When I was a student in seminary, I was fortunate to sit under the tutelage of many brilliant and godly teachers. One in particular was a relative newcomer to the school but quite well known in evangelical circles. I considered myself fortunate to sit under his vast wisdom and expertise. Imagine my surprise then, when throughout his course on Paul’s epistles, he would hand out a worksheet for each epistle with a list of key words that appear in the text. Each lecture he would explain the themes and theology of the epistle in question based on the use and frequency of these words. Surely determining the themes and theology of an epistle had to involve more refined, more recondite methods than word appearance or frequency! Alas, what this professor was demonstrating is that anyone can get up and make claims about the themes or theology of a letter, but at the end of the day, data doesn’t lie. What key words appear, and how often they appear in a given letter, might not be the end all be all of forming a theology of Romans or Galatians, but it should at least be the starting point. Word usage and word frequency tell us more empirically than anything else what the author’s message is.
I say this because many readers might read Rebekah Merkle’s Eve in Exile and exclaim that it contains none of the federal vision teaching her father and their organization is known for. Yet word usage and frequency tell a different story. Her book is supposed to be a rallying cry for Christian women to pursue godly femininity. Therefore, one would expect words central to Christianity and the gospel to appear somewhat frequently in the book. Words like Jesus, Holy Spirit, faith, grace, forgiveness, justification (or justified), sin, repentance, believe, and mercy. Yet such is not the case. Here is a quick breakdown of how many times these words appear in her book:
Jesus – 3x’s
Faith – 5x’s
The Spirit– 1x (in a quote from Malachi)
Holy Spirit – 0
Grace – 4x’s
Mercy – 5x’s (3 x’s in reference to a woman’s womb, only one with God as the subject)
Forgiveness – 0x’s
Sin – 4x’s (never once in relation to one’s personal sin as a believer)
Repent- 1x
Justification/justified – 0x’s
Believe (as a synonym for faith) – 0 x’s (in reference to the gospel or believing in God; as in “I believe in God.” Not, “I believe God will do this if I obey.”)
Compare this to how many times words that focus on our works appear in the book:
Work – 82x’s
Faithful/faithfully/faithfulness – 11x’s
Obedience/obedience – 22x’s
Trust-9 x’s (always in the context of obedience)
This data demonstrates how much a federal vision perspective animates the core of Merkle’s message. Compare the number of times “faith,” appears versus “faithfulness.” This difference is heightened even more when the fact that four of the five times faith appears on its own, it is conjoined directly with obedience:
But if we step out in faith, if we submit ourselves to God’s commands and trust what we know of Him, we will actually find that the sky really is the limit when it comes to the kinds of things we can achieve (146).
But if you lay yourself down in the fertile soil of obedience and faith, God will use that to bring forth fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold (162).
But if God says the opposite (and He does) then our duty is to trust Him and to step out in faith and obedience to a command that, yes, can look daunting and scary (164).
Obedience and faith never turn out to have been a trap (165).
In the one example where there is not a direct tie in with obedience, it is still using the word to describe faithful living, or obedience. On page 124 she says, “But before we get too offended, think of what the opposite of Paul’s list is, and see which one sounds more in keeping with faith and grace. Imagine.” What is the reference for “keeping with faith?” It is a descriptive list of behaviors of a godly woman in Titus 2:3-5. Faith as a reference to believing in God, believing the gospel, or trusting in Him directly in reference to the gospel, does not appear one time in the entire book, a book that purports to call women to a Christian vision of godly femininity. This is federal vision in action.
Or consider the number of times Jesus and the Holy Spirit are mentioned. Before someone objects that she might be using other names for Jesus like the Son, such is not the case. The Son only appears once on page 115. At least two of the three Persons of the Triune Godhead do not seem all that important for godly living. This again is no accident. Merkle nowhere in the book encourages women to model their lives on Jesus (apart from submission to her husband), focus on Jesus, pursue a relationship with Jesus, or such. Nor does she anywhere in the book call believers to rely on the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, or pursue a renewed life empowered by the Spirit. This is remarkable given that the emphasis on Merkle’s work is a practical vision for Christian womanhood. However, it is not remarkable given the federal vision tendency to minimize the subjective elements of faith in Jesus in exchange for a strong emphasis on the objective nature of the covenant.
