While reading a Reformed defense of sola fide (Justified: Modern Reformation Essays on the Doctrine of Justification, eds. Ryan Glomsrud and Michael S. Horton [Modern Reformation, 2010]) one was struck again by how Reformed apologists use as “proof” passages and linguistic issues that have long been refuted and shown to represent eisegesis by Calvinists, showing that they are either ignorant and/or deceptive in their abuse of such.
For instance, the book, in the page before the table of contents and in the back quotes Luke 18:9-14 and the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector as if it teaches Reformed theology. It does not—in fact, it soundly refutes the reflexive nature of faith Luther et al preached! On this, see:
Does the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14) Support Sola Fide? (cf. Paul Hacker on Luther, faith, and the reception of forgiveness)
Elsewhere, 2 Cor 5:21, the meaning of λογιζομαι, and Gen 15:6 are abused to support the Reformed understanding of justification:
Fortunately, many evangelicals have ably defended the doctrine of imputation, the great double exchange whereby our sins are reckoned to Christ on the cross and his righteousness is accounted to us that we might have life (2 Cor. 5:21). (Ryan Glomsrud, “Getting Perspective,” p. 6)
Following Calvin (Comm. 2 Cor 5.21), Turretin observed that Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us in the same sense as our sin was imputed to him: “Christ was made sin for us, not inherently or subjectively (because he knew no sin), but imputatively (because God imputed to him our sins and made the iniquities of us all to meet on him, Isa 53:6). Therefore, we are also made righteousness, not by infusion, but by imputation” (Institutes of Elenctic Theology, 2.652) (George Hunsinger, “An American Tragedy: Jonathan Edwards on Justification,” p. 54)
There is no mistaking the parallel between Christ’s obedience, which is righteousness, and the imputation of this righteousness to the believer. Commenting on the abiding significance of Genesis 15:6 and the imputation of righteousness, Paul writes: “That is why his faith was ‘counted to him as righteousness.’ But the words ‘it was counted to him’ were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 4:22-24). Note that there the English Standard Version translates the Greek word logizomai as “counted,” which the King James Version translates as “imputed.” Here Paul taps into the ancient stream of the special revelation of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, to argue for the imputed righteousness of Christ, and arguably also has other passages such as Isaiah 53 in mind when writing of these things: “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities” (Isa. 53:11; cf. “ Cor. 5:19-21). (John V. Fesko, “A More Perfect Union? Justification and Union with Christ,” p. 82)
For a refutation of the Reformed understanding of 2 Cor 5:21 and Gen 15:6 (and other like-texts), see:
For a full refutation of the Reformed understanding of λογιζομαι, apart from the exegesis of Gen 15:6 in the previous article, see my 7-part Λογιζομαι in texts contemporary with the New Testament series:
For a refutation of many of the theological presuppositions underlying the Reformed/Calvinistic theology of the authors, see:
While at first Protestant appeals to the Bible to support their errant theology might seem impressive at first, if one delves deeper into the relevant texts, one will see that such apologists rely upon eisegesis, not sound exegesis, to support their aberrant theology.
