ANNOUNCER: Lewis Sperry Chafer, founder of Dallas Theological Seminary, had a list of 33 blessings that you get when you receive the gift of eternal life. Does GES agree with most of these, all of these? Are there some that Bob Wilkin disagrees with? Well, that’s where we’re headed today on this edition of Grace in Focus. Thank you for joining us, friend. This is a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Our website is FaithAlone.org. We’d like you to go there and take a look at our magazine. It’s a free subscription magazine. It is also called Grace in Focus. It is a full-length magazine, great-color, great articles, and it is free. All except, if you live outside of the 48 contiguous United States, you have to pay the postage. Otherwise, absolutely free. We want you to have it. Go to our website, get signed up today at FaithAlone.org. 

And now with today’s question and answer discussion, here are Bob Wilkin and Sam Marr. 

SAM: All right, Bob, we’ve got a great question today from Kent. This is something you have mentioned on the radio a lot, and I’ve kind of taken for granted, but I never looked at it myself. But he’s asking about Lewis Sperry Chafer’s 33 blessings, and this is part of his systematic theology. 

BOB: Yeah, this is volume three, soteriology. 

SAM: And so the question is, which of those 33 things do you agree and disagree with? Because on radio, you said a bunch. He lists these 33 things. I agree with most of them, but today we’re going to go through the ones that you disagree with, and some ones that you think are left out of that list. 

BOB: Okay, well, this could get me kicked out of the dispensational alumni group, or the Dallas Theological Seminary Alumni Group. No, I mean, I agree with most of his 33 points. I guess, let me first say a couple things that I think should be there that are not specifically mentioned. I’m looking at volume three of his systematic theology. I’m in the table of contents, but I’ve also gone back and looked at some of the pages within the table of contents. It’s chapter 13, and it’s from pages 234 to 265, so about 30 pages under “the riches of divine grace.” 

In terms of ones that are missing, I don’t see a direct statement of the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He mentions the Holy Spirit in places, and I haven’t taken the time to read through all of the 30 pages carefully, but I think one of the 33 he listed should be indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Another one is he doesn’t mention being baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. 

SAM: Now, he does mention the family and being born again, but not specifically baptized by the Holy Spirit. 

BOB: I believe he’s got “indwelling” in here, but it’s not listed as one of the 33. It’s a sub-point, and I’m sure he must have “baptized” in here somewhere, but he doesn’t have it listed as one of the 33. I would say baptized should be one of the 33. He doesn’t have “sealed” here as one of the 33, that we’re sealed by the Holy Spirit. In other words, He makes us eternally secure, even though I’m sure it’s one of his sub-points. 

So I remember RIBS, regeneration, indwelling, baptizing, sealing as four ministries of the Spirit that occur when we’re born again. He also doesn’t even have regenerated as one of the 33. However, it’s under point eight, which is children of God. When you go to that section on page 241, you see he talks about being born again and being born of God and being regenerated. So he has it there, but I would prefer to call that regeneration rather than children of God. Or have two separate points, regeneration and children of God. So the RIBS, regeneration, indwelling, baptizing, sealing, I’d like to see those specifically mentioned in his list, they’re not. 

Now, in terms of things which are in the list, which I disagree with, there are at least four that I have some issues with. So maybe we could talk about those four. The first one is called “in the eternal plan of God.” And when I go there, I find that what he’s promoting here is essentially Calvinism, the five points. Now, I know that Dr. Chafer was Amyraldian, which means he did not believe in limited atonement. So he did not believe that Christ only died for the elect. But he did believe in a pre-temporal election. And do you know what, pre-temporal means, Sam? I shouldn’t use that expression because most people would probably go, what’s pre-temporal? 

SAM: That God elected before time. 

BOB: Before time, right. It means that before He created, He decided who would be part of His family and who wouldn’t. Now, they have, the Calvinists, call the ordo salutus, which is the order of salvation. And different Calvinists have a different ordo salutus, depending on whether they believe His decree to condemn preceded with that before the creation. I believe they all say it was, but was there a decree to condemn? And what, you know, I’m not up on the what I should be on the Calvinist ordo salutus. But basically they think that before God created anybody, He decreed who would be the elect. And those Calvinists that believe in double predestination say He also decreed those who would be condemned. 

Now, some Calvinists believe in single predestination, so they say He didn’t decree anybody to be condemned. He just bypassed all the rest of the people. But as far as I can tell here on this point, his first point is in the eternal plan of God, he’s got five terms, foreknown. He talks about foreknowledge. Unfortunately, he uses 1 Peter 1:2, which is not talking about election to eternal life at all, it’s they were elect sojourners. And God foreknew that they would be sojourners. 

