About Bill Baldwin

Overview

I am currently ordained as a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. I am not installed as a pastor and am looking for a call from a Reformed church with a commitment to the centrality of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and a desire to nourished by that Gospel and thus strengthened to good works.

From mid-1998 to October of 2001 I suffered from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Because of this, in June of 2000, I resigned my pastorate as a church planter in Mission Viejo, CA, working with the Redeeming Grace OPC mission work. My heart still goes out to the sheep who were at that work and who suffered many afflictions for the sake of Christ. A few of those sheep have since been scattered; but most, by God's grace, have found good church homes.

I began to recover from the fatigue in November of 2001. The episodes of feeling exhausted became much less frequent, and when they came, they lasted a day or so. By April of 2001, I began to realize that I had recovered. In September of 2002 I began work at an office job, 40 hours a week, with an hour commute each way in traffic. For the next three years I preached when I could in area pulpits and sought a pastoral calling. Many churches were interested, but the Lord did not see fit to have any of those churches extend a call.

In 2005, my family and I decided to move to the Kansas City area where it was more affordable. I also felt I needed a break from the pastoral search. We moved in February of 2006 and began worshiping at Park Woods Presbyterian Church in Overland Park. We greatly appreciated the ministry of Pastor Geoff Smith and the church, in turn, put my gifts to good use. I had frequent opportunities to preach and was also able to teach adult Sunday School classes on Ecclesiastes and then on a survey of the Old Testament.

In 2007, Pastor Smith resigned, citing "pastor burnout". The church has appointed me as interim pastor. While this may lead to a pastoral call, it is also quite possible that the congregation will decide on a new direction. So I am open to the possibility that the Lord will call me elsewhere.

Any church that might be interested in considering me as a pastoral candidate should feel free to contact me at bbwebpage@gmail.com

Theology

I should state first of all that I subscribe to those basics of Christian doctrine that are summarized in the Nicene and Apostles' Creeds. I love those basic doctrines with all my heart. Teaching and preaching them constitutes the core of my ministry. In addition, I fit into several "camps" within the broad heading of Christian theology. I've noted some of those as bullet points, proceeding from the general to the specific:

• Protestant - In distinction from the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions, I hold to Sola Scriptura and Sola Fide, the formal and material principles of the Protestant Reformation.
  • Sola Scriptura - I count Scripture alone as the ultimate authority in the Christian church. While authorities such as tradition and Church Fathers and other sages from every age will wisely be consulted and may even be made secondary authorities, the Bible alone has the authority to direct our consciences and it alone may truly claim to be without error and, indeed, to be incapable of error.
  • Sola Fide - We receive our justification from God by faith alone. While the Spirit does produce in us good works--the power to which is also received by faith alone--those good works may never be considered an element of our faith, but always proceed as fruit from the faith which alone justifies. Neither is faith itself to be considered a good work or within our power. Faith is of no merit in itself, but the object of faith is Christ. In him alone is the merit to which faith points, and from him faith receives all that is necessary for salvation.
• Calvinistic - I use this term for lack of a better one. What I really want to put under this heading is slightly broader than Calvinism (though I do affirm all five points). But I want here specifically to affirm the sovereignty of God in all matters, including matters of salvation. And I want to affirm what Luther called "the bondage of the will"--namely that sinful humans are unable to do the least thing to turn their hearts and minds to God. We must rather have those hearts and minds renewed by God's sovereign act, quite apart from and indeed contrary to our own will.
  
