Other Resources: Episode and notes about his writings on marriage and sexuality.
Video Notes By Pastor Jon Moffitt
Doug Wilson Still affirms FV Joint Statement but Denies the Title
FV No Mas
What I Do Not Mean (2017)
This statement represents a change in what I will call what I believe. It does not represent any substantial shift or sea change in the content of what I believe…I am making this lexical shift for the sake of clarity and communication—defining more precisely what was already there.
https://dougwils.com/the-church/s16-theology/federal-vision-no-mas.htm
Ecclesiastical Reports
URCNA: Report of the Synodical Study Committee on the Federal Vision and Justification
By the standard of biblical and confessional teaching, this reformulation of the doctrine of justification by FV writers stands condemned. Rather than a radical contrast between justification by grace alone through faith alone, apart from works of any kind, a distinction is drawn between “meritorious” works, which play no role in justification, and “non- meritorious” works, which do play a role in justification. (P. 74-75)
ARP: Minutes General Synod of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church
The “New Perspective on Paul,” and the “Federal Vision,” are in conflict with the teaching of Scripture and as such they are unacceptable. (P. 18)
https://arpchurch.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Minutes-of-Synod-2009-Web.pdf
OPC: Report on Justification Presented to the Seventy-third General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church
The Committee believes that the following points that are held by some one or the other advocates of FV are out of accord with Scripture and our doctrinal standards:
11. A denial of the imputation of the active obedience of Christ in our justification.
12. Defining justification exclusively as the forgiveness of sins.
14. Including works (by use of “faithfulness,” “obedience,” etc.) in the very definition of faith. 15. Failing to affirm an infallible perseverance and the indefectibility of grace. (p. 88)
https://www.opc.org/GA/justification.html
Mid-America Reformed Seminary Doctrinal Testimony Regarding
Recent Errors May 2007
Article 52 We deny that faith alone means that the fruits that accompany our faith, such as works of love, or faith in its faithfulness, or faith in its non-meritorious working, or any other kind of works, are included in the definition and instrumentality of justifying faith; and so we deny that justifying faith is faith as a virtue. (p. 42)
Article 53 We affirm that faith is merely the instrument for receiving Christ and accepting his merit. We deny the claim that God, having withdrawn his demand for perfect obedience to the law, counts faith itself, and the imperfect obedience of faith, as perfect obedience to the law, and graciously looks upon this as worthy of the reward of eternal life (CD, II, rejection of errors 4). (p. 42)
http://www.midamerica.edu/uploads/files/pdf/errors.pdf
Many have claimed that DW does not affirm all of the FV theology, and he has been misrepresented by others. We will examine his writings and compare them to his affirmation of FV.
CHANGING HISTORIC DEFINITIONS
Creating a division between works and obedience in scripture.
Like a Gelatinous Pudding – Blog Post
In the New Testament, obedience is a good word. Also in the New Testament, works is not, unless it is modified with a word like good. We are called to good works (Titus 2:7), but we are not saved by works (Eph. 2:8-9).
By way of contrast, sinners do not obey the truth (Rom. 2:8). The Lord is the author of eternal salvation for all who obey Him (Heb. 5:9)…God gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey Him (Acts 5:32)…But the bottom line is that simple words obey and obedience should not set off alarm bells for people who read their Bibles.
https://dougwils.com/books-and-culture/s7-engaging-the-culture/like-a-gelatinous-pudding.html
“What is faith?” This is a helpful paragraph from Ligonier on how protestants have always understood the definition of faith:
The Protestant Reformers recognized that biblical faith has three essential aspects: notitia, assensus, and fiducia.
Notitia. Notitia refers to the content of faith, or those things that we believe. We place our faith in something, or more appropriately, someone. In order to believe, we must know something about that someone, who is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Assensus. Assensus is our conviction that the content of our faith is true. You can know about the Christian faith and yet believe that it is not true. Genuine faith says that the content — the notitia taught by Holy Scripture — is true.
Fiducia. Fiducia refers to personal trust and reliance. Knowing and believing the content of the Christian faith is not enough, for even demons can do that (James 2:19). Faith is only effectual if, knowing about and assenting to the claims of Jesus, one personally trusts in Him alone for salvation.
https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/faith-defined
DW adds a new dimension to faith, thus adding something to the biblical teaching of faith. Adding these new definitions of works and obedience into faith. He is changing the definition of justification by adding works and sanctification into justification.
Quotes from “Reformed is not enough”
This book is still available on his website. https://canonpress.com/products/reformed-is-not-enough/
Below are several quotes where DW combines works into the definition of faith. He will clearly claim faith alone, but his definition of faith is not protestant because requires works to be a part of the meaning of faith.
n the historic Protestant view, good works are inseparable from biblical salvation…Because this is the case, James can speak of justification by works.
Wilson, Douglas . Reformed Is Not Enough: Recovering the Objectivity of the Covenant . Canon Press. Kindle Edition.
DW creates a new understanding of salvation as it relates to the new covenant. This is because he holds to a two-stage understanding of justification. We are only justified if we remain faithful.
Chori Seraiah notes the importance of this in questions of apostasy. “The means by which men apostatize from the covenant is unfaithfulness. The means by which men persevere in the covenant is faithfulness.”43 In other words, to assert that men fall away because their salvation was contingent upon continued faithfulness in the gospel is not to deny the sovereignty of God at all.
