The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Doug Wilson - remind me

I am familiar with Bavinck to a point. But IF "Jared" (the author) of the article has explained Bavinck's view as teaching that one is united with Christ BEFORE regeneration, repentance and faith in Christ, then I must disagree. ALL the benefits of salvation to the elect have been ordained in eternity. Thus they are infallibly sure. But those benefits are not experimentally realized until the Spirit of Christ works them in the soul and life of the elect in time. For example, the "Covenant of Redemption/Peace" between the Father and Son and Spirit were eternal. Out of that Covenant, the means of bringing it to pass in the salvation of the elect is the "Covenant of Grace". The pinnacle of that covenant was the incarnation, life, death and resurrection of Christ which secured the redemption of the elect. HOWEVER, until the Spirit works in the heart/soul of the elect, "we all were children of wrath" and hardly 'united to Christ" by virtue of the covenant. Being eternally predestined to salvation is not to be conflated with the application of the covenant of grace, i.e., God's intent and appropriation of all that is necessary to save. "And he (Abraham) believed in Jehovah; and he (God) reckoned it to him for righteousness." (ASV) Methinks that a reading of John Murray's book, Redemption Accomplished and Applied will go a long way to understanding of what I believe vs. what "Jared" an Associate Pastor of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho and what he wrote re: Bavinck in "Doug Wilson, Phil Johnson, and the Regeneration Ruckus".