77. What is the “Federal Vision”?

The “Federal Vision” is the designation preferred by its proponents of a movement that took on definite shape during a pastor’s conference at Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church in Monroe, Louisiana, in January 2002. The forces behind this important conference extend at least as far back as the controversial teaching of Dr. Norman Shepherd, who was finally dismissed from Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia) in 1981 for teaching that baptism really but conditionally procures for its subjects all the benefits of Christ’s redemption, which must then be maintained by the believer’s faithfulness – which means, in essence, that justification is finally secured by faith and works. Additionally influential was the “New Perspective” on Paul’s doctrine of justification, which teaches that the Judaism Paul was contending with was not a legalistic religion, and that Paul’s rebuke to them was not directed against any tendency to trust in their works for approval with God, but rather in their ethnocentric desire to force Gentiles to display Jewish “badges” such as circumcision (see question #76 above). These strains of thought were influential in creating a milieu in which the original speakers at the Auburn Avenue pastor’s conference, entitled, “The Federal Vision: An Examination of Reformed Covenantalism,” could expound their understanding of a more “objective” nature to the covenant.

The proponents of the Federal Vision have argued that they are recovering a more consistently biblical and Reformed perspective on the Covenant; but their claims have met with much strong resistance from several Reformed denominations and many pastors and scholars, who perceive their teaching to be essentially a return to the Roman doctrine of justification rejected during the Reformation. Although it is always difficult to pin down a very non-monolithic movement, which has a tendency to shape-shift in response to objection, some of the problematic elements common to most proponents of the Federal Vision include, first, a teaching that the covenant is gracious in its essence and yet still conditional upon the ongoing faithfulness of the believer. This, in turn, blurs the distinction between the pre-Fall Covenant of Works and the post-Fall Covenant of Grace (tantamount to “monocovenantalism”), and in essence, places the believer in a gracious Covenant of Works which he partially fulfills. This, of course, ushers in the second major problem, namely, that in this construct the doctrine of justification by grace alone is seriously jeopardized. One of the mechanisms by which this troubling effect comes about is the denial that Jesus fulfilled a legal Covenant of Works as the federal head of his people, suggesting that it is more “gracious” for Jesus not to be undertaking anything “legalistic” – which is ironic in that it then requires the believer to be faithful to the same “gracious” covenant that is not, however, maintained by grace alone, but also by faithfulness. Thus, in the denial of the “legalism” of the Covenant of Works, the pure graciousness of the Covenant of Grace is likewise destroyed. This all entails a major third problem: the denial of the imputation of the active obedience of Christ to the believer’s account, as the sole, meritorious, external righteousness by which he might assure himself of the rewards of the Covenant of Works, fulfilled in his behalf by the Federal Head, Jesus Christ. Some other common teachings, non-standard in the Reformed world, include paedo-communion and postmillennialism, together with its concomitant, a political activism which has usually, however, stopped short of a full-blown theonomy or reconstructionism.

Some influential proponents of the Federal Vision include the four speakers at the Auburn Avenue conference: Douglas Wilson, John Barach, Steve Wilkins, and Steve Schlissel; as well as the signers of the “Joint Federal Vision Profession”: Randy Booth, Tim Gallant, Mark Horne, James Jordan, Peter Leithart, Rich Lusk, Jeff Meyers and Ralph Smith. Some major Reformed denominations that have formally condemned certain of the Federal Vision’s teachings include the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC); the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA); and the Reformed Church in the United States (RCUS). Currently, many of the Federal Vision’s proponents may be found in the Confederation of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC).

Further Resources: The Federal Vision , at Monergism.com

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