 issue, arguing on page 84 that biblical counselors should revisit the traditional Reformed view of common grace and make qualifications.
Welch then sent a private response to the editorial team, including T. Dale Johnson Jr.---ACBC’s executive director and a professor at Midwestern—but due to an editorial miscommunication, this personal response was mistakenly published in the subsequent Spring 2025 issue. ACBC later replaced it with Welch’s revised version and issued a public apology on July 24, 2025, for the error.
Public Apology to Dr. Welch from Dale Johnson, July 24, 2025
JBSC Spring 2025, Volume 9, Number 1
Editorial – The Common Grace Ripple Effect | Dr. Greg Gifford
A Response to Dr. Francine Tan’s JBSC Article | Dr. Edward T. Welch
JBSC Fall 2024, Volume 8, Number 2
Common Grace in Debate: A Response to Edward T. Welch’s “Common Grace, Knowing People, and the Biblical Counselor” | Francine Tan
JBSC Spring 2024, Volume 8, Number 1
Editorial – The Battle for Biblical Counseling | Greg Gifford
Common Grace and the Sufficiency of Scripture | Abner Chou
Common Grace, Knowing People, and the Biblical Counselor | Edward T. Welch
Presuppositionalism, Common Grace, and Trauma Theory | Ernie Baker
Heath Lambert vs SEBTS (2024)
The debate above came on the heels of another, more defining debate within the BC world. In 2024, a debate intensified between Heath Lambert (former ACBC Executive Director) and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS) faculty, including Nate Brooks and Brad Hambrick. In a video essay, Lambert labeled SEBTS and many other biblical counselors as “zombie-infected” New Integrationists, accusing them of straying from biblical counseling’s intellectual tradition by misusing common grace to integrate secular resources. Since May 2024, people like Lambert and Sean Perron have argued that SEBTS professors are not true biblical counselors but “false priests” compromising the movement’s legacy, a view echoed by the faculty at Master’s University/Seminary, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Bob Jones, etc. Given the issues with Ed, among others, ACBC members (most loudly Sean Perron) also critique CCEF for drifting along the same path as SEBTS.
These debates are shaping distinct camps within the movement as we speak. For example, leaders like Heath, Greg Gifford and John MacArthur, issued a sufficiency statement to reinforce their stance on BC. They are now known as "Sufficientists" against the “New Integrationists" who use the adjectives “Clinically-Informed” and/or “Trauma-Informed.”
Nate Brooks, “I Never Reconcile Friends”: The Complementarity of Scripture and Common Grace for Counseling, Fall 2025
Kenneth Kealey, But What Does It Look Like in Practice? Applying the Formal and Material Sufficiency of Scripture to Biblical Counseling, Fall 2025
Brad Hambrick, What I Mean by Clinically-Informed Biblical Counseling? May 7, 2025
Faculty of SEBTS, What Is Redemptive Counseling / Clinically Informed Biblical Counseling? July 8, 2024
Brad Hambrick, “Redemptive Counseling Perspective: The History of Biblical Counseling,” The Summit Church RDU, June 27, 2024.
Heath Lambert. “Six Crucial Confusions of the New Integrationists.” First Baptist Church Jacksonville. May 28, 2024.
Heath Lambert. “A Commentary on Priests, Zombies, and Prophets.” First Baptist Church Jacksonville.
Heath Lambert. “Priests in the Garden, Zombies in the Wilderness, and Prophets on the Wall: The Current State of the Contemporary Biblical Counseling Movement.” First Baptist Church Jacksonville. May 13, 2024
Southeastern Theological Review Vol. 15, No. 1, Spring 2024
Nate Brooks. Everybody Integrates: Biblical Counseling and the Use of Extrabiblical Material, pg. 7
Also see: SEBTS Counseling Professors Roundtable: As It Is and As It Could Be, pg. 73-86
David Powlison on Fear
August 29, 2025 by Shane Becker
Seeing with New Eyes: Counseling and the Human Condition Through the Lens of Scripture. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2nd ed., 2012.
