The ark of safety: is there salvation outside the church?

This book explores the Westminster Confession of Faith’s claim that “there is no ordinary possibility of salvation” outside of the church by asking what it means, whether it is biblical, and why it is important. The author concludes that the Westminster Confession rightly stresses the role of the church in bringing people to salvation without making this claim absolute. We should love the church because Christ loved it and gave Himself for it. He died for the church so that we might live in and with it. Let us study this subject with our Bibles in our hands, the Spirit in our hearts, prayer on our lips, and our forefathers helping us along.

Publisher: Reformation Heritage Books
Type: Paperback
ISBN: 9781601785268

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RYAN M. MCGRAW is pastor of First Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sunnyvale, California; research associate, University of the Free State; and adjunct professor of systematic theology, Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

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“Among the many teachings of Scripture that the Protestant Reformation recovered was a right understanding of the importance of the church to the Christian life. In The Ark of Safety, Ryan McGraw deftly reacquaints us with the rich heritage of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Reformed reflection on the church and rehearses its biblical foundations with clarity. I warmly recommend this book to any reader who wants to know better what the Bible says about the 'apple of [God’s] eye' (Zech 2:8).” Guy Prentiss Waters, James M. Baird, Jr. Professor of New Testament, Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, Mississippi