Question Index
1. The Ordo Salutis
1.What is understood under the ordo salutis, the “order of salvation”?
2.What is further contained in the term ordo salutis, “order of salvation”?
3.Does unanimity rule among the theologians in the identification of the different steps that belong to the order of salvation?
4.Enumerate some points of difference that are important for proper differentiation.
5.Does one also find here and there an attempt to divide the different stages of the way of salvation in an orderly manner?
6.What distinctions must we make with a view to arriving at a clear overview of these different acts in their mutual connection?
7.What may be established further concerning the relationship between these different groups?
8.What questions need to be addressed regarding each step of the order of salvation?
9.Are the distinctions made here based on Scripture or are they merely human attempts to bring about an order in the multiplicity of phenomena of the work of grace?
10.What points must be examined in general before we proceed to discussing the particular acts of grace?
11.What is the nature of the relationship between the work of the Holy Spirit in the sphere of nature and that of grace?
12.What is the relationship between the operations of common grace and the special grace of the Holy Spirit?
13.Does one sometimes also speak of “common grace” in a still broader sense?
14.From what may we discern in some measure what should be ascribed to the operation of this common grace?
15.Can you show that Scripture teaches such an operation of the Holy Spirit?
16.How far can this common operation of the Holy Spirit go?
17.Are the effects of common grace divorced from any connection with regenerating grace, which works only in the elect?
18.Has the doctrine of common grace also been misused?
19.What is the connection of special grace to Holy Scripture?
20.Does the rule strictly apply for adults that there is only regeneration where the external Word of God is preached?
21.Between what extremes does this legitimate Reformed conception of the connection between Scripture and the operation of grace lie?
22.How do Lutherans think about the connection between the Word and saving grace?
23.How do the Roman Catholics think of the connection between the external means of grace and the internal operation of grace?
24.Do all God’s operations of grace have the same relationship to the Word of Scripture?
25.What kind of connection is there between the operation of God’s grace in the special sense and the Mediator?
26.What is the name that is given to this bond between persons in whom special grace works and Christ?
27.What in general is the significance of this union with Christ?
28.What can we establish further concerning this union with Christ?
2. Regeneration and Calling
1.What is regeneration?
2.Is it a judicial or a re-creating act?
3.Does regeneration occur in the consciousness or below the consciousness?
4.Is regeneration a slow process or an instantaneous action?
5.Is regeneration concerned with the removal of the old or the enlivening of the new?
6.Is regeneration a mediate or an immediate act of God?
7.Which words in Scripture designate regeneration?
8.How is the usage of scriptural language regarding “calling” connected with the doctrine of regeneration?
9.Show from Scripture that calling is viewed in this way.
10.How then can you define external calling?
11.How, on the other hand, can internal or effectual calling be defined?
12.How can one relate internal calling and regeneration to each other?
13.Is it necessary to say that the sequence of the acts of grace is: (1) calling, (2) regeneration?
14.What ground does one have to understand the concept of regeneration in the wider sense, which, for example, Calvin ascribes to it?
15.Who is the author of regeneration?
16.Is regeneration a mediate or immediate act of God? Is it or is it not brought about by any instrument?
17.Is not the Word of God an instrument by which regeneration is achieved?
18.What by nature is the disposition of man toward the truth?
19.Does the concept of truth allow that one may consider the Holy Spirit as a higher power bound to it at certain times?
20.Does Scripture teach that there is a working of God in the heart of man that is not instrumentally connected with the working of the truth?
21.Does not James 1:18 teach that the word is God’s instrument in regeneration?
22.Does not 1 Peter 1:23 teach that the Word is instrumental in regeneration?
23.Is there perhaps another instrument than the Word used in regeneration?
24.Why is this conception, that baptism achieves regeneration, unacceptable?
25.Is regeneration a renewing of the substance of the human soul?
26.Does regeneration consist in a change of the soul’s capacities, of either one or more of these capacities?
27.Can you show that the re-creation of a single capacity is not sufficient to regenerate the sinner if God does not renew the root of his life and thereby also regenerate the other capacities?
28.To what extent can one say that the enlightenment of the intellect precedes the operation of the will and emotions?
29.Show that regeneration produces an enlightening of the intellect.
30.Show that regeneration produces a renewing of the will.
31.How does God move the will of man?
32.Do we mean that the Holy Spirit only changes the expressions of the will—“willing”—or that He also renews the more deeply lying will, the direction of the will, the tendency of the soul?
33.Show that regeneration also produces a re-creation of the emotional life of man.
