Historic Christianity and the Federal Vision: A Theological Analysis and Practical Evaluation

by Dewey Roberts

The purpose of this book is to respond to a new twist on the old problem of legalism and to defend the unchanging gospel. The Federal Vision teaches salvation by both moral works and ceremonial works. It is leading the church back into Catholicism and the views opposed by the Protestant reformers. The author carefully exposes and dismantles the views of the Federal Vision in twenty-two distinct chapters.
The false teachings of the Federal Vision on regeneration, grace, baptism, justification by faith, perseverance, election, and several others are elucidated herein.

Genres: Theology

420 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1745

Reviews

[Han · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book took me a year to read! And it was HEAVY! It took me six months to form a solid opinion on the subject, and so I set the book aside out of sorrow for those who hold to these reprehensible doctrines found in Federal Vision. I will continue to recommend this book because it handles the subject well.

Federal Vision destroys the gospel and should be rejected wholeheartedly.

I am a deeply passionate about this subject and I pray more Baptists will take the time to understand because we are one of the chief victims of this abhorrent theology.

Thank you, Dewey.

[Warren Tutwiler · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent overview, though somewhat repetitive.

[Austin Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert’s provides a comprehensive comparison between certain Federal Vision advocates and confessional Reformed theology. His source material is extensive, and his personal experience in the PCA trials of Leithart and Wilkins provided Roberts a unique inside perspective into the evolution of the movement.

Roberts is at his best when he is pulling from classic reformed texts to validate and defend his positions. The book could have been better in interacting with the FV material, however. Quotations from FV’s were often only a sentence long, divorced from context or qualifications.

The greatest criticism I have of Roberts’ approach is that he treats the Federal Vision as a nearly-monolithic school of thought. In reality, the label “Federal Vision” is almost as broad as the label “Protestant.” That’s not to say that there aren’t meaningful boundaries to the theology (as there are also meaningful boundaries to Protestantism), but you cannot condemn all Federal Visionists for the eccentricities of their radicals. In the same way, you cannot condemn all Protestants for ubiquitarianism, or other minority positions.

This is the same frustration Protestants have when Romanists condemn all of Protestantism for the positions of a few (mere memorialism, disdain for the Fathers, etc.)

Overall, however, this was well worth the read.


The chapter on the Reformed paradigm for baptism serves as an excellent bibliography for Baptists desiring to critique paedobaptism in general.