Among the words grace, justification, forgiveness, and mercy, two of them do not even make an appearance, and the other two only minimally. Of the five occurrences of the word mercy, three refer to the woman’s womb and one appears in reference to judgment and no mercy. The word grace—GRACE!—appears only four times in the book. To be sure, this is something, but not once does Merkle describe what grace is or how it works itself out as the foundation for Christian obedience. The apostle Paul, relying on the Old Testament covenant formula, gives us a fundamental gospel-based framework for exhorting believers to obedience. He always frames his exhortations for faithfulness and obedience as a response to the gracious work the Triune God has done to save us, justify us, and secure us until the day of glory. The grace of God is the foundation and ongoing sustaining power for the believer as they pursue living their lives to the glory of God (Rom. 5:1-2). In comparing the number of times these words appear collectively in the book with the number of occurrences of the words work, obedience, and faithfulness, what becomes clear is that Merkle’s vision for Christian femininity is one where works serves as the foundation for maintaining one’s right standing before God.
To bring into relief the difference between her formulation and that of the historic Reformed faith, consider this excerpt from an article by Dr. David M. VanDrunen on justification and federal vision’s divergence:
According to the biblical, Reformed doctrine of justification, the sinner receives this imputation of the righteousness of Christ by faith, and by faith alone. When Scripture describes faith as that by which a sinner is justified, it often does so in sharp contrast to the other alternative, that is, justification by works. Thus, faith is the only means of justification. This truth is properly understood when the nature of saving faith is appreciated: instead of relying on one's own works, the believer relies on the perfect work of Jesus Christ.
This aspect of the doctrine of justification has also come under fire in recent years. For example, while proponents of the FV generally affirm that justification is by faith, and even by faith alone, some have spoken of justifying faith as more than relying on Christ and his work and have written of faith as a broader concept, as faithfulness. Such teaching makes our broader obedience to God, and not the act of resting upon Christ alone, the means of our justification.1
Also, consider these words from the PCA Study Committee report explaining why federal vision is not commiserate with the Westminster Standards:
While we know the importance of “improving our baptism” as a “needful and much neglected duty . . . to be performed by us all our life long, especially in the time of temptation,” and we know that there is a confirming and assuring grace offered in baptism to those to whom it belongs, the committee reminds the church that our infallible assurance of faith rests upon “the divine truth of the promises of salvation, the inward evidence of those graces unto which these promises are made, [and] the testimony of the Spirit of adoption witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God” (LC 167; WCF 18:2; 28:6). This assurance is both “objective” and “subjective”; it rests upon the work of the Word and Spirit in the life of the believer.
The Committee views the FV position as ultimately leading to presumption or despair, not assurance. At the heart of their belief is the view that water baptism serves as the means for uniting each participant to Jesus; those baptized receive all the benefits of Christ’s mediation except final perseverance. Our concern is that some of those who are baptized will simply presume on God’s grace, “continuing in the covenant” without “apostatizing” but also without justifying faith (cf. Matthew 22:1-14); others will be driven to despair, working for a salvation out of “covenant faithfulness” instead of resting and receiving Jesus alone for their salvation.2
Regardless of whether books from Canon Press like Eve in Exile explicitly teach federal vision, word usage and frequency make it evident that the doctrines rejected by multiple Reformed bodies are alive and well in Moscow and form the essential character of their teaching. I close with the words of the Apostle Paul from Romans 10:1-11:
Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6 But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”
https://www.opc.org/nh.html?article_id=476
https://www.pcahistory.org/pca/studies/07-fvreport.pdf