34.Is the entire nature of man renewed by regeneration, so that nothing remains to be renewed?
35.Is regeneration to be viewed such that in it this new principle of life is infused into man and what is contained in that principle now comes to expression of itself?
36.In what relation does regeneration stand to the subsequent saving actions of God?
37.What distinguishes more recent views concerning regeneration?
38.What name do the theologians use to express the uniqueness of regenerating grace?
39.Is regeneration resistible—that is, can a person resist it and undo it?
3. Conversion
1.What words in Scripture are used for the concept of conversion?
2.What is another word used in Scripture for “conversion”?
3.What word does the Hebrew use for conversion?
4.Is there still another word that is used by the New Testament?
5.What is distinctive of most of these words?
6.What is conversion called in Latin?
7.How do you best describe conversion according to what we have found?
8.Does conversion take place in the judicial sphere, or in the sphere of dispositional re-creating grace?
9.Is conversion an act of grace that takes place below the consciousness or in the consciousness?
10.Does conversion have in view the removal of the old man or the enlivening of the new man?
11.Is conversion something that occurs at once in a crisis or does it consist of a slowly continuing process?
12.Is conversion exclusively a work of God, or is man also active in it?
13.What is the connection of conversion to effectual calling?
14.What is the connection of conversion to faith?
15.Who is the author of conversion?
16.In conversion, does God work solely through means, or is there in addition also an immediate working?
17.Is the word “conversion” always used in the same sense in Scripture?
18.Is conversion absolutely necessary?
4. Faith
1.What order should be followed in discussing faith?
2.What word is used most in the Old Testament to express the concept of believing?
3.Does the Old Testament use still other words for the same concept?
4.What are the various elements belonging to the concept of believing that we can gather from these various designations?
5.Which are the words for “faith” and “believing” in the New Testament?
6.What two meanings does pistis have in Classical Greek?
7.Is the word in this latter sense also used with reference to the gods by the Greeks?
8.From where, then, did the New Testament derive its usage of the words pistis and pisteuein?
9.With how many meanings do pistis and pisteuō occur in the New Testament?
10.Is faith also described sometimes in other terms in Scripture?
11.What, therefore, is our result concerning this New Testament linguistic usage?
12.Is the word pistis also found in the New Testament with another meaning than that of “faith”?
13.What word did Latin use for the concept of “believing”?
14.What is the derivation of the Dutch word gelooven?
15.What needs to be discussed in treating the psychological aspect of faith?
16.What different answers have been given to the first question?
17.What should be noted against this conception?
18.Is there still another way one can seek the distinguishing characteristic of faith in something subjective?
19.What is your objection to this explanation of faith?
20.Has it also been attempted to seek what is characteristic of faith in the uniqueness of its object?
21.Must what distinguishes faith be sought in the object that is believed or in the particular way in which one holds to be true what is believed?
22.On the basis of what has been said, how could we define “faith” in general?
23.According to this definition, what must already be reckoned as objects of faith?
24.After deducing all this, does much still remain for knowing?
25.What is the second question regarding the psychology of faith that needs to be considered?
26.Is the question posed here easy to answer?
27.Is faith something that presupposes a new capacity of the soul? That is, is it not the case that one does not believe with the capacities with which one performs all other spiritual acts?
28.If we ask about the capacities operative in faith or about the parts in which faith consists, do we then have in view faith in general or saving faith in particular?
29.Do all agree in enumerating the actions that belong to faith?
30.Does knowledge belong to the essence of faith?
31.Can we establish in advance how great must be this knowledge required for faith?
32.With what things must this knowledge of faith not be confused?
33.Does what is said here also apply to saving faith—namely, that knowledge is an essential part of faith and not merely its prerequisite?
34.To what extent can one still say that the knowledge of faith precedes saving faith?
35.How is the definition of saving faith that our Catechism gives to be understood?
36.Can one also put too much emphasis on knowledge as part of faith?
37.Is it easy to distinguish the assent of faith from knowledge as described above?
38.Show that according to Scripture assent belongs to faith as an essential part.
39.Is this assent an act of the intellect or an act of the will?
40.What question is connected with what has just been posited?
41.Which is the third act or side of faith?
42.Describe in more detail in what this trust consists.
43.Is it correct to say that the intellect is active in the knowledge of faith, the will in the assent of faith, and emotion in the trust of faith?
44.How many types of faith are distinguished?
45.What is historical faith?
46.On what grounds may this historical faith rest?
47.Where does Scripture speak of this faith?
48.What is “temporary faith”?