“What about fears? They seem as important in human motivation as cravings. Fear and desire are two sides of a single coin. A sinful fear is a craving for something not to happen. If I want money, I fear poverty. If I long to be accepted, I’m terrified of rejection. If I fear pain or hardship, I crave comfort or pleasure. If I crave preeminence, I fear being inferior to others. With some people the fear may be more pronounced than the corresponding desire, and wise counseling will work with what is pronounced.”
Making All Things New: Restoring Joy to the Sexually Broken. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017.
““Flesh” (sarx) in Ephesians refers to the inner enemy, our own disordered impulses that generate lifestyle choices. A configuration of desires, fears, and false beliefs mislead us and animate us. We are too plausible to ourselves, willingly deceiving ourselves, suppressing the light of conscience, rationalizing what is wrong so that it seems like the most natural thing in the world. The lifestyle that unfolds can become habitual and assumed.” Pg 33
“The Bible is always about behavior, but it is never only about behavior. God’s gaze into human nature always gets below the surface, into the “thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12), what we believe and what we pursue. His gaze and Word expose the implicit reality map, the covert purposes and goals, the desires and fears, the things we intuitively believe about God, self, others, health, suffering, the purpose of life, and a hundred other critical realities. We may be aware, semi-aware, or wholly unaware of the inner masters that shape the way we approach life, view people, and respond to circumstances.” Pg 78-79
Good and Angry: Redeeming Anger, Irritation, Complaining, and Bitterness. Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2016.
“What are you afraid of? (Fear is desire turned backwards: “I don’t want that to happen.”) What dire thing do you believe might happen?What intentions guided you during that interaction? What are you after? When you become bitter and can’t shake it, what do you hope for and wish? What are you living for—right now, not in theory?”
God’s Grace in Your Suffering. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018.
“How do you react to serious suffering? “Fear” and “dismay” cover the ground pretty well! If you are honest, you feel rocked, overwhelmed, preoccupied, confused, upset, endangered. You struggle—always. Struggle describes a wrestling match going on inside. You are grappling with something. If you did not feel the pressure or the knife-edge of what is happening to you, you’d be a stone, not a human being. God’s image bearers are not impervious. Up to a point, fear and dismay are natural reactions. But problems arise when distress and apprehension become God-less. The honest anguish of faith slips into godless upset. As troubles settle in, they claim your thought life, conversations, emotions, future, faith. They occupy wakeful hours at night.”
“Grace teaches you courage. When God says, “Fear not,” his aim is not that you would just calm down and experience a relative absence of fear. He does not say, “Don’t be afraid. Everything will turn out okay. So you can relax.” Instead he says, “Don’t be afraid. I am with you. So be strong and courageous.” Do you hear the difference? The deep waters have not gone away. Troubles still pressure you. The opposite of fear is courage, not unruffled serenity. Fearlessness is courageous in the face of fearsome things. It carries on constructively in the midst of stress that doesn’t feel good at all. Courage means more than freedom from anxious feelings. Endurance is a purposeful “abiding under” what is hard and painful, and considering others even when you don’t feel good.”
Let's Celebrate This Golden Anniversary. Journal of Biblical Counseling 32, no. 2 (2018): 2–7.
“In the final analysis, everything about a human being operates either for God or against him. Every desire and belief is either true or skewed. Every hope or fear is either realistic or illusory. Every attitude of our hearts and every interaction with others comes weighted, either serving the kingdom of God or enslaved to the kingdom of self.” Pg. 3
Don’t Worry. Journal of Biblical Counseling 1, no. 2 (2003): 54–65.
