Christ Is Yours

Eric Rivera

Description

Maintaining hope in Christ for the weary soul.In the face of trials and tribulations, persevering in the faith can be a difficult task. For Puritan pastor--theologian William Gouge, this question was of critical importance for those he shepherded. His theology of assurance during the difficult seasons in life provided direction and help to weary souls.In Christ Is Yours, Eric Rivera explores Gouge's theology, revealing a man who cared deeply about the truths of Scripture and the spiritual lives of his community. His theology was focused on the promises of God found in Scripture while staying grounded in the realities of life. This message of perseverance and hope is just as necessary for Christ-followers today as it was then. Written for academics and pastors alike, Rivera brings this important theology to a modern audience.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christian theology
• Theology
• History of religions
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: Lexham Press
• Date de parution: 27 février 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781683592488
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

CHRIST IS YOURS
The Assurance of Salvation in the Puritan Theology of William Gouge
ERIC RIVERA
STUDIES IN HISTORICAL AND SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY
Christ Is Yours: The Assurance of Salvation in the Puritan Theology of William Gouge
Copyright 2019 Eric Rivera
Lexham Press, 1313 Commercial St., Bellingham, WA 98225
LexhamPress.com
All rights reserved. You may use brief quotations from this resource in presentations, articles, and books. For all other uses, please write Lexham Press for permission.
Email us at [e-mail] .
Scripture quotations marked ( ESV ) are from ESV ® Bible ( The Holy Bible, English Standard Version ® ), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Print ISBN 9781683592471
Digital ISBN 9781683592488
Lexham Editorial Team: Todd Hains, Michael Haykin, Eric Bosell
Cover design: Bryan Hintz

To Erikah, the “delight of my eyes,” and
to our three precious children,
Keziah, Lukas, and Levi
Contents
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction: “From Blackfriars to Heaven”
2. The Foundation for Gouge’s Practical Divinity
3. The Christian’s Battle against the World, Flesh, and the Devil
4. Humiliation, Suffering, Death, and the Practice of Piety
5. Prayer and the Christian Home
6. Conclusion
Bibliography
Scripture Index
Subject Index
Acknowledgments
It has been a long and rewarding, though sometimes painful, journey. Many different people have poured into my life and contributed to seeing this book come to fruition. They have prayed for me, shared timely words of encouragement, and cheered me on even in the most trying times. I want to thank my doctoral advisor and academic mentor, Dr. Scott Manetsch. His consistent encouragements helped me stay the course, his editorial pen made me a better writer, and his teaching sparked my earliest thoughts about Puritan practical divinity. I would also like to thank Drs. Doug Sweeney and Richard Averbeck for reading, critiquing, and encouraging me in this work. Their insights were invaluable.
I am grateful for the Meeter Center of Calvin Studies at Calvin College that awarded me a research grant in the summer of 2016 , which proved to be precisely what I needed to finish my last chapters. Karin Maag and Paul Fields were especially helpful during my time there. In addition, thank you Todd Hains and Lexham Press for taking on this project and assisting me in preparing it for publication. To my friend Joshua Phillips: thanks for making this book more accessible by taking on the tedious yet important task of compiling both the subject and Scripture indices.
To my “Blackfriars,” the church family at The Brook, it has been my privilege to be called your pastor since we planted the church in 2013 . I love to serve Jesus alongside of you. You have taught me much about the family of God, advancing this glorious gospel, and what it means to live life together. The contents of this book have entered your ears and hearts in a variety of ways. I am so encouraged to see you grow in the faith. Thank you for cheering me on as I left you for a month to write on two different occasions. I praise God for you!
To my parents, Roberto and Mary Rivera, and my siblings, Tito and Ivellise, I am so thankful for you. My parents have given me a legacy of faith in Jesus, the greatest thing I could ever ask for. I stand on your shoulders. Being a Puerto Rican family from Chicago that loves and serves the Lord is something that I hold dear to my heart. Thank you for spurring on my Christian walk and for your encouraging words along the way as I studied and wrote. I love you guys.
Erikah, you are not only my wife but also my best friend and my greatest cheerleader. You have known just the right words to say when I wanted to give up, just the right look to give when I needed a boost, and just the right prayer to pray when I was discouraged. You, along with our precious children, Keziah, Lukas, and Levi, have sacrificed a lot to make this PhD happen. I could not have done this without you. I love you, babe.
Lastly, all praise and glory be to you, my triune God. Father, you have chosen me according to your mercy. Jesus, your life, death, and resurrection have given me a new life. Spirit, you have regenerated my soul and are ever present with me. As is the heartbeat of this work, God, let me also be one who presents the majesty of who you are to comfort your afflicted, discouraged, and downtrodden children. Soli Deo Gloria.
1
Introduction: “From Blackfriars to Heaven”

