41. Ibid., 200 – 205.
Appendix 2
fi rst chapter which Scripture calls the new birth, the new creation, the spiritual resurrection? I may be mistaken. But I have sometimes thought, while reading the strong language used by many about "consecration," in the last few years, that those who use it must have had previously a singularly low and inadequate view of "conversion," if indeed they knew anything about conversion at all. In short, I have almost suspected that when they were consecrated, they were in reality converted for the fi rst time!37
Dr. Benjamin B. Warfield, professor of theology at Princeton, wrote this at the turn of the century in an essay on faith:
No true faith has arisen unless there has been a perception of the object to be believed or believed in, an assent to its worthiness to be believed or believed in, and a commitment of ourselves to it as true and trustworthy. . . . We cannot be said to believe that which we distrust too much to commit ourselves to it.38
R. A. Torrey, then president of Moody Bible Institute, in his textbook on personal evangelism, told students to make the lordship of Christ a focus of the gospel invitation to a sinner: "Lead him as directly as you can to accept Jesus Christ as a personal Saviour, and to surrender to Him as his Lord and Master."39
W. H. Griffith Thomas, an early dispensationalist and co-founder of Dallas Theological Seminary, acknowledged the inseparability of justification and sanctification,40 as well as the necessity of good works as the certain outcome of faith.41 He succinctly explained, "St. Paul uses Gen. xv to prove the necessity of faith; St. James uses Gen. xxii to prove the necessity of works. St. Paul teaches that works must spring from faith; St. James teaches that faith must be proved by works."42 Commenting on Romans 14, he wrote:
Our relation to Christ is based on His death and resurrection, and this means His Lordship. Indeed the Lordship of Christ over the lives of His people was the very purpose for which He died and rose again. We have to acknowledge Christ as our Lord. Sin is rebellion, and it is only as we surrender to Him as Lord that we receive our pardon from Him as our Savior. We have to admit Him to reign on the throne of the heart, and it is
37. John Charles Ryle, Holiness (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979), 57. 38. Benjamin B. Warfi eld, Biblical and Th eological Studies (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1968), 402 – 3. 39. R. A. Torrey, How to Work for Christ (Old Tappan, N.J.: Revell, n.d.), 32. 40. W. H. Griffi th Th omas, Th e Principles of Th eology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979), 186 – 87. 41. Ibid., 200 – 205. 42. Ibid., 205.