Nov 12
Letter to the English Churchman on Hooker
Sir:
Allan Clifford’s ‘objections’ to Dr Beckwith’s evaluation of Hooker are invalid. Beckwith defended Hooker against the London Temple attacks of Travers and Cartwright. Dr. Clifford ignores the entire debate, exchanging Beckwith’s real-life Hooker/Travers/Cartwright history for a Church of England/Calvin fairy-story.
Cartwright zigzagged on the Church of England-Separatist border but …
Oct 24
… This letter was sent to the English Churchman after reading an ill-informed letter of Dr. Alan Clifford defending certain sixteenth and seventeenth century schisms from the English Reformed Church.
Sir: Dr Clifford’s habit of ridiculing sound arguments (see Issue 7710) as ‘vendettas’ and ‘pompous’ and contradicting them with fiction, half-truths and wishful-thinking merely fosters division. His astonishment at Robert Law’s views concerning Seceders arises from his …
Dec 11
Sir: Dr Allan Clifford (Issue 7780) wants a New Reformation, built on his own mixture of Amyraldism, legal, fictive justification and works-righteousness, arguing that the old Biblical Reformation was wrong. I am suspicious of Clifford’s lip-rejection of Rome and denounce his false Protestantism. Clifford’s atonement is not the Biblical-Reformed doctrine on which our reconciliation, redemption, …
Aug 22
… In his recent ET article defending saintly Doddridge against adverse criticism, Dr. Clifford ended by stating,
“Even more at odds with the facts, Dr George Ella asserts that Doddridge’s Calvinism was ‘higher’ than Dr John Gill’s!”
This is incorrect. My original ET article (Feb. 1995), including Doddridge’s balanced analysis of Calvinism, which I share, was radically shortened in the American version. Nevertheless, this version still shows clearly that I look …
Sep 15
Review of Amyraut Affirmed: or ‘Owenism, a Caricature of Calvinism’
by Alan C. Clifford
In this provocative booklet, Dr Allan C. Clifford’s responds to Ian Hamilton’s Amyraldianism – is it modified Calvinism? by presenting Amyraldianism as orthodox Calvinism and the Westminster Confession as a caricature of it. Clifford’s argument is that both John Calvin (1509-1564) and Moses Amyraut (1596-1664) believed that God had two conflicting wills in …
Aug 21
Sir,
It is a swashbuckling challenge to turn my old frigate’s bows to Captain Clifford’s well-aimed broadside and I was as exhilarated by his action as I was frustrated by his strategy. Was this going to be my Sea of Trouble? I mused. I have pursued Captain Clifford for some years through Amyraldianism’s frothy waters, but have never engaged him until now. I still cannot follow his most evasive strategy in zig-zagging between the shallow Mere of Moïse and the deep …
The 2007 Protestant Reformation Conference: August 28-30
The PRS met once again at Regents Park College, Oxford for their annual conference. The college is situated centrally in what must be one of Europe’s most beautiful cities. The staff made all their guests most comfortable and the fellowship was deep and sweet indeed. As usual at such a conference, the conversations which …
Aug 21
Dear Sir,
Regarding Mr. Gellion’s disapproval of my comments on To Honour God , sent to me by Michael Haykin for review.
I never review a book without doing the most minute research. This being a highly debatable subject, I re-consulted Cromwell’s writings, contemporary works of Anglicans, Presbyterians, Congregationalist and Baptists, Parliamentary documents and four …
… Baptists. Furthermore, Gay uses neither Armitage, Benedict, Hayden, Light, Yuille, Nelson Cote, Clifford, Christian, Good, Goadby, White, Whitley (W.T) etc. i.e. the recognised standard works, nor, though he writes much of Continental Anabaptists and Baptists, does he mention Wengler, Krajewski, Donat, Warns and especially Littel. Kenneth Good would certainly have called Gay a ‘Deep Water Presbyterian’, whereas this reviewer found Gay regarding history, doctrine and church order ‘all …