49.From where is the designation derived?
50.To what extent is this designation “temporary faith” applicable?
51.By what is temporary faith distinguished from historical faith?
52.By what is temporary faith distinguished from saving faith?
53.Is there more in this temporary faith than ordinary historical knowledge?
54.Who have eliminated the distinction between this temporary faith and saving faith?
55.What is miracle faith?
56.Is this miracle faith in an active sense always accompanied by saving faith?
57.Is miracle faith also spoken of in a passive sense?
58.Is there still a place for such miracle faith at the present time?
59.From what standpoint must saving faith be discussed?
60.How can this saving faith be defined?
61.In what does the significance, the form, and the essence of faith lie?
62.In what, then, does this unique relationship consist?
63.What is the result of this?
64.Is it therefore incidental that salvation is tied to true faith?
65.Must it be inferred from this conception that believing is nothing other than an insight into, a conception, a correct idea of the relationships of the covenant of grace?
66.Does one then have the right to say that faith is an act of the intellect?
67.Of how many parts does saving faith consist?
68.How is this knowledge of faith to be viewed?
69.Does trust also belong to the essence of saving faith?
70.Show from Scripture that this is so.
71.Should we understand this trust of faith as an intellectual conviction that may be summarized in the sentence: “I am justified before God?”
72.What has occasioned conceiving of the trust of faith in this sense?
73.To what extent can we say that trust belongs to the essence of faith?
74.Can one also misuse the proposition that in all saving faith there is a certain degree of assured trust?
75.What is the object of this trust of faith?
76.Demonstrate that in this is encompassed everything that one is otherwise accustomed to propose as the object of this trust.
77.How is this trust of faith worked in the sinner?
78.Does the trust of faith focus on the promise, “God has loved you personally”?
79.What is understood by the “syllogism of faith”?
80.Is this trust of faith the bare recognition that there is no salvation other than in Christ the Mediator?
81.Is the trust of faith directed to testimony about the Mediator, or to the living Mediator Himself?
82.Does the essence of faith then consist in love for the Mediator?
83.Is faith a deed, a work?
84.Who is the author of faith?
85.How is this faith effected—mediately or immediately?
86.Will it not do to have faith originate with the sinner in a completely mediate manner?
87.What is the difference between a “seed of faith” and a “disposition of faith”?
5. Justification
1.What words are used in Scripture for the concept of “justification,” and what can be derived from this usage for the doctrine to be treated now?
2.What is the specific meaning of the adjective dikaios contained in the verb dikaioun?
3.Does the word “justification” itself also occur in Scripture?
4.What is the meaning of the Latin word justificare?
5.To what does justification have reference: to the judicial state or to the condition of man?
6.How, consequently, can you describe justification?
7.Indicate the points by which this justification is distinguished from sanctification.
8.Who loses sight of the difference between regeneration-sanctification on the one hand and justification on the other?
9.What propositions must be set in opposition to this Roman Catholic teaching?
10.Show that justification takes place in the tribunal of God (in foro divino).
11.What takes place in this divine tribunal when a man is justified?
12.In what, explained in more detail, does this justification consist?
13.Do all agree that justification rests not only on the passive but also on the active obedience of the Mediator?
14.Can you show that in justification a granting of the right to eternal life in fact takes place?
15.Do those who think like Piscator deny this and other truths of Scripture?
16.How should we explain it when now and then Scripture also presents the positive blessing of justification and the gift of eternal life as a fruit of the death or the blood of Christ?
17.What should be noted concerning the second part of justification, “adoption as children”?
18.Is justification an act that takes place once and for all, or an act that can be repeated?
19.What, then, is the correct view regarding the state of the believer after he is once justified?
20.Does the second aspect of justification also have a retroactive purpose?
21.What is the relationship between faith and justification?
22.In how many respects, then, does faith occur in relationship to justification?
23.How can one further designate faith in relation to justification?
24.What has been treated so far?
25.Do the theologians speak of still another justification?
26.What should be noted concerning this?
27.Is this justificatio justi [justification of the just] discussed here synonymous with the so-called “second justification” of Roman Catholics?
28.Is the word righteousness and its corresponding adjective, righteous, used in Scripture of inherent righteousness in already-justified sinners?
29.Can this inherent righteousness ever be or become the ground upon which one is acquitted in the judgment of God?
30.Can you show that the inherent righteousness of the regenerate does not come into consideration with God as the judicial basis for their justification?
31.Is it not true that on the day of judgment believers will be justified as possessing an inherent righteousness?
