Handle with care

Wayne Grudem comments about limited atonement:
“a subject that almost inevitably leads to some confusion, some
misunderstanding, and often some wrongful argumentativeness and divisiveness among God’s people – all of which are negative pastoral considerations.”

So while particular redemption informs our doctrine at many levels and challenges our received practices, it
may well be better to keep such a disputable matter somewhat in the background of an ordinary preaching
ministry. It is a doctrine, to be sure, which belongs in the engine room of theology, a major component of the
potent theological apparatus which is the Reformed faith. Yet while engines are impressive in their ability to
get things moving, it can be messy, and rather disturbing for those less mechanicallyminded,
to see them
disassembled and laid out on the floor in pieces. It is, therefore, a doctrine to be handled with particular care.
--Lee Gatiss