Reformed Theologian Norman Shepherd leaned to Arminius when Adventist Theologian Desmond Ford leaned to Reformed Theology. Both were fired. 

 

---Let us ping-pong between the soteriologies of Luther and Calvin for a while and then go to the heretic Calvinist of 1974-1982: Norman Shepherd.

---Calvin’s soteriology takes its starting point in Christ and in the believer’s union with Him.

---The gospel comprehends the whole Scripture, both the Old and the New Testaments.

---The whole counsel of God is gospel; and this gospel both convicts of sin and reveals the impending judgment of God.

---At the same time, the gospel points us to Christ as the only Saviour.

---The Holy Spirit makes the gospel effective to salvation by uniting us to Christ. ---The indwelling Spirit joins us to the Redeemer.

---In Jesus Christ our sins are forgiven and we are accepted by God.

---This is justification.

---In Jesus Christ we are transformed and conformed to His image.

---This is regeneration and sanctification.

---The transformation expresses itself immediately in faith, repentance, and obedience to Christ.

Summarized by Alistair Hewitson in 2009 in his MA on Norman Shepherdson

https://www.academia.edu/27241586/Norman_Shepherd_and_The_Justification_Controversy_at_Westminster_Theological_Seminary_The_Years_1974_1982?email_work_card=view-paper

 

---Luther believes in the elenctic use of the law whereas Calvin believes in the normative use of law. (Footnote 14 by Ian Hewitson on Norman Shepherd The Justification Controversy at Westminster Theological Seminary The years 1974-1982. MA). 

 

---For Calvinists it is both normative and elenctive. Peter Lillback 2001 feels it destroys the Doctrine of Luther of sola iustificatio.    

 

---Justification by faith alone....alone means for Luther an adjective. For Calvin it is an adverb. 

---Dead faith does not justify, only an active living faith justifies, a faith productive of obedience Calvin said. 

---Faith does not justify because of what it is or because of the obedience that inevitably accompanies it; faith justifies because of Christ, in whom it rests with utter confidence and assurance. 

 

---The difference between Luther and Calvin is demonstrated in their different readings of Galatians 5:6. "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love". 

---Luther says it has nothing to do with Justification by faith. 

---Luther in lectures in 1535. 

---Calvin said it does. For him Paul is speaking of justification and that faith that justifies is a faith that works by love. 

---Calvin understands from love the power to justify. Faith does not justify because it works by love; it justifies only as it rests in Christ. But the only faith that rests in Christ is a true and genuine, living, and active, penitent and obedient faith. Calvin feels that a dead faith does not rest on Christ. 

 

---Luther said that Galatians 5:6 means that faith after it has justified is active by love.

---Calvin says Galatians 5:6 means that justifying faith is not alone but is ever joined to good works. 

 

---The two differed on  "only".  Calvin mixed James 2:17, 22, 26 and Galatians 5:6. 

 

---The Westminster Confession was not the same as Luther's formulation. It is because they conflate slightly sanctification and justification. 

 

---In Romans commentary Luther said justifying faith is something living and active. 

 ---Both Luther and Calvin believed that the doctrine of justification does not exclude good works from the broader sphere of salvation. Good works were seen as fruits of justification.

---Reformed theology distinguish between justification as a forensic category and Sanctification as, a category of moral transformation. 

---Lutheran theology stressed the difference between justification and sanctification more emphatically than Reformed theologians. 

---Lutherans feel both justification and sanctification must be kept pure. One must distinguish between law and gospel. 

---It was pointed out by Norman Shepherd. Lutherans and Calvinists could not ignore good works because the biblical passages on sanctification are many. 

---Why, because Titus 2:14 says the purpose of Christ's meditorial work is to secure for God a people "zealous for good deeds". James required good works with faith and they could not ignore it. 

---But their counteroffensive of Rome, made them feel that good works are fundamentally opposed to faith. 

---They felt that to cultivate good works militates against the purity of the gospel of justification by faith alone. 

---Norman Shepherd felt in 1978 that if Reformed Theologians and Lutherans insists on sola fide they would render the necessity required by clear passages in the Bible, superfluous. 

---Shepherd, the heretic Calvinist of 1978 felt that Calvinists are leaning too much on Luther here. 

---Calvin would smile happily if someone was saying that to him for he tried to connect to Luther but Melanchton never gave Luther the letter from Calvin. 

---It is the tension between the sole sufficiency of divine grace and the necessity of meaningful human action. 

---It is the controversy between divine will and the human will. 

---Shepherd changed the traditional Reformed term justification by faith alone to be actually justification by grace through faith. He said he does not reject Reformed Theology, he just want to answer to the biblical requirements of obedience. Shepherd's heretic commitee felt that the questions he raised were answered long ago in Synods dealing with Jacob Arminius and others. 

---Shepherd felt that it was the incomplete task of the Reformation and for seven years he had, to face heretic committees. 

---He had to face them between 1974-1982. He was finally fired. 

---This is the controversy in Calvinism at Westminster Theological Seminary. Ironically, the Arminian-Adventist schools had heretics in the opposite direction trying to Luteranize Adventism. 

---Desmond Ford. Who was fired in 1980.

---Those who loosen themselves from Fundamentalism and Biblicism to follow James Barr and his attacks against both, will eventually end in nihilism, or agnosticism or atheism. For sure.


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