• Reformed - In distinction from Lutheranism, I place myself more with John Calvin and with the Westminster Divines in my understanding of Scripture.
  • Specifically, contra Lutheranism, I affirm that those who are truly converted will most assuredly be enabled by the Spirit of Christ to walk steadfastly in the ways of Christ until they die or he returns. It is not possible to lose one's salvation. (My study on Assurance of Salvation provides further information.)
  • Further, I affirm that the death of Christ did not merely make salvation available to all but secured salvation for the sheep of Christ. Everyone for whom Christ died will assuredly be saved.
  • Also, I hold to the regulative principle of worship advanced by Calvin. Namely, we may offer to God in worship only those things he has commanded. This principle is different from the one applied to the rest of life, in which we feel free to pursue anything that God has not forbidden. (My presentation Come to Mount Zion: The Glory and Genius of New Testament Worship provides more information.)
• Biblical Theological/Covenant Theological - The above concerns have been discussed in terms of Systematic Theology, that is, as theology is logically organized under various headings and sub-headings. But we must recognize that the Bible does not come to us as a book of organized theological points with chapter headings and an index. God chose to unfold his revelation of himself progressively, culminating in his full self-revelation in our risen and ascended Lord.
  • Biblical Theology attempts to describe the progress of that revelation, noting its various stages and exegeting Biblical texts in light of the period in redemptive history during which they were revealed.
  • Covenant theology works hand in glove with this, organizing systematic theology and Biblical theology into a unified whole. Covenant theology understands that God has revealed himself to and entered into relationships with his people by a series of covenants. These covenants offer various rewards&mdashbut ultimately the reward of enjoying God in heaven. And the covenants threaten various punishments&mdashbut ultimately the punishment of separation from God and enduring his wrath in hell. When we consider any passage in Scripture we must ask which covenant or covenants are in operation, what are the principles of those covenants (whether works or grace), and how the covenant or covenants reveal the glory and perfection of the new, eternal, final covenant established in Christ&rsquos blood.
  • We must approach the Bible, first and foremost, as a record of that unfolding mystery by which God has in these last days revealed himself in his Son.
  • Systematic theology may and must help us in this approach by guarding us from various errors and helping us to recognize major themes.
  • Biblical Theology, in turn, helps Systematic Theology by reminding us that true theology did not come to its fullest expression until Christ was revealed. Hence, a theological revelation during the Abrahamic era or the Mosaic must in some sense be partial, provisional, and often typological. It is only as we see these revelations culminating in and being fulfilled by Christ that we understand them truly. In other words, Biblical Theology helps keep our Systematic Theology centered on Christ.
  • Thus, we must always be sensitive not only to what is written but to when in redemptive history it was written, what covenant was in effect, what had happened previously, and what it was all leading up to.
  • Such an approach will in particular guard us from common errors such as Theonomy and other attempts to make the Mosaic Law (or more narrowly, the 10 Commandments) a representation of the covenant that currently exists between God and his people.
• Klinean - My particular understanding of Biblical Theology owes a great debt to the insights of Meredith G. Kline, a professor at Westminster Theological Seminary in California (where I studied under him), and also at Gordon Conwell in Massachusets.
  • Kline's understanding of the Mosaic Law as a typological republication of the covenant of works with Adam in the garden (while still, redemptively, being an administration of the post-lapsarian covenant of grace) is central. Just like the previous sentence, Kline is at first difficult to understand; but I have made various attempts to present his thoughts more simply, and all of the papers and other studies on this site have been greatly influenced by his teaching. My sermons on Genesis, in particular, will reveal a Klinean influence.
  • Kline's understanding of the original covenant of works, and of the Biblical antithesis between works and grace, is likewise of central import. For this reason, I reject Norman Shepherd's formulations of Biblical Theology since they seem to me to involve a dangerous fusion of the principles of works and grace. My paper, "Several Quick Arguments that the Covenant of Works Is Not Gracious" discusses some of the issues involved.
  • I therefore strive never to confuse faith and works, and never to make works an element of justifying faith but always the fruit thereof.
• Redemptive Historical Preacher - My preaching arises out of all the insights and thoughts listed above. In particular, I believe that since the Bible is entirely about Christ, the true preacher must preach Christ, and only Christ, in every sermon. I have made some attempt to explain what I mean by such a statement in chapter 2 of my forthcoming book. But the sermons offered for perusal on this site will also serve to demonstrate how individual texts can and must be understood in the light of Christ.

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