Flaws with The Gospel Coalition's Confessional Statement

[Alex_Smith]

I was looking at the The Gospel Coalition’s Confessional Statement, and although some of it’s good, I found some frustrating flaws, even in their 1st point.

God is infinitely perfect both in his love and in his holiness.

Although His love is meant to be infinite, according to some people it only applies to a few, and for those few, He doesn’t even love all their loved ones (something most humans at least try to do, i.e. I try to be friends with my wife’s friends).

He is the Creator of all things, visible and invisible, and is therefore worthy to receive all glory and adoration.

But of course He won’t get that with ECT/P!!!

Immortal and eternal, he perfectly and exhaustively knows the end from the beginning, sustains and sovereignly rules over all things, and providentially brings about his eternal good purposes to redeem a people for himself and restore his fallen creation, to the praise of his glorious grace.

Again, with ECT/P, He won’t restore all His fallen creation and He won’t get praise for His glorious grace from everyone

Skipping to their point 13:

We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the just and the unjust—the unjust to judgment and eternal conscious punishment in hell, as our Lord himself taught

Obviously I don’t think our Lord taught ECT/P.

On that day the church will be presented faultless before God by the obedience, suffering and triumph of Christ, all sin purged and its wretched effects forever banished.

ECT/P doesn’t purge and banish sin forever, it simply moves it outside the open city gates (imagine the smell & sound of burning people wafting into the city, forever! )

God will be all in all and his people will be enthralled by the immediacy of his ineffable holiness, and everything will be to the praise of his glorious grace.

How can God be all in all to people in ECT/P? Enthralled!! “Everything”, except all the people in ECT/P

[revdrew61]

Hot stuff, Alex! I am sure there are flaws in all confessional statements, ours included. But its a fact that these flaws are only obvious from outside the bubble.

[corpselight]

Hot stuff, Alex! I am sure there are flaws in all confessional statements, ours included. But its a fact that these flaws are only obvious from outside the bubble.

very true, nobody but God is going to be 100% right.
but these are very obvious flaws!!!

[AllanS]

All good points, Alex.

He is the Creator of all things, visible and invisible, and is therefore worthy to receive all glory and adoration.

If God is the creator of all things, he also made the smallpox virus and the screw-worm fly. It’s not immediately obvious that that’s adorable. Creating a universe demonstrates power and intelligence, but not goodness. However, if God, at great personal cost, turns every evil into even greater good, that would be worthy of our adoration.

[Alex_Smith]

Hot stuff, Alex! I am sure there are flaws in all confessional statements, ours included. But its a fact that these flaws are only obvious from outside the bubble.

I totally agree, one of the reasons I was reading theirs was to try to work out how to improve ours, which has flaws. It’s very hard, got to have the theology as precise as possible but keep it readable and succinct!