“ask yourself, Why am I anxious? Worry always has its inner logic. Anxious people are “you of little faith.” If I’ve forgotten God, who or what has edged Him out of my mind and started to rule in His place? Identify the hijacker. Anxious people have fallen into one of the subsets of “every form of greed.” What do I want, need, crave, expect, demand, lust after? Or, since we fear losing the things we crave getting, what do I fear either losing or never getting? Identify the specific lust of the flesh. Anxious people “eagerly seek” the gifts more than the Giver. They bank treasure in the wrong place. What is preoccupying me, so that I pursue it with all my heart? Identify the object of your affections.” Pg 64
Biological Psychiatry. Journal of Biblical Counseling 17, no. 3 (1999): 2–8.
“Throughout church history, “pride” has frequently been identified as the master sin. Pride is the root of roots, the deadliest of the “seven deadly sins.” It manifests itself as arrogance, fear of man, unbelief, idolatry, selfishness, self-pity, self-deception, and the like. Pride’s opposite—the humility of wisdom, the fear of the Lord, dependent faith—is then the most foundational of the virtues.” Pg 8
What if Your Father Didn't Love You? Journal of Biblical Counseling 12, no. 1 (1993): 2–7.
“Even self-belittling tendencies—“low self-esteem,” self-pity, self-hatred, timidity, fearfulness, diffidence, fears of failure and rejection—fundamentally express pride failing, pride intimidated, and pride despairing. Such pride, even when much battered, still finds someone else to look down on. It is no accident that the church fathers discussed fear of man as a subset of pride when
they contemplated the “seven deadly sins” besetting every soul.” Pg. 4
“Identify and take responsibility for the specific lies, false beliefs, desires, expectations and fears that rule you and poison your relationship with God.”
“Peace, Be Still”: Learning Psalm 131 by Heart. Journal of Biblical Counseling 18, no. 3 (2000): 2–10.
“Scripture subordinates all under its master category of motivation: man is a religious creature who worships, serves, loves, hopes in, seeks, trusts, fears...something, either God or God-substitutes.” Pg. 26-27
Modern Therapies and the Church’s Faith. Journal of Biblical Counseling 15, no. 1 (1996): 32–41.
“If “the fear of man that lays a snare" is replaced with “he who trusts the Lord is safe,” and if pride is replaced with a humility that makes it our aim to please the merciful Christ, then a new kind of outlook emerges. This is a person who has a new heart, new values, and new priorities. This is a person who has a new God.” pg. 40
X-Ray Questions: Drawing Out the Whys and Wherefores of Human Behaviors. Journal of Biblical Counseling 18, no. 1 (1999): 2–9.
“What do you fear? What do you not want? What do you tend to worry about? Sinful fears invert cravings. If I want to avoid something at all costs—loss of reputation, loss of control, poverty, ill health, rejection, etc.—I am ruled by a lustful fear.” Pg 4
“Human beings inescapably love God—or love something else. We take refuge in God— or in something else. We set our hopes in God—or in something else. We fear God—or something else. Scripture will come to life in new ways as you develop an alertness to how the man-before-God verbs play out in real life.” Pg 7
“That interweaving of pride and fear of man is a primary disorder in our disordered hearts.” Pg 8
Revisiting Idols of the Heart and Vanity Fair. Journal of Biblical Counseling 27, no. 3 (2013): 37–68.
