Daniel Chew (Daniel’s Place – Reformata et semper reformanda – PuritanReformed) has posted some thoughts on the Joint Federal Vision Statement’s section on “Apostasy and Assurance of Salvation”:
One major irritant of the FV is their continual redefinition and equivocation of terms. As they have redefined “trust,” so now the redefinition of terms from their normal theological usage continues. In this case, the term is “decretal.”
In normal theological discourse, whatever God has decreed that He works out in his relation to the world and the elect. However, in FV parlance, whatever God has decreed is not worked out in relation to the world and the elect but rather worked out for the world and the elect in a secret manner to be somehow manifested at the end of time, as we have seen in the FV relation of decree and covenant. What is happening in the world and in the church bears little if any relation whatsoever to God’s decrees, which are probably so mysterious it’s a marvel the FVists knew they even exist in the first place.
Read more here.
The Sovereign Logos 