Message 1, Questions & Answers #1 from Suffering and the Sovereignty of God: 2010 Winter Conference at Ligonier Academy Conference by Various Teachers from Ligonier Ministries

While R. C. Sproul is certainly not perfect, this video of the question and answer session is very much in line with my own views regarding the Gospel and the Evangelicals and Catholics Together and the Manhattan Declaration.  I'm not sure who the other minister is in the session but he seems to be orthodox as well on this point.  Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy are not preaching the Gospel but another gospel.  (Galatians 1:6-9).  In fact, Rome has officially condemned the Gospel.

What the other minister alluded to is that Arminianism is also another Gospel.  Charles Wesley and John Wesley were adamant opponents of Calvinism and said that it was a false gospel.  In fact, the true situation is the other way around.  Arminianism, according to the Synod of Dort 1618-19, is a heresy.  Anyone who endorses any of the five points of the Remonstrandts, including their assertion of univeral atonement rather than particular atonement, is in essence denying a focal point of the Gospel.  Jesus died particularly and only for the elect; otherwise we would have to say that Christ died for the reprobates whose souls were already in hell from the time of creation up to the point of the cross.  (1 Peter 2:8; Romans 9:11-13).  The Old Testament saints were saved by faith in Christ looking forward to the Messiah and His atoning work on the cross for all of God's elect.  (Revelation 13:8; John 10:11, 15).

 Message 1, Questions  Answers #1 from Suffering and the Sovereignty of God: 2010 Winter Conference at Ligonier Academy Conference by Various Teachers from Ligonier Ministries

The Standard Bearer: Why I Will Not Sign the Manhattan Declaration

Click on this link to see the pdf version of The Standard Bearer. While I do not agree with everything that Rev. Clayton Spronk says in this article, his points about the compromises made by the Manhattan Declaration should be taken seriously by every Reformed believer. You can read the article by clicking on All Around Us and then going to page 175 in the pdf file. Here is an excerpt from the remarks by Rev. Spronk:

Not only does a signature affixed to this document overlook Rome’s doctrine, it pats Rome on the back! Do not the Reformed Christians who sign this document remember what else Rome did in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? Do they not remember that Rome excommunicated and anathematized people other than those involved in the slave trade, namely, those who were involved in teaching justification by faith alone and all the other great biblical truths of the Reformation? Do they not remember that Rome oppressed faithful, Reformed Christians in a manner that rivals and perhaps surpasses the oppression that slaves experienced under their slave-masters? Rome wreaked havoc on the church and tried to destroy the gospel of Jesus Christ! No, I will not sign the Manhattan Declaration and applaud Rome for seeking the “ common good.”