DEFINING PURITANISM
In the middle of the sixteenth century , Protestant leaders sought to bring reformation to the English church. Harsh opposition met these efforts of reform during the reign of Henry VIII ( 1491–1547 ) before a new and hopeful day arrived for Protestants under the leadership of the child king, Edward VI ( 1547–1553 ). During his reign the Catholic mass was abolished and “replaced by a vernacular communion service,” priests were allowed to marry, religious images were removed from churches, purgatory was rejected, and auricular confession to priests was no longer mandated. 1 However, much of the progress in ecclesiastical reform that was gained under Edward VI’s Protestant leadership was brought to a sudden and bloody halt under the swift and heavy hand of Mary I ( 1553–1558 ) and her “Catholic (Counter-) Reformation.” 2 After Mary’s death, Elizabeth I ( 1558–1603 ) became queen of England following her half-sister’s reign of terror. Elizabeth I needed to reestablish the nation’s ecclesiastical and political stability and did so through what historians call the Elizabethan Settlement. Under the queen’s leadership, the Church of England became theologically Protestant while retaining some similarities with Catholic practice, such as priestly vestments, genuflecting, statues, the burning of incense, the office of bishop, and the use of a liturgical guide for worship such as Thomas Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer . The queen’s settlement did not please everybody and it is during her reign that the word “Puritan” finds its genesis.
Initially, the term “Puritan” was a label of insult and derision. 3 The Puritans were those “nonconformist clergy within the newly reformed Elizabethan church, zealous Protestants who refused to wear prescribed liturgical vestments, particularly the white surplice, and who gained a reputation as ‘opposers of the hierarchy and church-service.’ ” 4 They believed that the Elizabethan Settlement prematurely halted the progress of reformation in England, and further purification was needed ecclesiologically, theologically, and morally. The majority of these “Puritans” remained inside the state church and sought to reform it from within, while others considered the church unredeemable, separating from it entirely. 5
The multifaceted context of the rise of Puritanism accentuates the challenges of defining the movement when considering how the movement developed in the seventeenth century . 6 Some historians have found the term so problematic that they have proposed avoiding the word “Puritanism” altogether. However, other scholars have chosen to retain the name. Bozeman prefers the term because “it depicts accurately a substantive and often obsessive trait of the quest for further reformation: a hunger for purity” in English Protestantism. 7 In this same vein of thought, Coffey and Lim offer a definition that represents the diversity and challenges of research into Puritanism. Broadly speaking, they define it as an “intense variety of early modern Reformed Protestantism” within the Church of England. Still, their definition also narrows to encompass the ways in which Puritanism did not remain in neither England nor the Church of England but branched “off into divergent and dissenting streams” in other nations and lands. 8
Coffey and Lim’s definition takes into account the unique contexts of Puritanism’s beginning, while recognizing the deviating directions of Puritanism seen in the seventeenth century . This understanding of Puritanism is assumed throughout this work.

PRESENTATION OF THESIS AND METHOD OF RESEARCH
As attempts to reform the Church of England in the late sixteenth century were met with resistance by the established Church, those Puritans seeking reform had to redirect their purifying goals from the institutional church to the individuals within. Their aim was to instruct the believer in the manner of how to lead a godly life. This Puritan approach to pastoral care came to be known as practical divinity. One of the primary concerns of this instruction was to provide Christians with grounds for personal assurance of their salvation, thus discerning whether they were truly elect and consoling the anxious soul. 9 Many of these practical matters are evident in the ministry and published works of William Gouge .
For Gouge and other Puritans, practical divinity encouraged rigorous reflection, introspection, and a disciplined life in order to help believers discern even the tiniest degree of faith that testifies that they are elect, thereby bringing consolation to the anxious soul. 10 They were concerned that if one overemphasized justification and assurance at the neglect of a sanctified life, then moral standards would be lost. On the opposite side, they were equally concerned that if assurance was found in sanctification, the grace of God displayed at the cross of Christ might be neglected. 11 Thus, they sought to navigate a middle ground that emphasized Christ’s finished work on the cross for the believer and a Christian life that bears fruit. 12
Since the middle of the twentieth century , scholars such as Basil Hall and R. T. Kendall challenged the successfulness of the Puritans’ practical agenda. 13 They maintain that the Puritan teaching on faith (which includes saving faith and temporary faith) fails to aid Christians in attaining a sense of assur