“It is helpful to name the mastering lust, fear, felt-need or expectation that hijacks God’s place. Repentance becomes more intelligent. I can bring to the Father of mercies both my visible behavior and my inner motives. His love is magnified because I see my need for mercy more clearly.” Pg. 40
“Third, our renegade desires are not so “deep” as to call for intense introspection. The desires that mislead us do cause us to coil in on ourselves, but that doesn’t mean that the content of our mastering desires hides deep within some inner labyrinth. They are not as inward as we might imagine. In fact, they are not really “intra-psychological” phenomena at all. Our motives are all active verbs that describe how we connect to the world around us: What are you seeking? What are you loving? What are you fearing? What are you trusting? Where are you taking refuge? What voices are you listening to? Where are you setting your hopes? The answers to these questions describe characteristics of the whole person, who always orients toward either God or something else.” Pg 41
“Has something or someone besides Jesus the Christ taken title to your heart’s trust, preoccupation, loyalty, service, fear and de- light? It is a question bearing on the immediate motivation for one’s behavior, thoughts, and feelings. In the Bible’s conceptualization, the motivation question is the lordship question. Who or what “rules” my behavior, the Lord or a substitute? The undesirable answers to this question—answers which inform our understanding of the “idolatry” we are to avoid—are most graphically presented in 1 John 2:15–17, 3:7–10, 4:1–6, and 5:19. It is striking how these verses portray a confluence of the “sociological,” the “psychological,” and the “demonological” perspectives on idolatrous motivation. The inwardness of motivation is captured by the inordinate and proud “desires of the flesh” (1 John 2:16), our inertial self-centeredness, the wants, hopes, fears, expectations, “needs” that crowd our hearts. The externality of motivation is captured by “the world” (1 John 2:15–17, 4:1–6), all that invites, models, reinforces, and conditions us into such inertia, teaching us lies.” Pg 43
“The language of love, trust, fear, hope, seeking, serving—terms describing a relationship to the true God—is continually utilized in the Bible to describe our false loves, false trusts, false fears, false hopes, false pursuits, false masters.” Pg. 44
“First, people are responsible for their behavioral sins. Whether called sin, personal problems, or dysfunctional living, people are responsible for the destructive things which they think, feel and do.10 If I am violent or fearful, that is my problem. Second, people with problems come from families or marriages or sub-cultures where the other people involved also have problems. People suffer and are victimized and misguided by the destructive things other people think, want, fear, value, feel, and do. These may be subtle environmental influences: social shaping via modeling of attitudes and the like. These may be acutely traumatic influences: loss or victimization. My problems are often embedded in a tight feedback loop with your problems. If you attack me, I tend to strike back or withdraw in fear. Your problem shapes
my problems. Third, behavior is motivated from the inside by complex, life-driving patterns of thoughts, desires, fears, views of the world, and the like, of which a person may be almost wholly unaware. We may be quite profoundly self-deceived about what pilots and propels us. My behavioral violence or avoidance manifests patterns of expectation that own me. “You might hurt me … so I’d better keep my distance or attack first.” My behavior is a strategy which expresses my motives: my trusts, my wants, my fears, my “felt needs.” Such motives range along a spectrum from the consciously calculating to the blindly compulsive.” Pg 47
“There is no question that fruit comes from an inner root to which we are often blind. “Idols of the heart,” “desires of the flesh,” “fear of man,” “love of money,” “chasing after …,” “earthly-minded,” “pride,” and a host of other word pictures capture well the biblical view of inner drives experienced as deceptively self-evident needs or goals.” Pg 48
“When a “need for security” propels my life or a segment of my life, I am again engaging in religious behavior. Rather than serving the true God, the god I serve is the approval and respect of people, either myself or others. I am an idolater. I am not “motivated by a need for security.” I am “motivated by a lust for security rather than ruled by God.” Or, since desire and fear are complementary perspectives on human motivation, “I fear man” instead of “I fear and trust God.” Need theories, like drive theories, can never comprehend the “rather than God,” which is always built into the issue of human motivation. They can never comprehend the fundamental idolatry issue, which sees that the things which typically drive us really exist as inordinate desires of the flesh that are direct alternatives to submitting to the desires of the Spirit. Our lusts for security, of course, are tutored as well as spontaneous. Vanity Fair operates as effectively here as it does with our hunger. Powerful and persuasive people woo and intimidate us that we might trust or fear them. In convicting us of our false trusts and acknowledging the potency of the pressures on us, the Scriptures again offer us the liberating alternative of knowing the Lord.” pg 51
