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More light on the Word and Spirit from Berkhof

This post is a continuation of On the Efficacy of the Sacraments and Word, Spirit, and Dry Bones, in which I have been trying to get my head around the differences between Lutheran and Reformed understandings of the relationship between the Holy Spirit, the Word of...

Word, Spirit, and Dry Bones

In a previous post, I quoted Charles Hodge’s argument that the Spirit of God alone gives efficacy to the Word and to the sacraments: There is, therefore, a strict analogy, according to the Reformed doctrine, between the Word and the sacraments as a means of...

On the Efficacy of the Sacraments

I have been studying up on the sacraments for ordination exams, and, in Charles Hodge’s Systematic Theology, I came across an interesting contrast between how Lutheran and Reformed Christians understand the efficacy of the sacraments that I did not previously...

Hodge on Sacraments

A. A. Hodge on the sacraments as “seals” of the covenant. I found it helpful: The sacraments were designed to ‘apply’—i.e., actually to convey—to believers the benefits of the new covenant. If they are ‘seals’ of the covenant, they...

Outward Sign, Inward Reality–Part Three

Several months ago, I wrote two posts about the connection of the outward signs of circumcision and baptism to their respective inward realities: circumcision of the heart and baptism of the Spirit. You can read those posts here: Part 1 and Part 2. In the first post,...

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