ANNOUNCER: The Grace Evangelical Society’s recently published Old Testament Commentary, Volume One is now available. Find it at faithalone.org/store. It’s where you can also find Bob Wilkin’s latest book, The Gospel is Still Under Siege, as well as many other titles by Grace Evangelical Society authors. Please come by and have a look today. You’ll find the GES store at our website, faithalone.org. That’s faithalone.org/store. Now back to today’s topic.

BOB: He uses predestined. He uses 1 Peter 1:2 again, and uses some other verses. And I would say the predestination is that those who are born again have been predestined to be conformed to His image, so that God is going to see to it when we are glorified, we are conformed to His image. 

Elect, here’s what he says about election, and this to me is unclear. “The term elect as related to Christians is distinctive in that it designates those who are predestined, but with only an implication relative to destiny.” I don’t know what that means. “They are elect in the present age and will manifest the grace of God in future ages.” That’s all he says about election. And then he has “chosen,” and then he has “called.” So I would say, without getting into too much detail, I don’t agree with his first point in the eternal plan of God, because I don’t believe God elected anybody to everlasting life. 

SAM: Right. Would you add, if you were to replace it, election to service there, something that happens at the moment of belief? 

BOB: Yeah. And then I would also, his fifth point is “forgiven all trespasses.” And up until about two years ago, I would have agreed with him. He basically says when you go to page 238, he says it’s a paradox. He says, “a distinction is called for between this abiding, judicial forgiveness,” In other words, he believes we’ve been forgiven past, present and future. “And the oft-repeated forgiveness within the family of God. This seeming paradox that one is forgiven and yet must be forgiven is explained on the grounds of the truth that there are two wholly and unrelated spheres of relationship between the believer and God.” He sees this positional forgiveness as standing, righteous standing. So he basically takes this future forgiveness, not being forgiveness, but being justification, being declared righteous. Okay. Well, I obviously agree that we have right standing forever, but I don’t see anywhere in the New Testament that’s called forgiveness. He cites Colossians 2:13 where it says He has forgiven us all our trespasses. I would say that means He’s forgiven us all our trespasses up to this point. If we’re in fellowship with God, we’re forgiven. But that doesn’t mean I don’t need forgiveness in an hour, in a day, in a week, whatever. So I would disagree with him on number five. 

Also on 19, he says 19 is “a chosen generation, a holy nation, a peculiar people.” And that’s on page 251. And he’s taking this from 1 Peter 2:9. Well, 1 Peter 2:9, Peter was writing to Jewish believers. And he was saying they were a chosen generation, a holy nation, a peculiar people. In other words, the remnant of believing Jews were this. If you’re not careful and you take what Chafer’s saying here, you end up with replacement theology. The church is now the chosen nation. We’re now the chosen people. No, we’re not. We’re not a nation. The church is never a nation. And so I would disagree on his 19.

And the final one I would disagree with is 31 on page 264 of his volume three. Basically what he does here is he goes to like Romans 8:30 where you have this golden chain. And he says that that refers to believers already having been glorified. Well, I don’t understand Romans 8:30 that way. And he also cites Romans 8:18, “I reckon that the sufferings of this present age are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.” What he doesn’t understand is that verse 17 says “and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him that we might be glorified together.” So verse 18 is saying the “us” refers to the co-heirs. And even in Romans 8:30, the glorification is the glorification of the co-heirs with Christ. 

SAM: Well, and doesn’t the “is to be revealed” imply that it’s not yet. It’s something that’s going to happen. So that alone means it doesn’t happen at the moment of regeneration.

BOB: It would disqualify from his list of 33. So most everything on this list I agree with. And I would add a few. The RIBS, regeneration, indwelling, baptize, sealing. I would take away a few because I think they’re misleading. But for the most part, I’m an essential agreement. And I think it is remarkable what Lewis Sperry Chafer came up with, considering he was a Christian musician and he was an evangelist, not an exegete, he was not a theologian. But he became a self-trained theologian and he was very accurate on most things. I’m very thankful for him, thankful for his founding of Dallas Seminary. But that doesn’t mean that we couldn’t tweak some of the things he said. 

So I hope that helps, Kent. And in the meantime, let’s keep grace in focus. Amen. 

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On our next episode: 1 Peter 5:7, how can we cast our cares on Christ? Please join us again and until then, let’s keep grace in focus.