Week 23 (2025): A Sampling of What I Read & Listened To
June 3, 2025 by Shane Becker
To read: books
Lies My Therapist Told Me by Greg Gifford
Persuasions by Douglas Wilson
To read: essays, articles, and newsletters
Which Presuppositions? Secular Psychology and the Categories of Biblical Thought by David Powlison
Under the Word "Feel" by David Powlison
Counseling Harmed Spouses as They Contemplate Divorce by Darby Strickland
AI is Coming for Online Pastoral Education by Cameron Shaffer
666 and the Mark of the Beast by Kim Riddlebarger
To watch, listen to:
The Truth About the Bible and Early Christianity: Wes Huff, Michael Kruger, Daniel Wallace
Gospel Hope for Self-Haters by David Powlison
Can I Trust the Bible - Episode 1: The Right Books by Wes Huff
Transformed Season One by Greg Gifford
Week 18 (2025): A Sampling of What I Read & Listened To
May 4, 2025 by Shane Becker
To read: books
A Biblical Counseling Process: Guidance for the Beginning, Middle, and End by Lauren Whitman
Crisis of Confidence: Reclaiming the Historic Faith in a Culture Consumed with Individualism and Identity by Carl Trueman
“In subscribing to a confession and in reciting a creed in corporate worship, we acknowledge that our age does not have all the answers and that we as churches stand upon foundations laid down by our ancestors in the faith. That is important in promoting humility, in reminding us that we are merely the latest stewards in a line of witnesses charged with passing on the apostolic faith to the next generation.”
“I do want to make the point here that Christians are not divided between those who have creeds and confessions and those who do not; rather, they are divided between those who have public creeds and confessions that are written down and exist as public documents, subject to public scrutiny, evaluation, and critique, and those who have private creeds and confessions that are often improvised, unwritten, and thus not open to public scrutiny, not susceptible to evaluation, and, crucially and ironically, not therefore subject to testing by Scripture to see whether they are true.”
This is one of the reasons why theology cannot simply be done by reading the Bible: the fine-tuning of concepts and vocabulary is a cumulative and traditionary exercise. This does not mean the results are not biblical, in the sense of being consistent with what the Bible teaches or useful as explanatory devices for understanding the Bible; but it does mean that one will search in vain in the Bible for the terms “Trinity,” “substance,” or “hypostasis,” for example—or, for that matter, “conversion experience,” “personal relationship with Jesus,” “missional,” “relational,” and “No creed but the Bible!”
Creeds solve one set of problems, but by doing so generate new vocabulary and raise novel questions for the biblical text that then need to be resolved. This is not to say that truth changes over time; but it is to say that the manner and terms in which truth is expressed, along with some of the questions asked, do change. Historical theology, the genealogy of doctrinal discussion and formulation, is thus an important part of Christian education and should be part of every pastor’s and elder’s background. It should also be a central part of the teaching ministry in all churches.
Making All Things New: Restoring Joy to the Sexually Broken by David Powlison
“Our culture earnestly tells us that the desires we discover within ourselves define us. Scripture is more realistic. By impulse, orientation, inclination, tendency, habit, and instinct, our desires mislead us.”
“The ‘Who cares, what’s the use?’ attitude is a powerful behavior-altering drug.”
To read: essays, articles, and newsletters
Redemptive History & the Attributes of Scripture by Nathan Shannon
“There is no court of authentication in which God may be required to vindicate or explain himself, since the Lord is the judge of judges and the king of kings. There is no measure of veridicality by which the trustworthiness of Scripture ought to be evaluated. Notice that to appeal to an external authority even in positive defense of the trustworthiness of Scripture is to subject Scripture to that external authority; this is to treat Scripture as less than divine. This subjugation—again, even in defense of Scripture—re-arranges the structure of Christian epistemology at ground level, and it violates the most basic fact of Christian religion: the unqualified ontological supremacy of God a se.”