32.Is it true that this doctrine of imputed righteousness opens the door to antinomianism?
33.What should we answer when someone says that in justification, declaring us to be righteous, God does not act according to truth, since in ourselves we are still full of sin and unrighteousness?
34.What is to be said to the objection that the Mediator as man needed his righteousness for himself?
35.In what did the error of Osiander consist in the matter of justification?
36.Is it not true that in Scripture our righteousness by which we are justified is called “the righteousness of God”?
37.Are there still other grounds to which appeal is made in defense of this false view?
38.What consequences did the error of Osiander have?
39.What view do the Socinians have of justification?
40.What do the Arminians teach regarding justification?
41.Is it true that Scripture nowhere teaches the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, as the Remonstrants claim?
42.What distinguishes the justification concept of the more recent speculative theologians?
43.What should be said to refute this most recent form of the doctrine of justification?
44.How are they justified who do not arrive at a conscious activity of faith; for example, the children of believing parents who die in infancy?
6. Sanctification
1.What words are used in Greek for the concept “sanctification”?
2.Which of these five is used most frequently in the New Testament?
3.What, in the first place, is evident from this phenomenon?
4.What was the main element in the meaning of the Greek words mentioned above?
5.Indicate in general the meaning of the terms mentioned.
6.What is the derivation of the Hebrew word qadosh, “holy”?
7.What is the opposite of this concept?
8.Is this contrast completely synonymous with that between “clean” and “unclean”?
9.Is the concept of “holiness” merely that of “separation,” completely undetermined, or is there an additional determination?
10.Is the concept first applied to created things or to God Himself?
11.How then is it possible to speak of God as “set apart”?
12.Is holiness a purely formal concept? That is, is there nothing in it other than the thought of setting apart without there also being the thought in what respect that setting apart occurs?
13.What then is contained in this holiness of God?
14.Is this holiness of God always manifested in the same manner?
15.With what meanings does the word hagios appear in the New Testament?
16.From what two concepts, therefore, must the concept “holy,” as Scripture uses it, be sharply distinguished?
17.Is this delineation of great importance for establishing the concept of sanctification?
18.What is the meaning of the word hagiotēs?
19.What does hagiōsynē mean?
20.What does the verb hagiazō mean?
21.What is the meaning of the word hagiasmos?
22.How do you define sanctification?
23.Is it correct to say that the righteousness of the Mediator is imputed to us in justification and infused in sanctification?
24.Is then no “holiness” of Christ imputed to us?
25.Is sanctification something that occurs in the judicial sphere or does it have reference to a subjective change in the disposition of man?
26.Does sanctification occur in the conscious level of the life of believers or below that level in depth?
27.Is sanctification a mediate or immediate work?
28.Does God Himself work in sanctification or is it man who does the work?
29.Is sanctification a work that occurs all at once or is it subject to a long passage of time?
30.What is the relationship between justification and sanctification?
31.What connection and what difference is there between regeneration and sanctification?
32.What relationship is there between initial conversion and sanctification?
33.What is the nature of sanctification?
34.Show from Scripture that there is a supernatural activity in sanctification, and that not everything happens through moral exercise.
35.Who deny that sanctification is a supernatural work of God in the sense described?
36.To what parts of man does sanctification extend?
37.Of how many parts does sanctification consist?
38.Are these terms scriptural?
39.Can this putting to death of the old man also be described in another way?
40.How is the disposition designated that originates through the second work of sanctification?
41.Is there also a link between faith and sanctification?
42.Is this true only for the conscious exercise of faith, or does it also count for the disposition of faith that is produced and maintained in the soul through God’s Spirit?
43.Is faith present in sanctification in yet another connection?
44.Is sanctification in this life complete, so that all the pollution of sin is removed from the believer?
45.What does the Reformed theologian mean when he teaches the incompleteness of sanctification in this life?
46.To what do perfectionists appeal to substantiate their doctrine of perfection in this life?
47.What must be observed against these assertions?
48.Is sanctification something indispensable, like justification, or can it be dispensed with?
49.Where does the difference between sanctification and good works lie?
50.What are the characteristics of good works, and how is this designation meant?
51.Can these good works be considered meritorious?
52.Can sanctification, once caused by God, still be completely lost?
53.What is meant when we say that there is no apostasy of the saints?
54.What is the principal error of those who teach an apostasy of the saints?
55.Is then perseverance something that adheres in man as a moral disposition?
56.What are the evidences for the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints?
57.What objections are brought against this doctrine of the perseverance of the saints?
58.Is there sanctification after this life?