Wilson, Douglas . Reformed Is Not Enough: Recovering the Objectivity of the Covenant . Canon Press. Kindle Edition.Faith is the only instrument God uses in our justification. But when God has done this wonderful work, the faithful instrument does not shrivel up and die. It continues to love God and obey Him. If it does not, but just lies there like a corpse, then we have good reason to believe that it was lying there like a corpse some days before—not being therefore an instrument of justification. Faith without works is a dead faith, and a dead faith never justified anybody.
Wilson, Douglas . Reformed Is Not Enough: Recovering the Objectivity of the Covenant . Canon Press. Kindle Edition.
Rightfully so, DW has been accused of being a heretic because he refuses to recant the FV statement and his writings on faith and justification.
Why are we heretics because we say faith cannot be separated from trust and obedience, and because we say saving faith cannot be separated from a life of obedience and trust?
Douglas Wilson, The Monroe Four Speak Out, 5, 6.
To be abundantly clear, we are going to look at other documents where he continues to defend this teaching. So it isn’t one book or one statement, or on sermon, or one blog article we could have possibly misunderstood. He has been clear for years and that is why we are pointing out that he is knowingly leading people away from the clear teachings of the gospel to a false gospel.
In an interview with Christian Renewal magazine, DW was asked:
“Doug, when you cite ‘continuing in goodness’ in Rom. 11 in your 2002 lecture, is that the cause of our salvation or the fruit of it?” Wilson replied:
Yes (laughter all around).
Look, in Colossians Paul says as you received Christ so walk in him. So the way we become Christians is the way we stay Christians is the way we finish as Christians—by faith from first to last.
So we continue in God’s goodness by trust. We stand by faith—they fell, but you stand—doing that to the end is how you come to your salvation. It’s the gift of God lest anyone boast. I believe we are saved by faith from first to last, which is why I have been accused of denying sola fide.
Douglas Wilson, The Monroe Four Speak Out, 5, 6. Cited in John M. Otis, Danger in the Camp: An Analysis and Refutation of the Heresies of the Federal Vision (Corpus Christi, TX: Triumphant Publications, 2005), 335.
He is trying to hold both concepts in the same hand, and you can’t. You are either saved by faith as biblically defined and accepted by protestants, or you hold to a works-based salvation. You can’t say you agree and then give an opposing view.
Living Faith – blog post
I am treating obedient faith and living faith as synonymous… it is obedient in its life, and in that living condition it is the instrument of our justification.
https://dougwils.com/the-church/s16-theology/living-faith.html
The reason Wilson mixes works into faith and justification is that he denies two key biblical understandings. He has openly denied the Law Gospel distinction presented to us in scripture. There is a collapsing of the law into the gospel. He also denies the covenant of works as historically held by the reformed. But for those who may not hold to this term, it isn’t that he denies the term; he is denying the imputation of Christ's righteousness to us by faith alone as apart from works.
Here again, he will state that he holds to imputation but then denies it in his explanation.
We deny that law and gospel should be considered as hermeneutics, or treated as such. We believe that any passage, whether indicative or imperative, can be heard by the faithful as good news, and that any passage, whether containing gospel promises or not, will be heard by the rebellious as intolerable demand. The fundamental division is not in the text, but rather in the human heart.
Joint Federal Vision Statement https://federal-vision.com/ecclesiology/joint-federal-vision-statement/I believe the covenant of works mentioned in Chapter VII is badly named. I would prefer something like the covenant of life (WLC 20), or the covenant of creation. I believe that this covenant obligated Adam to whole-hearted obedience to the requirement of God. The one stipulation I would add is that, had Adam stood, he would have been required to thank God for His gracious protection and provision. And had Adam stood, he would have done so by believing the Word of God. In other words, it would all have been by grace through faith… he “covenant of works” was not meritorious and we deny that any covenant can be kept without faith.
CREC Examination, Pages 1-2, 4 http://federal-vision.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/WilsonExamAnswers.pdf
In a fictitious interview on his blog article “Semper Deformanda," DW is arguing for a change of understanding of what happened to Adam in the garden.
“I do not deny the existence of such a covenant. I simply maintain that Adam broke that covenant through his unbelief, and that, had he kept it, he would have done so by grace alone through faith alone.”
https://dougwils.com/the-church/s16-theology/semper-deformanda.html
Recommended Resources:
- https://heidelblog.net/2018/08/resources-on-the-federal-vision-theology/
- https://heidelblog.net/2019/07/has-doug-wilson-really-changed-his-mind-about-the-federal-vision/
- https://nocompromiseradio.com/episodes/2022/09/21/aldo-leon-dissects-doug-wilson-part-1/
- Theocast episodes:
- (Coming Wednesday) Review of Wilson's theology by Jon and Justin
- https://wordpress-1294806-4720887.cloudwaysapps.com/smuggling-works-into-faith-with-mike-abendroth/
- https://wordpress-1294806-4720887.cloudwaysapps.com/do-john-piper-and-doug-wilson-obscure-faith-alone/
- https://wordpress-1294806-4720887.cloudwaysapps.com/faith-alone-is-radical/