Common Grace in Debate: A Response to Edward T. Welch’s “Common Grace, Knowing People, and the Biblical Counselor” by Francine Tan
The Tenderness Trap by Jim Newheiser
To watch, listen to:
What Every Woman Should Know About Her Body by Katie Vidmar
“51% of abortion patients of the United States reported that they used a contraceptive method in the month that they became pregnant… they studied and found that 14-19 year olds if they had a prescription for hormonal contraception, they were ten times as more likely to have an abortion than their non-contracepting peers… By the time they turn 20, 40% of American women have been pregnant at least once."
https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/what-god-has-joined-together-let-not-man-separate-part-1 by John Piper
“Marriage among Christians is mainly meant to tell the truth about the gospel. Does your marriage tell the truth about the way Christ loves, keeps, perseveres, is patient, endures, dies?”
https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/what-god-has-joined-together-let-not-man-separate-part-2 by John Piper
Quotes from: "Redemptive History & the Attributes of Scripture" by Nathan Shannon
March 10, 2025 by Shane Becker
https://reformedforum.org/redemptive-history-attributes-scripture/
Nate Shannon employs a Vosian view to the coordination of nature and Scripture. He argues that the four attributes of Scripture–Authority, Necessity, Perspicuity, and Sufficiency–overlap and are inseperable. Here are a few quotes worth turning back to:
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I. Authority of Scripture
“The authority of Scripture is Scripture’s self-authentication, self-attestation, or self-attested trustworthiness (Bavinck’s term). To affirm the authority of Scripture is to affirm that Scripture bears authority because it is the word of God, and additionally to affirm its uniqueness on this count. Scripture alone is self-authenticating or self-attesting—because no one bestows authority upon God, nor is divine authority subject to authentication by a third party… Scripture has divine authority because it is the Word of God, because its primary author is God… Self-attestation means that the authority of Scripture is of a distinct category, not an exceptional degree—not more but another kind of authority. The implication of Scripture’s uniqueness as the very speech of God is that it is self-attesting… When God speaks, no one asks for his ID. There is no need. There is no court of authentication in which God may be required to vindicate or explain himself, since the Lord is the judge of judges and the king of kings. There is no measure of veridicality by which the trustworthiness of Scripture ought to be evaluated. Notice that to appeal to an external authority even in positive defense of the trustworthiness of Scripture is to subject Scripture to that external authority; this is to treat Scripture as less than divine. This subjugation—again, even in defense of Scripture—re-arranges the structure of Christian epistemology at ground level, and it violates the most basic fact of Christian religion: the unqualified ontological supremacy of God a se… we affirm that if God says it, it is true; and by the nature of the case, that is, according to Christian-theistic principia (versus subjective, univocal, empiricist principia), God’s speech is not subject to external authentication of any kind. Scripture attests to its own authority. Thus maintaining consistently the coordination of our ontology with our method leads to a sound notion of the self-attestation of Scripture.”
I. a. Self-attestation and the church
On the ecclesial side, it is important to affirm a proper church-Scripture prioritization: the self-authenticating Scripture precedes and gives existence to the church… We might say that Rome treats its recognition as bestowal; the Reformed, by contrast, as ‘acknowledgement’ or ‘confession’. But however we nuance the terminology, the Roman church holds that the ‘community’, or the church, is endowed with revelatory authority, and that this communal endowment precedes the authority of the Scriptures…
I. b. Self-authentication and the individual believer
The individual dimension of self-authentication also deserves attention. How do you know that the Bible is the word of God? … there is a difference between a motive for believing and the final ground for faith… Objectively speaking, Scripture bears unique, intrinsic authority, reflecting the authority and even the ontological uniqueness of God himself. On account of this authority, the Bible ought to be believed. But subjectively, the individual Christian is often led by the Spirit to recognize the authority of Scripture by means of various kinds—ordinary means, in most cases, such as the testimony of the church… Bavinck puts it this way:
“The church with its dignity, power, hierarchy, and so forth always made a profound impression on Augustine. It continually moved him toward faith, supported and strengthened him in times of doubt and struggle; it was the church’s firm hand that always again guided him to Scripture. But Augustine does not thereby mean to say that the authority of Scripture depends on the church, that the church is the final and most basic ground of faith. Elsewhere he clearly states that Scripture has authority of itself and must be believed for its own sake.”
