Theological term
Erastianism
5 sermons · All terms
2LCF Chapter 26 - Of the Church
Chapter 26 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith ('Of the Church') teaches that Christ alone is the supreme and sovereign head of the church, from whom all authority for church governance flows. This session surveys five historical and contemporary models of church polity — Erastianism, Episcopalianism, Presbyterianism, Denominationalism, and Congregationalism/Independency — evaluating each against Scripture and the confession. The particular Baptist position is identified as plural elder-led associational congregationalism: each congregation of baptized believers governed by a plurality of elders under Christ alone, walking in voluntary associational communion with other churches for mutual edification, counsel, and support.
2LCF Chapter 26 - Of the Church, Part 2
The nature, governance, and life of the local church are expounded through 2LCF Chapter 26, paragraphs 5–15, a section that goes beyond the Westminster Confession of Faith and draws largely from the Congregationalist Savoy Declaration. The eleven paragraphs treat the Trinitarian foundation of the church, the regenerate membership required for entrance, congregational church polity, the two permanent offices of elder and deacon, the financial responsibility of churches toward their pastors, and the associational communion of independent churches. Christians are called to join themselves to particular churches, submit to both the privileges and discipline of those churches, and rest patiently in Christ's providential governance when offenses arise within the assembly.
2LCF Chapter 24 - Of the Civil Magistrate, Part 2
The institution of monarchy in Israel, recorded in 1 Samuel 8, exposes the perennial danger of substituting a new form of government for trust in God—a sin Israel had already committed in 1 Samuel 4 and against which God had vindicated himself in chapter 7. The passage illustrates that total depravity applies not only to individuals but to corporate institutions, and that governments possessing legitimate divine sanction can nonetheless exploit those they govern. The sermon concludes with a survey of four historic approaches to the church-state relationship—Erastianism, Roman Catholic theocracy, theonomy, and the two-kingdoms framework—arguing that the two-kingdoms distinction, wherein Christ rules the church by his Word and the civil order by natural law, provides the most scripturally defensible framework for Christian citizenship.
Introduction to the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession of Faith
Why should a church bind itself to a confession of faith? This introductory lesson on the Second London Baptist Confession of 1677/1689 grounds the answer exegetically in Ephesians 4 — where Christ gives gifted men to the church so that the body attains doctrinal unity and is no longer tossed about by every wind of teaching — and then traces the historical origins of the 1689 among the Particular Baptists, distinguishing them from Anabaptists, Presbyterians, and Congregationalists. Four functions of a confession are developed: defining, defending, discriminating, and disciplining with reference to the doctrine of the church. The lesson closes by distinguishing Reformed theology (Calvinism plus covenant theology plus the regulative principle) from mere five-point Calvinism, and by defending the confession's silence on matters of Christian liberty as a feature, not a defect.
The Christian's Duty toward Non-Christians
Titus 3:1–3 sets out the Christian's duty toward both civil government and all people outside the church. The sermon traces the divine origin of civil government from Genesis 9 through Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2, arguing from Francis Turretin's two-kingdom framework that Christ rules both the civil and spiritual spheres, and that the civil state therefore has no authority to command the church as church. Verse 3's catalogue of pre-conversion vices — foolishness, disobedience, malice, hatred — is read as a theological reason for patient, peaceable, and humble conduct toward non-Christians: believers were once exactly what they now struggle to bear in others, and those others may yet become objects of the same sovereign grace.