Immanuel
Protestant Reformed Church
Lacombe, Alberta

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David J. Engelsma is professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament Studies at the Protestant Reformed Seminary in Grandville, Michigan. He is also editor of the Standard Bearer, a Reformed semi-monthly periodical published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association.

Pamphlet published by
Trinity Protestant Reformed Evangelism Committee
3385 VanBuren
Hudsonville, Michigan 49426

One of the gravest threats to the Reformed churches since the synod of Dordt is the contemporary denial of justification by faith alone within the reputedly conservative Reformed churches.

This error is very old. Virtually all the Reformation confessions mention, expose, refute, and condemn it.

What is new about the contemporary form of the ancient heresy is that it bases itself on the biblical doctrine of the covenant. The particular view of the covenant, however, that the present-day denial of justification by faith alone appeals to is that of a conditional covenant.

That makes the new error very dangerous indeed.

All Reformed and Presbyterian churches recognize the importance, even centrality, of the covenant of grace in Scripture.

But many Reformed and Presbyterian churches embrace the doctrine of a conditional covenant. Because the doctrine of a conditional covenant does, in fact, imply a conditional salvation -- salvation dependent upon the sinner -- these churches are hard pressed to resist the contemporary error of justification by faith and works, if indeed resistance is even possible for them.

This booklet examines the contemporary heresy of justification by faith and works in light of its claim that it is grounded in the truth of the covenant. The booklet rejects the heresy, and calls all Reformed Christians to reject it, on the basis of the unconditional covenant of grace.

Originally, the content of this work was an address on the occasion of the commencement exercises of the Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary. The speech was then expanded and published as a series of editorials in the Standard Bearer.

At the request of the Evangelism Committee of the Trinity Protestant Reformed Church in Hudsovnille, Michigan, I have revised and further expanded the series of articles for publication as a booklet.

The month in which the booklet is ready for publication is the anniversary of the sixteenth century Reformation of the church. In its own way, addressing a false teaching of the present day, the booklet defends in our day the same gospel of sovereign grace recovered in that day.

Prof. David J. Engelsma
Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary
October 2003

• Preface
  

1. The Unconditional Covenant
   
2. The Error of the Conditional Covenant
   
3. Denial of Justification by Faith Alone
   
4. Denial of All the Doctrines of Grace
   
5. Back to Rome
   
6. Contemporary Development of a Conditional Covenant
   
7. Contemporary Development of a Conditional Covenant (concluded)
   
8. Defense of the Faith
   
   

• Candid Confession of the Character of a Conditional Covenant
  
  

• As To Conditions - Hoeksema