‘How do you know that the Bible is the word of God?’ is an ambiguous question. It means either (or both), how did you come to believe that? and on what grounds should it be believed? I might answer: “I was indeed moved by the testimony of the church, the power of preaching, and by the efficacy of the Scripture’s teaching—that is, by the real change that I saw in people and experienced in myself, wrought by the teaching of the Bible. But ultimately God changed my heart so that I see in the Bible the very words of eternal life” (John 6:68).
II. Necessity
II.b. Soteric necessity
"The Lord’s response to sin, by his uncompelled, de-merited favor, is the crushing of the incarnate Son on our behalf. We see on the cross both grace and judgment, or grace through judgment. In the same way, Scripture itself as redemptive word represents the soterically necessary judging and redeeming interruption of the sinner’s interpretive self-worship."
III. Perspicuity
"So the Reformed insist that Scripture is perspicuous, or clear, and this much is implied by the necessity of Scripture, as we have understood it. We affirmed above that Scripture is necessary for the faithful preservation of the apostolic teaching, and even for salvation itself. How ‘necessary’ for such purposes could a text be if it were opaque and impenetrable? If the Bible were unclear, it could not possibly be necessary, much less the ordained means for the faithful preservation and propagation of the gospel. So in one sense to say that Scripture is intelligible is simply to affirm an implication of its necessity.
Notice also that there is named nowhere in Scripture an authoritative interpreter of created nature. The final section of WCF chapter 1 affirms what is an implication of this generally accessibility, that the Bible neither names nor needs a designated, authoritative interpreter. So WCF 1.10 subjugates all competing voices, “all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits,” to Scripture, and to the pious interpretation of Scripture by individual regenerate Christians, interpreting Scripture with the aid of the regenerating Holy Spirit, or more cautiously, “the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture.”
… So in light of perspicuity, theologico-epistemological priority falls to the plain, self-interpreted meaning of Scripture. God reveals himself in fisherman’s Greek, without the need of an erudite interpreter—indeed, despite the erudite interpreter (1 Cor 1:18–31)."
IV. Sufficiency
"Sufficient does not mean comprehensive; it is not the case that everything the church will ever need—articles of government or organization, for example—can be found in the Bible… Nor is Scripture an encyclopedia of apostolic or prophetic deeds and utterances. Much is left unrecorded (Jn 20:30, 21:25). Nor does it mean that the Bible an the exhaustive collection of inspired writings. We know that apostolic writings have been lost, and there is no reason to deny the possibility that some of this may have been inspired. But all that is needed for salvation is contained in Scripture; all truth necessary for eschatological peace with God and consummate covenant communion with our Creator and judge is given in Scripture.
…Notice the implication of sufficiency for confessionalism: the stark distinction between authoritative, divinely inspired revelation and ‘authoritative’ human tradition, between the ‘norming norm’ and the ‘normed norm’, is affirmed in our confession. The Westminster Confession is self-limiting. The confession includes a list of the books of the Bible (1.2) as the closed (1.6) canon of inspired and authoritative biblical texts, and specifically excludes the apocrypha (1.3). The confession affirms the authority of Scripture over all traditions of men (1.10) and relegates those things not addressed in or by Scripture to “Christian prudence and the light of nature” (1.6). So the confession itself gives us a clear philosophy of confessionalism, in which secondary literature is subordinated to the canonical Scriptures; and it offers even this very notion of tradition as part of its summary of the teaching of Scripture. In this sense the confession is aware of its own secondary status and of that status as established by the Bible."